Can you name the major gaming graphics card manufacturers? Nvidia – a fantastic company. ATI (now part of AMD) – not my personal favourite, but still kicks ass. Intel? No, I haven’t eaten any poisonous mushrooms.
Intel has developed a new set of graphics drivers which can possibly put it on the map, where game visuals are concerned. If you own a laptop with a stock Intel GPU, you know how meek their performance can be. Not anymore, apparently.
Yesterday, KitGuru attended an unusual press-conference. It was called the Intel Tweet Up and the idea behind it was that each presentation would only take two minutes. We were shown Solid State Drives the size of a matchbox, TV’s that know what you want to watch and a working Asus Utrabook, this season’s ultimate laptop.
There was even an attempt to explain how Intel makes its chips, in layman’s terms. It was still too complicated. But what caught this writer’s attention was the outrageous claim by Intel’s Anna Cheng that a new set of graphics drivers will boost the video performance of their chips by 40%.
IT'S FORTY PERCENT!
We were shown two identical laptops. Both were displaying Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2 on medium visual settings. Yes, it’s not Crysis 2 or something similarly demanding, but stock Intel GPU owners will testify that running any modern game on such a device is a pain. The one on the right was using the old set of graphics drivers, and stuttering quite a bit. The one on the left was running smoothly.
When the benchmark ended, we were presented with numbers. 15 frame per second maximum on the right laptop, and 79 on the left. The difference was due to new software, which very soon you will be able to download for free.
Among other games optimized for HD chips we spotted Dragon Age 2, Star Craft 2 and Assassin’s Creed. Not too shabby.
Intel has even received recognition for its efforts by a living legend that is John Carmack.
This comes two weeks after Terry Makedon of AMD claimed that they have a huge advantage over Intel in the driver/software department. Could this be the Intel’s declaration of war? All I know is corporate competition is good for Joe Bloggs. That, and now I can finally play World of Tanks on a laptop.
September 1, 2011
#1
“When the benchmark ended, we were presented with numbers. 15 frame per second maximum on the right laptop, and 79 on the left. The difference was due to new software, which very soon you will be able to download for free.”
Medium settings ?
+40% good but isn’t enough versus Llano (and Trinity = +50%)
September 2, 2011
#2
Hope something like that comes out/happens for NVidia.
September 2, 2011
#3
This may very well be enough against Llano. 79 fps vs. 15 fps is a lot more than 40%, so it’d would be interesting to see what kind of gains will be there for other games. If Intel can consistently score close to Llano, the other advantages of the platform, faster single core performance and lower power, can make the Intel an attractive choice even when some gaming is desired.
September 3, 2011
#4
“79 fps vs. 15 fps is a lot more than 40%”
+426%…
September 5, 2011
#5
hey 75 is MAX FPS means maybe it only reaches 75FPS for one seconds
September 8, 2011
#6
max fps are nothing… the real benchmark are is the average fps… there is where you are going to have your real game experience…