Intel Haswell GT3e GPU Performance Compared to NVIDIA's GeForce GT 650M
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 9, 2013 4:22 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Haswell
- Trade Shows
- CES 2013
Haswell isn't expected to launch until the beginning of June in desktops and quad-core notebooks, but Intel is beginning to talk performance. Intel used a mobile customer reference board in a desktop chassis featuring Haswell GT3 with embedded DRAM (the fastest Haswell GPU configuration that Intel will ship) and compared it to an ASUS UX15 with on-board NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M.
Despite the chassis difference, Intel claims it will be able to deliver the same performance from the demo today in an identical UX15 chassis by the time Haswell ships.
The video below shows Dirt 3 running at 1080p on both systems, with identical detail settings (High Quality presets, no AA, vsync off). Intel wouldn't let us report performance numbers, but subjectively the two looked to deliver very similar performance. Note that I confirmed all settings myself and ran both games myself independently of the demo. You can be the judge using the video below:
Intel wouldn't let us confirm clock speeds on Haswell vs. the Core i7 (Ivy Bridge) system, but it claimed that the Haswell part was the immediate successor to its Ivy Bridge comparison point.
As proof of Haswell's ability to fit in a notebook chassis, it did have another demo using older Haswell silicon running Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in a notebook chassis.
Haswell GT3e's performance looked great for processor graphics. I would assume that overall platform power would be reduced since you wouldn't have a discrete GPU inside, however there's also the question of the cost of the solution. I do expect that NVIDIA will continue to drive discrete GPU performance up, but as a solution for some of the thinner/space constrained form factors (think 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, maybe 11-inch Ultrabook/MacBook Air?) Haswell could be a revolutionary step forward.
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andrewaggb - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link
it's not intel powering apple's tablets. And if charlie is right, intel might not be powering apple's ultrabooks in a couple years either.If Apple can put their own cpu's in these machines instead of a core i5 or an i7 that's significant savings to apple and possibly even thinner and more portable devices for the consumer. In a couple years when their arm chips are fast enough for general computing (probably 2-3 more revisions) apple should switch. And they probably will.
Anyways, on topic, I'm excited about haswell. Sure they are presenting best case... that's exactly what every company does. Of course some games won't work, others will run like crap, etc etc. And yes, with throttling, in a tablet or some ultrabooks you won't get the performance they are showing here. But considering how many tablets/ultrabooks I've seen with fast cpu's and good graphics.... I think everybody needs to get their expectations in line. This is going to be an improvement, but 7-10W will give you less than 17W or 35W out of the same chip. It pretty much has to. Real question is whether 7-10W (or even 17W) will be fast enough to run what you want with consistent performance. I don't think this demo tells us anything in that regard. We know nothing :-)
SirPerro - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
2-3 ARM revisions to match general computing performance of an intel core processor? That sentence is overoptimistic even with the assumption that Intel stops creating new products.If I have to bet, I bet for Intel to steal part of the ARM business starting this year with ultra low voltage Haswells, and not the opposite.
wetwareinterface - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
"2-3 ARM revisions to match general computing performance of an intel core processor? That sentence is overoptimistic even with the assumption that Intel stops creating new products"the problem is he didn't say match intel performance he stated for the apple arm variant to have an acceptable performance level for everyday desktop computing tasks.
and now back to the topic.
haswell will have improved graphics performance. the problem is expecting it to match a 650m while sitting in an ultrabook.
intel has to hit a power profile and heat profile for the cpu/gpu combo to sit in an ultrabook. while intel is very good at power optimizations and process technology on the cpu side, that means squat on the gpu side. a gpu needs to run full out and load the many shader units constantly to achieve good framerates. which means no throttling, also no optimizing for low power beyond restricting clock speeds and shader counts etc...
my point being if the gpu runs it has to run most of the time at max power draw and that being said: no ultrabook will will have anywhere near 650m performance on the next generation gpu from intel. and especially nowhere near the performance of amd's next gen part in a full laptop either. the intel demo is just a marketing hype example, and actually i'm not thrilled to see a post about it without a lot of text explaining it was a pure marketing stunt and not to take the claims as anything but such.
Spunjji - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
Well said. There is no "rush to sleep" with graphics performance. You give it all all of the time or you might as well not have showed up to the fight.CeriseCogburn - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
LOL - the last gasping breath of the losers crew -The cpu advantage, bus advantage, stability advantage, reputation advantage will all combine and no amount of whining will change that.
Since so many of you were more than willing to put up with amd driver crap for YEARS because of your fanboy fanaticism, you're clearly in deep trouble, as this article demonstrates.
It's big trouble - Haswell is coming.
ROFL - Oh I love it.
One word of sanity = ENDURO
Finished ! It's over amd.
wsw1982 - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
The clover trail+ in lenovo k900 SMARTPHONE already crush duel core A15 in Nexus 10 TABLET...http://www.phonearena.com/news/Intel-Atom-powered-...
Krysto - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
Haha. What a fake benchmark. Are you telling e S4 Pro gets 13,000 in Antutu but CloverTrail get 25,000? Come on now....We've seen before how certain hacks or patches can make these benchmark scores much higher. Show me a stock device being tested but a relatively reputable source, and then I'll believe it.
nicolbolas - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
As the subject of the post says, if Apple can make an ARM CPU + get an ARM GPU that is good enough for most people who use their products they will do it.And if any company can i would say Apple can... especially because they can also go for more cores and add code which lets the OS use all those cores :)
Plus, by the design ARM cores are more power efficient in general than current x86 cores.
Brainling - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link
I supposed this may be great in some sectors, but it's not going to get me to change from discrete offerings.I buy Intel because their general register performance blows away anything AMD offers right now. The on-board GPU is completely irrelevant to me. I really wish Intel would offer "bare" version of their CPU's, that have no attached IGP. Shave off 50 bucks or something. I don't need, and will never use, Intel's integrated solution.
dj christian - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
Well on the desktop side just by the it's sibling the Xeon. It's exactly the same just a tad slower mhz but bigger cache and no igp which in turn make it draw a little less power.