Intel i7 integrated graphics uses CPU cores or it is like "additional processor/cores" with its own cache?

[devuniv]

Do modern GPUs (graphics core) built-in in CPU use CPU cores or it is just another (additional) core for graphics?

Or integrated graphics does some calculations itself and asks CPU cores to do some encoding work, etc?

So if I have Intel i7 CPU with 4 cores, do I really have, say, 5 cores - 1 additional "core" (counting circuitry) for graphics? Does it mean that if I don't play games and use graphics core for scientific calculations, I get much more than 4 cores CPU power out of my i7 CPU?

 

[mdd1963]

The integrated graphics circuitry is built into the die, accessible by the 2, 4 cores , etc...; it does not use a dedicated core to hurt performance, or anything...; think of it as a little tiny built in GPU that spares you from having to even purchase a discrete add-in card GPU if not planning on really gaming beyond 720P at low details, or, limited to playing older games...

A quad core is a quad core, Intel does not do the AMD-like APU description of 'we have 6 core, 4 for processing, 2 for graphics' game....