Intel Releases Beta Driver for Gen11 Integer ‘Retro Scaling’ Support
In the lead up to the launch of Gen11 graphics, Intel touted that its latest GPU architecture would support Integer Scaling, a capability that uses nearest-neighbor upscaling by whole numbers to provide clean, crisp graphics for lower resolution or pixel-art games and applications. With this weekend’s launch of Ice Lake mobile processors which include Gen11/Iris Plus graphics, Intel has officially enabled Integer Scaling in a new beta graphics driver.
Intel is marketing its Integer Scaling capabilities in Gen11 as “Retro Scaling:”
We’re listening to our community. You wanted a way to experience pixel-art games at their best so we created Retro Scaling. Enchance the latest indie releases and timeless classics so they look their best on modern HD displays.
With the beta drivers installed, Retro Scaling can be configured via the Intel Graphics Command Center. Configuration options include Off, Fixed Width, and Scaled Width. Fixed Width is true integer scaling, but may not fill your screen if its aspect ratio doesn’t match the content. Scaled Width uses interpolation to fit the content to the screen while maintaining as close to true scaling as possible, although it may introduce slight distortions.
Those eager to test the feature will need to have, for now at least, an Ice Lake CPU with the latest Gen11 GPU and be running at least Windows 10 1709. The supported Ice Lake CPUs, not all of which are actually yet shipping, include:
- i3-1000G1
- i3-1000G4
- i3-1005G1
- i5-1030G4
- i5-1030G7
- i5-1035G1
- i5-1035G4
- i5-1035G7
- i7-1060G7
- i7-1065G7
Although Intel announced Integer Scaling support first several months ago, NVIDIA actually beat Intel to market by releasing Integer Scaling support for its discrete GPUs last month as part of its Gamescom GeForce driver update.
