Midrange CPU Roundup: It's Time to Buy
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 28, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Gaming with Integrated Graphics
The integrated graphics on the platforms we tested with are sufficient for playing older games, but definitely not any of the latest titles. To give you an idea of relative integrated GPU performance we ran two quick benchmarks at 640 x 480 with all video settings at their lowest possible values:
Half Life 2 is finally actually playable on integrated graphics, with AMD's 690G bringing in a decent 54.1 fps compared to 33.3 with the GeForce 7050PV and a miserable 8.85 on Intel's G33. The G33's integrated graphics will actually play older games better than it does here, but the point is that the 690G is noticeably better. AMD's ATI acquisition has given it a better branded integrated graphics solution. Our recommendation for gaming still ends up being to go with a discrete graphics card, but if you want to know what can be done without any extra money, AMD will take you farther with its integrated graphics.
Prey performance is considerably worse on all platforms; even the 690G can only deliver 30 fps.
The integrated graphics on the platforms we tested with are sufficient for playing older games, but definitely not any of the latest titles. To give you an idea of relative integrated GPU performance we ran two quick benchmarks at 640 x 480 with all video settings at their lowest possible values:
Half Life 2 is finally actually playable on integrated graphics, with AMD's 690G bringing in a decent 54.1 fps compared to 33.3 with the GeForce 7050PV and a miserable 8.85 on Intel's G33. The G33's integrated graphics will actually play older games better than it does here, but the point is that the 690G is noticeably better. AMD's ATI acquisition has given it a better branded integrated graphics solution. Our recommendation for gaming still ends up being to go with a discrete graphics card, but if you want to know what can be done without any extra money, AMD will take you farther with its integrated graphics.
Prey performance is considerably worse on all platforms; even the 690G can only deliver 30 fps.
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Darth Farter - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link
why not the cool & quiet idle power numbers?seeing they're running at full speeds at idle is besides the point of an "idle" measurement in this age with powersavings...
tnx though on the bios update request from asus... I want to tweak my timings too.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link
C&Q and EIST were both enabled for the idle and load power numbers. Actually all the benchmarks were run with those settings enabled.Take care,
Anand
archcommus - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link
I realize the benchmarks are run at 1024x768 to make the tests CPU-limited, does that mean all, or at least most, of the extra horsepower needed for resolutions above that comes from the GPU? If so, does that mean I could run games at 1280x1024 well with a high-end card and one of the AMD CPUs from this round-up? Or would that be a bad match-up? If that would work it's an appealing upgrade path alternative to jumping platforms.nosfe - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link
why not color code those performance graphs so that we can easily see which processors are competing at the same price