Gaming
We've had more than one game developer decry integrated graphics as the bane of their existence, and it's easy to see why. With today's latest titles, you have to back off most in-game detail levels and drop the resolution way down to get frame rates that are even close to what we'd consider playable. Crysis just isn't the same with a low graphics detail setting, and the others don't look so hot, either.
But I suppose it's impressive that an IGP can run such recent titles at all. Even the G35 Express managed to slog through Crysis without obvious visual artifacts, although it inexplicably wouldn't launch the multiplayer component of Call of Duty 4 necessary to run our custom timedemo. The P5E-VM had problems with CoD 4 with a Radeon HD 3450 graphics card, as well, and not even reinstalling the game would get it to launch in Vista.
Note that we have several sets of results here. Naturally, we've tested the 780G and G35 with their integrated graphics. Both platforms were also tested with a discrete Radeon HD 3450 graphics card. The 780G was also tested in a Hybrid CrossFire configuration with the Radeon. Finally, we've thrown in some results with the 780G's integrated graphics backed by the 1.8GHz HyperTransport link offered by a Phenom 9600.
The first thing to take away from these results is just how completely the 780G's integrated graphics core outclasses the G35 Express. Settings that deliver reasonably playable framerates on the 780G reduce the G35 to little more than an embarrassing slideshow. Throw in a Radeon HD 3450, though, and the 780G and G35 are well matched. At least until you enable Hybrid CrossFire.
When we use Hybrid CrossFire to combine the integrated graphics processor's abilities with the Radeon's firepower, the 780G's performance rises by a modest margin in most games.
Integrated graphics performance does improve if we add a Phenom to the equation. However, it's hard to say how much of the framerate boost is due to the Phenom's faster HyperTransport link rather than its additional computational prowess.
