Although Intel is the most common chip used in computers today, they haven’t exactly been great on graphics performance and to get any sort of quality viewing users have to buy a decent graphics card.
Now all that is about to change with Intel’s next generation laptop chips which are based on the ‘Sandy Bridge’ architecture as this which will bring many new features that will improve graphics performance.
With these chips we will be able to play Blu-ray 3D movies without having to buy a separate graphics processor to view 3D, and the chips won’t drain our battery either according to Intel Spokesman Nick Knupffer.
This will be the first time that Intel will integrate the CPU and the graphics processor on one single chip, the New York Times reports Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at insight 64 as saying. At the moment they are on one piece of silicon but as separate units.
The Sandy Bridge chips will go into production later this year and are expected to be available to buy in the first half of 2011.
Intel are expected to tell us more at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco which is due to take place next month but in the meantime, Intel are not the only ones who are putting the CPU and GPU together in a single processor, AMD are also doing it and will be releasing their FUSION chips in the coming months too.
So who’s going to come out on top in the laptop chip stakes next year?
It could be argued that Intel is going to have a slight edge as they will be able to get their chips out there sooner than AMD.
“The fact that we’re an aggregate device manufacturer allows us to do internal optimization of all of these pieces and bring out a leading-edge product sooner than other companies” Cnet reports Mark Bohr a Senior Fellow from Intel as saying.
On the other hand John Taylor, director of marketing for Fusion sees it differently. “Intel is understandably more CPU centric. That’s Intel’s view” CNET quoted Taylor.
“We’re a provider (via ATI) of graphics chips. We’re incorporating world-class GPU intellectual property into a new type of design. We look at the GPU in a consumer notebook as a very efficient compute engine as well as all of the wonderful 2D and 3D graphics capabilities”.
The fact is they’re both bringing different elements to the party and no matter what Intel or AMD say at the moment it is ultimately speed, performance and battery life that will decide.
