Microsoft WARP proves that Intel’s current graphics suck

Theo Valich — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:00:51 +0000

Thanks to Thomas from DVhardware.net, I learned that Microsoft released a document explaining the way how WARP10 works. WARP stands for Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform, or “The Return of the Software Rasterizer”.
According to the document, this software rasterizer will come bundled with DirectX 11 and Windows 7. What make the matters important are performance scores. Microsoft states that the company tested Crysis in DX10 mode at 800×600, and saw better performance with WARP than graphics subsystem. The company compared G45 graphics subsystem with Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (3.0 GHz) and saw that WARP10 will bring up a framerate of 5.69 fps (341 frame per minute), faster than integrated graphics! Integrated graphics subsystem only managed 5.17 fps (310 fpm) and this can be viewed as material witness in any discussion that talks about Intel’s integrated graphics. The graphics processor that is shipped in almost half of all the computers in the world is drop-dead slow, and is even slower than CPU that uses upcoming software renderer.

WARP10 is also supporting hyper-threading feature, since Core i7 matched clock-per-clock scored 7.36 fps (442 fpm). This is a major victory for Hyper-Threading technology, since it manages to render 101 frames more than clock-per-clock matched Core 2 Quad. Truth to be told, all of these results come into play when you compare the performance with one of the cheapest and slowest cards on the market, Nvidia’s GeForce 8400GS. That card will render Crysis (same settings) at 33.89 fps or 2033 frames in a single minute.

In my view, the path of the future is very simple – either CPU rendering for unacceptable performance, or decent discrete/integrated performance from AMD and Nvidia. Personally, I would not recommend Intel graphics until the company comes out with Larrabee. Their CPUs are other thing, though. But at this moment, Intel’s graphics performance is just not acceptable.

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Sparkle’s excellent idea: Cheap PCI Express x1 cards

Theo Valich — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:15:41 +0000

One of more interesting niche markets is the one named “how to fix the computer crippled with integrated graphics?”, and the solutions that are being sold in that area. We saw interesting products coming from Albatron, Sparkle, MSI and others, but it is a rare occasion to see a card in sub-$50 range that offers DX10 support.
The company released a series of PCIe x1 cards for those unlucky owners of motherboards without PCI Express x16 slot. Sparkle released no less than eight models based on GeForce 8400GS graphics chip. Sadly, memory controller is limited to 64-bit, but this was Nvidia’s doing. Memory is either 256 or 512 MB of DDR2 memory.
The cards will occupy either full or half-height slot, and are either passively or actively cooled. GPU is clocked at 567 MHz with shader processors working at 900 MHz. Video memory works at 450 MHz in DDR mode or 900 MTransfers/sec.

Sparkle

Of course, don’t expect these cards to break speed records. Their sole role is to offer good performance with Windows Vista Aero interface and games such as Sims 2, World of Warcraft, Spore and so on – games that would not work at all if you were running them on integrated “crapics” solution such as Intel’s G33, G35 or G45. Also, board brings Pure Video HD engine, supporting 720p and 1080p decoding.
My personal take is that this would be a good solution if you’re building a HTPC, and the selected motherboard does not feature PCIe x16 slot.

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Microsoft WARP proves that Intel’s current graphics suck

Sparkle’s excellent idea: Cheap PCI Express x1 cards