Who is the king of integrated graphics? Core i7 6700K vs A10-7870K

One of the biggest selling points of Intel's new generation Skylake processors is the performance upgrade of the core graphics card. Take the Corei7 6700K as an example. Its built-in HD530 core graphics card has 24 execution units and a maximum operating frequency of 1150MHz. The performance is about 35% higher than that of the previous generation Corei7 4790K. Since Intel has put the focus of the upgrade on the core graphics card this time, can Skylak's new core graphics card compete with AMD's APU, the king of core graphics cards? We decided to find out right away.

This time, Intel has improved and strengthened the architecture of Skylake's new core graphics card, greatly improving its efficiency. In addition, the Z170 motherboard supports high-frequency DDR4 memory, which makes people think that it has the potential to challenge the current core graphics king - AMD's APU. After all, Intel has been suppressed by AMD for too long in the wave of integrating game platforms. However, don't forget that AMD's APU also has high-end products, such as the A10-7870K, which is the king of core graphics. Its built-in R7 core graphics has 8 cores, 512 stream processors, and an operating frequency of 866MHz, which is 20% higher than the A10-7850K - it is indeed a super powerful opponent for Intel's core graphics card.

First, let's talk about Skylake, which has attracted much attention recently. Taking Core i7 6700K as an example, the model of the core graphics card (HD 530) has one less digit than the previous generation's four-digit number (HD5000 series), so it can be felt that the improvement is quite large. In fact, this is already the 9th generation of core graphics card, which belongs to Intel's GT2 level. Like the previous generation of core graphics cards, they all use an architecture in which 8 execution units form a sub-slice unit (HD 530 has 3 sub-slice units, so there are 24 execution units, but it adds support for functions such as "multi-layer overlay", "memory color stream compression", and "camera pipeline". In short, the execution efficiency has been greatly improved. In addition, for the high-end Corei7 6700K, the Z170 motherboard that matches it also supports DDR4, which is also a significant improvement for the core graphics card performance that needs to occupy system memory as video memory.

As for AMD, the core graphics performance of APU has always been Intel's nightmare, and the current king of APUs, the A10-7870K, has been improved on the basis of the A10-7850K. The A10-7870K still uses the R7 core graphics, but the operating frequency has been increased from 720MHz to 866MHz, an increase of up to 20%. In addition, due to the use of the GCN architecture, it not only supports its own Mantle, but also perfectly supports DX12. After the popularization of Win10, the advantage is also obvious. Of course, it is impossible to know which one is better, the HD 530 or the Radeon R7, just from the technical specifications, so we have to use actual tests to get the answer.

Although "Siege" is an intellectual game, it has high requirements for graphics card performance. The DIY tanks made by players are very complex and have a large number of parts, which requires the graphics card to have strong polygon processing capabilities. At the same time, this game also contains many DX11 special effects, which puts a lot of computing pressure on core graphics cards. In this game, A10-7870K easily ran at full speed at 1080P resolution (the game speed limit is 60fps). Although the core graphics card of Core i7 6700K was far behind, it was also good, with a score close to 50fps. You should know that the previous generation of core graphics cards was only at the level of about 20fps. If you want to play smoothly, you can only turn off all special effects and reduce the resolution to 1280×720.

"Sail Against the Wind" is a naval battle simulation strategy game that supports DX11 special effects. Since real-time naval battles require a relatively high game speed, if the graphics card performance is not good, it will most likely end up being beaten and sunk by the enemy. If you think that the A10-7870K's victory over the Core i7 6700K in the frame-rate-limited "Siege" is not exciting enough, then the test results of "Sail Against the Wind" will make A fans happy. The A10-7870K's score in this test is more than double that of the Core i7 6700K. It seems that no matter how powerful the processor is, it can't do anything in a game that requires a graphics card.

If you think games like "Siege" and "Sail Against the Wind" are child's play for the integrated graphics card, then take a look at this game DEMO that even the discrete graphics card will kneel down. "UE4DEMO: Elements" uses the UE4 engine and supports DX12. Various special effects are good at eating graphics cards. It is definitely a nightmare for the integrated graphics card. Because the test is too demanding for the integrated graphics card, we have to reduce the test resolution to 720P (otherwise everyone will have a single-digit fps, and the comparison is meaningless), and all other special effects are turned on. The test results are naturally another big win for the APU, but this time the Core i7 6700K lost too badly, with only 1fps (in fact, the average is less than 1fps, it's basically a slide show). The score of the A10-7870K is 16fps, which basically allows you to watch the demonstration smoothly. This advantage is too obvious, it is completely the difference between being able to play and not being able to play.

In addition to playing games, GPUs can also be used for heterogeneous computing, image processing, video transcoding and other applications. When using the OpenCL API, the Corei7 6700K's HD530 core graphics card scored C3573.8, but the A10-7870K's score was almost half of that, reaching C5337.9. It should be noted that AMD's graphics card's heterogeneous computing has always been a strong point. Although the Radeon R7 is a core graphics card, the GCN architecture is there, and the core graphics card cannot refuse.

The new 3DMark adds a test item for API efficiency. In this test, you can compare the GPU's drawing efficiency when using different APIs. If the GPU can perfectly support DX12, it will get a huge efficiency improvement. There is no doubt that this is a massacre, and it is not an equal PK at all. In DX11 single-threaded, the score of A10-7870K is only nearly twice that of Core i7. In DX11 multi-threaded, it seems that Core i76700K still has a little hope, narrowing the gap to 34%. However, once it comes to the DX12 environment, the Core i76700K is completely defeated, and the gap with A10-7870K reaches more than 300%. Comparing the score differences in DX11 and DX12 environments, you can see whose GPU architecture supports DX12 better.

APU is still the king of core graphics

Intel's new generation Skylake's performance improvement in core graphics is obvious to all. However, even HD 530 still seems a little immature in front of APU, especially in actual game combat. In addition, it must be said that the Core i7 6700K (reference price 2499 yuan) used by Crazy Doctor in this test is considered a flagship product among consumer-grade processors, and it is also equipped with DDR4 memory. The price of the platform exceeds A10-7870K (reference price 899 yuan) by more than 1,000 yuan, but even so, the core graphics performance of Core i7 6700K is far worse than the RadeonR7 built into A10-7870K, not to mention the Core i3, which will be priced close to A10-7870K in the future. Therefore, you don't have to expect the new Core i3 and the new Pentium with Skylake core to shake the position of the king of APU integrated game platform. If you want to build a high-performance and cost-effective integrated game platform with outstanding game performance, then A10-7870K is the top choice at present.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.