Intel HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge) vs Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail) vs Intel HD Graphics 5000

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).

Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail)

The Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail) is a low-end integrated Bay Trail graphics card found in certain Atom models (Z3770), nettops (J2850) and notebook SoCs (N3510). It supports DirectX 11 and is based on the Ivy Bridge GPU. Clock rates and shader cores, however, are considerably lower.

Compared to Ivy Bridge, which offers either 6 or 16 Execution Units, the HD Graphics (Bay Trail) comes with only 4 EUs. The core clock is significantly lower as well. Depending on the specific model, the maximum Turbo Boost is 896 MHz or less and the memory controller can support DDR3(L), DDR3L-RS or LPDDR3 in single- or dual-channel operation.

The fastest notebook models equipped with this GPU nearly match the performance of the HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge) and the AMD Radeon HD 6310. Therefore, older and less demanding Windows games like World of Warcraft or Half-Life 2 can be played fluently in very low settings. Performance is not sufficient for most modern titles.

Compared to competing ARM SoCs, Bay Trail outperforms the Adreno 320 (which can be found in different Qualcomm SoCs like the Snapdragon 600) and offers a performance similar to the Tegra 4 GPU. That is enough power to run even the most demanding Android games smoothly in very high resolutions as of 2013.

The integrated video decoder supports all popular codecs such as MPEG2, H.264, VC1, VP8 and MVC and is suitable for resolutions up to 4K up to 100 Mbit/s. The user can connect up to two displays via HDMI 1.4 (max. 1920 x 1080) or DisplayPort 1.2 (max. 2560 x 1600). Another new feature is the support for Wireless Display and Quick Sync, Intel's fast and power efficient H-264 hardware encoder. Some of these features are not available on all models.

Depending on the model, the power consumption of the entire SoC is somewhere between 2 and 10 W. The most efficient versions are therefore suitable for passively cooled tablets, whereas faster variants are used in larger subnotebooks with active cooling.

Intel HD Graphics 5000

The Intel HD Graphics 5000 (GT3) is a processor graphics card included in some of the ULV Haswell processors of 2013 (e.g. Core i5-4250U). It represents the highest configuration of the integrated graphics unit (40 execution units), but lacks the additional eDRAM cache of the Iris Pro Graphics 5200. The relatively low base clock can be automatically overclocked using Turbo Boost technology. Depending on the processor model, the base and turbo clock rates may differ, resulting in varying graphics performance between CPU models.

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

According to benchmarks in 3DMark 11, the HD Graphics 5000 is up to 50 percent faster than the previous HD 4000. In games, however, the performance advantage is significantly lower. With simultaneous load on the CPU, the low TDP of the ULV models (15 W) limits the Turbo Boost of the GPU. Although the HD 5000 features 40 Execution Units, the graphics performance is still somewhat below the HD Graphics 4600 with only 20 EUs (HD 4000: 16 EUs). Overall, the HD 5000 is thus just behind the AMD Radeon HD 7660G and at the level of a dedicated Radeon HD 7650M. Current games (as of 2013) will run fluently in low to medium-low settings.

Due to the 22nm 3D Tri-Gate production process, power consumption is relatively low. The HD Graphics 5000 is available on certain ULV dual-core Haswell models in the 15 Watt TDP range.