Intel HD Graphics 4600 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs Intel HD Graphics 4000

Intel HD Graphics 4600

The Intel HD Graphics 4600 (GT2) is a processor graphics card included in some of the Haswell processors of 2013. The base clock can be automatically overclocked using Turbo Boost technology.
Depending on the processor model, the base and turbo clock rates may differ greatly resulting in varying graphics performance between CPU models.

In comparison to the HD 4000, the graphics core has been modified extensively. The GPU supports DirectX 11.1, OpenCL 1.2 and OpenGL 4.0. It also features an improved decoder for 4K videos and the fast Quick Sync encoder.

According to Intel benchmarks in 3DMark 11, the HD Graphics 4600 will be up to 60 percent faster than the previous HD 4000. In our gaming benchmarks, however, the improvement was only about 30 percent. This performance boost is achieved by architectural improvements and an increased number of execution units: The GT2 version integrates 20 EUs, compared to 16 EUs for the old HD 4000. Thus, the HD 4600 not only matches some dedicated GPUs such as the GeForce GT 620M/630M, but also competes with the fastest integrated AMD GPUs like the Radeon HD 8650G.

Due to the 22nm 3D Tri-Gate production process, power consumption should be relatively low. The HD Graphics 4600 can be found on dual- and quad-core Haswell models in the 37 - 57 Watt TDP range.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 is a fast desktop graphics card based on the Ampere architecture. It uses the big GA104 chip and offers 5,888 cores and 8 GB GDDR6 graphics memory. 

The performance in games and 4k resolution is slightly below a RTX 2080 Ti but clearly faster then the old RTX 2080 Super. For most games, the performance is sufficient for 4k and maximum details. Enabling raytracing however (without DLSS) will lead to a significant lower performance (although the RTX performance was clearly improved compared to the RTX 2000 series).

The GA104 chip is produced in 8nm at Samsung and the power consumption of the RT 3070 is specified with 220 Watt (RTX 2070 Super - 215 Watt).

Intel HD Graphics 4000

The Intel HD Graphics 4000 (GT2) is a processor graphics card that is included in the Ivy Bridge processors of 2012 (3rd generation of core, e.g. Core i7-3770). The base clock can be automatically overclocked using Turbo Boost technology. Depending on the processor model, the base and turbo clock rate may differ greatly resulting in different graphics performance of ULV parts compared to high-end desktop and laptop quad-core parts.

Compared to the Intel HD Graphics 3000 in Sandy Bridge CPUs, the HD 4000 card was completely redesigned and offers improved DirectX 11 capable shaders, Hardware Tessellation, a dedicated level 3 cache (before the Last Level Cache LLC of the CPU) and DirectCompute support. The IPC (instructions per clock) can therefore be even 2x as fast as with Sandy Bridge and overall up to 60% more performance (3DMark Vantage) should be possible.

First benchmarks position the HD Graphics 4000 (in a fast quad core desktop CPU) on a level with a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 330M and therefore above the AMD processor graphics Radeon HD 6620G. In our extensive tests with games the HD Graphics 4000 was able to beat the HD 6620G in a fast Core i7-3820QM by about 15%. In the slower i7-3610QM and a dual core i5 it was on a similar level as the 6620G. Therefore, casual gamers that wont mind reducing the quality settings in high end games, may be happy with the performance of the HD Graphics 4000. Beware, that the HD Graphics 4000 is used with different clock speeds depending on the CPU model. The ULV CPUs (Core ix-3xx7U) for example feature lower clock speeds and cant maintain the Turbo frequency as good as the 35 - 55 Watt models. Therefore, the ULV version is about 30% slower on average.

A speciality of the Ivy Bridge GPUs is that 4x MSAA is supported in hardware now. However, 2x is only supported through software.  The algorithm to support 2x is going through the 4x pipeline with a software algorithm, so performance is similar to 4x MSAA.

The integrated video decoder called Multi Format Codec Engine (MFX) was also improved and should allow even simultaneus 4K video decoding. DXVAChecker lists MPEG2, VC1, WMV9, and H264 as supported codecs. QuickSync for fast transcoding of videos was also optimized for higher performance and better image quality.

Another new feature is the support for up to 3 independent displays (depends on how the HD 4000 is used in the laptop - maybe only with a DisplayPort / eDP) as AMD offers with theirs Eyefinity support (up to 6 displays). DisplayPort 1.1 (max 2560x1600) and HDMI 1.4 (max 1920x1080 without hacks) are supported by the chip according to Intel.

Due to the 22nm 3D Tri-Gate production process, the power consumption should be relatively low (the development was focused on performance per Watt). The TDP of the whole package (including processor and memory controller) varies between 18 Watt (ULV) up to 45 Watt (mobile quad core) for the consumer laptop CPUs.