One (probably niche, admitedl) advantage of the GeForce chip is the ability to work with CUDA, which AFAIK, has much greater support than OpenCL on Intel's GPU architecture. Though it's interesting to note the Ice-Lake's "Sunny Cove" cores feature AVX512 from what I read, which would be handy for the sort of vector operations one would use CUDA on a GPU for.
Not everything is AAA gaming. And the dedicated 4 GB of VRAM will help in many scenarios. Also, this will mean that the whole TDP budget of the CPU will be for the CPU and not have the iGPU cut into that budget. If I have the option of an iGPU laptop and a dGPU MX250 laptop which costs negligibly more and has otherwise the same specs, I'd probably choose the MX250.
It should offer a 2x-3x more performance than the iGPU of the Intel chip... The 56GB/s of bandwidth makes all the difference over the (probably) 38.4GB/s of the Intel part that has to share it's bandwidth and TDP with the CPU.
Not to mention that Intels drivers are significantly superior to Intels, plus Pascal generally has some architectural efficiency advantages on a multitude of fronts. (Does Intel even do Colour Compression? Not entirely sure.)
Either way, it's not a Geforce GTX 1050... But it's also not a Geforce MX 110 with DDR3 either.
The Ice-Lake CPUs are using Intel's new Gen11 graphics architecture on the 10nm process. The MX250 is a lower clocked mobile version of the GT1030, a card that isn't actually that much faster than the best current Integrated graphics (2400G, 3400G). Ice Lake Iris Plus will be more efficient and almost certainly uses some form of Delta Colour Compression, it also supports Variable Rate Shading where the Pascal part does not.
I think, that the MX250 would be a bit faster (but not by much) in gaming workloads. But the Ice-Lake iGPU will be significantly more efficient.
MX250 being "2-3 times" faster than IGPU is definitely NOT the situation; the new IGPU for Ice Lake is very impressive and it holds its own. Which takes us back to OP who pointed out it is indeed a waste of resources.
Intel has only one SKU with the fastest performing graphics, which might reach that level (and I'm not sure about that; what are you basic your assumption that it will be faster on?).
OEMs tend to use discrete GPUs even in the case when they're not that much faster than integrated GPUs in order to provide a consistent experience, regardless of the CPU or CPU RAM speed / channels. (And of course because discrete is a selling point regardless of how crappy it is.)
720p is absolutely fine for a 14" laptop screen. I have an HP Envy x360 2 -in- 1 with a Ryzen 5 2500U, at 13", I play Warframe at 720p and it looks fine.
Depends a lot on whether it's the 1D10 or crippled 1D12 variant. If (big if) it's the 1D10 and has a reasonable cooling solution applied, it should be substantially faster with better driver support - more than enough for the sort of gaming someone is likely to do on a 14" notebook.
I wish they would use the Swift 5 15" keyboard layout on the 14" model. It feels a lot less cramped, has Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys that don't crowd the arrow keys so much, and there's definitely enough room from it. Heck, HP uses a very similar layout in its Envy 13".
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damianrobertjones - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
Unless you like to game at 1280x720, adding the MX 250 is more or less pointless. Heck, the iGPU of the 10th gen cpu will probably be faster (ish).Why do they do this? It's a complete waste of resources?
ChuckNorris89 - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
>Why do they do this? It's a complete waste of resources?Because marketing. Consumers will see a dedicated GPU and think it must be miles better than competing iGPU models.
It bugs me too. Rather they saved the money of that useless GPU and stick with the iGPU for better battery life, cost and lightness.
AshlayW - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
One (probably niche, admitedl) advantage of the GeForce chip is the ability to work with CUDA, which AFAIK, has much greater support than OpenCL on Intel's GPU architecture. Though it's interesting to note the Ice-Lake's "Sunny Cove" cores feature AVX512 from what I read, which would be handy for the sort of vector operations one would use CUDA on a GPU for.Death666Angel - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
Not everything is AAA gaming. And the dedicated 4 GB of VRAM will help in many scenarios. Also, this will mean that the whole TDP budget of the CPU will be for the CPU and not have the iGPU cut into that budget. If I have the option of an iGPU laptop and a dGPU MX250 laptop which costs negligibly more and has otherwise the same specs, I'd probably choose the MX250.isthisavailable - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
But then why even bother with ice lake? Comet Lake is cheaper and mostly same because it clocks much higherStevoLincolnite - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
It should offer a 2x-3x more performance than the iGPU of the Intel chip... The 56GB/s of bandwidth makes all the difference over the (probably) 38.4GB/s of the Intel part that has to share it's bandwidth and TDP with the CPU.Not to mention that Intels drivers are significantly superior to Intels, plus Pascal generally has some architectural efficiency advantages on a multitude of fronts. (Does Intel even do Colour Compression? Not entirely sure.)
Either way, it's not a Geforce GTX 1050... But it's also not a Geforce MX 110 with DDR3 either.
AshlayW - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
The Ice-Lake CPUs are using Intel's new Gen11 graphics architecture on the 10nm process. The MX250 is a lower clocked mobile version of the GT1030, a card that isn't actually that much faster than the best current Integrated graphics (2400G, 3400G). Ice Lake Iris Plus will be more efficient and almost certainly uses some form of Delta Colour Compression, it also supports Variable Rate Shading where the Pascal part does not.I think, that the MX250 would be a bit faster (but not by much) in gaming workloads. But the Ice-Lake iGPU will be significantly more efficient.
AshlayW - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
I also meant to say, that the MX250 is nowhere near "2-3X" faster than the Ice Lake's Iris Plus integrated graphics, I think 20% is a safe bet.poohbear - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
MX250 being "2-3 times" faster than IGPU is definitely NOT the situation; the new IGPU for Ice Lake is very impressive and it holds its own. Which takes us back to OP who pointed out it is indeed a waste of resources.ET - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
Intel has only one SKU with the fastest performing graphics, which might reach that level (and I'm not sure about that; what are you basic your assumption that it will be faster on?).OEMs tend to use discrete GPUs even in the case when they're not that much faster than integrated GPUs in order to provide a consistent experience, regardless of the CPU or CPU RAM speed / channels. (And of course because discrete is a selling point regardless of how crappy it is.)
AshlayW - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
720p is absolutely fine for a 14" laptop screen. I have an HP Envy x360 2 -in- 1 with a Ryzen 5 2500U, at 13", I play Warframe at 720p and it looks fine.Spunjji - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
Depends a lot on whether it's the 1D10 or crippled 1D12 variant. If (big if) it's the 1D10 and has a reasonable cooling solution applied, it should be substantially faster with better driver support - more than enough for the sort of gaming someone is likely to do on a 14" notebook.tipoo - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
The Ice Lake IGP is impressive for what it is but still not at the MX250 level, least of all if this is a 25W part.Rookierookie - Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - link
I wish they would use the Swift 5 15" keyboard layout on the 14" model. It feels a lot less cramped, has Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys that don't crowd the arrow keys so much, and there's definitely enough room from it. Heck, HP uses a very similar layout in its Envy 13".