Dialing down to 1,600x900 or lower graphics settings at 1080p both produced results that many players would consider more than acceptable. Running at 1,920x1,080 at Medium settings, the game wasn't exactly smooth, but could certainly handle an online match. We also tested Skyrim on the Origin EON17-S, with found similar results.īattlefield 3, a graphically demanding game, was an even greater success story. Keep those settings at Low, however, and Skyrim at 1,920x1,080 is truly playable, and shockingly so. Once set to Medium, frame rate dropped down to a choppy status I'd call unplayable. Character motion was fluid, and the landscape scrolled by without a hitch.

Here, the difference amounts to a much more playable game.īut here's the real question: can it play Skyrim? We installed and ran Skyrim at 1,920x1,080 and the Asus N56V was able to play it quite well with graphics settings at Low. It performed the benchmark at 24.1 fps at 1,366x768 resolution, versus 14.4 fps using the Asus N53S' last-gen Intel HD 3000 graphics. Our first Ivy Bridge laptops: how do theyperform?įor more mainstream gaming matching what you'd probably try to experience, we ran Far Cry 2 on the Asus N56V using its Intel HD 4000 graphics.Intel's Ivy Bridge arrives: Here's whatyou need to know (FAQ).( Read a deeper discussion of Ivy Bridge laptop performance in general here.) We ran UT3 on the two Ivy Bridge laptops we've gotten so far (the Origin EON17-S and Asus N56V) and saw clear, significant improvements over last year's Sandy Bridge white box. Unreal Tournament III, our oldest gaming benchmark, has been discontinued in favor of Street Fighter IV and Metro 2033. The gains in Ivy Bridge's new graphics are clear, at least across our range of gaming benchmarks.

Last year, Sandy Bridge's leap in integrated graphics was a story in itself, and resulted in your average mainstream laptop finally being able to run some off-the-shelf PC games, albeit at lower graphics settings.

You will still have a better gaming experience with a budget graphics card, but for at least the HD 4000, Intel finally has an onboard graphics processor with some 3D processing muscle. With its new Ivy Bridge CPUs, Intel has introduced two new graphics cores, the Intel HD 4000 and a lower-end HD 2500 core.

Intel hd 4000 integrated graphics