Intel even had to make special clarifications regarding their “tick-tock” concept: Ivy Bridge was supposed to become the result of the previous design’s transition to new 22 nm process, but in reality they have also made a significant step forward in terms of graphics capabilities. The previous microarchitecture version, Sandy Bridge, has undergone some radical changes, which has primarily touched upon the graphics core. Ivy Bridge processors are a second incarnation of Intel’s microarchitecture featuring hybrid design, which implies the coexistence of computational and graphics cores within a single semiconductor die. That is why we see a lot of activity in the hybrid processor segment, which offers numerous benefits not only to the users of mobile devices but also to the users of desktop systems. A single chip that represents a combination of a CPU and GPU and at the same time boasts low heat dissipation is the necessary basis for appealing contemporary mobile solutions. It is this hunt for miniature size and ultra-light weight has become the ultimate force pushing integrated graphics into contemporary processors and improving its performance. Tablets and ultra-compact systems, which Intel calls “ultrabooks”, have become the today’s trend. Today, even pretty small 4-lbs notebooks will hardly make many users happy. It may seem that up until recently the term “mobile computer” stood for a system that could be easily moved from one place to another, size and weight being secondary. It’s below RM 300 now and allows you better in-game display quality.Developers’ sudden interest to improving their graphics cores was encouraged by the users’ desire to have at their disposal compact systems with high performance. If you want to play some games, consider spending on something like say the HD 6670. It still doesn’t quite cut it for games, looks like it’s playable for certain games at low settings, for example Lost Planet 2 at lowest details. The HD 4000 shows quite some improvement over the HD 3000 series and it can now run Alien vs Predator and Lost Planet 2. 2 tests of 720p tests were done, one with the usual details as was used in other graphic card review, and the other is on lowest setting to see how the onboard GPU copes with it.

Seeing it’s an onboard GPU, the tests were confined to 720p. With the Core i7-3770S at – it wouldn’t be justified to not test the graphical capability of the said processor.

Intel hd graphics 4000