On Board Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 better than adding Radeon x1300 Pro?

Question

Should I disable the Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 on motherboard video ( up to 224 mb DDR shared Video and use the Radeon x1300 Pro - 256 mb PCI-E I have ? Andy why one versus the other?

Answer 1

GMA X3000 (From Wikipedia)

The GMA X3000 represents a dramatic architectural change from previous GMA iterations. The X3000 adds hardware T&L units, pixel shaders, vertex shaders and WMV9 (VC-1) video acceleration. Intel claims the X3000 is Shader Model 3 compliant, and meets Microsoft's GUI requirements for Vista Aero Premium. Intel has released production version drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista that enable the Aero style.

X3000's underlying hardware is organized as an array of programmable (unified) pipelines. Each pipeline can process video, vertex, or texture operations. A central scheduler dynamically dispatches threads to pipeline resources, to maximize rendering throughput (and decrease the impact of individual pipeline stalls.) As each pipeline is fully programmable, in theory X3000 can target either DirectX 9 or DirectX 10, determined by operating system and device driver. This design is consistent with the DirectX 10 generation of video cards from ATI and nVidia, which also utilize unified pipelines.

X3000 is offered in several chipsets, targeting different market segments:

In the top-end G965 the X3000 offers 8 full-featured unified pipelines running at 667 MHz. This is a quite high clock speed compared to most GPUs, which are generally between 400 MHz (low-end) and 667 (high-end). In comparison to fixed function, Intel datasheets indicate 2 pixel pipeline, for total of 1.33Gpixels/s (how the unified shaders are used is a mystery at this point). It can also share up to 384MB of RAM with the computer's CPU. Digital Video Out (DVO) port is boosted to 270 Mpixel/s. Dual independent display is supported via device connected to DVO port.

Early performance tests show the X3000 to be quite a bit slower than the GMA 950. This was a side effect of there being no available Windows driver that supports the X3000 hardware features, notably hardware T&L, so the tests were based on software rendering.[2] Intel has not publicly stated when such a driver would become available.

You just have to sit and read. Basically the X1300 Pro is better than the integrated x3000. That is one way to keep computer prices down. The x1300 not quite suited for gaming though. Spend a little for the the 1600 or 1650 for a little bit faster card.

The below URL has the specs on the Radeon card on cnet.com

Also go to pcworld and cnet for info on upgrading your video card.

Answer 2

Radeon x1300 Pro is much better than Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 . Radeon X1300 Pro performance is far greater than the performance obtained by GeForce 6200 and Radeon X300 models. Radeon X1300 Pro isn't an entry-level chip. It is a low mid-range chip for users that want an entry-level VGA.

Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 is Intel's onboard graphics solution. Although the chipset hardware itself supports T&L, no graphics drivers are currently available to utilize this feature.

I'd expect a benchmark 3DMark 2001SE score for the Radeon X1300 Pro to be twice as good as Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 .