Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Intel HD 530 Graphics Discussion

NickPhamUK

NickPhamUK

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 6, 2013
356
197
I know that GFLOPS is not the perfect method to compare graphics card, but until we get our hands on the MBP 15", it remains the most useful.

As you may probably have known, the Intel HD 530 Graphics will drive your day-to-day tasks. The Radeon Pro 450/455/460 will only kick in for GPU-intensive apps.

MBP 15" (2016) - 530 - 442 GFLOPS
MBP 13" (2016) - 540 - 806.4 GFLOPS
MBP 13" (2016) - 550 - 884.9 GFLOPS
MBP 15" (2015) - 5200 - 832 GFLOPS
MBP 13" (2015) - 6100 - 845 GFLOPS

Two points:
(1) Iris 530 is roughly half as powerful as the 540/550, and the MBP 15" is supposed to drive more pixels.
(2) We have seen IU lag on previous generations. Do you think this will be the case?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: lympero, nitschi and JMac1996
Really confusing these Numbers... :confused:

I hope there will be no UI lag at all.
I read that the previous models could get fixed through software. (the UI lag was noticeable in Yosemite, with El Capitan it should improved and fixed the lag, but I can't confirm that in person)

Maybe we are driving us crazy, while we wait on our machines. I'm feeling like I need a little distance to this forum but I'm addicted. :D

For me it makes no sense, that the 15" Models have weaker iGpus than the 13" models. o_O
 
Honestly, I think the 15" model is going to be making use of the eGPU on the regular.
 
My Surface Book only has an HD 520 in it and that drives a 3000 x 1500 screen most of the time without any issues (the discrete Nvidia GPU isn't used that much), so I'd expect the 530 to do just fine
 
  • Like
Reactions: sleim031
The HD 530 is more then sufficient to do basic desktop compositing on a 4K display. FLOPS are pretty much meaningless for that task, what you need first and foremost is memory bandwidth (which the 2016 model has in abundance compared to 2015 one). And the UI lag in certain application is problem of employed algorithms rather then the GPU power. E.g. mission control lags sometimes because it actually needs to collect live updates from all open apps — so if you have 40 windows open, it will take some time to kick in. The App Store lags because it uses responsive layout which seems to be very expensive to calculate on window resizes. And so on.

P.S. The Radeon dGPU itself should be comparable (or even better) in efficiency to the Intel iGPU. The problem with power consumption is more the VRAM
 
  • Like
Reactions: deadworlds, Sully, Samuelsan2001 and 1 other person
Yeah I've been thinking about this too, could the new dgpus be effective enough to not reduce battery life or something? I don't see how the macOS UI will not be at least a little laggy with the hd 530 only. Maybe Apple think it's fine selling us a 3000k dollar machine that either has 10h laggy batterylife or 5h without, would unfortunately not be that suprised anymore. Is the HD530 driving the second screen a.k.a. the touch bar aswell?
 
Calleknug said:
Is the HD530 driving the second screen a.k.a. the touch bar aswell?
Click to expand...

I think its most likely that the external monitors are connected via the AMD GPU. AFAIK, the touch bar has its own processor.
 
leman said:
The HD 530 is more then sufficient to do basic desktop compositing on a 4K display. FLOPS are pretty much meaningless for that task, what you need first and foremost is memory bandwidth (which the 2016 model has in abundance compared to 2015 one). And the UI lag in certain application is problem of employed algorithms rather then the GPU power. E.g. mission control lags sometimes because it actually needs to collect live updates from all open apps — so if you have 40 windows open, it will take some time to kick in. The App Store lags because it uses responsive layout which seems to be very expensive to calculate on window resizes. And so on.

P.S. The Radeon dGPU itself should be comparable (or even better) in efficiency to the Intel iGPU. The problem with power consumption is more the VRAM
Click to expand...
Will the 460 consumer more power than the base 450? Like would it cause more heat/fan noise because its a more powerful gpu?
 
leman said:
The HD 530 is more then sufficient to do basic desktop compositing on a 4K display. FLOPS are pretty much meaningless for that task, what you need first and foremost is memory bandwidth (which the 2016 model has in abundance compared to 2015 one). And the UI lag in certain application is problem of employed algorithms rather then the GPU power. E.g. mission control lags sometimes because it actually needs to collect live updates from all open apps — so if you have 40 windows open, it will take some time to kick in. The App Store lags because it uses responsive layout which seems to be very expensive to calculate on window resizes. And so on.
Click to expand...

From my experience if the DGPU does not get used more often to compensate the general UI will lag with the HD 530, no doubt about it. The 2016 13" rMBP is the first retina Macbook to not suffer UI lag, even when scaling. Im well aware the UI lag is not a hardware issue, but a good GPU helps and the Iris 540 seems to totally overcome it :)
 
Last edited:
dk808 said:
Will the 460 consumer more power than the base 450? Like would it cause more heat/fan noise because its a more powerful gpu?
Click to expand...

Uh, thats a tough question. I am very tempted to answer it with 'yes'. The more VRAM will definitely consume more power. The GPU itself, well, very likely. The thing is that even though it has 6 more cores, its probably higher binned than the 450 chips and thus more energy-efficient in itself. But if I had to guess, I'd say, yes, the 460 will consume significantly more power under load and will therefore need better heat dissipation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dk808
Those are excellent questions and I'm honestly waiting for the first in depth reviews from arstechnica, anandtech et al.

I'm planning to buy the 15" MBP and use it almost exclusively in 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 setting, so potential UI lag could be even more of a concern.

It's a shame since I wanted to hit the trigger already and order for a early December delivery but since I want a future proof laptop for the next 3-4 years minimum I'll wait a little bit longer.. :(
 
nitschi said:
Those are excellent questions and I'm honestly waiting for the first in depth reviews from arstechnica, anandtech et al.

I'm planning to buy the 15" MBP and use it almost exclusively in 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 setting, so potential UI lag could be even more of a concern.

It's a shame since I wanted to hit the trigger already and order for a early December delivery but since I want a future proof laptop for the next 3-3 years minimum I'll wait a little bit longer.. :(
Click to expand...
Apple has a 14 day return policy so you could've just ordered it early and return it if its an issue
 
  • Like
Reactions: nitschi
dk808 said:
Apple has a 14 day return policy so you could've just ordered it early and return it if its an issue
Click to expand...
Good point, I didn't think about this. The only thing I'm "afraid" of is that I might burn my once-a-year student discount if I buy and then return it. But that could probably be resolved in case.
 
nitschi said:
Good point, I didn't think about this. The only thing I'm "afraid" of is that I might burn my once-a-year student discount if I buy and then return it. But that could probably be resolved in case.
Click to expand...
Are you from the U.S? I think they dont even ask for proof for the student discount if you order online
 
dk808 said:
Are you from the U.S? I think they dont even ask for proof for the student discount if you order online
Click to expand...
No, European here :) we have to open the Apple store via a designated login for students (and you have to register for this login first; with confirmation that you're actually a student).
 
  • Like
Reactions: dk808
nitschi said:
No, European here :) we have to open the Apple store via a designated login for students (and you have to register for this login first; with confirmation that you're actually a student).
Click to expand...

Hi, European here. I'm a student but I was never asked for any confirmation of it. Just log-in into your Apple ID on Apple edu store and that's it
 
  • Like
Reactions: nitschi
DanielDD said:
Hi, European here. I'm a student but I was never asked for any confirmation of it. Just log-in into your Apple ID on Apple edu store and that's it
Click to expand...
You're actually correct, but that's for the "standard" Edu store with its measly 5-6% discount. When I use the login store I get 10% in the official Apple online store. ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: DanielDD
torana355 said:
From my experience if the DGPU does not get used more often to compensate the general UI will lag with the HD 530, no doubt about it. The 2016 13" rMBP is the first retina Macbook to not suffer UI lag, even when scaling. Im well aware the UI lag is not a hardware issue, but a good GPU helps and the Iris 540 seems to totally overcome it :)
Click to expand...


I don't think there will be an issue with lag. It's not as simple as "just put a faster GPU and it won't lag".

But, in reallity, I doubt Apple would put that card in there if it would lag. "But they did it with the iMac 5K base model!". No, they didn't - the M290X runs great - it was a software issue they fixed with El Capitan.

Even with all that negative talk, I do think Apple engineers want to provide the best experience. The HD 530 draws less power than the Iris Pro. Since every MacBook Pro will have a dedicated Radeon, I think it made sense to use the HD 530 instead - but not at the cost of lag (so I have faith they made the best choice).

Also, if it does by any chance lag, you can always turn off Automatic graphics switching in Settings and use just the Radeon card that is certainly more powerful than Iris Pro.
 
  • Like
Reactions: callea, sleim031 and Samuelsan2001
Using Windows 10 and Linux on the Dell Precison 5510 Intel Core i7-6820HQ with the 530 graphics (same processor as it is in the 15" Macbook Pro i7 basic edition) --- there is not any kind of UI-lag !!

We will not see any UI-lag on the Mac to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: aevan
radus said:
Using Windows 10 and Linux on the Dell Precison 5510 Intel Core i7-6820HQ with the 530 graphics (same processor as it is in the 15" Macbook Pro i7 basic edition) --- there is not any kind of UI-lag !!

We will not see any UI-lag on the Mac to.
Click to expand...
Of course there isn't, its a totally different operating system...... The UI lag is a software issue in OSX, not in Windows or Linux.
 
nitschi said:
You're actually correct, but that's for the "standard" Edu store with its measly 5-6% discount. When I use the login store I get 10% in the official Apple online store. ;)
Click to expand...

Oh, need to check that out. That is going to save me some €€ :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: emailnotebox and nitschi
I think the initial list of numbers is incorrect. There is no way the 2015 13 has an iGpu that is better than the 2016 13. I think the 6100 you are talking about is possibly the one in the 21.5 iMac.
 
  • Like
Reactions: callea
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back