Has Intel iGPU caught up with 10 year old GPU(8800GT) Card?

[PeterScott]

I am planning to build a new system soon, possibly with a Coffee Lake i5, but midrange GPUs like the GTX 1060 are still overpriced, and I wonder how viable it is to just use the iGPU until the GPU market regains some sanity.

How does the iGPU compare to an old GPU card like an 8800GT (using in my current system)?

 

[tviceman]

I think most iGPU's that aren't paired with low-voltage, low powered CPU's are faster than the 8800GT. Reviews generally show that some AAA games won't work at all, while most others need to be at 720p all low settings to get ~25-35fps. Games that are 4-5+ years old fair better, but 720p seems to be the general resolution you'll want to be at regardless with a desktop-cpu when using iGPU to power games unless you're digging really deep in your gaming catalog (i.e. half life 2, doom 3, TF2, Torchlight, etc.)

 

[UsandThem]

I've seen several GTX 1060 6GB cards the last few weeks down to $245 after MIR. The latest mining boom is on a downward trajectory, so it shouldn't be too difficult to buy a GPU around MSRP over the next month.

Outside of that, integrated graphics will do alright on low settings, and give you 30-40 FPS like mentioned more in detail above.

 

[mohit9206]

Intel hd 630 is probably just about as fast as 8800gt. Intel has slacked in the last 3-4 years when it comes to increasing igpu performance.
This is because there is no need to but still bad.
You would think by now i5 would have gt 1030 level igpu according to natural progression.

 

[LightningZ71]

For iGPU performance, the shared main memory is a definite performance wall. Anything with dual channel ddr4 or less is just going to struggle with anything north of 720p gaming. Perhaps with smart memory management, deep caching, and memory compression techniques, we might get passable 1080p performance at modest detail settings, but that's about it.

Even with old dGPUs, as long as they are pushing passable memory bandwidth and aren't bottom of the barrel economy specials, you'll see an overall improvement in game performance. There are DirectX level issues that affect some games however, and there's not much help there.

 

[wilds]

Intel's Iris Pro 6200 and Iris Pro 580 is about as fast as a stock clocked GTX 650; albeit very costly. It can even run old DX9 games at 4k60.

 

[SPBHM]

from a quick search, the GPU score on 3dmark vantage (DX10) of the HD 630 (from a 7700HQ) is about the same as a 9800GTX+ (GTS 250), around 6200 points GPU score
but... that's 3dmark, from my experience Intel tends to do better in 3dm than games, still, it should be close enough, and the HD 630 supports DX11/DX12 and driver updates.
so overall I think the HD 630 is faster, but, the 8800GT can potentially be faster in some older games, only testing lots of games would give a good answer.

 

[Rifter]

play 3 year old or older games at 720P and you will be alright, i wouldnt aim higher than that.

 

[Guru]

Any newer Igpu would do just fine, especially on multiplayer/online type games like LOL, Dota 2, Overwatch, Hearthstone, etc...

Even AAA titles would run just fine, albeit at low settings. Its an okay stop-gap, nothing to really game on for a full experience, but its more than enough as a stop-gap before you purchase a GPU.

 

[stockwiz]

Doesn't seem to me it would make much sense to throw a bunch of money at improving the IGPU. As long as it's fast enough to play minecraft it's all the average user will need. Everyone else will buy a discrete GPU. I doubt there's a huge improvement.

 

[LightningZ71]

I've been milling about in the processor lists and haven't found one yet, but, does Intel even make a core processor with quad channel RAM that includes an iGPU?

 

[SPBHM]

Doesn't seem to me it would make much sense to throw a bunch of money at improving the IGPU. As long as it's fast enough to play minecraft it's all the average user will need. Everyone else will buy a discrete GPU. I doubt there's a huge improvement.

you would be surprised lots of people play with IGPs far more graphically demanding games than minecraft, you can even play some battlefield games and GTAV with the HD 630
also laptops,

I've been milling about in the processor lists and haven't found one yet, but, does Intel even make a core processor with quad channel RAM that includes an iGPU?

no, IGPs are basically on the CPUs that use die equal or similar to the ones used in laptops
the platforms with 3-4 channels don't include an IGP on the CPU.

the solution adopted for the "higher end" IGPs from Intel is to use edram

 

[VirtualLarry]

How does an FM1 A4-3420 dual-core APU (w/dual-channel DDR3) fair, these days, in Win10 64-bit? Is it suitable for any sort of gaming whatsoever? (720P, obviously, although if it can manage anything at 1080P, I'd be very impressed.)

 

[cbn]

How does an FM1 A4-3420 dual-core APU (w/dual-channel DDR3) fair, these days, in Win10 64-bit? Is it suitable for any sort of gaming whatsoever? (720P, obviously, although if it can manage anything at 1080P, I'd be very impressed.)

It should be able to play this game at 1080p. (It is 10 years old, but still very popular*)

*Ranked #5 on "Top games by current player count" (on Steam)

 

[SPBHM]

How does an FM1 A4-3420 dual-core APU (w/dual-channel DDR3) fair, these days, in Win10 64-bit? Is it suitable for any sort of gaming whatsoever? (720P, obviously, although if it can manage anything at 1080P, I'd be very impressed.)

it's a lot slower than the current Intel IGPs, probably more like the Ivy Bridge or a little better...
it's only 160SPs @ 600Mhz, that's like the HD 6450.

 

[Muhammed]

Consider this: can any Intel iGPU run the original Crysis at Very High, @720p and 30fps? My GTS 250 (effectively a 9800GTX+) and 8800GT were capable of doing just that. I don't think any Intel iGPU can.

 

[el etro]

My brother laptop is powered by Intel HD4000 graphics and it's just as fast as a 8600GT. Four years later they may have surpassed 8800GT by a lot.

 

[PeterScott]

Consider this: can any Intel iGPU run the original Crysis at Very High, @720p and 30fps? My GTS 250 (effectively a 9800GTX+) and 8800GT were capable of doing just that. I don't think any Intel iGPU can.

Memory Bandwidth definitely still favors the 8800GT, it's near 60 GB/s IIRC.

 

[Mopetar]

Memory Bandwidth definitely still favors the 8800GT, it's near 60 GB/s IIRC.

Improvements in memory compression techniques over that time period may mean that raw numbers aren't as indicative of performance as one might think. I'm not sure about Intel specifically, but both AMD and NVidia have made some pretty big strides in those areas so one would assume that Intel would also be incorporating newer techniques into their designs as well.

 

[wilds]

Consider this: can any Intel iGPU run the original Crysis at Very High, @720p and 30fps? My GTS 250 (effectively a 9800GTX+) and 8800GT were capable of doing just that. I don't think any Intel iGPU can.

Iris Pro 6200 and 580 easily can.

 

[whm1974]

Improvements in memory compression techniques over that time period may mean that raw numbers aren't as indicative of performance as one might think. I'm not sure about Intel specifically, but both AMD and NVidia have made some pretty big strides in those areas so one would assume that Intel would also be incorporating newer techniques into their designs as well.

And I'm quite sure that iGPUs will benefit much more from those improvements since they have much less bandwidth available to begin with and have to share it with the CPU.