Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500MHD vs Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100 vs Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500MHD

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (sometimes also called GMA X4500 HD or other combinations) is a DirectX 10 capable onboard graphics adapter in the GM45, GE45 and GS45 chipset of the Centrino 2 platform (Montevina). The chip has no dedicated graphics memory, but takes dynamically an amount from the main memory (up to 384 MB). The graphics card is also called Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family in the Intel drivers.

The 400MHz clocked version of the 4500MHD found in the GL40 and GS40 chipsets, is called GMA 4500M (without the HD) and has a worse performance in 3D games and video decoding.

Compared to the predecessor GMA X3100, the GMA 4500MHD has two more shaders and a 33 MHz higher core clock speed. Therefore, the chip is noticable faster than the older one (especially in 3DMark06). Still, the performance is just on par with the entry level dedicated graphics cards and therefore not suited for demanding games. Some older games like Fear can be played in low details and low resolutions (see "Gaming Performance" below).

Compared to other modern integrated graphic cards like the Nvidia GeForce 9400M (G 102MNVIDIA GeForce G 105M) or AMD ATI Radeon HD 3200, the GMA 4500M HD noticably slower and provides less optimized drivers for games.

The version in the GS45 can be clocked lower (320 versus 533 MHz) and support only FSB 800 (instead of FSB 533/1066). Furthermore, switchable graphics are only supported in the GM45 chipset. The GE45 has the same features as the GM45, and aditionally is certified by Macrovision.

A new feature of the GMA chip, are the integrated HD video-decoding functions. The GM45 is able to decode HD-videos in the formats AVC, VC-2, and MPEG-2 to help the CPU. This way a Blu-Ray playback should also be possible with a low end CPU (only with the 533 MHz clocked version in the GM45 and GS45).

The graphics core in the GL40 and GS40 chipset with a lower core speed of 400 MHz is called GMA 4500M (without the HD). Because of the lower clock rate, the 4500M performs a bit worse in games and is not capable of decoding Blu-Ray videos fluently.

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100 is an integrated (onboard) graphic chip on a Mobile Intel 965GM (with 500 MHz core speed) and 960GM (400 MHz) chipset (for Merom = Core 2 architecture). It is the successor of GMA 950. Most interesting is the integration of a fully programmable pipeline. Due to the integration of DirectX9 and DirectX 10 features (with drivers later than 15.9.0.1472), HDR and Hardware Transform & Lighning (T&L) - predecessor only had Software T&L - should be ready for Windows Vista Premium (support Aero Glass fully). Respective the data, the peformance should be clearly better than GMA 950.

The 13.5 Watt current consumption is relatively low, because it includes all chipset functions (therefore, this value is not compareable to dedicated graphics cards).

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 (also known as GMA 900) is an integrated (onboard) graphic chip on the Mobile Intel 915GM chipset for Intel processors. It does not support hardware T&L (Transform & Lightning) calculations (which is required for some games).

It supports DirectX 9.0 with Shader Model 2.0 (Vertex Shader are calculated in Software - by the CPU) and OpenGL 1.4. Furthermore, the chip is able to accelerate the decoding of MPEG2 videos and supports Motion Compensation.

The GMA 900 can not be described as a graphics card that is sufficient for gamers. Still Intel published a list  of games that will run (not needingly beautiful) on the notebook. Some old 3D games and especially 2D games should run without problems. The advantage of integrated graphics cards, is that they have a low power consumtion and therefore save battery life. Furthermore, the laptop may stay cooler and more silent than laptops with dedicated graphics cards. For office programs and surfing the performance is more than sufficient.

Currently there are no drivers that support Aero Glass for Windows Vista.