Nowadays, if a laptop is “gaming” it is because it incorporates a dedicated graphics card , with enough power to make the current games on the market work (better or worse). However, and although it may seem hard to believe, the niche of the laptop market that sells the most is not gaming but the entry-level ones, simpler laptops that do not have a dedicated iGPU but instead use the integrated one from Intel or AMD. And, in this respect is what we are going to in this article: when it comes to playing with a laptop that does not have a dedicated GPU, is the iGPU from Intel or the one from AMD a better alternative?
Obviously, who buys a laptop that does not have dedicated graphics does not do so with the intention of playing, but that does not mean that, from time to time, anyone wants to play their favorite game from time to time. Since laptops without a dedicated GPU tend to move in a similar price range with Intel or AMD CPUs, if this is your case then the choice may depend on their gaming performance, so let’s get down to business.
IGPU performance on Intel and AMD laptops
| Intel UIHD Graphics 630 | AMD Radeon 7 Graphics | |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency | 0.35 GHz | 1.6 GHz |
| Turbo frequency | 1.2 GHz | – |
| Generation | 9.5 | 9 |
| Lithography | 14 nm | 7 nm |
| Max video outputs | 3 | 3 |
| Execution units | 24 | 7 |
| Shader | 192 | 448 |
| Max. GPU memory | 64 GB | 2 GB |
| DirectX version | 12 | 12 |
| TDP (set) | PL1: 45W TDP Down: 35W |
PL1: 45W TDP Up: 54W TDP Down: 35W |
| Maximum temperature (Tjunction) | 100ºC | 105ºC |
It is really somewhat complicated to be able to make a general comparison of Intel and AMD iGPUs, since both have a large number of different models and with different price and performance ranges. So, the best way to do it is to compare the iGPU that integrates two top-selling laptop models and with the same price, so that it is as reliable as possible.
However, we must also take into account that different specifications in other hardware components of the laptop can also influence the price, and quite a bit moreover, so we are going to try to compare two models that are the same for all intents and purposes and whose main difference it is merely the processor that they integrate, one from Intel and the other from AMD.
For this reason, we have selected a Core i7-10875H CPU for the Intel side and a Ryzen 7 4800H for the AMD side, two processors that are incorporated in almost all high-end laptops (even if they integrate dedicated GPUs) of one and another manufacturer. Let’s start by looking at what each of them offers in terms of iGPU: Intel UHD Graphics 630 vs AMD Radeon Vega 7 Graphics .
We are, as you can see, before two quite different iGPUs, both in their lithography and in their resource management and, therefore, they should give us quite different data in terms of performance. In fact, already in terms of raw power in simple precision calculations they give us very, very disparate performance figures, where the integrated graphics of AMD processors wins by a landslide, delivering more than three times the performance of Intel’s.
However, we cannot take the raw power in FP32 calculations as an absolute data to know if the general performance of the iGPU is better or worse, although it is true that it gives us a fairly approximate idea of what we can expect. We are now going to see a series of more specific benchmarks that will help us to get an idea of what to expect from these Intel and AMD laptops with iGPUs in games.
3DMark Cloud Gate GPU
Cloud Gate is an already somewhat outdated benchmark, but it is still used for fairly basic PCs as is the case since we are not using a dedicated GPU, since it has the particularity of running only in 720p resolution. In any case, AMD’s iGPU is ahead of Intel’s, getting more than double the performance, and that already gives us a good indication.
3DMark Fire Strike
Despite the fact that Fire Strike is one of the most used benchmarks currently for GPUs, it still uses the DirectX 11 graphics API. In this case it runs at Full HD resolution and the result is quite interesting because it will show us precisely what we can expect in games that we run on a laptop with iGPU (not too demanding graphics, with DirectX 11 and 1080p resolution). Here AMD again double (and almost triple) the performance of Intel.
3DMark 11
This benchmark is also obsolete today, but we once again insist on the fact that it provides us with a good sample of what to expect, since whoever plays games on a laptop without dedicated graphics cannot aspire to play triple A titles but rather more. well to somewhat older games. In 3DMark 11, AMD almost triples Intel in the result.
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0
This benchmark, which uses the 3D Unigine game engine, does give us a fairly accurate performance data if we extrapolate it to games. Here AMD is not so far ahead of the Intel iGPU, but it still gets a good 16 FPS on average.
Global performance of Intel and AMD iGPUs
Combining all the benchmark results obtained in the benchmarks, we have that the iGPU that AMD incorporates in its non-gaming laptops has a subjective score 238% higher than that of Intel, so we can literally expect around three times the performance using a Integrated graphics from AMD compared to one from Intel.
So is it better to buy an AMD laptop than an Intel one?
Not necessarily. After all, whoever wants to buy a laptop to play games will always opt for a model that has a dedicated graphics card, since this is what will allow them to run games with ease. Whoever buys a laptop without a dedicated GPU does not do so with the intention of playing on it, although as we said at the beginning that does not mean that they cannot want to play a hundred game in the wind, but obviously the laptop is not designed for it by very relatively powerful that is its iGPU, be it from Intel or AMD.
If in your case you want to buy a laptop without dedicated graphics but you want to play with it, you will be making a mistake, but even so, in this case it will be more convenient to choose an AMD option, although it is true that as we have said before, no you can hope to run triple A games, and not even play with the graphics settings on high. At best, the graphics built into current laptops will allow you to play at 1080p resolution with the graphics to a minimum and, hopefully, at 30 FPS, so this is definitely not recommended.
