GPU Benchmark Test of Intel HD Graphics 630 using glmark2

Intel HD Graphics 630 Graphics Performance

Recently I upgraded to a Intel i5-7400 processor which has inbuilt graphics processing capabilities. This processor comes with integrated graphics processor called HD Graphics 630.

Details about the processor and its graphics processor can be found here -

https://ark.intel.com/products/97147/Intel-Core-i5-7400-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz

The graphics unit is compatible with DirectX and OpenGL. So on Linux systems like Ubuntu, applications can utilise its graphics functions via OpenGL.

GPU Benchmark Tool - Glmark

glmark is a command line program on Ubuntu/Linux that does various tests on the graphics card to measure its performance. Installing it is easy from the apt-get command

$ sudo apt-get install glmark2

Run the glmark2 command and you would see some graphical animations on screen and finally a report similar to the one below. The report details out the test results with time measurements that indicate how powerful your graphics card is.

The test results for Intel HD Graphics 630 graphics card -

$ glmark2
=======================================================
    glmark2 2014.03+git20150611.fa71af2d
=======================================================
    OpenGL Information
    GL_VENDOR:     Intel Open Source Technology Center
    GL_RENDERER:   Mesa DRI Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 (Kaby Lake GT2) 
    GL_VERSION:    3.0 Mesa 17.2.2
=======================================================
[build] use-vbo=false: FPS: 1781 FrameTime: 0.561 ms
[build] use-vbo=true: FPS: 1778 FrameTime: 0.562 ms
[texture] texture-filter=nearest: FPS: 1590 FrameTime: 0.629 ms
[texture] texture-filter=linear: FPS: 1566 FrameTime: 0.639 ms
[texture] texture-filter=mipmap: FPS: 2128 FrameTime: 0.470 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 1624 FrameTime: 0.616 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 1642 FrameTime: 0.609 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 1648 FrameTime: 0.607 ms
[shading] shading=cel: FPS: 1575 FrameTime: 0.635 ms
[bump] bump-render=high-poly: FPS: 1007 FrameTime: 0.993 ms
[bump] bump-render=normals: FPS: 1604 FrameTime: 0.623 ms
[bump] bump-render=height: FPS: 1605 FrameTime: 0.623 ms
[effect2d] kernel=0,1,0;1,-4,1;0,1,0;: FPS: 1141 FrameTime: 0.876 ms
[effect2d] kernel=1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;: FPS: 814 FrameTime: 1.229 ms
[pulsar] light=false:quads=5:texture=false: FPS: 1745 FrameTime: 0.573 ms
[desktop] blur-radius=5:effect=blur:passes=1:separable=true:windows=4: FPS: 681 FrameTime: 1.468 ms
[desktop] effect=shadow:windows=4: FPS: 1152 FrameTime: 0.868 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 731 FrameTime: 1.368 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=subdata: FPS: 720 FrameTime: 1.389 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=true:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 808 FrameTime: 1.238 ms
[ideas] speed=duration: FPS: 1854 FrameTime: 0.539 ms
[jellyfish] <default>: FPS: 1400 FrameTime: 0.714 ms
[terrain] <default>: FPS: 186 FrameTime: 5.376 ms
[shadow] <default>: FPS: 1121 FrameTime: 0.892 ms
[refract] <default>: FPS: 387 FrameTime: 2.584 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 1553 FrameTime: 0.644 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 1530 FrameTime: 0.654 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1585 FrameTime: 0.631 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=low:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 1533 FrameTime: 0.652 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=medium:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 1409 FrameTime: 0.710 ms
[loop] fragment-loop=false:fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 4242 FrameTime: 0.236 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=false:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 3036 FrameTime: 0.329 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=true:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1580 FrameTime: 0.633 ms
=======================================================
                                  glmark2 Score: 1477 
=======================================================
$

At the end you would see glmark score which is indicative of the graphics capabilities of your graphics card or gpu. Higher the number, better it is. So in this case the score is approximately 1477.

In a previous post many users have reported their glmark scores which gives an idea of how different graphics cards from different vendors perform. Check out the post here -

The score itself does not give any idea of how good the gpu might be. For a more comprehensible test, you have to play some 3d game like 0ad or Open Arena on Ubuntu. The smoothness of the games would give you an idea of how good the gpu is.

Get best performance with official vendor drivers

The gpu performance will also depend on the drivers in use. If you have an Nvidia graphics card then make sure that you are using the uptodate graphics driver from nvidia. Default drivers that come with operating systems usually cannot utilise the full potential of vendor specific graphics cards and hence the performance lacks.

For example, on Linux the Nvidia graphics cards use the Nouveau drivers which is an open source driver for nvidia cards. However the drivers from nvidia will get your card to work better instead of open source alternatives.

Using the correct drivers is a must if you wish to do 3d intensive tasks like modeling, rendering or playing 3d games.

If you are running Ubuntu or any Linux distro then check your graphics card score and let us know in the comments below.

More Commands to test GPU

Here are a bunch of commands besides glmark that can be used to test gpu performance.

1. glxgears - Will scroll gears in a window and print FPS in the console after every few seconds. Larger the window size, lower will be the FPS count.

To use the glxgears command install the following package -

sudo apt-get install mesa-utils
glxgears