Depending on the processor, the HD graphics offers a different base and Turbo Boost clock speed. Currently there are three different models:
Power Saving e.g. Celeron 847: base 350MHz, Turbo 800MHz
Celeron e.g. Celeron B810: base 650MHz, Turbo 950MHz
Pentium e.g. Pentium B950: base 650MHz, Turbo 1100MHz
Furthermore, the slow CPU performance of some models may influence the games a lot. For example, although the GPU in the Celeron B710 differs not much from the Pentium B950, the gaming performance was clearly worse and many games were unplayable.
As the Intel HD Graphics 3000 and 2000, the processor graphics card is able to use part of the last level cache of the processor (2MB usually for the entry level CPUs). This could be seen as a small amount of very fast dedicated memory.
Altought 2x Antialiasing (AA) is supported, the chip is as fast as when rendering 4x AA. In the Unigine Valley benchmark a similar HD 3000 i7-2637M for example reached the same score with 2x AA and 4x AA.
The feature set compared to the HD Graphics 3000 is also reduced in these entry level CPUs. E.g. Intel Quick Sync (for de- and encoding of HD videos), In Tru 3D, Clear Video HD are usually deactivated.
The Intel HD Graphics 3000 (or Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD 3000, GMA HD 3000, Intel HD Graphics 200) is an integrated graphics card in the Sandy Bridge codenamed processors. The HD Graphics 3000 has no dedicated memory but shares the Level 3 / LLC Cache with the CPU cores and also part of the main memory. Due to TurboBoost, the GPU can be overclocked depending on the current CPU load and power consumption. The base speed and the turbo boost speed of the HD Graphics 3000 depend on the processor:
Mainstream and high-end Dual und Quad-Core Core ix-2xx0 (base 650MHz, Turbo 1100-1300MHz)
Desktop K processors (base 850, Turbo 1100-1350MHz)
The HD 3000 offers 12 Execution Units (EUs) like the old Intel GMA HD but due to architectural changes each EU is now faster. The slower HD Graphics 2000 uses only 6 Execution Units. The EUs can be accessed using DirectX 10.1, OpenGL 3.0 and DirectCompute 4.1. OpenCL is not supported (the media SDK only uses the CPU).
Our performance tests with the high clocked mainstream version of the HD Graphics 3000 in quad-core processors showed a performance level on par with older entry level generations from NVIDIA (e.g. GeForce 310M) and AMD (HD 5450). In comparison with AMD's APU models, the HD 3000 can only compete against the C-and E-series, but not the faster Llano and Trinity models. The quality of the Intel drivers has been improved over the years, so most games are flawlessly playable (if the minimum requirements are fullfilled).
We could measure smooth frame rates in games like Dead Space 3, World of Tanks, Fifa 13, Torchlight 2, Counter-Strike: GO reach, Diablo 3, and many older games, though usually only in minimal detail settings. For accurate performance analysis and gaming benchmarks, read our article "Intel HD Graphics 3000" or scroll down in this article.
Altought 2x Antialiasing (AA) is supported, the chip is as fast as when rendering 4x AA. In the Unigine Valley benchmark a i7-2637M for example reached the same score with 2x AA and 4x AA.
In addition to the GPU, the chip also houses some dedicated units for decoding and encoding HD videos. On the IDF Intel demonstrated the encoding of a 3 minute long 1080p video to an iPhone compatible format in 640x360 in only 14s. Another novelty of the Sandy Bridge GPU is the embedded DisplayPort eDP to connect internal Displays.
Due to the integration in the 32nm built CPU, the power consumption of the GPU should be quite low.
The Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail) is a low-end integrated Bay Trail graphics card found in certain Atom models (Z3770), nettops (J2850) and notebook SoCs (N3510). It supports DirectX 11 and is based on the Ivy Bridge GPU. Clock rates and shader cores, however, are considerably lower.
Compared to Ivy Bridge, which offers either 6 or 16 Execution Units, the HD Graphics (Bay Trail) comes with only 4 EUs. The core clock is significantly lower as well. Depending on the specific model, the maximum Turbo Boost is 896 MHz or less and the memory controller can support DDR3(L), DDR3L-RS or LPDDR3 in single- or dual-channel operation.
The fastest notebook models equipped with this GPU nearly match the performance of the HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge) and the AMD Radeon HD 6310. Therefore, older and less demanding Windows games like World of Warcraft or Half-Life 2 can be played fluently in very low settings. Performance is not sufficient for most modern titles.
Compared to competing ARM SoCs, Bay Trail outperforms the Adreno 320 (which can be found in different Qualcomm SoCs like the Snapdragon 600) and offers a performance similar to the Tegra 4 GPU. That is enough power to run even the most demanding Android games smoothly in very high resolutions as of 2013.
The integrated video decoder supports all popular codecs such as MPEG2, H.264, VC1, VP8 and MVC and is suitable for resolutions up to 4K up to 100 Mbit/s. The user can connect up to two displays via HDMI 1.4 (max. 1920 x 1080) or DisplayPort 1.2 (max. 2560 x 1600). Another new feature is the support for Wireless Display and Quick Sync, Intel's fast and power efficient H-264 hardware encoder. Some of these features are not available on all models.
Depending on the model, the power consumption of the entire SoC is somewhere between 2 and 10 W. The most efficient versions are therefore suitable for passively cooled tablets, whereas faster variants are used in larger subnotebooks with active cooling.
Average Benchmarks Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge) → 100%n=13
Average Benchmarks Intel HD Graphics 3000 → 150%n=13
Average Benchmarks Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail) → 79%n=13
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card - Average benchmark values for this graphics card * Smaller numbers mean a higher performance 1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
Game Benchmarks
The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.