New Intel GMA 500 drivers improves performance

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22 Jun, 2009 8:00 am

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Intel AtomAccording to Portablemonkey, who’s been doing some digging over at the Pocketables forum, Intel’s latest drivers for the US15W chipset with integrated GMA 500 graphics has been given a serious speed bump.

The new driver (7.14.10.1105) not only improves overall 2D and 3D graphics performance, but it also seems to vastly improve video playback. This is especially true with YouTube video and iTunes.

With a bit more tweaking the Z-series Atom processors and the US15W chipset might yet prove to be a worthy contender, something it hasn’t quite lived up to as yet, despite the vastly improved battery life over the N270 and 945GSE combo.

You can find more details here and you can download the new driver directly from Intel here


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  • David

    Your link to “you can download the new driver directly from Intel here” is for version 7.14.10.1005. Where did you get 7.14.10.1105?

  • http://www.netbooknews.com netbooknews

    If you read the forum post you'll notice that the driver on Intel's website is actually 7.14.10.1105 and not 7.14.10.1005, it's a typo made by Intel somehow. I should've highlighted that in the story, apologies for that.

  • Fanfoot

    Wow, this is huge. Thanks for the link.

    Since this chipset is the basis for the one in Pineview, its incredibly important that Intel get better GPU support out there. This chip was always supposed to be better than the one for the N-series Atom's, but you could never tell from its performance in the real world.

    Sounds like it still has some stability issues, and is mislabeled as to verion, but it seems like an incredible advance. Hope you keep following the news here.

  • David

    When I tried to install, it told me that it was an older version. I installed it anyway, and it crashed my video. I had to do a restore. I am using an Acer One 751 with RC1 Windows 7.

  • http://www.netbooknews.com netbooknews

    Well, I haven't tried the drivers yet, so I couldn't say, I was only reporting what was said on the Pocketables forum. From what they're saying on there, it's a bit tricky to install in Windows 7, as after all, it's a Vista driver, not a Windows 7 driver.

  • http://www.netbooknews.com netbooknews

    Well, the GMA 500 uses the PoverVR SGX graphics core, it's the same as you'll find in the iPhone and a lot of Smartphones with ARM processors. It's a very low power IGP (integrated graphics processor) and as such it makes sense for what Intel is trying to do. Sadly though, Intel hasn't really spent too much time trying to produce sensible Windows drivers for this IGP, although maybe in another couple of releases we'll see some overall better performance. However, the reported improvements of this version seems to be almost good enough.

  • Justin

    oooh you got my hopes up for 10 minutes there! Unfortunately my MSI x320 still has stuttering on video playback even after installing the new driver!

  • http://www.netbooknews.com netbooknews

    Sorry to hear that. What exactly are you trying to watch and what application are you using?
    As that does have something to do with it as well, not just drivers.

  • gulam

    I got a dell mini 10 (not v) z530 with everything cost £430 inc HD Screen 1366*768

    And what a load of crap its turned out to be.

    I had

    Asus 900
    Asus 901
    Samsung NC10

    Dell mini 910

    All except asus 900 (celeron) were very good, NC10 was best so far.

    I got the mini 10 because of the HD screen (good). and HSDPA card no one else has both.

    Very disapointed

  • gulam

    I got a dell mini 10 (not v) z530 with everything cost £430 inc HD Screen 1366*768

    And what a load of crap its turned out to be.

    I had

    Asus 900
    Asus 901
    Samsung NC10

    Dell mini 910

    All except asus 900 (celeron) were very good, NC10 was best so far.

    I got the mini 10 because of the HD screen (good). and HSDPA card no one else has both.

    Very disapointed