Gigabyte Brix S BXi7H-5500 Broadwell Mini PC Review

by Josh Norem — Wednesday, March 25, 2015, 01:00 PM EDT

In the following benchmark we're specifically pitting Intel's integrated graphics in the Broadwell CPU against similar solutions from AMD APUs. The HD 5500 graphics in the core i7-5500U aren't exactly Iris Pro level, so we're comparing it to the Intel HD 6000 and Iris Pro Graphics 5200 as well as the most recent Kaveri APU offering from AMD with AMD's GCN (Graphics Core Next) GPU architecture. Traditionally, Intel has been at a marked deficit versus AMD when it comes to graphics horsepower.

Futuremark 3DMark Fire Strike

Synthetic DirectX Gaming

3DMark Fire Strike has two benchmark modes: Normal mode runs at 1920x1080, while Extreme mode targets 2560x1440. GPU target frame buffer utilization for normal mode is 1GB and the benchmark uses tessellation, ambient occlusion, volume illumination, and a medium-quality depth of field filter. The more taxing Extreme mode targets 1.5GB of frame buffer memory and increases detail levels across the board. For the following tests, we ran the benchmark in Normal mode since we were testing integrated graphics solutions and not high-end discrete GPUs. There's simply no way these little rigs would ever be used for Extreme gaming.

Ouch - that's all we can say. The HD 5500 graphics integrated into this Broadwell chip did not fare well in this graphics benchmark, to put it lightly. Clearly this is not designed to be a gaming machine, though we're sure it could handle extremely light gaming and casual games. Generally speaking, these ULV Broadwell chips are not the best for gaming or any type of heavy workload.