Intel Blog Discusses Centrino 2 Graphics Performance Woes

Justin Kerr — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:20:26 -0500

Maximum PC readers know not to expect much from a notebook equipped with Intel Integrated graphics, but where do we draw the line? This is the answer Intel attempted to provide on its blog in response to concerns over poor performance of the Centrino 2, G45 based graphics chipset. Intel spokesmen Aaron Brezenski attempted to down play the results of the AMD demonstration pitting a Turion X2 vs. a Centrino 2 in a head to head blue ray and gaming playback competition. The AMD Pavilion dv5z features a RadeonHD 3200 and clearly outperformed the Intel Pavillion dv5t. The Intel based system locked the processor utilization at a steady 100% during video playback while the AMD based system hummed along normally with Windows Defender actively running background scans.

Intel half heartedly attacked the creditability of the comparison by accusing the trial of not being “apples to apples”, and that various OS and software tweaks were made to exaggerate the results. He further breaks down the good , the bad, and the ugly side of G45’s integrated graphics, but it leaves me wondering how a modern notebook chipset carrying the description “perfect home theatre” could have so much trouble with a simple blue ray disk. In response to the gaming comparisons the Intel spokesmen states in no uncertain terms, “I'll be honest: I skipped everything regarding gaming; it's not and never will be my focus”. Intel has never offered much in terms of gaming graphics performance, but it seems unfortunate that consumers will continue to be forced into choosing discrete notebook graphics for anything more advanced then Solitaire. The Centrino 2 platform is still fairly new, and chipset optimizations may come through enhanced drivers. But with even Intel admitting weakness in the platform, you might want to consider discrete graphics if you plan on gaming or even watching blue ray movies on your shinny new Centrino 2 notebook.

Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5

Gordon Mah Ung — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:59:24 -0600

In a world of “me-too” motherboards, Gigabyte is known for its “not-me” risky moves. The company was the first to integrate two GeForce 6800 GPUs onto a single card, and it was the first to make dual BIOSes standard.

While the GA-M59SLI-S5 isn’t as outside-the-box as previous boards, Gigabyte does include three x16 PCI Express slots (two perform at x16 speed, one runs at x8 speed), a much-improved videocard retention-clip system, and a SATA-to-eSATA adapter.

The board uses nVidia’s nForce 590 SLI chipset and includes a big chunky heat pipe to cool it. We usually dig fanless heat pipes, but this one prevents you from installing long PCI-E cards in one of the x1 slots. SATA-port placement is more logical, though: All eight ports are easily accessible, even in an SLI rig.

Given the same test components and memory configs, we didn’t expect the Gigabyte board to outpace the MSI. But the Gigabyte did manage to pull ahead in our low-resolution Quake III test, which stresses CPU, chipset, and memory performance. Oddly, the Gigabyte board lagged in the synthetic SiSoft Sandra memory test. The oddity didn’t appear to affect any other benchmarks, however.

Where this board really shines is in features. When compared with the two 590 boards we looked at in September, we think the Gigabyte pulls ahead of the pack by offering eSATA and a third x16 PCI-E slot.

Month Reviewed: November 2006

+ TWIX: PCI-E options and a smart SATA-port layout make this the top board here.

- BUTTERFINGER: Heatsink blocks the first PCI-E x1 slot; no Wi-Fi.

VERDICT: 9

URL: www.gigabyte-usa.com

Maximum PC integrated RSS Feed

Intel Blog Discusses Centrino 2 Graphics Performance Woes

Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5