integrated intel graphics get suspiciously high 3dmark scores?
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-X3100.2176.0.html
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Intel graphics drivers employ questionable 3DMark Vantage optimizations
- Thread starter Final8y
- Start date
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-X3100.2176.0.html
wow that website is a mess! took one look at that and decided not to bother trying to find whatever it is i was looking for!
Scroll down and the second column from the left has scores (clicking on "more details" shows which laptops were tested). Third is for different chips...whats the problem?
Actually there is a bit of a problem - any of those scores comes from any number of given systems because they're laptop chips all running in different systems. Some are averaged from various systems, some are only taken from one. That's not a straight comparison at all, especially as we know how much 3DMark is affected by the strength of the CPU in the system and the chips the X3100 is compared to are generally weaker than the chips it's running with (2GHz-ish Core 2 Duo's vs. 1.6GHz Turion X2's in this case).
I'm confused here a little...
Who cares if Intel use the host CPU to help out the integrated GPU! It's actually a good idea!
I'm sure I read that DX11 can also use the host CPU to help out non DX11 capable GPU's in DX11 applications i.e. a DX10 or 10.1 GPU will beable to do z DX11 feature by using the CPU (although very much slower)
Who cares if Intel use the host CPU to help out the integrated GPU! It's actually a good idea!
I'm sure I read that DX11 can also use the host CPU to help out non DX11 capable GPU's in DX11 applications i.e. a DX10 or 10.1 GPU will beable to do z DX11 feature by using the CPU (although very much slower)
Why can't it do this in all applications? Why can't it detect that the GPU is overloaded in general (in order to offload to the CPU) - they've obv hand-tuned it for 3DMark in order to get good scores. If they cared about good technology they'd have made this more flexible so that it worked in all cases!
FutureMark sets the rules for there benchmark & for the same reason why Physx rules have changed for FutureMark Vantage ORB.
To be fair as stated in the OP, for some demanding games they have done this so it's not all about 3DMark. I think though that such a system would be very difficult to balance using an automated process, it likely has to be coded 'by hand' on a per-application basis, hence the relatively small number of apps supported by this 'CPU acceleration' (rofl reverse CUDA).
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
It would be game specific and need the file named specifically, I have no issue with that its a smart thing to do.
THe thing is they test it, if in those tests Vantage has spare cpu power, always, because really its a known test, then use the extra cpu power to boost scores. THats fine, and test various games and any games that can benefit, fine. You can't expect it to still work on random app x because the driver doesnt' know there will be spare CPU power, it might harm performance in random game Y to enable a little of the work to be done on the CPU.
Inteligent use of resources I have no problems with, specific game improvements are just that, improvements.
The only issue with game based "optimisations" is like in the past where said optimisation decreased the quality of picture being made, to up the performance.
We've seen in the past drivers that will boost 3dmark scores, but decrease IQ levels while doing so, thats flat out cheating, but if you can boost performance WITHOUT harming IQ in any way at all, all the better for all of us.
The whole thing about a vantage score is, you get a score for producing the exact thing being asked, if you get a higher score, by only producing 98% of whats asked and fudging the rest, the score means nothing.
While a vantage score means nothing to an end user who buys a dell rig, it MIGHT mean something to the guy who decides which intergrated GFX to put in Dell's new gaming laptop, which will mean thousands of cards sold based off that guys decision.