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Intel Abandons Discrete Graphics

Posted by timothy on from the out-of-the-lifeboat dept.

Stoobalou writes with this excerpt from Thinq: "Paul Otellini may think there's still life in Intel's Larrabee discrete graphics project, but the other guys at Intel don't appear to share his optimism. Intel's director of product and technology media relations, Bill Kircos, has just written a blog about Intel's graphics strategy, revealing that any plans for a discrete graphics card have been shelved for at least the foreseeable future. 'We will not bring a discrete graphics product to market,' stated Kircos, 'at least in the short-term.' He added that Intel had 'missed some key product milestones' in the development of the discrete Larrabee product, and said that the company's graphics division is now 'focused on processor graphics.'"

6 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. missed milestones by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 4, Informative

    ' He added that Intel had 'missed some key product milestones' in the development of the discrete Larrabee product,

    Like proof that they were even capable of making an integrated graphics product that wasn't a pile of garbage?

    GMA910: Couldn't run WDDM, thus couldn't run Aero, central to the "Vista capable" Lawsuits

    GMA500: decent hardware, crappy drivers under Windows, virtually non-existant Linux drivers, worse performance than GMA950 in Netbooks.

    Pressure to lockout competing video chipsets. We're lucky ION saw the light of day. http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,680035/Nvidia-versus-Intel-Nvidia-files-lawsuit-against-Intel/News/

  2. Mod parent "Likely." by Spazntwich · · Score: 4, Informative

    Short of buying out Nvidia I don't see Intel having a consumer's chance in America of competing with AMD in the value sector for the next few generations of chips.

    CPUs have been "fast enough" for years, but GPUs have not. AMD is going to laugh all the way to the bank being able to offer a $50 package that can run The Sims.

    1. Re:Mod parent "Likely." by Korin43 · · Score: 4, Informative

      As long as you've got decent compositing speed and pixel shaders for a few GUI effects, pretty much any ATI or nVidia GPU from the last few years is fast enough for a typical user.

      Fixed that for you. Intel cards are fine for "normal" computer usage, but they still suck pretty bad at most games.

  3. Re:Groan by Pojut · · Score: 5, Informative

    For anyone stuck with an Intel GMA chipset: GMA Booster may help solve some of your problems. Just make sure you have a decent cooling solution, as it can ramp up the heat output of your system considerably. Still, if you're stuck with GMA, it can make the difference between a game being unplayable and being smooth.

    --
    Living With a Nerd
  4. A discrete component by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    More directly, what the hell is "discrete graphics"?

    It refers to a graphics processor as a separate (discrete) component of a computer system. A chip that does nothing but graphics can be more powerful than integrated graphics because the GPU circuitry doesn't have to share a die with the rest of the northbridge.

  5. Limited to 950 by manekineko2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Note for anyone else whose curiosity was piqued, this only works with 32bit systems with 950 chipset based systems, and does not work with GMA X3100, GMA X4500, GMA 500, or GMA 900.