IGP performance

IGP performance

Now we've been chatting up on the embedded IGP you can make use if if you purchase a Clarkdale based processor. With so little shader cores and raw horsepower we seriously recommend you to look into a dedicated graphics card for gaming. Only .. and again only if you lower image quality settings to the absolute minimum you might be able to play a game at 10x7 or 12x10. The IGP does not support anti-aliasing. And well, we can only recommend it for desktop usage and video content (accelerated) playback.

Let's check out some performance figures.

So above you can see a run with 3DMark Vantage. Yep .. I didn't even bother to place the results in a chart really. Your average GPU these days scores roughly 10000 points in pale comparison. But in all honesty for an IGP however, it's quite decent.

Far Cry 2

Throw your memory back to the year 2004 and the release of the innovative Far Cry on PC. Developer Crytek managed to fashion one of the most convincing and striking locales in all of gaming, and satisfied gamers with the freedom to pass through the landscape and tackle enemies in almost any way they saw fit. You surely remember Jack Carver and that things were about to get seriously messed up for you? Well, tough luck. You are no longer at that deserted tropical island but hop into a jeep and arrive at the sandy savannah surroundings of Africa. And that's a change... as much as you'll no longer run into any mutants, aliens, or any superpowers or psychic powers. Also - you are no longer Jack Carver, you assume the role of one of nine different mercenaries who are embedded in the midst of a brutal civil war which rages in an imaginary African nation.
Everything that goes down is involved in a dirty little bush war in central Africa and you'll have to use a rusty AK-47 and whatever bits of scavenged land mine you can duct-tape together. Two factions struggle for supremacy: the United Front for Liberation and Labour and the Alliance for Popular Resistance, and both are known for blood and control.

Far Cry 2 I like very much.

Now typically we test at DX10 with 8xAA and 16xAF. But that the IGP certainly does not allow. Even at DX9 mode with 0xAA and medium quality setting, the IGP still lacks enough horsepower to play the game.

Resident Evil 5 (DirectX 10)

A new addition to our benchmark suite is Resident Evil 5. Capcom's newly released game ensures you a survival horror sequel that will let you bust up some zombies on your hard drive. Resident Evil 5 PC will support DirectX 9 and 10 along with ultra-high resolutions.

Typically Resident Evil is a bit more lenient title when it comes to GPU performance. We had to drop to DX9 with the lowest image quality settings available to get a decent frame rate in 1024x768. Conclusion, with the knowledge that this is Guru3D.com and we have a mainstream to high-end audience. The IGP is not suitable for us guys at all.

But let's pop on a Radeon HD 5870 and see how the setup behaves compared to some other platforms.