Debate: Does GMA X3000 Vista driver support hardware T&L and Vertex Shaders?

Now I see threads about the X3000 Vista users claiming it doesn't support hardware T&L and Vertex Shaders on the driver. My theory is that it does support it, but on certain applications its bugged.

I am the same person named DavidC1 at VR-Zone forums.

I have GMA X3000 with Core 2 Duo E6600 and using Windows XP.

Here are my 3dmark06 results with 14.31 beta drivers:
3DMark06:
Driver File igxprd32.dll
Driver Version 6.14.10.4842
Driver Date 6-8-2007
Driver WHQL Certified false
Max Texture Width 4096 px
Max Texture Height 4096 px
Max User Clipping Planes 6
*Max Active Hardware Lights 8
Max Texture Blending Stages 8
Fixed Function Textures In Single Pass 8
*Vertex Shader Version 3.0
Pixel Shader Version 3.0
Max Vertex Blend Matrices 0
Max Texture Coordinates 8
VGA Memory Clock 0.0 Hz
VGA Core Clock 0.0 Hz
Max VGA Memory Clock 0.0 Hz
Max VGA Core Clock 0.0 Hz

Here are my results with 14.31.1 drivers:
Description Intel(R) G965 Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer Intel Corporation
Total Local Video Memory 380 MB
Total Local Texture Memory 380 MB
AGP Aperture Size 0 B
Driver File igxprd32.dll
Driver Version 6.14.10.4864
Driver Date 8-24-2007
Driver WHQL Certified true
Max Texture Width 4096 px
Max Texture Height 4096 px
Max User Clipping Planes 0
*Max Active Hardware Lights 0
Max Texture Blending Stages 8
Fixed Function Textures In Single Pass 8
Pixel Shader Version 3.0
Max Vertex Blend Matrices 0
Max Texture Coordinates 8
VGA Memory Clock 0.0 Hz
VGA Core Clock 0.0 Hz
Max VGA Memory Clock 0.0 Hz
Max VGA Core Clock 0.0 Hz


As you can see, 3dmark06 has no reports of Vertex Shader Model 3.0 and Active Hardware Lights. Its basically saying it doesn't support VS3.0 and T&L on hardware, on mine, with XP. However it reports that I do with the Beta 14.31 drivers. Hmm, this is why: http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-028231.htm

Because 3dmark is the application that is set to run on software mode because it runs faster. So the application will no longer detect that you have a hardware vertex shader and T&L.

And look at this guy with the screenshots running World in Conflict with GMA X3000/Vista/15.6 drivers, while me with XP and 14.31.1 drivers crash and gives bluescreen before it loads the menu: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=148045&page=13

Now Vista users, stop worrying about it. It should be fixed when the 14.31.1 driver counterpart to Vista is released, because it fixes a bug that causes certain apps to run at software mode(but not others).

(Out of luck to P4 users with X3000 however, it looks like Intel driver engineers decided to be lazy and the graphics driver only switches between hardware and software mode by just detecting the application, not by using complex simulations to see which one actually runs better on your system which, with a P4, it'll be with the hardware most of the time. So P4 users will suffer in apps that Core 2 Duo users gain.)

 

Quote from Intel website:

You may find some more answers here. I'm not sure whether the latest Intel drivers now use all the available hardware features.

John

 

I thought the driver had a way to toggle whether you wanted hardware VS or software VS. Is there no way to force hardware VS on while running 3DMark06?

I too think that this will be cleared up pretty soon by Intel. The desktop G35 chipset with the GMA X3500 was supposed to be launched at IDF, but I believe it still hasn't launched yet. I wouldn't be surprised if Intel is waiting on one last driver refresh on Vista and possibly XP too, so they can actually launch the GMA X3500 feature enabled, which is important since nVidia has timed their GeForce 7150 IGP launch to coincide and compete.

 

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/14386/ENG/relnotes_2kxp_gfx.htm

From the release notes, it looks like the driver decides what mode it should run at. Though I think it might not be flexible as it sounds like. Rather than doing performance comparisons and changing it dynamically, it seems certain games have a fixed rule regarding which mode to run(say, for AOE3, run on software mode). That's the only way to explain why Core 2 Duo users gain performance with 14.31.1 drivers while P4 users lose performance. I figure the hardware T&L/VS performance of the X3000 is somewhere between the P4 and the Core 2 Duo.

G35 no longer has a firm release date anymore. I speculate though its probably October 10 along with its higher end brother, the X38. It was originally supposed to come with P35 chipset but it got delayed because they decided to scrap some features(DDR3/some video functions) and keep same pin compatibility.

 

The latest information I have indicates that the G35 will launch on October 21st to coincide with a price drop of the old P4 631 and the launch of the new Celeron 220 LV chip. The G35 seems to be a tweaked G965 based on the features, and the GMA X3500 looks to be the same as the GMA X3000 just with 10 shaders instead of 8. I doubt they physically added shaders, probably the die always had 10 or 12 shaders, but they've managed to get production yields up to the point where they can consistently get 10 working shaders. The delay is probably waiting on decent Vista hardware DX9.0c support drivers and last minute testing to ensure operation with the upcoming Penryn processors.