Intel Iris Pro 5200 Graphics Review: Core i7-4950HQ Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 1, 2013 10:01 AM ESTCompute Performance
With Haswell, Intel enables full OpenCL 1.2 support in addition to DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 4.0. Given the ALU-heavy GPU architecture, I was eager to find out how well Iris Pro did in our compute suite.
As always we'll start with our DirectCompute game example, Civilization V, which uses DirectCompute to decompress textures on the fly. Civ V includes a sub-benchmark that exclusively tests the speed of their texture decompression algorithm by repeatedly decompressing the textures required for one of the game’s leader scenes. While DirectCompute is used in many games, this is one of the only games with a benchmark that can isolate the use of DirectCompute and its resulting performance.
Iris Pro does very well here, tying the GT 640 but losing to the 650M. The latter holds a 16% performance advantage, which I can only assume has to do with memory bandwidth given near identical core/clock configurations between the 650M and GT 640. Crystalwell is clearly doing something though because Intel's HD 4600 is less than 1/3 the performance of Iris Pro 5200 despite having half the execution resources.
Our next benchmark is LuxMark2.0, the official benchmark of SmallLuxGPU 2.0. SmallLuxGPU is an OpenCL accelerated ray tracer that is part of the larger LuxRender suite. Ray tracing has become a stronghold for GPUs in recent years as ray tracing maps well to GPU pipelines, allowing artists to render scenes much more quickly than with CPUs alone.
Moving to OpenCL, we see huge gains from Intel. Kepler wasn't NVIDIA's best compute part, but Iris Pro really puts everything else to shame here. We see near perfect scaling from Haswell GT2 to GT3. Crystalwell doesn't appear to be doing much here, it's all in the additional ALUs.
Our 3rd benchmark set comes from CLBenchmark 1.1. CLBenchmark contains a number of subtests; we’re focusing on the most practical of them, the computer vision test and the fluid simulation test. The former being a useful proxy for computer imaging tasks where systems are required to parse images and identify features (e.g. humans), while fluid simulations are common in professional graphics work and games alike.
Once again, Iris Pro does a great job here, outpacing everything else by roughly 70% in the Fluid Simulation test.
Our final compute benchmark is Sony Vegas Pro 12, an OpenGL and OpenCL video editing and authoring package. Vegas can use GPUs in a few different ways, the primary uses being to accelerate the video effects and compositing process itself, and in the video encoding step. With video encoding being increasingly offloaded to dedicated DSPs these days we’re focusing on the editing and compositing process, rendering to a low CPU overhead format (XDCAM EX). This specific test comes from Sony, and measures how long it takes to render a video.
Iris Pro rounds out our compute comparison with another win. In fact, all of the Intel GPU solutions do a good job here.
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Death666Angel - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
"What Intel hopes however is that the power savings by going to a single 47W part will win over OEMs in the long run, after all, we are talking about notebooks here."This plus simpler board designs and fewer voltage regulators and less space used.
And I agree, I want this in a K-SKU.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
And doesn't MacOS support Optimus?RE: "In our 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display review we found that simply having the discrete GPU enabled could reduce web browsing battery life by ~25%."
GullLars - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
Those are strong words in the end, but i agree Intel should make a K-series CPU with Crystalwell. What comes to mind is they may be doing that for Broadwell.The Iris Pro solution with eDRAM looks like a nice fit for what i want in my notebook upgrade coming this fall. I've been getting by on a Core2Duo laptop, and didn't go for Ivy Bridge because there were no good models with a 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 display without dedicated graphics. For a system that will not be used for gaming at all, but needs resolution for productivity, it wasn't worth it. I hope this will change with Haswell, and that i will be able to get a 15" laptop with >= 1200p without dedicated graphics. 4950HQ or 4850HQ seems like an ideal fit. I don't mind spending $1500-2000 for a high quality laptop :)
IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
ANAND!!You got the FLOPs rating wrong on the Sandy Bridge parts. They are at 1/2 of Ivy Bridge.
1350MHz with 12 EUs and 8 FLOPs/EU will result in 129.6GFlops. While its true in very limited scenarios Sandy Bridge's iGPU can co-issue, its small enough to be non-existent. That is why a 6EU HD 2500 comes close to 12EU HD 3000.
Hrel - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
If they use only the HD4600 and Iris Pro that'd probably be better. As long as it's clearly labeled on laptops. HD 4600 Pro (don't expect to do any video work on this) Iris Pro (it's passable in a pinch).But I don't think that's what's going to happen. Iris Pro could be great for Ultrabooks; I don't really see any use outside of that though. A low end GT740M is still a better option in any laptop that has the thermal room for it. Considering you can put those in 14" or larger ultrabooks I still think Intel's graphics aren't serious. Then you consider the lack of Compute, PhysX, Driver optimization, game specific tuning...
Good to see a hefty performance improvement. Still not good enough though. Also pretty upsetting to see how many graphics SKU's they've released. OEM'S are gonna screw people who don't know just to get the price down.
Hrel - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
The SKU price is 500 DOLLARS!!!! They're charging you 200 bucks for a pretty shitty GPU. Intel's greed is so disgusting it over rides the engineering prowess of their employees. Truly disgusting Intel; to charge that much for that level of performance. AMD we need you!!!!xdesire - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
May i ask a noob question? Question: Do we have no i5s, i7s WITHOUT on board graphics any more? As a gamer i'd prefer to have a CPU + discrete GPU in my gaming machine and i don't like to have extra stuff stuck on the CPU, lying there consuming power and having no use (for my part) whatsoever. No ivy bridge or haswell i5s, i7s without iGPU or whatever you call it?flyingpants1 - Friday, June 7, 2013 - link
They don't consume power while they're not in use.Hrel - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
WHY THE HELL ARE THOSE SO EXPENSIVE!!!!! Holy SHIT! 500 dollars for a 4850HQ? They're charging you 200 dollars for a shitty GPU with no dedicated RAM at all! Just a cache! WTFF!!!Intel's greed is truly disgusting... even in the face of their engineering prowess.
MartenKL - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
What I don't understand is why Intel didn't do a "next-gen console like processor". Like takeing the 4770R and doubling the GPU or een quadrupling, wasn't there space? The thermal headroom must have been there as we are used to CPUs with as high as 130W TDP. Anyhow, combining that with awesome drivers for Linux would have been a real competition to AMD/PS4/XONE for Valve/Steam. A complete system under 150w capable of awesome 1080p60 gaming.So now I am looking for the best performing GPU under 75W, ie no external power. Which is it, still the Radeon HD7750?