Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100 vs Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4700MHD

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) 4700MHD

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4700MHD (sometimes also called GMA X4700 HD or other combinations) is a DirectX 10 capable onboard graphics adapter in the GM47 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).

Compared to the GMA 4500MHD, the 4700MHD features a higher core clock (plus 107 MHz) and is therefore a bit faster. 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.

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.