Is Intel HD Graphics 5500 any good?

Is Intel HD Graphics 5500 Any Good?

The Intel HD Graphics 5500 is a mainstream integrated graphics card that was released in 2014 as part of the 8th generation of Intel Core processors. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the capabilities and limitations of this graphics card to help you decide if it’s suitable for your needs.

Performance

The Intel HD Graphics 5500 is a relatively weak graphics card, especially when compared to dedicated graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD. According to System Requirements Lab, it can run only 29% of the top 11,000 PC games at the recommended or best experience levels. This means that you may experience poor performance or low frame rates when playing demanding games.

GPU Specifications

Here are the key specifications of the Intel HD Graphics 5500:

• CUDA Cores: 192
• Texture Mapping Units: 24
• ROPs: 3
• Clock Speed: 300 MHz (boosted up to 850 MHz)
• Memory: 1.5 GB (shared system memory)
• Memory Bandwidth: 25.6 GB/s

VRAM

One of the significant limitations of the Intel HD Graphics 5500 is its VRAM (Video RAM). It has a maximum of 1.5 GB of shared system memory, which is not dedicated to graphics processing. This means that the available VRAM will be split between the graphics card and the system’s main memory, which can lead to reduced performance.

Increasing VRAM

Unfortunately, increasing system RAM does not directly increase the VRAM available to the Intel HD Graphics 5500. The graphics card uses a portion of the system’s main memory for its graphics processing tasks, and this portion is often referred to as "shared memory" or "shared system memory."

Gaming Performance

The Intel HD Graphics 5500 is not suitable for demanding games that require high graphics settings. According to benchmarks, it can only run games at low to medium settings, and even then, it may experience poor performance or low frame rates. Here are some examples of games that may run on the Intel HD Graphics 5500:

• Low settings: 30-40 FPS (frames per second)
• Medium settings: 20-30 FPS
• High settings: 10-20 FPS

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Intel HD Graphics 5500 is a relatively weak integrated graphics card that is not suitable for demanding games or graphics-intensive tasks. While it may be able to run some games at low to medium settings, it is not a reliable choice for gaming or other graphics-intensive activities.

Recommendations

If you’re looking for a graphics card that can handle demanding games or graphics-intensive tasks, we recommend considering a dedicated graphics card from NVIDIA or AMD. These cards offer significantly better performance and are designed specifically for gaming and graphics processing.

Table: Comparison of Intel HD Graphics 5500 and Dedicated Graphics Cards

Note: The specifications listed above are for the Intel HD Graphics 5500 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 and AMD Radeon RX 580 dedicated graphics cards.