Details of the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900

Here are some details regarding the next integrated graphics core from Intel which will be featured in the i915G chipset on the 19th of June. This chipset supports as well DirectX9 and HDTV.

Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 900 will have unbelievably revamped performance and feature-set compared to the existing Intel Extreme Graphics 2 offering. The GMA900 graphics packs 4 pixel pipelines and works at 333MHz, bringing one of the fastest integrated graphics cores ever available. Besides, the Graphics Media Accelerator 900 supports DirectX 9 capabilities – hardware pixel shaders 2.0 and software vertex shaders 2.0 – in addition to OpenGL 1.4 feature-set.

Another important capability of the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 is support for two independent display - a feature that is required by financial, educational, engineering and some other industries. While there was information about support of up to four independent monitors by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900, formerly known as Intel Extreme Graphics 3, Intel reps once said they know nothing about the feature.

Intel’s new graphics core will support RGB, DVI, HDTV (1080i, 720p), composite, component and S-Video outputs, bringing mainboard makers and system integrators impressing capabilities at very cost-effective pricing.

Intel believes that additional bandwidth provided by DDR2 memory at 533MHz speed bin will play a positive role in performance of integrated graphics core. Even though Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 will hardly become a kicking performer in modern 3D games, its hardware support for DirectX 9.0 pixel shaders is likely to allow it to run up-to-date titles offering enough performance for people who are not really big gamers.

Offered features of the Grantsdale-G include PCI Express x16, dual channel DDR and DDR2, 4 Serial ATA150 ports, 4 PCI Express x1 ports, Azalia audio and optional WLAN.

Source: X-bit Labs