Integrated Graphics No Longer The Underdog

Historically, integrated graphics—the graphics technology included with motherboards—have paled in comparison to the performance of discrete graphics cards. This comes as little surprise, as cards have plenty more real estate to pack on graphics processors and dedicated graphics memory than do motherboards. But as circuitry continues to shrink, the game is changing, thanks to Nvidia.

“We’ve combined the power of three different chips into one highly compact and efficient GPU,” says Drew Henry, general manager of MCP business at Nvidia. “In doing so, we’ve redefined the level of performance people can expect from a motherboard solution to enrich visual computing experiences for mainstream systems. You can now have the performance of a discrete GPU in a small form-factor PC.”

Nvidia’s new GeForce 9400 and 9300 motherboard GPUs for desktop PCs on the Intel platform use a 16-core graphics architecture that supports DirectX 10 games. These GPUs also enable high-quality video playback with the help of the company’s PureVideo HD (high-definition) technology, which offloads all of the video processing from the CPU to the GPU. Also provided is support for advanced audio and video connectivity,
such as uncompressed LPCM (linear pulse code modulation) 7.1 audio, dual-link DVI (Digital Visual Interface), and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface). Manufacturers releasing motherboards with these chips include Asus, ECS, Evga, Gigabyte, XFX, MSI, Foxconn, Galaxy, J&W, Onda, and Zotac.

Source of Information : Smart Computing / January 2009