ATI's Radeon 9100 Pro IGP Takes Aim at Intel's Chipset Launch

The Competitors: Intel 865G And 915G

That is, by the way, exactly the motherboard configuration for which ATI aims. As you could see in the Southbridge comparison table, there are only three PCI slots supported - that is exactly the amount motherboard makers incorporate into their MicroATX products.

Although our revision A PS35-BL ran perfectly with the Prescott 3.0 GHz processor we used for this review, you should definitely try to get revision C, as the revision A had not been designed for the power-gorging Pentium 4 Prescott.

In contrast to the 9100 Pro IGP, Intel lacks some graphics features like gamma correction, FSAA, pixel shaders and multi-display support. Thus, the main threat for ATI will be Intel's upcoming Grantsdale-G or 915G chipset with the renewed 3D engine called Graphics Media Accelerator 900. Featuring four pixel pipelines and a PCIe interface, we expect the 915G to perform at least as good as the ATI solution when paired with DDR400 memory and to outperform it when running with DDR2-533.

Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.