How does integrated graphics work on MSI Z97 gaming 5 mb

Crusades

How do the graphics work on a MSI z97 gaming 5 motherboard?

I am waiting on my dedicated gpu to arrive, in the meantime I have been playing Hearthstone. It looks amazing and I don't even have a dedicated graphics card installed. So I launched WoW, again it looks just fine. I didn't bother with any real intense games, but still I was impressed with how well WoW looked with no graphics card.

I have read that integrated graphics on the MSI Z97 gaming series is dependent on the cpu. I am using an i7 4790k.

My gpu will arrive tommorrow, but considering how nice these two games look, even though yes they are not graphically intense, I was just curious as to how the cpu affects the capabilities of the motherboards integrated graphics.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and have a great day!!!

- Crusades 

Quizzical

Integrated graphics chips aren't built into motherboards anymore, and haven't been in new products for several years.  Rather, they're built into the same chip as the CPU.

Hearthstone is a 2D game, which isn't demanding on graphics at all.  WoW is 3D at least, but nearly a decade old, so it's likewise not terribly demanding.  Still, integrated graphics have gotten massively better than they used to be, so most games would probably be playable on your integrated graphics--and not necessarily just at low settings.

You're using Intel HD 4600 graphics.  Recent Intel graphics tend to be passable at low settings, but fall apart--and fall far behind AMD integrated graphics--at higher settings that are more demanding on shaders.  The graphics chip you have has 20 "execution units"; for comparison, AMD's best integrated graphics has 512 shaders.  I'm not sure what an execution unit is, and Intel isn't terribly forthcoming on details of their graphics architecture; my guess is that it's the equivalent of several shaders and a TMU.

Unlike AMD and Nvidia, Intel tends not to be keen on supporting the latest graphics APIs.  For example, the first Nvidia card to support OpenGL 3.3 was the GeForce 8800 GTX, which released in 2006.  The first AMD card was the Radeon HD 2900 XT, which released in 2007.  The first Intel GPU to support it was Intel HD Graphics 4000, which released in 2012.  The oldest Nvidia card to support OpenGL 4.3 was the GeForce GTX 480, which released in 2010.  The earliest AMD card was the Radeon HD 5870, which released in 2009.  The oldest Intel GPU to support OpenGL 4.3 is... well, there isn't one yet.  Give Intel a few more years and they might get there.

Intel has often had video driver problems, and doesn't always update their drivers for very long, especially in less popular configurations.  For example, if you run Vista, it looks like Intel's last video driver update for you came 2 1/2 years ago.  For Linux, it's been just shy of a year, and for XP, it's been nearly a year and a half.  Even if you do still get updates, they aren't necessarily very frequent; even for Windows 7 or 8, Intel has only released one video driver update in the last 8 months.  If you're using Intel graphics and run into a driver bug, it's not going to be fixed fast, and might not be fixed ever.  AMD and Nvidia are a lot more aggressive about pushing out bug fixes.

Crusades

Thanks for the input.  I was afraid I might overheat my mb by running games.

I picked up a gtx660 $170 and it came with Watchdogs too, it will arrive tomorrow.  

I am running windows 8.1, I went ahead and ran Diablo 3 and it ran smooth, but graphically it wasn't the greatest.

I am suprised still that it even let me play and it was playable.

I had read that the intel integrated graphics capability was dependent on what cpu one was using.  Specs don't list intel HD 4600 graphics, rather the spec I had read lists integrated graphics as "dependent on cpu" 

Perhaps 20 execution units is max so long as I have a cpu that will allow it to max out? Which my I7 4.0ghz would more than likely cover.

Crusades

http://www.game-debate.com/hardware/index.php?gid=1438&graphics=Intel%20HD%20Graphics%204600%20Desktop

 

specs here just for reference

 

looks like 80 shaders - Holy Moly - watch out now!!!

 

Forbes article from last year - they tested some games out as well

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2013/06/01/crunching-the-numbers-can-intels-haswell-graphics-run-your-favorite-video-games/

syntax42

Originally posted by Crusades

Specs don't list intel HD 4600 graphics, rather the spec I had read lists integrated graphics as "dependent on cpu" 

Your CPU has the graphics processing built in.  Your motherboard only supports integrated graphics by providing a connector for your monitor to plug in to.  Some motherboards don't provide this because they expect you to use a PCI-based graphics card.  

Crusades

Originally posted by syntax42

Originally posted by Crusades

Specs don't list intel HD 4600 graphics, rather the spec I had read lists integrated graphics as "dependent on cpu" 

Your CPU has the graphics processing built in.  Your motherboard only supports integrated graphics by providing a connector for your monitor to plug in to.  Some motherboards don't provide this because they expect you to use a PCI-based graphics card.  

 

Got it - Thanks Syntax