In Borderlands 2 for example, I confirmed that the GT3 GPU alone was using up all of the package TDP thus forcing lower clocks:Īll of this just brings us to the conclusion that increasing processor graphics performance in thermally limited conditions is very tough, particularly without a process shrink. With only a 15W TDP (inclusive of the CPU and PCH), games that have more CPU activity or the right combination of GPU activity will see lower GPU clocks. The range of performance improvement really depends on turbo residency. Haswell ULT GT3 has to be faster, with less thermal headroom than Ivy Bridge ULV GT2. To understand why, you have to keep in mind that the performance gains come on the same 22nm node, with a lower overall TDP. Given the sheer increase in transistor count, a 15% gain on average seems a bit underwhelming. Whether or not that's impressive really depends on your perspective. On average, Intel's HD 5000 offered a 15.3% performance advantage over Intel's HD 4000 graphics. The data ranges from a meager 2.3% advantage over Ivy Bridge ULV to as much as 40.8%. I've summarized the performance advantages in the table below: In our 2013 MBA review we ran a total of eight 3D games. But neither of these benchmarks tell us much about actual 3D gaming performance. In both cases we've basically validated Intel's claims.
The 3DMark06 comparison yields a 21% increase in performance compared to Ivy Bridge ULV. In 3DMark 11 we're showing a 64% increase in performance if we compare Intel's HD 5000 (15W) to Intel's HD 4000 (17W). We now have the systems to validate Intel's claims, so how did they do?
With such low thermal limits, just how fast can this GPU actually be?įirst, let's look at what Intel told us earlier this year:Ĭompared to Intel's HD 4000 (Ivy Bridge/dark blue bar), Intel claimed roughly a 25% increase in performance with HD 5000 in 3DMark06 and a 50% increase in performance in 3DMark11.
The third GT3 configuration operates under less than a third of the TDP of Iris Pro 5200. Iris 5100 is likely going to be used in Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display as well as ASUS' Zenbook Infinity, neither of which are out yet. We know how the Iris Pro 5200 performs, but that's with a bunch of eDRAM and a very high TDP. Intel will eventually introduce Haswell SKUs with vanilla Intel HD Graphics, which will only feature 10 EUs. The top three configurations use a GPU with 40 EUs, while the HD 4400/4200 features half that. Intel 4th Generation Core (Haswell) Mobile GPU Configurations In mobile, Haswell is presently available in five different graphics configurations: Earlier today I published our review of the 2013 MBA, but for those not interested in the MBA but curious about how Haswell GT3 stacks up in a very thermally limited configuration I thought I'd do a separate post breaking out the findings. It turns out that all of Apple's 2013 MacBook Air lineup features Haswell GT3 (via the standard Core i5-4250U or the optional Core i7-4650U). I published some performance data comparing HD 4400 to the previous generation HD 4000 (Ivy Bridge GT2) but added that at some point I'd like to take a look at HD 5000 to see how much more performance that gets you.
When I got my hands on a Haswell based Ultrabook, Acer's recently announced S7, I was somewhat disappointed to learn that Acer had chosen to integrate Intel's HD 4400 (Haswell GT2) instead of the full blown HD 5000 (Haswell GT3) option.