Haswell integrated graphics

Polar Ice

Any thoughts on the HD4600 on some of intel's desktop i5 haswell chips and their ability to be suitable for playing games?

On general benchmarks, it seems to perform about on par with high end discrete desktop graphics cards from 2007ish (Geforce 8800/Radeon 3850).

Any ideas how it might perform on a few more casual games (eg: TF2, league of legends)? Could it do medium settings at a reasonable fps? Any ideas how it might do on a new game? I see it exceeds the minimum system spec for Bioshock Infinite.

Overheal

For CPU-not-GPU games like TF2 the Haswell would work fine. Same with Minecraft etc.

It's good to see Intel start focusing more on their graphics solutions, AMD has been beating them in that category for a good minute, but ultimately it means that more and more people will have half decent specs and companies won't mind upping their fidelity on products and games. Titles like Planetside 2 for instance are artificially throttled server-side in order to give minimum spec players a level playing field. The faster people adopt better specs, the sooner I can see someone from farther than 200 meters during peak time.

Its probably important to point out though that Intel is really stepping up it's game and taking the iGPU seriously for a change, with 3 levels of Haswell iGPU: the Intel HD, Intel Iris, and Intel Iris Pro. Most laptops will ship with the HD 4600 though and according to reviews its sporty enough for Skyrim on medium settings (but laptop versions of the chip may experience lower performance than that), whereas I have hands-on feedback from users using the A10-4600 to shout Fus ro Dah at High settings. So there's still some ground to cover for Intel, but I havent heard anything from AMD about when the 5th generation Fusion APUs will come out.

Eli Nich

Overheal wrote: »

For CPU-not-GPU games like TF2 the Haswell would work fine. Same with Minecraft etc.

It's good to see Intel start focusing more on their graphics solutions, AMD has been beating them in that category for a good minute, but ultimately it means that more and more people will have half decent specs and companies won't mind upping their fidelity on products and games. Titles like Planetside 2 for instance are artificially throttled server-side in order to give minimum spec players a level playing field. The faster people adopt better specs, the sooner I can see someone from farther than 200 meters during peak time.

Its probably important to point out though that Intel is really stepping up it's game and taking the iGPU seriously for a change, with 3 levels of Haswell iGPU: the Intel HD, Intel Iris, and Intel Iris Pro. Most laptops will ship with the HD 4600 though and according to reviews its sporty enough for Skyrim on medium settings (but laptop versions of the chip may experience lower performance than that), whereas I have hands-on feedback from users using the A10-4600 to shout Fus ro Dah at High settings. So there's still some ground to cover for Intel, but I havent heard anything from AMD about when the 5th generation Fusion APUs will come out.

Can we expect intel's IGPU with DDR5 memory anytime later in 2013?

BloodBath

Bioshock Infinite uses the 8 - 9 year old unreal 3 engine so it's not the best game for basing performance off of.

Amd still have the best dedicated graphics on the A10 5800k. It's still far better than anything intel offer but not as good as low end graphics cards. By low end I'm talking 7750, 7770 which I would consider entry level graphics cards for gaming.

You could get a FX6300 cpu + a 7770 graphics card for as little as €200. A complete system with these parts for as little as €400 - €450.

Overheal

BloodBath wrote: »

You could get a FX6300 cpu + a 7770 graphics card for as little as €200. A complete system with these parts for as little as €400 - €450.

Im more interested in Mobile Chipsets honestly, probably because I have to deal with them more at work. Laptops All in Ones Tablets and Hybrids are all firing away with x86 and x64 processing and full power desktop CPUs aren't invited to the party. Thats really where the fusion APU shines, I see an AMD A8 on a desktop SKU and I just ask myself "...why?"

re: DDR5, I haven't heard any information about DDR5/GDDR5 in the Haswell. My understanding is the architecture is not a radical leap from the Ivy Bridge, so support for higher memory seems unlikely, and I don't see anything announced. HD4600 will probably stick to plain jane DDR3.

On the plus side though standby/sleep on your typical ultrabook is now set to go to something bordering on 2-weeks. My 3rd gen already drags on longer than I can keep track of, whereas my old Core2Duo circa 2007 is lucky to break 20 hours in sleep. My Sandy Bridge i5 tablet doesn't fare nearly as well, but it's still decent. The big downer of these more powerful tablets (like the Surface Pro) are the battery life, and OEMs have been begging Intel to get their product line into the range thats suitable for mobile devices, whereas in the interim Intel has had to rely on its kitten-powered Atom lineup.

In the high-end product line however (ie, Enthusiast-level), the E-series Core Haswells for desktop will get DDR4 memory support

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Haswell-E-DDR4-Ivy-Bridge,22022.html

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Next thing you know AMD will go for an AM4 socket and I've already got an AM3 only board so fcuk this I aint upgrading to **** for the next few years, I'm DONE.