Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell) vs Intel HD Graphics 4200 vs Intel HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge)

Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)

The Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)  is an integrated graphics card in the low end SoCs of the Braswell series (e.g. Pentium N3710). It is based on the same architecture as the integrated GPU of the Broadwell graphics cards (e.g. HD Graphics 5300), but offers less shader cores and slower clock speeds.

The GPU was simply called Intel HD Graphics (Broadwell) before 2016 and included also the slower 12 EUs version in the Celeron model. The Graphics 405 name currently only stands for 16-core-versions in Pentium models. The 12 EU version is now called Intel HD Graphics 400.

The clock speed and memory configuration can still vary from model to model.

Gaming performance ist still only suited for older or less demanding games. Often also the processor is limited gaming performance (e.g. in the dual-core N3000).

The SoC also integrates a video decoding engine that should be able to handle 4K H.265 videos.

Intel HD Graphics 4200

The Intel HD Graphics 4200 (GT2) is a processor graphics card that is included in some of the ULV Haswell processors of 2013 (4th generation core). The relatively low base clock can be automatically overclocked using Turbo Boost technology.

In comparison to the HD 4000, the graphics core has been modified in several details. The GPU supports DirectX 11.1, OpenCL 1.2 und OpenGL 4.0. It also features an improved decoder for 4K videos and the fast Quick Sync encoder.

The performance of the HD Graphics 4200 is clearly below the HD 4600 and HD 4400, since the GPU is designed for ULV models of the Y-series (11.5 W). Therefore, the clock rates are relatively low. Compared to a similar clocked HD 4000, the HD 4200 is somewhat faster due to architectural improvements and an increased number of execution units: The GT2 version integrates 20 EUs, compared to 16 EUs for the old HD 4000.

In simple games like Anno 2070 or Counter Strike: Global Offensive, the performance is sufficient to handle low settings and 1024 x 768 pixels. Many current titles like Battlefield 4, however, are not playable even at minimum graphic quality. Detailed benchmarks can be found below.

Due to the 22nm 3D Tri-Gate production process, the power consumption is relatively low and suitable even for tablets. In addition to the TDP of 11.5 watts, the Y-series CPUs are rated at an SDP (average power consumption) of 4.5 or 6 watts (depending on the model).

Intel HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge)

The Intel HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge) is an integrated graphics card in the mobile Ivy Bridge codenamed processors (Celeron and Pentium). It is the successor the the Intel HD Graphics 2000 in the Sandy Bridge CPUs and performs between the old HD 2000 and 3000 GPU. 

Compared to the faster HD Graphics 4000, the HD Graphics features less Execution Units (6 versus 16) and only one texture sampler. Therefore, the performance is clearly worse and only suited for low demanding gaming. Intel states a 10 to 15% higher performance compared to the old Sandy Bridge based HD Graphics 2000 (see our benchmarks below), which is similar to AMDs low-end GPUs like the integrated Radeon HD 8210. Therefore, only casual games with low requirements are playable.

A speciality of the Ivy Bridge GPUs is that 4x MSAA is supported in hardware now. However, 2x is only supported through software.  The algorithm to support 2x is going through the 4x pipeline with a software algorithm, so performance is similar to 4x MSAA.

The integrated video decoder called Multi Format Codec Engine (MFX) was also improved and should allow even simultaneus 4K video decoding. DXVAChecker lists MPEG2, VC1, WMV9, and H264 as supported codecs. QuickSync for fast transcoding of videos was also optimized for higher performance and better image quality.

Another new feature is the support for up to 3 independent displays (maybe only with a DisplayPort) as AMD offers with theirs Eyefinity support (up to 6 displays).

Due to the 22nm 3D Tri-Gate production process, the power consumption should be relatively low (the development was focused on performance per Watt).