Intel HD Graphics 505 vs AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge) vs Intel HD Graphics 610

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.

AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge)

The AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge) is an integrated graphics adapter of the weaker mobile dual-core Stoney Ridge APUs. At its launch, it is being used in the AMD A6-9210 and probably has 192 shaders running at up to 600 MHz. The performance can vary heavily depending on the configured TDP and the system memory.

Architecture and Features

The Radeon R5 is equipped with three cores from the third GCN generation (often called GCN 1.2 or 2.0 by the press). This means it is very similar to the Tonga desktop chip and supports DirectX 12 (FL 12_0), but the graphics cores can also be accessed via Mantle, OpenGL, and OpenCL. The GPU supports the HSA 1.0 standard as well and can therefore use the connection with the CPU cores very efficiently. The technical specifications are identical to the Carrizo predecessor. 

The video unit includes the UVD 6 (Unified Video Decoder), which can decode HEVC/H.265 and 4K with support from the hardware. More details are available in our dedicated Stoney Ridge article. 

Power Consumption

Depending on the model and configured TDP (cTDP), the 28 nm chip is specified with 10 up to 15 Watts. This means it can also be used for thin and light notebooks.

Intel HD Graphics 610

The Intel HD Graphics 610 (GT1) is an integrated graphics unit, which can be found in low-end ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processors of the Kaby-Lake 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 610 has to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3L-1600 / DDR4-2133).

The successor of the HD 610 is the renamed UHD Graphics 610 in the Whisky-Lake and Comet-Lake Pentium CPUs.

Performance

Depending on various factors like memory configuration, the HD Graphics 610 should similar to the old Skylake HD Graphics 510 and therefore can only handle non demanding games. E.g. Farming Simulator 17, World of Warships or Dota 2 Reborn can be played on low settings.

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 Pentium chips should already support HDCP 2.2 and therefore Netflix 4K. HDMI 2.0 however is still only supported with an external converter chip (LSPCon).

Power Consumption

The HD Graphics 610 can be found in mobile processors specified at 15 W TDP and is therefore suited for compact laptops and ultrabooks.