Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3600 vs Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3650 vs Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3150

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3600

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3600 or GMA 3600 is an integrated processor graphics card (e.g. in the Atom N2600) without dedicated memory. It is based on a PowerVR SGX 545 design similar to the GMA 500 (SGX 535). In theory the GPU should support DirectX 10.1 but at launch only DirectX 9 support was available.

The gaming performance is very bad and many games are not even running at all.

Compared to the HD 3650, the 3600 is clocked slower (400 vs 640MHz).

The GMA 3600 also includes an integrated video decoder to handle some types of HD videos and supports an HDMI output.

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3650

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3150

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 or GMA 3150 is an integrated (shared memory) graphics card that is located on the processor package of the Intel Atom N4xx processors. The graphics core is based on a GMA X3100 design (according to Intel) but features only two processor cores clocked at 200 MHz. Therefore, the performance is only a bit better than the old GMA 950 found in many Netbooks with N270 Atom CPUs.

The 3D performance of the GMA 3150 is therefore only suited for some low demanding 3D games in low details. In our tests only the old Quake 3 Arena ran fluently (even with high detail settings). Furthermore, Torchlight ran more or less fluently in 800x600 - low, but Fraps only showed 10fps. More modern low demanding games like Trackmania Nations Forever or Left 4 Dead only showed a slideshow. In our tests with the Dell Mini 1018 many modern games didn't even start (driver 8.14.10.2117):

• Crysis
• Anno 1404
• Supreme Commander
• Need for Speed Shift
• Mafia II
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2

According to Intel, the GMA 3150 can help the CPU decode MPEG2 videos. The DXVAChecker shows hooks for MPEG2 (VLD, MoComp, A, and C) up to 1920x1080.  Therefore, the performance of the N450 and N470 with GMA 3150 is currently not sufficient to watch H.264 encoded HD videos with a higher resolution than 720p. HD flash videos (e.g. from youtube) are also not running fluently on the Atom CPUs.

Another drawback of the GMA 3150 are the supported display types and resolutions. The GMA 3150 supports one digital LVDS port (to connect the internal display) with resolutions up to 1366x768. Furthermore, an external analog VGA port with resolutions up to 1400x1050 (according to Intel, 1680x1080 reported on a Samsung NC10) is supported. DisplayPort, HDMI or DVI are not possible (no SDVO ports to connect them). Therefore, AtomN450 Netbooks with HDMI ports will only be possible with the upcoming ION 2 GPU.

The main advantage of the new GMA 3150 is the low power consumption as it is integrated in the Atom CPU.