Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 500 vs Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 600 vs Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 500

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500 (also called GMA 500) is a graphics card for embedded products (e.g. MIDs), netbooks and other small mobile devices. It is usually paired with an Intel Atom CPU and designed for video playback tasks (even HD content). The integrated video decoder is able to accelerate MPEG-2, VC-1, and AVC HD videos.

The graphics core is based on a licensed PowerVR SGX core (Power VR SGX535 as in the Apple A4) and is clocked with 100 (UL11L) or 200 MHz (US15L, US15W chipset). The GMA 500 is compatible with DirectX 10.1 and features 4 unified shaders. Still the performance wont be sufficient for playing 3D games.

The chipsets that integrate the GMA 500 (UL11L, US15L, and US15W) support

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 600

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 600 (also called GMA 600) is a graphics cards for embedded products (e.g. MIDs), netbooks and other small mobile devices. It is integrated in the Atom Z600 series CPUs and compared to the GMA 500 it features a twice as high clock speed of max. 400 MHz. The integrated video decoder is able to accelerate MPEG-2, VC-1, and AVC HD videos.

The graphics core is based on a licensed PowerVR SGX core and is clocked with max 400 MHz. The GMA 600 should be theoretically compatible with DirectX 10.1 and features 4 unified shaders. Because of the missing Windows BIOS support, the Lincroft SOC is currently not able to run Windows (only CE) and therefore supports OpenGL ES 2.0, Open VG 1.0, DirectX 9.L. Another restriction is the max. resolution support of 1366x768 with LVDS and 1024x600 with MIPI.

The performance wont be sufficient for playing demanding 3D games.

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900

The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 (also known as GMA 900) is an integrated (onboard) graphic chip on the Mobile Intel 915GM chipset for Intel processors. It does not support hardware T&L (Transform & Lightning) calculations (which is required for some games).

It supports DirectX 9.0 with Shader Model 2.0 (Vertex Shader are calculated in Software - by the CPU) and OpenGL 1.4. Furthermore, the chip is able to accelerate the decoding of MPEG2 videos and supports Motion Compensation.

The GMA 900 can not be described as a graphics card that is sufficient for gamers. Still Intel published a list  of games that will run (not needingly beautiful) on the notebook. Some old 3D games and especially 2D games should run without problems. The advantage of integrated graphics cards, is that they have a low power consumtion and therefore save battery life. Furthermore, the laptop may stay cooler and more silent than laptops with dedicated graphics cards. For office programs and surfing the performance is more than sufficient.

Currently there are no drivers that support Aero Glass for Windows Vista.