While I wait for the next generation of AMD graphics cards before making a decision to buy and then complete a custom water loop, I've been playing around with my stock i7-4770K on a brand new rig with NO additional graphics card. I'm running HDMI straight from my Sabertooth Z87 and I'm quite impressed with the Intel integrated graphics. I've purchased quite a few games on Steam and Origin from a couple of Humble Bundles and here are some not-so-scientific test results:
Dead Space
- 1920x1080
- fully-maxed settings
- solid 60 fps with vsync
Medal of Honor
- 1920x1080
- maxed except for AA
- solid 30+ fps
BioShock (1)
- 1920x1080
- fully-maxed settings
- close to a solid 60 fps
Burnout Paradise
- 1920x1080
- maxed except for AA
- solid 30+ fps
Metro 2033
Dead Island
Risen 2
- These are not doing so well at max or near max settings...
I have yet to try Crysis, Mirror's Edge, Portal 2, Battlefield 3, and several others probably not worth mentioning.
I've also been running both Dolphin (Wii emulator) and PCSX2 (PS2 emulator) with each rendering at over twice the native resolution with other affects and getting 30 to 60 fps depending on the game.
Anyway, I found this interesting and I'd be curious to hear about anyone else's integrated graphics surprises.
