Intel HD Graphics 500 vs NVIDIA Quadro K5000M vs NVIDIA Quadro K4100M

Intel HD Graphics 500

The Intel HD Graphics 500 is an integrated processor graphics unit from the Apollo Lake generation (e. g. Celeron N3450 and Celeron N3350), which was announced mid 2016. The GPU can convince with low consumption figures, but the performance is only in the low-end segment and is rarely sufficient for modern games. Being a partial configuration of the Apollo Lake GPU, the HD Graphics 505 is equipped with just 12 Execution Units (EUs) (HD Graphics 505: 18 EUs) running at up to 650-700 MHz depending on the model. The technical specifications of the GPU are based on Intel's Gen9 architecture, which is also used for the more expensive Skylake series.

Due to its lack of dedicated graphics memory or eDRAM cache, the HD 505 has to access the main memory via processor (2x 64bit DDR3L-/LPDDR3-1866, LPDDR4-2400).

Performance

The HD Graphics 505 should be slightly slower than the older Broadwell GPU HD Graphics (Broadwell), so modern games (as of 2016) will rarely run smoothly even at the lowest settings.

Features

The revised video engine now decodes H.265/HEVC completely in hardware and thereby much more efficiently than before. Up to three displays can be connected via DP/eDP or HDMI (4K probably only at 30 Hz via HDMI 1.4).

Power Consumption

The TDP of the whole Pentium N4200 chip is 6 Watts by default, so the GPU is primarily used for (often passively cooled) netbooks or thin notebooks. The TDP can also be reduced to 4 Watts, but this will obviously affect the performance.

NVIDIA Quadro K5000M

The NVIDIA Quadro K5000M is a high-end, DirectX 11.1 compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Kepler-based GPU built on the GK104 chip (but using only 1344 shader cores) and is manufactured in 28nm by TSMC. The Quadro K5000M is built for the Intel Chief River generation (Ivy Bridge) and is the successor to the Fermi-based Quadro 5010M (Huron River platform). Usually 4 GB GDDR5 graphics memory clocked at 750 MHz (3000 MHz effective) are used.

The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD or DCC. OpenGL performance, for example, should be significantly better than GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

Architecture

The Kepler architecture is the successor to the Fermi architecture that first appeared in laptops with the GeForce 400M series. The GK104 Kepler core offers eight shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. In the K5000M, 7 blocks are active leading to the 1366 CUDA cores. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are still expected to be up to twice as power efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip offer similar performance to just one shader of a Fermi chip (as the latter is clocked twice as fast). 

PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and an optional Turbo mode can automatically overclock the Nvidia card by a theoretical 15 percent if the laptop cooling system allows it. The implementation of this boost mode is done in the BIOS, but it is ultimately dependent upon the manufacturer of the laptop.

Performance

The performance is clearly above the level of the older Quadro 5010M. Compared to the GTX 680M, the clock rates are sligthly lower (depending on the manufacturer), placing the card between the 680M and the Fermi based GTX 675M. Nevertheless, most demanding games of 2012 will run fluently with maxed out details.

Features

The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840x2160 pixels can now be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a if available. HD-Audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, can be transmitted via bitstream mode through the HDMI port. However, as most laptops will feature Optimus, the integrated GPU will likely have direct control over the display ports and may limit the feature set available by the Nvidia Kepler cards.

Using CUDA or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro K5000M can be used for general calculations.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK107 core and offers hardware decoding of HD videos. Common codecs such as MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264 and VC1/WMV9 are fully supported up to 4K resolutions while VC1 and MPEG-4 are supported up to 1080p. Two streams can be decoded in parallel for features such as Picture-in-Picture. Another novelty is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed by the NVENC API.

The power consumption of the Quadro K5000M is rated at 100 Watt (TGP according to Nvidia) and is therefore suited for large notebooks with 17-inch displays or greater.

NVIDIA Quadro K4100M

The NVIDIA Quadro K4100M is a high-end, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.3 compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Kepler-based GPU built on the GK104 chip with 1152 out of 1536 shader cores active and is manufactured in 28nm at TSMC. The Quadro K4100M is built for the Intel Shark Bay generation (Haswell) and is a successor to the Quadro K4000M (Chief River platform). As a new feature, PCIe 3.0 is supported for the first time. The K4100M usually comes with 4 GB GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 800 MHz (3200 MHz effective, 102.4 GB/s). 

The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD or DCC. OpenGL performance, for example, should be significantly better than with GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

Architecture

The Kepler architecture is the successor to the Fermi architecture that first appeared in laptops with the GeForce 400M series. The GK104 Kepler core offers eight shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. In the K4100M, 6 of 8 blocks are active leading to the 1152 CUDA cores. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are still expected to be up to twice as power efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip offer similar performance to just one shader of a Fermi chip (as the latter is clocked twice as fast).

Performance

The performance is clearly above the old Quadro K4000M and similar to the Quadro K5000M. In 3D games, the K4100M offers a performance slightly above the consumer GeForce GTX 770M. Therefore, most demanding games of 2013 will run fluently with maxed out details.

Features

The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840 x 2160 pixels can now be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a if available. HD-Audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, can be transmitted via bitstream mode through the HDMI port. However, as most laptops will feature Optimus, the integrated GPU will likely have direct control over the display ports and may limit the feature set available by the Nvidia Kepler cards.

Using CUDA or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro K4100M can be used for general calculations.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK104 core and offers hardware decoding of HD videos. Common codecs such as MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264 and VC1/WMV9 are fully supported up to 4K resolutions while VC1 and MPEG-4 are supported up to 1080p. Two streams can be decoded in parallel for features such as Picture-in-Picture. Another novelty is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed by the NVENC API.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the Quadro K4100M is rated at a TGP of 100 W including the board and memory components. Therefore, the card is only suited for large notebooks with 17-inch displays or greater.