APU vs Intel Integrated Graphics

[Hikaru12]

What's the main difference between AMD's integrated graphics (say on it's Kaveri or Richard line) as opposed to Intel's 4000 or 5000 graphics other than gaming performance? Will movies look better on an AMD APU? Will they be able to display blacks better or something? I just don't see the point of AMD's APU's other than for gaming (if you're reasonable with the performance expectations). Could someone clarify this for me? I'm trying to device on a processor for a HTPC/Server. 

[Lord Pantaloons]

Having a more powerful GPU doesn't make a movie look better. The difference between Intel and AMD iGPU's is that AMD's iGPU's are based on their GPU hardware. Intel doesn't have the benefit of a dGPU line to draw hardware from.

[Nuluvius]

If one is concerned with graphics power one will invariably have a discrete card. In this scenario the integrated GPU on the CPU is wasted space and in the case of the AMD this further weakens an already weak (core by core performance) CPU.

 

Given the scenario where one is not concerned with graphics or has a very low budget for instance then this option becomes more appealing.

[Speedbird]

What's the main difference between AMD's integrated graphics (say on it's Kaveri or Richard line) as opposed to Intel's 4000 or 5000 graphics other than gaming performance? Will movies look better on an AMD APU? Will they be able to display blacks better or something? I just don't see the point of AMD's APU's other than for gaming (if you're reasonable with the performance expectations). Could someone clarify this for me? I'm trying to device on a processor for a HTPC/Server. 

They don't affect how a movie looks. More powerful graphics = more fps. Since movies have a fixed framerate (because they're not rendered realtime) a more poweful GPU won't make a movie look better. If you're doing an HTPC/server, I recommend a cheap CPU like an A4 or a Celeron and lots of storage.

[harrynowl]

No. The monitor will impact the look of the movie. The integrated graphics just does the decoding... if it's too slow, you run into choppiness.

 

The main focus AMD has with the APU is the compute power it allows the system to access... they're trying to make it so the GPU and CPU access a unified pool of memory so they can theoretically 'share' tasks, as floating point calculations are much faster on a GPU.

 

Plus you can make a pretty nifty low TDP gaming box with it.

[UnknownResident]

Not movies, but the advantages of an AMD integrated graphics include, but are not limited to, faster video/photo editing (light video edit that is), faster rendering, and driving more displays/pixels.

 

 

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[rcarlos243]

Having a more powerful GPU doesn't make a movie look better. The difference between Intel and AMD iGPU's is that AMD's iGPU's are based on their GPU hardware. Intel doesn't have the benefit of a dGPU line to draw hardware from.

Actually it does especially if you have madvr + chroma upscaller and other stuff like svp.

http://community.futuremark.com/forum/showthread.php?179769-Video-rendering-finally-caught-up-with-high-end-cards-say-Hi-to-NNEDI3!