Intel HD Graphics 505 vs NVIDIA GeForce 920M vs Intel HD Graphics 510

Intel HD Graphics 505

The Intel HD Graphics 505 is an integrated processor graphics unit from the Apollo Lake generation (e. g. Pentium N4200), 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 the maximum configuration of the Apollo Lake GPU, the HD Graphics 505 is equipped with 18 Execution Units (EUs) running at up to 750 MHz. 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 Core-M GPU HD Graphics 5300, 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 GeForce 920M

The NVIDIA GeForce 920M (sometimes also NVIDIA GeForce GT 920M) is an entry level DirectX 12 graphics card. It is based on the 28 nm Kepler architecture and uses the same GK208 chip as the GeForce GT 730M, 825M and 740M. The 384 shaders are clocked at 954 MHz, while the memory (64-bit DDR3 interface) runs at 900 MHz (1800 MHz effective).

Architecture

GK208 is based on the Kepler architecture and offers two shader blocks, called SMX, each with 192 shaders for a total of 384 shader cores. The shaders are clocked at the same speed as the rest of the chip. Furthermore, the GK208 chip has 16 TMUs and 8 ROPs on a 64-bit memory interface.

PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and GPU Boost 2.0 mode can automatically overclock the card if the laptop cooling system allows it. This feature is available on any notebook with a graphics card from the 800M series.

Performance

The GeForce 920M offers a performance similar to the AMD Radeon R7 M260 or R7 M360 and will handle modern games (as of 2014/2015) in low settings only. For comparison, a GeForce 930M is about 20 to 30 percent faster than the 920M.

Features

The feature set of the 920M corresponds to the GT 730M and 825M. This 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.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) 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 feature is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed via the NVENCI API.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the GeForce 920M is similar to the 825M and suited for 13-inch laptops and above.

Intel HD Graphics 510

The Intel HD Graphics 510 (GT1) is an integrated graphics unit, which can be found in low-end ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processors of the Skylake generation. This "GT1" version of the Skylake GPU offers 12 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at up to 950 MHz (depending on the CPU model). Due to its lack of dedicated graphics memory or eDRAM cache, the HD 510 has to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3L-1600 / DDR4-2133).

Performance

Depending on various factors like memory configuration, the HD Graphics 510 should perform sligthly below the older HD Graphics 4400 and will handle modern games (as of 2015) only in lowest settings (if it does at all).

Features

The revised video engine now decodes H.265/HEVC completely in hardware and thereby much more efficiently than before. Displays can be connected via DP 1.2 / eDP 1.3 (max. 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz), whereas HDMI is limited to the older version 1.4a (max. 3840 x 2160 @ 30 Hz). However, HDMI 2.0 can be added using a DisplayPort converter. Up to three displays can be controlled simultaneously.

Power Consumption

The HD Graphics 510 can be found in mobile processors specified at 15 W TDP and is therefore suited for compact laptops and ultrabooks.