intel_gma950_gma500

Most netbooks available today use the GMA950 IGP along with the Intel Atom N270 and 945GSE Chipset. Togther this is the standard Atom platform and provides modest performance at a considerably low price.

We are however, starting to see the emergence of the Intel Atom Z series of CPUs combined with the GMA500 series of Integrated Graphics Processors (IGP).

So what is the difference between the Intel GMA 950 and GMA 500?

The N270+945GSE+GMA950 platform was made specifically for Netbooks. That being a low cost, portable laptop, capable of basic computing functions such as Internet and Email.

The alternative platform is the Intel Atom Z CPU, US15W or ‘Poulsbo’ Chipset, and the GMA 500 IGP. Poulsbo has integrated the Graphics Processor onto the chipset itself, making the entire unit smaller, less power hungry, and capable of fitting into smaller devices such as MIDs.

This was Intel’s intention from the start, to have one platform for Netbooks and another for even smaller computers. What we are starting to see however, is the Atom Z + Poulsbo platform showing up in Netbooks such as the Dell Mini 10.

The reasons for this are not entirely known but one theory suggests that the license for 945GSE platform means that any devices using it cannot exceed certain specifications such as a 10.2″ screen and a 1024 x 600 resolution. To get around this limitation manufacturers are choosing the alternative Poulsbo platform which is free of this restriction.

Which platform then, is the better of the two?

The following table from Yertech shows the differences in hardware:

GMA500 GMA950Chipset Intel US15W Intel 945GSEClockspeed 200 Mhz 250 MhzMax Memory Band (GB/s) 4.2GB/s 10.7GB/sMax Shared Memory 256MB 8-224MBVertex Shader Model 4.1 2Pixel Shade Model 4.1 2Pixel Pipelines 2 4Unified Shader Procs 4 N/AHardware Vertex Shaders Yes NoOpenGL 2 1.4Dirext X 10.1 9.0cMPEG-2 Acceleration VLD+iDCT+MC MCVC-1 Acceleration VLD+iMDCT+MC+LF N/AAVC Acceleration VLD+iMDCT+MC+LF N/A

* One of our readers has pointed out that the GMA950 Memory bandwidth is only 10.7Gb/s in dual channel mode with two RAM sticks installed. Netbooks only come with one so they don’t take advantage of this.

** The GMA950 core clock is underclocked to 133 or 166Mhz in most netbooks.

While the GMA 500 GPU does in fact have support for newer technologies such as Direct X 10 and better high definition audio and video acceleration, it is suffering from rather poor driver support. The current drivers have left the GPU crippled and performing worse than the GMA950, despite its hardware advantage.

These drivers should improve with the release of the Pinetrail platform towards the end of the year, but the GMA950 is currently the faster GPU.

The following table from Notebookcheck shows the 3DMark05 results for both GPUs:

GPU 3DMark 05 ScoreIntel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 500 135SIS Mirage 3+ 672MX 315SIS Mirage 3 671MX 333ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 367Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950 440NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5700 500ATI Mobility FireGL V3100 580ATI Mobility FireGL T2e 580NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M SLI 19268

As you can see the GMA 950 scores significantly better in this benchmark.

* We have recently run our own 3DMark05 benchmark on an EEE PC 1005HA-P and that scored 268, this is significantly lower than Notebookcheck’s number but still higher than their GMA500 result.

As always, which platform you decide to go with will decide on your personal preference. The N280+GMA950 is definitely the faster option right now but this could change when the GMA500 drivers mature.