NVIDIA GeForce MX230 vs Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 vs Intel UHD Graphics 620

NVIDIA GeForce MX230

The Nvidia GeForce MX230 is an entry-level dedicated  laptop graphics card with DirectX 12 support (FL 12_1) based (most likely) on the Pascal architecture (and not Maxwell as the older MX130). Similar to the faster MX250, the MX230 is based on the GP108 chip.

Features

The GP108 chip is manufactured in a 14 nm FinFET process at Samsung (LPP) and offers a number of new features, including support for DisplayPort 1.4 (ready), HDMI 2.0b, HDR and improved H.265 video de- and encoding (PlayReady 3.0). 4K HDR with Netflix, however, wont run due to the minimum 3 GB graphics memory that is required. Compared to the bigger Pascal chips, the small GP108 does not support Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) for VR and G-Sync. A full list of improvements and the new Pascal desktop GPUs is available in our dedicated Pascal architecture article.

Performance

Thanks to the newer Pascal architecture, the MX230 is significantly faster than the old GeForce MX130 (Maxwell based). Demanding games of 2019 run only in lowest resolution and detail settings and may stutter (e.g. Anno 1800 or Rage 2 ran with under 30fps in our benchmarks). Less demanding games like Overwatch, Fifa 19 or Rocket League, however, can be played in higher detail and resolution settings without stuttering (see benchmarks below).

Power Consumption

The MX230 is manufactured in 14nm at Samsung and due to the low shader count and 64 Bit memory bus, the power consumption is rather low. Therefore, the chip can be also used for small and thin laptops. In our power tests, the faster MX250 needed 22% more power (Furmark load) and the old MX130 even 38% more. The integrated UHD Graphics 620 needed on average only 17% less power at a much lower performance.

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655

Intel UHD Graphics 620

The Intel UHD Graphics 620 (GT2) is an integrated graphics unit, which can be found in various ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processors of the Kaby Lake Refresh generation (8th generation Core). Compared to the similar named Intel HD Graphics 620 in the 2016 Kaby Lake CPUs, only the name changed from HD to UHD. It is clocked with up to 1.150 MHz and therefore 100 MHz higher than the old HD Graphics 620 (max. 1.050 MHz) and offer a comparable performance. Due to its lack of dedicated graphics memory or eDRAM cache, the HD 620 has to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3/DDR4).

Performance

The exact performance of the UHD Graphics 620 depends on various factors like L3 cache size, memory configuration (DDR3/DDR4) and maximum clock rate of the specific model and as is similar to the Intel HD Graphics 620 and Intel HD Graphics 630. Compared to the average HD Graphics 620, the UHD graphics profits from the quad-core CPU a bit in our gaming benchmarks. Therefore, should be positioned between a GeForce 910M and 920M dedicated graphics card from Nvidia. For games, the drivers however are not that fast updated and tested as with GeForce graphics cards. In our tests, the UHD 620 is most suited for casual games like Team Fortress 2, Rocket League or Farming Simulator 17. See below for a list of modern games tested with various models.

Features

The revised video engine now supports H.265/HEVC Main10 profile in hardware with 10 bit colors. Furthermore, Googles VP9 codec can also be hardware decoded. The first models do not support HDCP 2.2 and therefore Netflix 4K. This was added with the new models in 2017 and beginning of May 2017 also the older CPU models like the i3-7100U are now shipped with a new S-Spec Code that supports HDCP 2.2. HDMI 2.0 however is still only supported with an external converter chip (LSPCon).

Power Consumption

The UHD Graphics 620 can be found in mobile processors specified at 15 W TDP and is therefore suited for compact laptops and ultrabooks. The power consumption during playing The Witcher 3 (with an external monitor) was comparable to a Intel HD Graphics 620 based laptop and on the lowest end of all of our measurements. Dedicated GPUs, like the GeForce 940MX, needed a lot more power.