Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M

Price now 797$

Games supported 67%

Price now 999$

Games supported 67%

Questions and comments

General info

Comparison of graphics card architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters.

Place in performance rating	455	453
Value for money	0.65	2.02
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2018)	Gen. 9.5 Kaby Lake (2015−2017)
GPU code name	N16P-GT	Kaby Lake GT3e
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	12 March 2015 (7 years old)	1 September 2017 (5 years old)
Current price	$797	$999

Value for money

To calculate the index we compare the characteristics of graphics cards against their prices.

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	640	48
CUDA cores	640	no data
Core clock speed	914 MHz	300 MHz
Boost clock speed	1124 MHz	1200 MHz
Number of transistors	1,870 million	189 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	14 nm
Thermal design power (TDP)	75 Watt	15 Watt
Texture fill rate	44.96	50.40
Floating-point performance	1,439 gflops	no data

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Information on GeForce GTX 950M and Iris Plus Graphics 655 compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	medium sized	no data
Bus support	PCI Express 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x8	PCIe 3.0 x1
SLI options	+	no data

Memory

Parameters of memory installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated VRAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	DDR3 or GDDR5	DDR3/DDR4
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	System Shared
Memory bus width	128 Bit	System Shared
Memory clock speed	1000 or 2500 MHz	System Shared
Memory bandwidth	32 or 80 GB/s	no data
Shared memory	-	+

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	No outputs	No outputs
VGA аnalog display support	+	no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	+	no data
HDMI	+	no data

Technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream	+	no data
GeForce ShadowPlay	+	no data
GPU Boost	2.0	no data
GameWorks	+	no data
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	+	no data
Optimus	+	no data
BatteryBoost	+	no data
Quick Sync	no data	+
Ansel	+	no data

API support

APIs supported, including particular versions of those APIs.

DirectX	12 (11_0)	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	5.1	6.4
OpenGL	4.5	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.1
Vulkan	1.1.126	1.1.103
CUDA	+	no data

Benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. Note that overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range.

Overall score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 950M 6.60

Iris Plus Graphics 655 6.64
+0.6%

Passmark
3DMark Vantage Performance
3DMark 11 Performance GPU
3DMark Cloud Gate GPU
3DMark Fire Strike Score
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics
3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Passmark

This is probably the most ubiquitous benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

GTX 950M 2600
+47.2%

Iris Plus Graphics 655 1766

GeForce GTX 950M outperforms Iris Plus Graphics 655 by 47% in Passmark.

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 16%

GTX 950M 15710
+29.9%

Iris Plus Graphics 655 12093

GeForce GTX 950M outperforms Iris Plus Graphics 655 by 30% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 16%

GTX 950M 4367
+50.6%

Iris Plus Graphics 655 2900

GeForce GTX 950M outperforms Iris Plus Graphics 655 by 51% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 13%

GTX 950M 21356
+45.1%

Iris Plus Graphics 655 14714

GeForce GTX 950M outperforms Iris Plus Graphics 655 by 45% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

3DMark Fire Strike Score

Benchmark coverage: 13%

GTX 950M 2838
+56.3%

Iris Plus Graphics 655 1815

GeForce GTX 950M outperforms Iris Plus Graphics 655 by 56% in 3DMark Fire Strike Score.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature seemingly made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic enough graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 13%

GTX 950M 3200
+64.2%

Iris Plus Graphics 655 1949

GeForce GTX 950M outperforms Iris Plus Graphics 655 by 64% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

GTX 950M 198867
+41.6%

Iris Plus Graphics 655 140458

GeForce GTX 950M outperforms Iris Plus Graphics 655 by 42% in 3DMark Ice Storm GPU.

Mining hashrates

Cryptocurrency mining performance of GeForce GTX 950M and Iris Plus Graphics 655. Usually measured in megahashes per second.

Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256)	140 Mh/s	no data
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto)	2.5 Mh/s	no data

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	30 +30.4%	23 −30.4%
1440p	21 +40%	15 −40%
4K	16 −12.5%	18 +12.5%

Popular games

Full HD
Low Preset
Full HD
Medium Preset
Full HD
High Preset
Full HD
Ultra Preset
1440p
High Preset
1440p
Ultra Preset
4K
High Preset
4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

10−12

+0%

10−12

+0%

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	23 +76.9%	12−14 −76.9%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Battlefield 5	31 +55%	20−22 −55%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Far Cry 5	23 +109%	11 −109%
Far Cry New Dawn	22 +100%	11 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Hitman 3	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	19 +46.2%	13 −46.2%
Watch Dogs: Legion	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	19 +46.2%	12−14 −46.2%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Battlefield 5	26 +30%	20−22 −30%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Far Cry 5	21 +50%	14−16 −50%
Far Cry New Dawn	20 +33.3%	14−16 −33.3%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Hitman 3	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Metro Exodus	5 −80%	9−10 +80%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	15 +275%	4 −275%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	19 +72.7%	11 −72.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	11 −18.2%	12−14 +18.2%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Battlefield 5	20 +0%	20−22 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Far Cry 5	19 +35.7%	14−16 −35.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	19 +26.7%	14−16 −26.7%
Forza Horizon 4	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	11 +83.3%	6 −83.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−11 −10%	10−12 +10%
Hitman 3	8−9 −12.5%	9−10 +12.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Metro Exodus	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Battlefield 5	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry 5	12 +33.3%	9−10 −33.3%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	10−11 −10%	10−12 +10%
Watch Dogs: Legion	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Hitman 3	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Metro Exodus	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Battlefield 5	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Far Cry 5	6 +0%	6−7 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%

Advantages and disadvantages

Performance rating	6.60	6.64
Recency	12 March 2015	1 September 2017
Pipelines / CUDA cores	640	48
Chip lithography	28 nm	14 nm
Thermal design power (TDP)	75 Watt	15 Watt

Technical City couldn't decide between

GeForce GTX 950M

and

Iris Plus Graphics 655

The differences in performance seem too small.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Cast your vote

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.

GeForce GTX 950M

Iris Plus Graphics 655

Competitors of GeForce GTX 950M by AMD

According to our data, the nearest equivalent to GeForce GTX 950M by AMD is Radeon R9 M390, which is slower by 1% and lower by 1 position in our rating.