In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop are noticeably better than the Intel HD M-5Y51.

The Graphics 4600 has a 100 MHz higher core clock speed and the same number of Texture Mapping Units as the HD M-5Y51. This results in the Graphics 4600 providing 0.4 GTexel/s better texturing performance. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.

The Graphics 4600 has a 100 MHz higher core clock speed and 1 more Render Output Units than the HD M-5Y51. This results in the Graphics 4600 providing 0.5 GPixel/s better pixeling performance. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.

The HD M-5Y51 was released over a year more recently than the Graphics 4600, and so the HD M-5Y51 is likely to have better driver support, meaning it will be more optimized for running the latest games when compared to the Graphics 4600.

The HD M-5Y51 and the HD Graphics 4600 Desktop have the same amount of video memory, but are likely to provide slightly different experiences when displaying game textures at high resolutions.

The memory bandwidth of the HD M-5Y51 and the HD Graphics 4600 Desktop are the same, which means the HD M-5Y51 and the Graphics 4600 have equal limitations when it comes to graphical data transfer.

The HD M-5Y51 has 24 Shader Processing Units and the HD Graphics 4600 Desktop has 20. However, the actual shader performance of the HD M-5Y51 is 173 and the actual shader performance of the Graphics 4600 is 100. The HD M-5Y51 having 73 better shader performance is not particularly notable, as altogether the Graphics 4600 performs better when taking into account other relevant data.

The HD M-5Y51 transistor size technology is 8 nm (nanometers) smaller than the Graphics 4600. This means that the HD M-5Y51 is expected to run very slightly cooler and achieve higher clock frequencies than the Graphics 4600. While they exhibit similar graphical performance, the HD M-5Y51 should consume less power than the Graphics 4600.

The HD M-5Y51 requires 5 Watts to run and the HD Graphics 4600 Desktop requires 88 Watts. We would recommend a PSU with at least 300 Watts for the Graphics 4600, but we do not have a recommended PSU wattage for the HD M-5Y51. The Graphics 4600 requires 83 Watts more than the HD M-5Y51 to run. The difference is significant enough that the Graphics 4600 may have an adverse affect on your yearly electricity bills in comparison to the HD M-5Y51.