Chip giant Intel finally released a driver update that will enable DirectX10 on its chipsets that feature integrated graphics. Intel has been claiming DirectX 10 compatibility since the introduction of the G965 chipset in 2006, but has only recently released driver support for it. The update available at Intel’s website, is naturally a Windows Vista driver only and is compatible with Intel’s G31, G33, G35, Q33, Q35, G965, Q963, and GM965 Express chipsets.
However, NVIDIA has been reportedly been sending tech journalist tidbits on the performance of Intel’s DX10 update – mainly that there is no performance gain.
NVIDIA ran the usual benchmark of games under DX10 settings and to no surprise found Intel’s integrated graphics to be “downright incapable” of being used with DX10 applications.
NVIDIA goes on to say, “Saying GMA 3500 is DirectX 10 capable is kind of like saying Styrofoam is "nutrition capable". I guess Intel’s definition of capable is a lot different than our definition... a lot.” NVIDIA may be patting itself on the back for drawing that conclusion, but PC enthusiast have widely linked Intel’s IGP to poor performance for quite some time now. While NVIDIA should not be worried too much about Intel upping the performance on its IGP, they should be worried about Intel’s upcoming Larrabee project.
Larrabee, due in 2010, is a multicore discrete graphics initiative from Intel based off of the x86 architecture and supports OpenGL and DirectX instructions. Larrabee, has drawn much interest from the technology community and is one of the most anticipated product launches in the industry.
Jen-sun Huang, NVIDIA CEO, and the rest of NVIDIA have been on the initiative of opening “a can of whoop ass”, before Larrabee takes off. This latest act from NVIDIA appears to be just another example of the company’s aggressive PR plan — pushing the consumer to link poor graphics performance with Intel. Conversely, Intel previously stated in a press call that it thinks computer graphics is hitting a severe bottleneck and that is vector based solutions coming down the line will be the way of the future for 3D.
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HAHAHA, remember the GeForce fx5200? that was a pile of crap too, but they sold it as DX9 but it could never get good fps in dx 9 games and in dx 8 even the GeForce4 ti4200 beat it most of the time. Its very unprofessional of a company to make such claims.(even when its true, its just not they way you do things)
joefriday, you may have a point there, if they do not have hardware t&l it kind of sucks. I have never looked into it.
I mean the war between nVidia and Intel
I mean the war between nVidia and Intel
...Intel's been doing it on their own for years.
Also, DX10 is only supported by the Intel® G35, Intel® GM965, GL960 Express Chipset products as well as future products. It is also probably fair to point out that according to recent reviews, no DX10 capable integrated graphics are suitable for DX10 gaming.
Also, Intel's intergrated graphics chipsets excel in video playback. In standard definition some enjoy HQV scores of over 100. the Intel G965 and up are capable of playing HD content (eg: Blu-Ray). My Blu-Ray/HD-DVD media centre at home is based on G965 and it runs beautifully. The upcoming G45 has dedicated HD hardware in it that allows it to decode the top three HD codecs while using only small amounts of power. Everything depends on what you want to do with your integrated chipset.
To be real winners they must challenge the enemy on his territory
Also, the price difference between an Intel chipset with graphics, and one without is only around $10(and only a handful of Watts). If you could run Crysis on a $10 solution, I don't think the discrete graphics card manufacturers would be delighted. The games in the blog video are running at 1024x768.
When are these idiots gonna wake up and realize that their biggest threat is not some other company, but the fact that almost all gaming publishers are moving away from the PC as a gaming platform...
ATI or Nvidia will still be good.