How is Gaming Graphics different from Graphics

Question

I have a laptop which I bought few months back, never installed any game, so I did installed one today and I was amazed to see that the games which requires graphic cards works nicely.

I don't have any graphic card installed, when I went to check Windows Experience Index, it shows me that Gaming Graphics = 6.2, and Graphics = 4.8 so whats the difference between the two?

I've nVidia Galaxy GT240 on my PC and even that has not reached 6.2 as far as Gaming Graphics are concerned, so may I know whats the difference between Gaming Graphics and Graphics?

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As commented, my laptop is HP E024TU with Graphic Processor - Intel HD Graphics 4000

Answer 1

You likely have a laptop with something like NVIDIA Optimus which totes both lower and higher performance graphics capabilities.

More information on your current laptop would be necessary to tell you more.

Edit:

In your particular case I would surmise that the CPU is potentially responsible for the Graphics rating while the Intel HD Graphics 4000 if rated with the Gaming graphics label.

The difference between the two options is largely based on what kind of graphics are being generated/processed. Your desktop is "Graphics" though not much performance is required. Gaming is usually 3D and as such fits into a different class of "Graphic" that requires a lot more processing.

Answer 2

Different graphics cards operations perform differently within a GPU. The architecture and drivers may be optimized for 2D at the expense of 3D, for instance, or for shader throughput at the expense of geometry calculations.

Desktop graphics performance ("Graphics") is a different set of API calls than a typical gaming graphics application. Likely they're benchmarking the performance of each of these sets of API calls and reporting the results of each. Since they're different types of operations, even though they're on the same GPU, they'll perform differently.

Basically, it's most likely that they're benchmarking the operations themselves, and not the GPU as a whole.

Answer 3

The Graphics subscore measures performance in non-gaming situations (that is, not by framerate during 3D rendering) such as Windows Aero, transititions, video playback...

The Gaming Graphics subscore further pushes the test by taking actual 3D frame rendering into account and the score will be based on the returned average FPS, you can't see this process though.

Normally, the Graphics subscore can take better advantage of the amount of video memory, and the Gaming Graphics is more taxing to the cards' others resources.