Intel Iris Graphics 550 vs NVIDIA Quadro K3100M vs Intel UHD Graphics 610

Intel Iris Graphics 550

The Intel Iris Graphics 550 (GT3e) is an integrated graphics unit of the Skylake generation. As successors of the Iris Graphics 6100 (Broadwell), the Iris Graphics 550 can be found in CPUs of 28-watt series and offers 64 MB of dedicated eDRAM memory. Furthermore, the so-called GT3e-version features 48 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at up to 1100 MHz (depending on the CPU model). Besides the eDRAM cache, the Iris 550 is able to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3L-1600 / DDR4-2133).

Compared to the Iris Graphics 540 of the 15-watt series, the Iris Graphics 550 differs only by its slightly higher maximum clock and a nearly doubled TDP, which allows a better utilization of the Turbo Boost.

Performance

The exact performance of the Iris Graphics 550 depends on various factors like L3 Cache size, memory (DDR3/DDR4) and maximum clock rate of the specific model. The fastest versions (Core i7-6567U) may compete with a dedicated GeForce 930M and will handle modern games (as of 2015) in low or medium settings.

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 Iris Graphics 550 can be found in mobile processors specified at 28 W TDP and is therefore suited for medium-sized laptops and ultrabooks.

NVIDIA Quadro K3100M

The NVIDIA Quadro K3100M is a DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.3 compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Kepler-based GPU built on the GK104 chip with 768 out of 1536 shader cores activated and is manufactured in 28nm at TSMC. The Quadro K3100M is built for the Intel Shark Bay generation (Haswell) and is a successor to the Quadro K3000M (Chief River platform). As a new feature, PCIe 3.0 is supported for the first time. The K3100M usually comes with 4 GB GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 800 MHz (3200 MHz effective, 102.4 GB/s). 

The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD or DCC. OpenGL performance, for example, should be significantly better than with GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

Architecture

The Kepler architecture is the successor to the Fermi architecture that first appeared in laptops with the GeForce 400M series. The GK104 Kepler core offers eight shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. In the K3100M, 4 of 8 blocks are active leading to the 768 CUDA cores. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are still expected to be up to twice as power efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip offer similar performance to just one shader of a Fermi chip (as the latter is clocked twice as fast).

Performance

The performance is clearly above the old Quadro K3000M and just slightly below the Quadro K4000M. This places the K3100M somewhat below the consumer GTX 765M GPU. Nevertheless, most demanding games of 2013 will run fluently with high to very high details.

Features

The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840 x 2160 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.

Using CUDA or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro K3100M can be used for general calculations.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK104 core and 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 novelty is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed by the NVENC API.

The power consumption of the Quadro K3100M is rated at a TGP of 75 W including the board and memory components. Therefore, the card is suited for large notebooks with 17-inch displays or greater.

Intel UHD Graphics 610

The Intel UHD Graphics 610 (GT1) is an integrated graphics unit, which can be found in low-end ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processors of the Whisky-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).

Performance

Depending on various factors like memory configuration, the UHD Graphics 610 should offer a similar performance as the similar Intel HD Graphics 610 and 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 UHD Graphics 610 can be found in mobile processors specified at 15 W TDP and is therefore suited for compact laptops and ultrabooks.