14 DAY TRIAL // There were many suppositions about Haswell’s integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU) performance and many were hoping it would be something extraordinary.
Twice HD4000's performance is impressive, but considering the internal architecture, hardware enthusiasts expected more.
We reported here that Intel would likely not clock the new iGPU just as high as the rest of the current HD graphics family.
Looking at the broad specifications, we can easily see that Haswell’s GT3 really has the capability to greatly surpass HD4000’s performance level while running at the same clock speed.
During this year’s IDF event, Intel is reportedly presenting Haswell’s graphics performance as being twice the level of HD4000.
Considering the 40 execution units, 160 ALUs and 4 texture units that are inside Haswell’s GT3 iGPU, we can’t draw any other conclusion than what we reported here.
Comparing this to Ivy Bridge’s 16 execution units, 64 ALUs and 2 texturing units leads us to believe there will be a difference in the clock frequency of the new iGPU from Intel.
The Haswell GT3 iGPU will likely have a considerably lower working frequency when compared with Ivy Bridge’s HD4000 and Intel’s own IDF 2012 presentation is yet another confirmation of our assumption.
With Haswell, Intel is working hard to secure its hold on the mobile market and maybe stop the ARM assault.
The tablet market is completely ruled by ARM processors and we believe Intel fears that powerful ARM CPUs could enter the low-end laptop and netbook markets.
Qualcomm’s quad-core APQ8064 is certainly powerful enough at 1.5 GHz to overtake many Atom D2550 netbooks, but the company could clock it at 2.5 GHz and then Intel will have a serious competitor.
With Haswell’s 10 watts power consumption, Intel brings high performance to a sector that was only serviced by Atom or AMD Brazos until now, but to achieve such low power consumption, some performance compromises were likely made.