Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail) vs Intel HD Graphics (Skylake) vs Intel HD Graphics 2500

Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail)

The Intel HD Graphics (Cherry Trail) is an integrated graphics card in the Cherry-Trail SoCs (e.g. Atom x7-Z8700). Based on a Broadwell GPU (Intel Gen8) and supports DirectX 11.2. Depending on the SoC offers 12 or 16 EUs.

Atom x7-Z8700: 16 EUs @ 200 - 600 MHz, dual-channel memory
Atom x5-Z8500: 12 EUs @ 200 - 600 MHz, dual-channel memory
Atom x5-Z8300: 12 EUs @ 200 - 500 MHz, single-channel memory

In Windows, gaming is limited to less demanding or quite old games. Using Android, even high end 3D games should run fluently. For example Team Fortress 2 was running on the Surface 3 (x7-Z8700) only in lowest settings and 1280x720 fluently (11 - 69 fps range).

The integrated video decoder is able to display even 4K videos (H.264 tested) fluently.

The Intel HD Graphics GPU in our review sample of the MS Surface 3 (Atom x7-Z8700) only supported DisplayPort 1.1 as it seems, as 4K (3840x2160) with 30 Hz was the maximum Refresh Rate we could achieve (no 60 Hz selectable with the pre-installed drivers).

Intel HD Graphics (Skylake)

The Intel HD Graphics (Skylake) (GT1) is an integrated graphics unit, which can be found in low-end ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processors of the Skylake generation. In most CPUs, this GPU was named Intel HD Graphics 510 or Intel HD Graphics 515 (see both pages for benchmarks and information).

This "GT1" version of the Skylake GPU offers 12 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at up to 800 MHz (depending on the CPU model). Due to its lack of dedicated graphics memory or eDRAM cache, the HD Graphics has to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3L-1600 / DDR4-2133).

Performance

Depending on various factors like memory configuration, the HD Graphics should perform similar to the older HD Graphics 4200 and will handle only some older and less demanding games in lowest settings.

Features

The revised video engine now decodes H.265/HEVC completely in hardware and thereby much more efficiently than before. Displays can be connected via DP 1.2 / eDP 1.3 (max. 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz), whereas HDMI is limited to the older version 1.4a (max. 3840 x 2160 @ 30 Hz). However, HDMI 2.0 can be added using a DisplayPort converter. Up to three displays can be controlled simultaneously.

Power Consumption

The HD Graphics (Skylake) can be found in mobile processors specified at 6 W TDP and is therefore suited for passively cooled 2-in-1 laptops and tablets.

Intel HD Graphics 2500

The Intel HD Graphics 2500 (or Ivy Bridge GT1) is an integrated graphics card in the Ivy Bridge codenamed desktop processors. 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 (see benchmarks below). Usually it is used in the cheaper desktop Ivy bridge CPUs. The mobile version is simply called Intel HD Graphics and integrated in the Pentium and Celeron line.

Compared to the faster HD Graphics 4000, the 2500 one 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. Therefore, only older casual games with low requirements are playable with the HD 2500.

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 as AMD offers with theirs Eyefinity support (up to 6 displays).

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