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日本NVIDIA GeForce MX110 vs Intel Iris Plus G7 – when iGPU is faster than low-end GPU
In our previous GPU comparison between NVIDIA GeForce MX110 and Intel Iris Plus G4 we all saw that the latter is almost on par when compared with MX110. Apparently, the Iris Plus G4 isn’t the fastest integrated iGPU among the Ice Lake SoCs. It seems that its bigger sibling – the Intel Iris Plus G7 has much more power thanks to the higher shader count. That’s why we are going to compare the MX110 and Irus Plus G7. We saw that the G4 version was really close to its NVIDIA rival but the GeForce GPU was faster in some scenarios where it has an advantage because of its own memory while the Iris GPUs use part of the RAM memory.
Apart from that, a lot of people are playing some popular and light games like CS:GO and DOTA 2 after work and it’ll be interesting to show how big is the performance gap (if there is any in this case) between a low-end graphics solution as MX110 and a high-end iGPU like Intel Iris Plus G7 in those games. If you are curious about the end result we’ll reveal it in the next graphs.
See all configurations with GeForce MX110 / Intel Iris Plus G7
Contents
Specs overview
There isn’t a lot to say about both GPUs, they aren’t hungry and powerful beasts like RTX 2080.
The MX110 has more shader units, 2GB video memory, and a higher base clock than the Iris GPU. The Intel Iris G7 has a bigger TDP and higher boost clock. Maybe the higher TDP values will help the Iris G7 to defeat MX110 because the latter has much lower TDP? We’ll see that soon.
GPU comparison table
| MX110 | Intel Iris Plus G7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Maxwell | iGPU in 10th gen SoCs |
| GPU chip | N16V-GMR1 | Iris G7 |
| Shader units | 256 (+300%) | 64 |
| ROPs | 8 | – |
| Base Clock (MHz) | 965 (+222%) | 300 |
| Boost clock (MHz) | 993 | 1100 (+11%) |
| Memory clock (MHz) | 5012 | depends on RAM frequency |
| Memory size (MB) | 2048 | variable |
| Memory type | DDR3/GDDR5 | DDR4 |
| Memory bus width (bit) | 64 | – |
| TGP (Total Graphics Power) | TDP: 5-12W | TDP: 12-25+W (+140% – 108%) |
| DirectX version | 12.0 | 12.1 |
| Technology | 28nm | 10nm |
| RTX capabilities | No | No |
| Release date | 01.2018 | 01.2019 |
| Detailed specs | Link | Link |
Let’s check the benchmarks.
Synthetic benchmarks
No matter the benchmark, the Intel Iris Plus G7 is faster than GeForce MX110. Probably because it’s based on a much more advanced architecture (plus software optimization in latest Intel drivers) while MX110 is based on already aged Maxwell chip.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
| GeForce MX110 over Intel Iris Plus G7 | 3Dmark Fire Strike (G) | Unigine Heaven 3.0 | Unigine Heaven 4.0 | Unigine Superposition | Average difference % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce MX130 | |||||
| Intel Iris Plus G7 | 59% | 32% | 33% | 90% | 54% |
Gaming tests
After the synthetics, we have a feeling that the Iris G7 will be faster in our gaming tests.
| CS:GO | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings) | HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce MX110 | 55 fps | 44 fps | 40 fps (+33%) |
| Intel Iris Plus G7 | 93 fps (+69%) | 56 fps (+27%) | 30 fps |
Ok, the MX110 is faster at Max settings but who will play a fast-paced multiplayer shooter like CS:GO with 40 FPS? The answer is – no one. Both GPUs aren’t good enough at Medium. You can play this game with a decent frame rate with Iris Plus G7 at Low settings with a very respectable 93 FPS. Unfortunately, the MX110 struggles with 55 FPS and we observe some dips below this value.
| DOTA 2 | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings) | HD 1080p, High (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce MX110 | 59 fps | 31 fps | — fps |
| Intel Iris Plus G7 | 99 fps (+58%) | 74 fps (+68%) | 35 fps |
The Intel Iris G7 dominates when it comes to DOTA 2. This game doesn’t benefit that much from high FPS values but the Intel iGPU provides much smoother gameplay that its NVIDIA competitor.
Performance summary (gaming tests)
Surprisingly, the Intel Iris Plus G7 is much much faster than MX110.
| GeForce MX110 over Intel Iris Plus G4 | Full HD, Low | Full HD, Normal | Full HD, High |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce MX110 | – | ||
| Intel Iris Plus G7 | +64% | +48% | – |
Verdict
Let’s start our conclusion like this – it’s all about the money. The Intel Iris Plus G7 is faster than MX110 but how much you are willing to pay for a laptop with this iGPU? Maybe the question is what kind of performance do you need – CPU, GPU, or both? If you are reading this article probably you need more graphics performance or you are looking for some decent CPU/GPU combo. Let’s face the facts – the Iris Plus G7 can be found in some Ice Lake Core i5 and i7 processors and the devices configured with them have a high price tag. Yes, there are some affordable notebooks with this iGPU but most of them have not-so-good cooling and sometimes the FPS results are lower than Intel Iris Plus G4. Ergo, if you want an Ice Lake Iris GPU that performs well you have to pay for it, literally.
If the money isn’t a problem, and you want some thin, cool, and fast device with an iGPU only – go for it, the Iris G7 is a great integrated video card. Maybe the best one before the future release of the upcoming Zen 2 CPUs from AMD with RX Vega 7/8. Don’t enthrall too much because sometimes the end price of the top Ice Lake machines is so high that you can buy some other device configured with a Whiskey Lake / Comet Lake Core i5 CPU (just an example) and decent NVIDIA GTX video card for the same amount of money. The Iris G7 will perform even better with 16GB LPDDR4X RAM in a dual-channel mode but the price of such device will be sky-high.
No matter the laptop and how good is its cooling, the MX110 performs almost the same. The problem with this one is that it’s not a good performer. You can’t play CS:GO with comfortable FPS and it struggles even with DOTA 2 at Medium settings. You can play those games comfortably only if you drop the resolution the 768p. That doesn’t sound good, at least to us. Our opinion is that the NVIDIA MX130 is the better choice because it’s faster and the devices equipped with it have very close prices compared with MX110-based notebooks.
The end result of today’s comparison – the Intel Iris Plus G7 is much faster than NVIDIA MX110. End of story.
All laptops equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce MX110
All laptops equipped with the Intel Iris Plus G7
