Intel UHD Graphics 620 vs AMD Radeon RX Vega 9

Intel UHD Graphics 620

The Intel UHD Graphics 620 (GT2) is an integrated graphics unit, which can be found in various ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processors of the Kaby Lake Refresh generation (8th generation Core). Compared to the similar named Intel HD Graphics 620 in the 2016 Kaby Lake CPUs, only the name changed from HD to UHD. It is clocked with up to 1.150 MHz and therefore 100 MHz higher than the old HD Graphics 620 (max. 1.050 MHz) and offer a comparable performance. Due to its lack of dedicated graphics memory or eDRAM cache, the HD 620 has to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3/DDR4).

Performance

The exact performance of the UHD Graphics 620 depends on various factors like L3 cache size, memory configuration (DDR3/DDR4) and maximum clock rate of the specific model and as is similar to the Intel HD Graphics 620 and Intel HD Graphics 630. Compared to the average HD Graphics 620, the UHD graphics profits from the quad-core CPU a bit in our gaming benchmarks. Therefore, should be positioned between a GeForce 910M and 920M dedicated graphics card from Nvidia. For games, the drivers however are not that fast updated and tested as with GeForce graphics cards. In our tests, the UHD 620 is most suited for casual games like Team Fortress 2, Rocket League or Farming Simulator 17. See below for a list of modern games tested with various models.

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 first models do not support HDCP 2.2 and therefore Netflix 4K. This was added with the new models in 2017 and beginning of May 2017 also the older CPU models like the i3-7100U are now shipped with a new S-Spec Code that supports HDCP 2.2. HDMI 2.0 however is still only supported with an external converter chip (LSPCon).

Power Consumption

The UHD Graphics 620 can be found in mobile processors specified at 15 W TDP and is therefore suited for compact laptops and ultrabooks. The power consumption during playing The Witcher 3 (with an external monitor) was comparable to a Intel HD Graphics 620 based laptop and on the lowest end of all of our measurements. Dedicated GPUs, like the GeForce 940MX, needed a lot more power.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 9

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 9 is an integrated GPU for notebooks. It is used for the Ryzen 5 APUs, which were launched in the end of 2019. The GPU is based on the Vega architecture (5th generation GCN) and has 9 CUs (= 576 of the 704 shaders) clocked at up to 1300 MHz (Ryzen 5 3580U). The performance depends on the configured TDP (12-25 W at launch), the clocks, the cooling, and the memory configuration). The GPU should benefit from fast dual-channel DDR4-2400 RAM (contrary to DDR4-2133 single-channel, which is also possible).

The Vega architecture offers some improvements over the Polaris generation and now supports DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1. More information is available in our dedicated article about the Raven Ridge architecture.

The performance of the integrated graphics card should be between the Vega 8 and Vega 10. Therefore, demanding games like Control or Borderlands 3 should be playable in lowest settings and 720p. Less demanding games like Fifa 20 or League of Legends can be played fluently in 1080p and highest settings. See e.g. our Vega 8 page for additional benchmarks.

Thanks to the 14nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD), so the graphics card can also be used for slim and light notebooks.