NVIDIA Quadro K2100M vs Intel HD Graphics 610 vs Intel HD Graphics 515

NVIDIA Quadro K2100M

The NVIDIA Quadro K2100M is a DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.3 compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Kepler-based GPU built on the GK106 chip with 576 out of 960 shader cores activated and is manufactured in 28nm at TSMC. The Quadro K2100M is built for the Intel Shark Bay generation (Haswell) and is a successor to the Quadro K2000M (Chief River platform). As a new feature, PCIe 3.0 is supported for the first time. The K2100M usually comes with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 750 MHz (3000 MHz effective, 48.0 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 GK106 Kepler core offers five shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. In the K2100M, 3 of 5 blocks are active leading to the 576 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 K2000M, but slightly below the Quadro K3000M. This places the K2100M near the consumer GT 750M GPU. Therefore, most demanding games of 2013 will run fluently with medium or 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 K2100M can be used for general calculations.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK106 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 K2100M is rated at a TGP of 55 W including the board and memory components. Therefore, the card is suited for medium-sized notebooks with 15-inch displays or greater.

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.

Intel HD Graphics 515

The Intel HD Graphics 515 (GT2) is a low-end integrated graphics unit, which can be found in the Core m-series of the Skylake generation. This "GT2" version of the Skylake GPU offers 24 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at up to 1000 MHz (depending on the CPU model). Due to its lack of dedicated graphics memory or eDRAM cache, the HD 515 has to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3L-1600 / LPDDR3-1866).

Performance

According to Intel, the HD Graphics 515 is up to 41 percent faster than the previous HD Graphics 5300 (Broadwell). Nevertheless, the GPU will handle only simple games like Counter-Strike or Dota with decent frame rates. Depending on the specific CPU model, memory configuration and TDP (4.5 W, configurable), performance may vary substantially.

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 HD Graphics 515 can be found in Core m processors with 4.5 W TDP (3.5/3.8 W cTDP down, 7 W cTDP up) and is therefore suited for very thin, mostly passively cooled 2-in-1 notebooks and tablets.