Intel Montevina platform, graphics

Hi. In hope to inform of the users about the IGP variants in Montevina(and hopefully avoid the confusion between variants like GM965/GL960 for Santa Rosa), I will detail the upcoming chipsets.

Montevina is Intel's 2008 Centrino mobile technology platform consisting of "Penryn" CPU, "Cantiga" chipset and "Shiloh" wireless module(rumored to integrate WiMAX along with all other current wireless). It will be announced June.

Total of 5 chipsets will be planned, with 4 of them having integrated graphics. I will however focus on the integrated graphics part.

Performance Integrated: GM47 chipset, FSB=1066/667MHz, DDR3-1066/800/667, DDR2-800/667, 640MHz IGP core
Mainstream Integrated: GM45 chipset, same feature as GM47 but with 533MHz IGP core
Low Power: GS45 chipset, coming later this year(Q3), same feature as GM45/GM47 but lower power, smaller, and 266MHz IGP core
Value: GL40 chipset, coming similar time as GS45, FSB=667MHz only, DDR2/3-667MHz, 333MHz IGP core

Performance in 3DMark06 is supposed to be 2x for GM47 chipset and looks to be 1.7x for GM45 chipset compared to GM965.

With full feature support, the 5th generation IGP core will have(GM965 is 4th gen):
-Full HD video acceleration in hardware, new Clear Video features
-DX10/SM4.0, OpenGL 2.0 support
-65nm process technology
-Faster core clock, more bandwidth
-Enhanced architecture(2x faster per clock vertex shaders, faster execution of texture filtering methods: bilinear/trilinear etc, better DX10 support)
-New power management
*Note: not all versions of the IGP will have everything listed above

If anyone does not know this and gets a Montevina laptop, we'll have a situation where people with GL40/GS45 chipsets wonder why their performance is less than half of the faster versions.

So, I warn you now. Here's what I estimate for 3DMark06 scores(and general relative performance to each other will be similar)

GM47: 1100
GM45: 950
GS45: 500
GL40: 440

Most people tend to gravitate toward the absolute cheapest laptop, and likely you'll end up with GL40 since it'll be the cheapest. In that case, the highest end GM47 with DDR3-1066 memory will be 2.5x+ faster. Remember that even in the IGP world, there is hiearchy.

 

If it scores 1100, it's pretty good for casual use, though I still call the hierarchy:

"bad", "worse", and "I can't believe it's not butter".

 

Right, but the reason for 3DMark06 score comparison is because that is the only reliable data out there now. The rest of the scores are for comparative purposes only. We have the GM965/GL960 to compare to. GM965 gets 550 in 3DMark06 and GL960 gets around 410. Besides the 3DMark06 scores, the better vertex shader performance means that there will be much less difference between software and hardware mode(likely the hardware will be now faster).

 

hhahahahaha

 

Finally, Intel IGP matched my Nvidia 7400 Go....
Hehe.. but I'll never get an IGP in my life... next lappy will be at least a 9600M GT for me.. wake me up when intel starts to par the lower range of dedicated cards.