IT168 Review When it comes to computer graphics cards, I believe many friends will think of NVIDIA and AMD, but they are not the ones with the highest market share of computer graphics cards, but Intel, the one that dominates the CPU field! The reason why its share exceeds the two is because with the advancement of technology, GPU and CPU have been integrated into one chip. Now most computers using Intel processors integrate Intel core graphics cards, so Intel uses it to Its status in the CPU field has brought core graphics cards into thousands of households.
However, in terms of daily games, although Intel core graphics have significantly improved in performance in the past two years and can handle some entry-level games, they are still unable to compete with mainstream independent graphics from NVIDIA and AMD. There was still a certain gap between the two until the launch of Intel Iris and Intel Iris Pro, which raised the performance of Intel Core Graphics to an unprecedented level.
▲Intel Iris and Intel Iris Pro icons
Intel Iris and Intel Iris Pro are trademarks registered by Intel for its high-performance core graphics cards. The Chinese names are Ruiju and Ruiju Pro. Among them, Iris Pro is positioned as a high-end chip with an overall TDP of 47W, while Iris focuses on high-performance ultrabooks with a TDP of 28W. So what is its performance? Today we will take the top-of-the-line Iris Pro to actually test it for you.
▲3Dmark Fire Strike test results
The above picture shows the results of Intel Iris Pro 5200 and HD 4600 in 3Dmark’s Fire Strike test, and the physical test scores are at the same level In this case, the Intel Iris Pro 5200's graphics item score reached 1387, and the total score reached 1299, while the HD 4600's graphics item score was 611, with a total score of 588, which is only half of the Iris Pro 5200's score! (Note: The comparison test sample CPU TDP is 47W, and the CPU core performance is basically the same)
▲Iris Pro 5200 3Dmark 11 score?
After the comparison with Intel’s own graphics card, Let's compare Iris Pro 5200 with mainstream independent graphics cards. Judging from the 3Dmark 11 GPU score, Iris Pro 5200 reaches the level of NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M independent graphics, but its performance seems to be unremarkable among the vast independent graphics. So what kind of performance can it bring to us in practical applications? What about experience? Now we are about to enter the application testing part.
▲
The Riju graphics card can play mainstream games according to the actual test
The test results of 3Dmark on the previous page can be seen intuitively. In terms of running scores, Intel Iris Pro 5200 is indeed quite eye-catching. Next, we tested its actual gaming capabilities using several more mainstream games.
▲Iris Pro graphics card game test
"Devil May Cry 5" is an action-adventure stand-alone game produced by Ninja Theory. It was officially released on January 15, 2013. As the fifth installment in the "Devil May Cry" series, it has relatively low graphics card performance requirements. Even the HD 4600 core graphics card can run smoothly at low image quality, but after adjusting the image quality to high, the HD 4600 The running effect is not ideal, while the Iris Pro 5200 runs quite easily.
▲Iris Pro graphics card game test
"The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim" is a new work in the "Elder Scrolls" series that Bethesda has been honing for five years. Bethesda will provide a game full of unlimited expectations and fantasies. Nord Continent, this game will have the same size map as The Elder Scrolls 4, and the hardware configuration requirements are relatively approachable. Iris Pro 5200 can run smoothly at medium image quality, while HD 4600 is quite difficult to run.
▲Iris Pro graphics card game test
"Tomb Raider 9" is a series of cross-platform action games developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. This game focuses on Lara Croft When she was young, the settings of previous Supergirl games were abandoned, and players can see a more realistic image of Laura in the game. Due to the upgrade of the engine, this game will have better graphics than previous games. However, the hardware requirements are not high at low image quality and most graphics cards can handle it. Therefore, Iris Pro 5200 is completely playable at normal image quality. No problem.
▲Iris Pro graphics card game test
The game "Thief 4" adopts a first-person perspective, integrates adventure elements and adopts intelligent design, allowing players to have full control and freely choose how to complete levels and overcome obstacles. Every challenge. Of course, as a newly launched game this year, the configuration requirements of "Thief 4" are above the average level. Iris Pro 5200 can achieve an average of 50 frames at low image quality. In actual games, it can be appropriately improved to obtain Better graphics.
Taken together, in terms of actual game effects, under the same picture settings, the number of game frames of Intel Iris Pro 5200 is three times that of HD4600! For mainstream 3D games such as "The Elder Scrolls 5", "Tomb Raider 9", and "Thief 4", the HD4600 is somewhat inadequate, while the Iris Pro 5200 can run with ease at 1366×768 resolution, as long as the image quality is not compromised. Adjusted to a particularly high level, the Iris Pro 5200 can run most 3D games on the market.
Explore the internal structure of Iris. The number of cores has doubled
After seeing the doubled performance, I believe you must be very curious about the internal structure of Iris and Iris Pro. How does it compare with the HD 4600? What's the difference? In addition to performance improvements, what other functional upgrades are there? Let’s find out next.
◆The number of display cores is doubled
▲GPUZ screenshots
Whether it is Iris or Iris Pro, compared with the HD4600 core graphics card, the memory bit width is increased from 64bit To 128bit, the main memory Bus Width has increased from 12.8GB/s to 25.6GB/s, the number of EU processing units has increased from 20 to 40, and the integrated core area has increased from 177mm2 to 264mm2, so the performance of Iris and Iris Pro has improved. The improvement is quite significant.
◆Equipped with independent 128MB eDRAM
▲Iris Pro has eDRAM display cache
As far as Iris and Iris Pro are concerned, although the basic architecture is the same, for To bring out the full performance of 40 EU units, Iris Pro integrates an eDRAM with a capacity of 128MB as a video memory cache next to the CPU. At the same time, the display core frequency of Iris Pro is also higher than that of Iris, which results in its TDP It is 19W higher than Iris, and of course the performance is also better. Not only has the CPU been upgraded from dual-core to quad-core, but according to official Intel data, Iris Pro has a 10 to 15 performance improvement over Iris in terms of graphics card performance.
▲Processor chip with Iris Pro
From the appearance of the product, the fourth-generation Core processor integrated with Iris Pro packages two chips on a PCB. The large square area integrates the Iris Pro display core and four CPU cores, while the smaller rectangular area is 128MB eDRAM, containing 1.21 billion transistors! The i7 processor with integrated HD 4600 and a TDP of 47W has only one long chip.
▲Processor chip with Iris
For the fourth-generation Core processor integrated with Iris graphics, it is very similar to the CPU structure integrated with Iris Pro, but as a Products launched in ultrabooks and ultra-thin notebooks, the fourth generation Core processor with integrated Iris graphics card, the long part has two CPU cores and Iris graphics card, the small rectangle on the right is the PCH chip, not eDRAM! The CPU integrated with Iris Pro needs to be equipped with a separate PCH chip, which is Intel's dual-chip architecture. For ultrabooks, in order to reduce power consumption and improve integration, Intel has integrated the PCH chip with the CPU on a PCB.
◆Enhanced multimedia processing unit
▲Use fast video synchronization technology for video transcoding
As the core graphics card integrated with the fourth-generation Core processor, Iris Iris Pro can be regarded as doubling the graphics processing part of HD4600 to obtain doubled graphics processing power. In the multimedia processing unit part, Iris and Iris Pro are the same as HD 4600. For example, in the fast video synchronization technology, Iris Pro is equipped with The test sample of 5200 takes the same time as the HD 4600 to perform the same video transcoding operation, and the file size after conversion is exactly the same. But the conversion time of the previous generation HD 4000 core graphics card is 60 longer than them! (Note: Fast video synchronization technology is a technology that uses the dedicated hardware encoding/decoding core integrated with Intel Core Graphics to encode and decode videos)
Highly integrated, ample performance, ultra-small and ultra-thin, but also high-performance
Through actual testing, we can see that the performance of Intel Iris Pro 5200 is indeed strong compared with Intel’s own graphics cards. However, compared with most current independent graphics cards, the performance of Iris Pro 5200 is still relatively limited. I believe many users will feel that , if you want to play games, of course you will choose a discrete graphics card, so what is the significance of the emergence of Intel Iris Pro 5200?
Indeed, at this stage, the status of discrete graphics cannot be replaced by the graphics card integrated inside the CPU, regardless of Is it Intel Iris Pro 5200 or AMD Radeon R7. But it is undeniable that with the advancement of technology, the CPU is becoming more and more integrated, more and more things can be packed into it, and the performance is getting stronger and stronger, while the power consumption remains basically unchanged or becomes lower and lower. Just like the i7-4760HQ processor integrated with Intel Iris Pro 5200, its maximum thermal design power consumption is 47W. If you choose a solution with independent graphics, among Intel CPUs, the power consumption of products with similar performance is still 47W. But here is the extra power consumption of the independent graphics. Obviously, the power consumption of the whole machine has become higher. From this perspective, products using Intel Iris Pro 5200 are more energy-saving when achieving the same performance.
▲Iris Pro allows mini PCs that cannot be equipped with independent graphics to gain independent graphics performance
In addition to being more energy-saving, the architecture of the final product integrates the Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics card The product only requires one chip, and products equipped with independent graphics cards, in addition to the CPU part, also have independent graphics core and supporting circuits. Therefore, some ultra-small desktop computers cannot be equipped with independent graphics cards at all. If you want to get For higher graphics performance, you can only choose the Intel Iris solution. From this point of view, the Intel Iris series graphics cards are not meant to overwhelm independent graphics cards, but provide us with another option to give PCs the opportunity to become more diverse. Performance is even better.