Broadwell HD Graphics 5500 Delivering Similar Vulkan/OpenGL Performance

Written by Michael Larabel in Intel on 30 December 2016 at 11:41 AM EST. 7 Comments
INTEL
With having out a Core i7 "Broadwell" ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop for the MoCA 2.0 network tests, I decided to run some end-of-year graphics tests on this Core i7 5600U system with OpenGL and Vulkan.

The last time I had out this particular system with i7-5600 CPU sporting HD Graphics 5500, the Vulkan experience wasn't really working out at that time. But a half-year has passed and now it's in better shape for this low-power ultrabook.
Vulkan EOY2016 Broadwell

I ran tests with the Linux 4.10 and Mesa 13.1-devel Git stacks atop Ubuntu 16.10 x86_64.
Vulkan EOY2016 Broadwell

Vulkan EOY2016 Broadwell

The HD Graphics 5500 on this i7-5600U ultrabook aren't the fastest, but at 800 x 600 for Dota 2 we see the performance is about the same between the Vulkan and OpenGL drivers.
Vulkan EOY2016 Broadwell

Vulkan EOY2016 Broadwell

Still close at 1280 x 1024.
Vulkan EOY2016 Broadwell

Vulkan EOY2016 Broadwell

The performance is rather low, but those are the numbers for those always craving fresh Intel graphics results.
Vulkan EOY2016 Broadwell

Unfortunately no Talos Principle results for Vulkan as the game was hanging in this configuration.

Still working on some other fresh tests with Iris Pro Graphics as well as the Skylake HD Graphics that provide for more playable Linux OpenGL/Vulkan gaming experience. Great to see overall though how the Intel "ANV" Vulkan driver has matured this year and is quite a competent driver while the i965 Mesa driver has also advanced in 2016 to supporting OpenGL 4.5, performance optimizations, and other improved functionality.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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