Intel HD Graphics 610 vs AMD Radeon RX Vega 9

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.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 9

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 9 is an integrated GPU for notebooks. It is used for the Ryzen 5 APUs, which were launched in the end of 2019. The GPU is based on the Vega architecture (5th generation GCN) and has 9 CUs (= 576 of the 704 shaders) clocked at up to 1300 MHz (Ryzen 5 3580U). The performance depends on the configured TDP (12-25 W at launch), the clocks, the cooling, and the memory configuration). The GPU should benefit from fast dual-channel DDR4-2400 RAM (contrary to DDR4-2133 single-channel, which is also possible).

The Vega architecture offers some improvements over the Polaris generation and now supports DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1. More information is available in our dedicated article about the Raven Ridge architecture.

The performance of the integrated graphics card should be between the Vega 8 and Vega 10. Therefore, demanding games like Control or Borderlands 3 should be playable in lowest settings and 720p. Less demanding games like Fifa 20 or League of Legends can be played fluently in 1080p and highest settings. See e.g. our Vega 8 page for additional benchmarks.

Thanks to the 14nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD), so the graphics card can also be used for slim and light notebooks.