Both AMD and Nvidia are now shipping chipsets with hybrid graphics. So what is it, and is it a good idea for games? See what our tests revealed.
If you’re looking for a motherboard with an integrated GPU, one phrase you’re likely to encounter is ‘hybrid graphics’. Until recently, you had to make a straight choice between using the integrated graphics processor (IGP) or a discrete graphics card. Within the past six months, though, both AMD and Nvidia have started shipping chipsets that can combine the strengths of both GPUs – hence, hybrid graphics.
There are two distinct ways to take advantage of hybrid graphics. The first is a system Nvidia calls HybridPower. The idea is simple: when you’re working in Windows, or doing some other task that doesn’t need the full grunt of a separate graphics card, the card is powered down and the low-power onboard graphics chip is used instead. When you launch a game, the card is dynamically woken up to take over 3D graphics processing. Whichever GPU is doing the work, the chipset routes the signal to the right socket, so you don’t need to switch cables around.
Since a high-end graphics card can draw more than 100W even when idle, this system can save a lot of power without any cost in performance. AMD has a similar system, which it calls PowerXpress, but for now it’s only available on laptop chipsets.
The second aspect of hybrid graphics is a system called either Hybrid CrossFire or GeForce Boost, depending on which camp you’re in. This lets you combine the 3D processing power of the onboard GPU and a compatible discrete card in the same way as standard CrossFire/SLI.
How it performs on the testbench
We tried this system out with the Hybrid CrossFire-equipped Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H. Running our Crysis benchmarks with the integrated Radeon HD 3200 GPU, we achieved an average frame rate of 17fps at 1024 x 768 with low detail. Turning detail up to medium slashed that to 8fps. With a discrete Radeon HD 3450, frame rates rose to 25 and 11fps respectively. Enabling Hybrid CrossFire nudged scores up just a tiny bit further to 27 and 12fps. We’ve seen before that 3D games simply don’t scale well across multiple GPUs, and it seems that’s especially true when one of the GPUs is a lightweight IGP.
The theory behind hybrid graphics is a good one, and Hybrid Power is a great way to save energy. But, based on our Crysis tests, we’d have to say Hybrid CrossFire is an idea ahead of its time, and not one we’d recommend basing a purchasing decision on.