AMD Vega Integrated Graphics Review and Testing for Notebooks
: Test | Specs | CPU | Config. Often, when buying a laptop, you have to solve one important problem, especially if you buy a laptop not only for surfing the Internet and working with office applications, but also for computer games.
Of course, you can immediately pay attention to laptops with a discrete video card such as Nvidia Ge Force GTX 1050 or AMD RX 560X, or you can try to limit yourself only to the graphics core built into the processor. Many people believe that the integrated video core is low-power and is only suitable for office work and very simple games, and this is exactly the way it was before the advent of integrated AMD Vega video cards, which are installed even in processors of a competing company. In this article, we will try to compare the performance of AMD Vega integrated graphics for notebooks with entry-level discrete graphics cards, it will be interesting to see if AMD graphics adapters can compete with discrete graphics cards.
Before going directly to today’s contenders for victory, let’s highlight some of the features of the integrated graphics AMD Radeon RX Vega. This series of integrated video cards uses the Vega architecture cores, which belong to the fifth generation GCN (Graphics Core Next) and are manufactured using the 14 nm FinFET process. Interestingly, AMD Radeon RX Vega lacks the Boost function, which increases the GPU frequency compared to the base one, so you have to forget about hardware overclocking of the Vega graphics core built into the processor, the only exceptions are the top Vega M GH and Vega M GL, which are built into Intel processors. AMD integrates graphics in different versions, from the most powerful Vega M GH with its own HBM2 memory to the budget Vega 3 chip, which, due to the lack of its own, uses the laptop’s RAM. At the same time, we note that the configuration of streaming processors in AMD Radeon RX Vega for laptops is almost the same as the desktop version of video cards based on the Vega architecture. As for the supported standards, there is no difference between the desktop GPU and the APU: DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenCL 2.2, OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.0, so the Raven Ridge graphics are quite modern. The maximum display resolution is 3840 x 2160 pixels at 60 Hz.
The most productive video cards adjacent to the processor cores on the same substrate are currently the Radeon RX Vega M GH and the Radeon RX Vega M GL. The first is equipped with 24 computing units and 1536 stream processors, the base frequency of the Vega M GH graphics chip is 1063 MHz, and in overclocking mode it can be increased to 1190 MHz. The RX Vega M GH graphics chip is equipped with 4GB of HBM2 memory (4-hi stack), connected directly to it using Intel EMIB technology. The HBM2 memory is clocked at 800 MHz for up to 204.8 GB per second of bandwidth. This is half the size of the desktop Radeon RX Vega 56 (410 GB / s) equipped with two 4-hi HBM2 memory stacks with a total volume of 8 GB. The “raw” performance of the GPU Radeon RX Vega M GH (peak 3.7 teraflops) is between the Radeon RX 560 (2.6 teraflops) and the RX 570 (5.1 teraflops). The Radeon RX Vega M GH can be found in the Intel Core i7-8809G and Core i7-8709G processors. The second most powerful Radeon RX Vega M GL can be found in the Intel Core i7-8706G, Core i7-87505G, Core i5-8305G processors. The Vega M GL graphic processor has 20 computing units with 1280 stream processors, the operating frequencies, unlike the older version, are lowered to 931 and 1011 MHz. The 4GB HBM2 memory is clocked at 700MHz for a bandwidth of 179.2GB / s. The memory chip is connected to the GPU by a 1024-bit bus, as in the case of the older version. The wide backbone provides high throughput even in spite of the relatively low operating frequency of HBM2. The performance of this graphics module is 2.6 teraflops, which is close to the desktop RX 560.
| AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH | AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL |
|---|---|
| Stream Processors | Stream Processors |
| Clock frequency | Clock frequency |
| 1063-1190 MHz | 931-1011 MHz |
| Memory type | Memory type |
| 8 GB HBM2 | 4 GB HBM2 |
If the first two video cards were an integral part of intel processors, then the graphics chips RX Vega 11, Vega 10, Vega 8, Vega 6, Vega 3 are part of AMD processors and have a rather modest performance, unlike Vega M GL and Vega M GH. At the same time, mobile processors equipped with RX Vega 11, Vega 10, Vega 8, Vega 6, Vega 3 graphics at the microarchitecture level are not much different from the desktop versions based on Zen and Vega crystals. The changes concern only those areas that are critical specifically for the mobile segment. Developers, for example, have cut L3 caches to 4 MB – just to keep the die size from inflating. The HBM memory also had to be abandoned – so the laptop’s main memory DDR4 is used for the needs of the integrated graphics core.
| AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 | AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 |
|---|---|
| Stream Processors | Stream Processors |
| Clock frequency | Clock frequency |
| 1250 MHz | 1300 MHz |
| Memory type | Memory type |
| uses laptop memory | uses laptop memory |
So, Vega 11 is included in the Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G processors. Both processors have 4 computing cores, while the older model has support for SMT technology, which allows simultaneous processing of up to 8 threads. The Ryzen 5 2400G has a 3.6GHz base frequency with a dynamic boost to 3.9GHz. The graphics unit Vega 11 contains 704 computational units, 44 texture and 16 raster modules. Its maximum frequency is 1250 MHz. There is support for DirectX 12 with function level 12_1, OpenGL 4.6, Open CL 2.0 and Vulkan 1.0, Next comes the Vega 10 graphics processor, which, due to the reduced number of processing units of only 640, is inferior in performance to Vega 11, despite the increased frequency to 1300 MHz in Boost mode. Note that the graphics chip is included in the Ryzen 7 2700U processor.
| AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 | AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 | AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Stream Processors | Stream Processors | Stream Processors |
| Clock frequency | Clock frequency | Clock frequency |
| 1100 MHz | 1100 MHz | 1000 MHz |
| Memory type | Memory type | Memory type |
| uses laptop memory | uses laptop memory | uses laptop memory |
The next in the table of ranks is the AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics chip, which, like its older brothers, is embedded in AMD processors, it found its place in the Ryzen 2200G processor. This processor positions itself not only as an exclusively office or multimedia solution, but also as a product for picky gamers who are not chasing the most modern games and maximum graphics. The performance of Vega 8 lies between the MX110 and MX130 video cards – that is, we are talking about a very inexpensive and simple solution, which is only architecturally in the same family as the flagship Vega solutions. The name Vega 8 indicates that this graphics chip received 8 computational units, which translates into 512 stream shader processors operating at a frequency of 1100 MHz. Rounding out the lineup are AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 and Vega 3, which are used in AMD Ryzen 3 processors. RX Vega 6 is built on the Vega architecture and uses 384 shaders out of 704 possible, the operating frequency reaches 1100 MHz versus 1250 for the RX Vega 11. RX Vega 3 uses modern Vega architecture (GCN generation 5) and has three shader clusters, that is, 192 computing cores. The frequency can be up to 1000 MHz.
Testing
3DMark Fire Strike is a beautiful and popular application with DirectX 11 API support for testing computers with high-performance gaming graphics cards in the Windows environment. 3DMark Fire Strike results help you evaluate the comparative performance of a video card and its suitability for the most demanding PC games.
3D Mark Fire Strike Graphics (1920 x1080)
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH (Intel Core i7-8709G)
10248
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti (Intel Core i5-8300H)
8376
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (Intel Core i7-8709G)
7333
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (Intel Core i5-8300H)
6341
AMD Radeon RX 560X (AMD Ryzen 7 2700U)
6262
Nvidia GeForce MX150 (Intel Core i5-8250U)
3739
AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (AMD Ryzen 5 2400G)
3599
Nvidia GeForce MX130 (Intel Core i5-8250U)
2445
AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 (AMD Ryzen 7 2700U)
2469
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (AMD Ryzen 3 2200G)
2036
Nvidia GeForce MX110 (Intel Core i5-8250U)
1732
AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (AMD Ryzen 3 2300U)
1506
UHD Intel Graphics 630 (Intel Core i7-8086K)
1439
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 (AMD Ryzen 3 3200U)
1301
UHD Intel Graphics 620 (Intel Core i7-8086K)
1343
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