Intel Iris Pro 5200 Graphics Review: Core i7-4950HQ Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 1, 2013 10:01 AM ESTQuick Sync Performance
The 128MB eDRAM has a substantial impact on QuickSync performance. At a much lower TDP/clock speed, the i7-4950HQ is able to pretty much equal the performance of the i7-4770K. Running Haswell's new better quality transcode mode, the 4950HQ is actually 30% faster than the fastest desktop Haswell. This is just one of many reasons that we need Crystalwell on a K-series socketed desktop part.
CPU Performance
I spent most of the week wrestling with Iris Pro and gaming comparisons, but I did get a chance to run some comparison numbers between the i7-4950HQ CRB and the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display running Windows 8 in Boot Camp. In this case the 15-inch rMBP was running a 2.6GHz Core i7-3720QM with 3.6GHz max turbo. Other than the base clock (the i7-4950HQ features a 2.4GHz base clock), the two parts are very comparable as they have the same max turbo frequencies. I paid attention to turbo speeds while running all of the benchmarks and for the most part found the two systems were running at the same frequencies, for the same duration.
To put the results in perspective I threw in i7-3770K vs. i7-4770K results. The theory is that whatever gains the 4770K shows over the 3770K should be mirrored in the i7-4950HQ vs. i7-3720QM comparison. Any situations where the 4950HQ exceeds the 4770K's margin of victory over Ivy Bridge are likely due to the large 128MB L4 cache.
| Peak Theoretical GPU Performance | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Cinebench 11.5 (ST) | Cinebench 11.5 (MT) | POV-Ray 3.7RC7 (ST) | POV-Ray 3.7RC7 (MT) | 7-Zip Benchmark | 7-Zip Benchmark (Small) | x264 HD - 1st Pass | x264 HD - 2nd Pass | ||||||||||||||
| Intel Core i7-4770K | 1.78 | 8.07 | - | 1541.3 | 23101 | - | 79.1 | 16.5 | |||||||||||||
| Intel Core i7-3770K | 1.66 | 7.61 | - | 1363.6 | 22810 | - | 74.8 | 14.6 | |||||||||||||
| Haswell Advantage | 7.2% | 6.0% | - | 13.0% | 1.3% | - | 5.7% | 13.0% | |||||||||||||
| Intel Core i7-4950HQ | 1.61 | 7.38 | 271.7 | 1340.9 | 21022 | 14360 | 73.9 | 14.0 | |||||||||||||
| Intel Core i7-3720QM | 1.49 | 6.39 | 339.1 | 1178.3 | 19749 | 12670 | 66.2 | 12.9 | |||||||||||||
| Haswell Advantage | 8.1% | 15.5% | 24.8% | 13.8% | 6.4% | 13.3% | 11.6% | 8.5% | |||||||||||||
| Crystalwell Advantage | 0.9% | 9.5% | - | 0.8% | 5.1% | - | 5.9% | -4.5% | |||||||||||||
I didn't have a ton of time to go hunting for performance gains, but a couple of these numbers looked promising. Intel claims that with the right workload, you could see huge double digit gains. After I get back from Computex I plan on poking around a bit more to see if I can find exactly what those workloads might be.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
177 Comments
View All Comments
jasonelmore - Sunday, June 2, 2013 - link
Looking at the prices, this will raise the price or Lower the margins of the 13" Retina Macbook Pro by about $150 each.mschira - Sunday, June 2, 2013 - link
Yea laptops benefit most - good for them.But what about the workstation?
So intel stopped being a CPU company and turned into a mediocre GPU company? (can even beat last years GT650M)
I would applaude the rise in GPU performance if they had not completely forgotten the CPU.
M.
n13L5 - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
You're exactly right.13" ultrabook buyers who need it the most get little to nothing out of this.
And desktop users don't need or want GT3e and it uses system RAM. Better off buying a graphics card instead of upgrading to Haswell on desktops.
glugglug - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
While I agree this misses "where it would benefit most", I disagree on just *where* that is.I guess Intel agrees with Microsofts implicit decision that media center is dead. Real-time HQ quicksync would be perfect to transcode anything extenders couldn't handle, and would also make the scanning for and skipping of commercials incredibly efficient.
n13L5 - Tuesday, June 11, 2013 - link
Core i5…4350U…Iris 5000…15W…1.5 GHzCore i7…4550U…Iris 5000…15W…1.5 GHz
Core i7…4650U…Iris 5000…15W…1.7 GHz
These should work. The 4650U is available in the Sony Duo 13 as we speak, though at a hefty price tag of $1,969
Eric S - Monday, July 1, 2013 - link
The last 13" looks like they were prepping it for a fusion drive then changed their mind leaving extra space in the enclosure. I think it is due for an internal redesign that could allow for a higher wattage processor.I think the big deal is the OpenCL performance paired with ECC memory for the GPU. The Nvidia discrete processor uses non-ECC GDDR. This will be a big deal for users of Adobe products. Among other things, this solves the issue of using the Adobe mercury engine with non-ECC memory and the resulting single byte errors in the output. The errors are not a big deal for games, but may not be ideal for rendering professional output and scientific applications. This is basically a mobile AMD FireGL or Nvidia Quadro card. Now we just need OpenCL support for the currently CUDA-based mercury engines in After Effects and Premiere. I have a feeling that is coming or Adobe will also lose Mercury Engine compatibility with the new Mac Pro.
tviceman - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
Impressive iGPU performance, but I knew Intel was absolutely full of sh!t when claiming equal to or better than GT 650m performance. Not really even close, typically behind by 30-50% across the board.Krysto - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
When isn't Intel full of shit? Always take what the improvements they claim and cut it in half, and you'll be a lot closer to reality.xtc-604 - Saturday, June 8, 2013 - link
Lol...you think that's bad? Look at Apple's claims. "over 200 new improvements in Mountain Lion"piroroadkill - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
sh<exclamation point>t? What are we? 9?