IGP performance
IGP performance was tested with a 32MB framebuffer. 16MB embedded memory was interleaved with 16MB of system RAM (UMA+sideport), which ATI suggests is the fastest combination. I've compared the IGP's performance to Intel's GMA 900 integrated video, which also boasts DX9 specification. It, however, has 4 rendering pipelines fed off a 333MHz clock (RS480 IGP has 2 at 333MHz), but uses dynamically allocated system memory for its bandwidth requirement.
ATI's IGP has, on paper, half the GMA 900's pixel-pushing power, yet it manages to outdo Intel's IGP in 3DMark2001SE. I can remember when ~7,000 marks was considered a high-end score for a discrete graphics card. How things have moved on.
The gap is far wider in DX9-class 3DMark03. It seems as if ATI's shading ability is far superior to Intel's. That's confirmed by an average 9FPS in the Pixel Shader 2.0-heavy Mother Nature Test. The GMA 900 returns a 6.4FPS average. My main reservation in handing out a unanimous ATI victory here is incorrect rendering in the Battle Of Proxycon test.
Further rendering errors also put DOOM 3's results in a questionable light.
Pixel-pushing power finally comes to the fore in our high-detail UT2003 benchmark.
ATI's RS480-based IGP only has half of the sheer grunt of Intel's GMA 900 but its superior shading ability sees it do better with recent games. Better is entirely comparative, of course, as DOOM 3's performance shows. There still is no real alternative to having a decent discrete video card if you're intending on playing the latest games at a decent resolution/quality setting.
