AMD Radeon 780M vs AMD Radeon 890M vs Intel Arc 8-Core iGPU

AMD Radeon 780M

The AMD Radeon 780M is an integrated GPU in the Ryzen 7040 series for laptops (Phoenix, e.g. Ryzen 9 7940HS). The iGPU is based on the new RDNA3 architecture and has 12 CUs (= 768 shaders) clocked at up to 3 GHz (depending on the CPU model). As the predecessor Radeon 680M, the 780M supports hardware raytracing, although the performance is too slow to use it in current games.

Thanks to the new architecture and higher clock speeds, the Radeon 780M should be clearly faster then the old Radeon 680M. This means most demanding games should be playable in minimum graphics settings (like Cyberpunk 2077) and less demanding games like Fifa 23 can be played in higher settings and resolutions (1080p). In early 2023, the Radeon 780M is the fastest iGPU on the market.

Thanks to the modern 4nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD). The whole chip of the first two models can be configured between 15 - 54 Watt TDP.

AMD Radeon 890M

The Radeon 890M is the most powerful AMD iGPU, as of mid 2024. It features 16 RDNA 3.5 architecture CUs (1024 unified shaders) running at up to 2,900 MHz. Ray tracing, AI image generation and other modern features are all supported here, as are the most popular video codecs including first and foremost AVC, HEVC, VP9 and AV1. The latest addition to that list, the VVC codec, is not HW-supported unlike it is with Intel Lunar Lake chips.

The AMD iGPU is capable of driving four SUHD 4320p60 monitors simultaneously. It also supports Miracast and FreeSync. RDNA 3.5-based iGPUs are projected to be fully supported by AMD until some time in 2027.

Performance

Performance-wise, the graphics adapter can be as slow as the Arc 8 or as fast as the RTX 2050 Laptop depending on the benchmark or game. On average, the 890M finds itself very close to the GTX 1650 Laptop making it possible to play 2024 AAA games at 1080p with most settings set to Low. Baldur's Gate 3 is playable on medium settings, as are several other 2023 games.

Power consumption

Strix Point chips are a single-die design, meaning the iGPU is built with the same TSMC N4P process as the CPU cores for very decent, as of mid 2024, power efficiency.

The 890M delivers as much performance as an entry-level desktop graphics card while consuming just 10 to 20 Watts.

Intel Arc 8-Core iGPU

The Intel Arc iGPU with 8 cores (ID 7D55) is an integrated graphics adapter in Meteor Lake SoCs based on the Xe LPG architecture (similar to the dedicated Arc GPUs, but with a focus on efficiency). It offers all 8 Xe cores (128 Xe vector engines), 8 ray tracing units, 8 samplers and 4 pixel backends.

The Arc name may only be used if at least 16 GB RAM is used in dual channel mode. Otherwise, the only iGPU is called "Intel Graphics" and is also significantly slower.

According to Intel, performance has been doubled compared to the previous generation (probably still in Alder Lake).

The iGPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (probably DX 12_2 like the desktop Arc GPUs). The graphics unit also supports XeSS AI Super Sampling.

The media engine of Meteor Lake is in the SOC tile and supports up to 8k60 10-bit HDR encode and decode of MPEG2, AVC, VP9, HEVC and AV1. The display engine is also in the SoC tile and supports HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 20G with up to 8K60 HDR.

The GPU Tile of the Meteor Lake chip is manufactured at TSMC on 5nm (5N process).