AMD's Richland vs. Intel's Haswell GPU on the Desktop: Radeon HD 8670D vs. Intel HD 4600
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 6, 2013 12:00 PM ESTFinal Words
Despite Haswell's arrival on the desktop, AMD is in no trouble at all from a graphics perspective. At the high end, Richland maintains a 17 - 50% GPU performance advantage (~30% on average) over Intel's HD 4600 (Haswell GT2). All things equal, even Trinity is good enough to maintain this performance advantage - a clear downside of Intel not bringing its Iris or Iris Pro graphics to any socketed desktop parts.
While there isn't a substantial increase in GPU performance between Richland and Trinity, AMD's GPU performance lead over Ivy Bridge was big enough to withstand Haswell's arrival. Note that although we're comparing performance to Haswell here, Richland exists in a lower price bracket. If you want the best desktop solution with processor graphics, AMD remains your best bet.
Later this year we'll see the arrival of Kaveri, which will be AMD's true response to Iris as well as its first HSA enabled APU. For as long as I can remember, integrated graphics was one of the most frustrating aspects of PC hardware to test. It looks like that's finally about to change.
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Death666Angel - Sunday, June 9, 2013 - link
"Who would buy it?" If it was just the added cost of the eDRAM put on top of the -K SKU (so 50€ or something on top of the i5-4670K and i7-4770K) I'd buy it in a heartbeat. First of all, it offers better QS functionality and second of all, the 128MB L4 cache is not exclusive to the iGPU, but can be used for the CPU as well, which offers some serious performance gains in programs that can make use of it.shinkueagle - Sunday, June 9, 2013 - link
Because it stupid to make such a comparison... And even more stupid of you to bring up such NONSENSE....gfluet - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
Mostly because there are no Desktop Crystalwells yet, and the comparios is between socketed CPUs.But yeah, I look forward to when AnandTech gets a review model of the I7-4770R. I want to put one of those in a supercompact system.
Ewram - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Excuse me, but what is the MSRP of the A10-6800k versus the i7-4770k? Also, wouldn't benchmarks also be affected by CPU performance to at least some extent?3DoubleD - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Given how GPU and memory bandwidth limited these systems are, I'm sure the difference in CPU performance plays only a small if not negligible role in the final score.Even if we were talking a single 7970, the difference between AMD and Intel was pretty insignificant http://anandtech.com/show/6985/choosing-a-gaming-c...
CannedTurkey - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
The i7-4770 is roughly double the price of the A10-6800.BSMonitor - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
MSRP really isn't a valid comparison here as they are entirely different price points/target audiences. The point is to test the iGPU capability.AMD and Intel have very different approaches to iGPU and processor SKU's, today. AMD and it's Fusion are specifically targeting low price points where AMD believes the value of an iGPU is most attractive. The CPU cores are similar to its FX line, but it's an entirely different die than its flagship desktop parts which have NO iGPU whatsoever.
Intel on the desktop for the mostpart has a single die for all its mainstream Core i7's down to budget Core i3, Pentiums. The Core i7's iGPU isn't really focused on giving a budget gaming experience. And this is where Anand's criticism is aimed. They could make an amazing APU with a very balanced iGPU and CPU on the high end desktop parts but have chosen not to. It would seem the powers that be have decided there is no market for Iris Pro and its high end desktop parts.
MSRP would be a valid comparison in the Mobile Core i7 with Iris Pro vs the Richland Mobile parts.
silverblue - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Perhaps. In that case, the price of the CPU would be partially obscured by the total BOM. If Iris Pro is that good, and you got double performance for twice the price, it wouldn't be too bad.Concillian - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
"Intel on the desktop for the mostpart has a single die for all its mainstream Core i7's down to budget Core i3, Pentiums. "Not true. Dual core and quad core have had different silicon since they started the i3 / i5 / i7 naming convention. I'm no mobile expert, but I know that on the desktop i3 has never had the same die as i7.
eanazag - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
A10-6800K is sitting around $150 on Newegg, while the 4770K is pushing $349 daisies. The comparison is still sensible and useful. Spend less money on Intel CPU and the clocks go down. So in an iGP setting for gaming AMD makes more sense, but if you throw a discrete card in the mix you'll have to rethink what your goals are. After staring at those prices, for a gaming only rig I might rather spend the price difference on a discrete card and call it a day if the monitor resolution is 1080p or less.