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Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) HD Graphics

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD Graphics, Intel HD Graphics, or GMA HD  (or GMA5700MHD) is an onboard / shared memory graphics card for laptops that is bundled in the package of the new Arrandale dual core CPUs (upcoming in Q1 2010). Depending on the CPU model, the GMA HD is clocked between 166 and 500 MHz (with Turbo Boost max. 500-766 MHz). Compared, the the CPU die, the GPU and memory controller are produced in 45nm and not 32nm.

Compared to the current GMA 4500MHD graphics adapter, the Graphics Media Accelerator HD got two more shaders leading in 12 execution units (or unified shader cores). The identically called Intel HD Graphics in entry level Sandy Bridge processors is the successor of this graphics card and offers an improved architecture and therefore faster speeds.

The performance of the new Graphics Media Accelerator HD graphics card is noticable better than the old GMA 4500MHD (due to the increased number of shaders and in some cases also clock rate). In some games, the GMA HD is even as fast as a GeForce 9400M / ION chipset. On average it should be as fast as the HD 3200 / 4200 by ATI and therefore allow the user to play older and less demanding games in low settings. The driver support is still not as good as for Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. Furthermore, Low Voltage and Ultra Low Voltage Core CPUs contain lower clocked GMA HD graphics and are therefore slower.

Furthermore, the OpenGL performance is still not very good. E.g. the old Doom 3 and Quake 4 games wont run fluently.

Similar to the 4500MHD, the GMA HD also offers hardware accelerated HD video functions in the chip. The DXVA Checker lists support for MPEG2 (VLD, IDCT, MoComp, A, C), H264 (VLD, MoComp, IDCT), WMV9 (MoComp, IDCT), and VC1 (MoComp, IDCT) in 72x480, 1280x720 and 1920x1080. A Toshiba Tecra A11 laptop with Core i5-430M CPU decoded Big Buck Bunny (1080p, H.264) using the Windows Media Player using the graphics card with only 0-1% CPU load. When using the VLC which did not support using the graphic card, the CPU load was significantly higher with 8-17% in our tests. The same was noticed with WMV videos (The Magic of Flight 1080p 3-5% versus 7-12%) and VC-1 videos (Elephant's Dream 1080p 5-8% versus 8-15%).

The Turbo Boost function of the new Arrandale CPUs also allows the automatic overclocking of the GPU core. The graphics card is only overclocked if the CPU is not fully loaded and the TDP is not fully used. 

  • High End: Core i5 520M, 540M, i7 620M: 500-766 MHz
  • Low End: Core i3 330M, 350M: 500-677 MHz
  • Low Voltage: Core i7 620LM, 640LM: 266-566 MHz
  • Ultra Low Voltage: Core i5-520UM, i5-620UM, 640UM: 166-500 MHz

It is questionable if the Turbo is really often used in current games, as most games also use a lot of CPU time. Therefore, the UM and LM versions of the GMA HD should be a lot slower because of the slow base speed of 166 / 266 MHz.

CodenameGMA HD
ArchitectureGen. 5 Arrandale
Pipelines12 - unified
Core Speed500 MHz
Shared Memoryyes
APIDirectX 10, Shader 4.0
Power Consumption35 Watt
technology45 nm
Date of Announcement10.01.2010

Benchmarks

3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. total
min: 119     avg: 267.6     median: 297.5 (0%)     max: 394 Points
+ 20 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX
min: 90     avg: 202.7     median: 225 (0%)     max: 299 Points
+ 20 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark 2001SE - 3DMark 2001 - Standard
min: 4735     avg: 8113     median: 8301.5 (9%)     max: 10934 Points
+ 22 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 03 - 3DMark 03 - Standard
min: 2681     avg: 3981     median: 3988 (2%)     max: 5007 Points
+ 57 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 05 - 3DMark 05 - Standard
min: 1093     avg: 2790     median: 2748 (3%)     max: 3429 Points
+ 71 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Score Unknown Settings +
3DMark 06
min: 1076     avg: 1436     median: 1389 (2%)     max: 2013 points
+ 10 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 994     avg: 1476     median: 1420 (2%)     max: 1968 Points
+ 54 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x800 +
3DMark 06
min: 1120     avg: 1461     median: 1402.5 (2%)     max: 1919 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x768 +
3DMark 06
min: 1122     avg: 1610     median: 1680.5 (2%)     max: 2119 Points
+ 18 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 06 - Standard 1152x864 +
3DMark 06
1599 Points (2%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Windows 7 Experience Index - Win7 Gaming graphics
min: 3.2     avg: 4.9     median: 5.1 (65%)     max: 5.3 Points
+ 58 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Windows 7 Experience Index - Win7 Graphics
min: 2.4     avg: 4.1     median: 4 (51%)     max: 4.8 Points
+ 58 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit)
min: 62     avg: 1720     median: 1790 (1%)     max: 3036 points
+ 74 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit
min: 0.68     avg: 1.2     median: 1.2 (0%)     max: 1.86 fps
+ 52 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

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.

Diablo III

Diablo III

2012
low 1024x768
20  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
12  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
10  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Anno 2070

Anno 2070

2011
low 1024x768
10.3 23 ~ 17 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
4.2 14 ~ 9 fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
5  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Fifa 12

Fifa 12

2011
low 800x600
63.4  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
30.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Deus Ex Human Revolution

Deus Ex Human Revolution

2011
low 1024x768
21  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Dirt 3

Dirt 3

2011
low 800x600
8  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
6  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
3  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Total War: Shogun 2

Total War: Shogun 2

2011
low 1024x768
18  fps    + Compare
med. 1280x720
10  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Fifa 11

Fifa 11

2010
low 800x600
22 58.2 80.5 ~ 54 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
14 30 43.2 ~ 29 fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
5 24.6 33.8 ~ 21 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.1  fps    + Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Mafia 2

Mafia 2

2010
low 800x600
-1  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
StarCraft 2

StarCraft 2

2010
low 1024x768
11 26 27.9 31 ~ 24 fps    + Compare
med. 1360x768
5 6 10 ~ 7 fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
4 5 ~ 5 fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Metro 2033

Metro 2033

2010
low 800x600
13  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

2010
low 1024x768
8 16 ~ 12 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
5  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
3  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
CoD Modern Warfare 2

CoD Modern Warfare 2

2009
low 800x600
26  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Risen

Risen

2009
low 800x600
20 22 ~ 21 fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5

2009
low 800x600
33.8  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
10.2  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Need for Speed Shift

Need for Speed Shift

2009
low 800x600
-1  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Colin McRae: DIRT 2

Colin McRae: DIRT 2

2009
low 800x600
-1  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Anno 1404

Anno 1404

2009
low 1024x768
21.6 26 26 27 30 ~ 26 fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Sims 3

Sims 3

2009
low 800x600
82.1 89 91 96 ~ 90 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
29.7 32 34 35 ~ 33 fps    + Compare
high 1280x1024
21  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
F.E.A.R. 2

F.E.A.R. 2

2009
low 800x600
45  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
12  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead

2008
low 640x480
53  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
23  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

2008
low 640x480
25.7  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
6.4  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Crysis Warhead

Crysis Warhead

2008
low 800x600
15  fps    + Compare
ultra 1024x768
-1  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Trackmania Nations Forever

Trackmania Nations Forever

2008
low 640x480
92.3  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
21.9  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
15  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare

2007
low 800x600
28.3 47 ~ 38 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
13.2 16 ~ 15 fps    + Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Supreme Commander - FA Bench

Supreme Commander - FA Bench

2007
low 1024x768
18.1 19.3 20.6 21.7 21.8 ~ 20 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
9.8 11.7 11.9 12.1 12.2 ~ 12 fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Crysis - GPU Benchmark

Crysis - GPU Benchmark

2007
low 1024x768
23  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Crysis - CPU Benchmark

Crysis - CPU Benchmark

2007
low 1024x768
23  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
World in Conflict - Benchmark

World in Conflict - Benchmark

2007
low 800x600
39  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
13  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark

Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark

2005
high 1024x768
47.4  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Quake 4

Quake 4

2005
low 640x480
12  fps    + Compare