Intel to Improve iGPU Performance With Skylake

Something that Intel always struggled with in the past was the internal graphics processing units (iGPU), mainly the performance (or lack of) compared to the AMD counterpart. Although, Intel did make an improvement thanks to the Iris and Iris Pro graphics cores.

With the upcoming launch of Intel Skylake processors, we can expect to see the new graphics cores utilised to the fullest potentials. The CPU’s will come in 4 key variants, Skylake-S (Desktop), Skylake-H (High-Performance Mobile), Skylake-Y (Low TDP) and Skylake-U (Ultra Low Power); all of which will be poised at all possible consumer markets in terms of price and performance.

Earlier today, WFFCTech compiled a list of the comparable differences between the Skylake and Broadwell variants of the iGPU. Thanks to Compubench, information was sourced regarding 3 new CPU’s, the Core m3-6Y30 which is the successor to the Core M5Y31, the Core i5-6200U which is the successor to the Core i5-5200U and finally an unknown CPU with Iris Graphics 540; which was compared against the Core i5-5257U with Iris Graphics 6100.

“The Core i5-6200U which is powered by the HD Graphics 520 iGPU is the successor of the Core i5-5200U that features the HD Graphics 5500 iGPU. Being a GT2 level Broadwell graphics chip, the HD Graphics 5200 features 24 execution units, 1300 million transistors and a clock speed ranging from 300 MHz (Base) up to 950 MHz (Boost) clock. The HD Graphics 520 iGPU could also be a GT2 level core with 24 execution units while the more performance heavy GT3e variants featured on faster Core i7 variants will be integrated with 48 execution units and 64 MB eDRAM LLC (Last Level Cache).”

“The Core M-6Y30 will be powered by the HD Graphics 515 iGPU that is the successor to the Core M-5Y31 which is part of the Broadwell-Y lineup that launched last year. The HD 5300 featured on the Core M-5Y31 is powered by 24 execution units and a clock speed of 300 MHz (Base) and 900 MHz (Boost) clock speeds. All Broadwell-Y Core M processors are based on the HD Graphics 5300 core which is the entry level iGPU chip but that will kind of change with Skylake-Y which will be getting GT1 and GT1.5 chips with 12 and 18 Execution units each that deliver better performance per core unit and faster clocks.”

“Finally we have the Iris Graphics 540 which is the successor to the Iris Graphics 6100. Note that these are not the Iris Pro variants being compared which feature higher execution units and clock speeds. The current Iris Graphics 6100 core features 48 Execution units, 1900 Million transistors and clock speeds of 300 MHz (base) and 1100 MHz (Boost). The Iris Graphics 540 will feature similar amount of execution units with faster clocks and a eDRAM cache of 64 MB. A faster GT4e graphics core is also confirmed which will be part of the Iris Pro Graphics 550 with 72 Execution units and 128 MB cache but we don’t have any specific results for the chip. The performance of these chips can be seen in the pictures below but do note that they aren’t represnetative of final performance nor do they showcase actual gaming performance you might expect from the processor it self. There are notable improvements from these chips which shows Intel did make some graphics architecture updates on Skylake platform.”

As you can see, there are noticeable improvements, but there is no information on the high-end i7-6700k or i5-6600k; which I’m sure is what everyone wants to see. Will you be buying a different variant of the Skylake line up other than the ‘K’ series? Let us know in the comments.