NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book vs Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 vs NVIDIA GeForce 930MX

NVIDIA Maxwell GPU Surface Book

The Nvidia Maxwell GPU is a dedicated graphics card in the Microsoft Surface Book laptop. It is based on the Maxwell GM108 chip as the Geforce 940M with 384 shaders. Instead of the DDR3 graphics memory, the Surface Book graphics card features faster GDDR5 memory (both 64 Bit though). 

Thanks to the faster graphics memory, the Surface Book Geforce is performing better than the average GeForce 940M. However, the 945M and GTX 950M are still noticeably faster. Demanding games therefore only run in low settings fluently.

More details can be found in our extensive review of the 2015 Microsoft Surface Book with the dedicated Maxwell GPU.

Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200

The Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 (GT3 + eDRAM), also called the HD Graphics 5200, is a processor graphics card that is included in some of the Haswell processors of 2013 (e.g. Core i7-4750HQ). It represents the highest configuration of the integrated graphics unit (40 execution units) and also has an additional eDRAM cache (128 MB on-package, 77 mm², 102 GB/s). The base clock can be automatically overclocked using Turbo Boost technology. Depending on the processor model, the base and turbo clock rates may differ (usually up to 1200 - 1300 MHz), resulting in varying graphics performance between CPU models.

In comparison to the HD 4000, the graphics core has been modified extensively. The Iris Pro supports DirectX 11.1, OpenCL 1.2 and OpenGL 4.0. It also features an improved decoder for 4K videos and the fast Quick Sync encoder.

Thanks to the fast eDRAM memory, the average performance of the Iris Pro is only about 15 percent behind the dedicated mid-range cards GeForce GT 650M and GT 750M (DDR3 versions). This makes the Iris Pro even faster than AMDs Radeon HD 8650G and the fastest integrated GPU of 2013. Therefore, many current games can be played fluently in medium or high detail settings and a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. In some older or less demanding titels like Diablo III or Fifa 2013, even higher resolutions or quality settings may be possible.

Due to the 22nm 3D Tri-Gate production process, power consumption should be relatively low. The Iris Pro can be found on certain quad-core Haswell CPUs in the 47 Watt TDP range.

NVIDIA GeForce 930MX

The Nvidia GeForce 930MX is an entry-level DirectX 12 graphics card for laptops that was announced in the first quarter of 2016. It is the refresh of the GeForce 930M and now supports GDDR5 graphics memory. It is based on the same GM108 chip and may feature slightly increased clock rates.

The performance will depend on the used graphics memory. With fast GDDR5 it should be similar or slightly faster than the Maxwell GPU in the Surface Book. With DDR3 it performs be somewhere between the old 930M and 940M. That means that only non demanding games of 2017 run fluently (in lowest detail settings) on the GeForce 930M. Games with low demands like Dota 2 or Path of Exile should run in higher detail settings and resolution.

The power consumption should be quite similar to the 930M and 940M and therefore also suited for smaller laptops.