ATI Radeon 9100 IGP

Supplied by ATi

The Radeon 9100 IGP is ATI’s integrated graphics chip that steps squarely on
the toes of Intel’s Extreme Graphics chip. The impact that the 9100 IGP will
have may not be clear to most; that is until now. The Radeon 9100 IGP is a cost-effective,
on-motherboard graphics chip that will change the level of graphics performance
for thousands and perhaps millions of pre-built PCs.

To understand the reason behind the ATI Radeon 9100 IGP is to first understand
the consumer who is targeted. The Radeon 9100 IGP is primarily a solution to
fit a specific budget price niche. Secondly it is designed to compete with and
better the performance of similar products both integrated and slot based. It
isn’t much more complicated than that. This is where ATI continues the ground
war of graphics. Up in the clouds the big jets of video cards fight it out meanwhile
the troops en masse slug it out from hill to hill fighting for every dollar
from the budget conscious consumer.

ATI looked at the video card that was selling the most units. It wasn’t theirs.
It is also presumptuous to think that the top 2 or 3 video cards in either camp,
ATI or NVIDIA, are selling the most units. The video card that sells the most
is actually far down the performance chain in the land of enthusiast mediocrity.
The reason lies deep inside the wallets of consumers. A lot of PC buyers are
attracted to a price point. They see a price point that appeals then they scan
for what the PC comes with. Most PC buyers will never look inside a PC and wouldn’t
know motherboard from RAM from CPU but they do know they want better for less.

Go to a well known system builder site such as Dell or Gateway. The value systems
often feature “integrated graphics” and this market is dominated by
Intel. Integrated graphics means the graphics processor is part of the motherboard.
The physical video card is not required thus cutting the cost and making those
“value” PCs so cheap. Intel integrated graphics are also notorious
for poor performance. Many buyers think they are saving money and get the PC
home only to discover that 2D applications such as Word run well but games are
unbearably slow if playable at all.

The next level are the value video cards such as the GeForce MX440 series.
These video cards add to the overall price but offer improved performance for
the casual gamer. The term “improved” is used loosely as today’s games
tax a system to a greater extent. This deficiency can result in less frames
per second, a choppy game, and loss of effects in the game. The loss of effects
can show as plain blue where clouds should be or lack of realism in fog, lighting
effects, etc. The game player just won’t be able to see all that the game can
visually offer because the video card can’t produce those effects.

The PC buyer may then choose to bump up a third notch to the top end of the
value spectrum with a higher performance video card. This bump in performance
further bumps the price of the value system making overall price not so much
a “value” anymore.

What ATI hopes to achieve with the Radeon 9100 IGP is providing the performance
at a truly value price.

Is it a video card or is it a chipset?

The Radeon 9100 IGP is an integrated solution. It is part of the motherboard
northbridge and southbridge configuration so it’s a little of both. The northbridge
is the graphics heart and ATI says the Radeon 9100 IGP enables “…new
standards in platform performance and graphics realism with full support for
programmable pixel shaders. With 800MHz FSB with Hyper Threading support, RADEON
9100 IGP is complementary to the latest CPUs. Dual channel DDR memory and a
400MHz AGP 8x pipeline deliver increased overall system performance. With advanced
video features, an integrated LAN-ready Ethernet controller and six USB 2.0
ports, this power performer enables productive and cost-effective platform designs
for competitive markets.”

CPU Interface

• Up to 800 MHz CPU FSB for Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor
• Supports Intel® Hyper-Threading™ processors
• In-Order Queue (IOQ) depth of 12
• Supports Dynamic Bus Inversion (DBI)
• Supports system bus interrupt delivery

System Logic Features

• Integrated master clock generator with spread spectrum support
• AGP 3.0 compliant AGP 8X interface with Fast Write support
• 266MB/second point-to-point interface to ATI IXP in A-Link mode
• Unified Memory Architecture (UMA)
• Dual channel 128-bit DDR SDRAM memory interface
• DDR400 SDRAM support provides up to 6.4 GB/second bandwidth
• Up to 4 GB DRAM support with two unbuffered DIMMs
• 16 MB to 128 MB of main memory configurable as display memory
• Up to 6 USB2.0 ports
• Two independent IDE channels with support of mode 0 to 4, and ATA 100
• Supports LPC based Super I/O
• Integrated 3-COM™ Ethernet controller

3D Graphics Features

• HyperZ™ memory optimization technology
• Hardware with Pixel Shader 1.4 support
• Supports up to 2048×1536 @ 32bpp.
• Supports 3D textures and Microsoft® DirectX® texture compression
• Anisotropic texture filtering and Full Screen Anti-Aliasing (FSAA)

Video Features

• Video scaling and filtering with advanced 4-tap horizontal and vertical
  filter
• Integrated hardware motion compensation and iDCT
• Enhanced MPEG-2 hardware decode
• Hardware DVD sub-picture decode

2D Graphics Features

• Highly optimized 128-bit 2D Engine
• Hardware cursor up to 64x64x32 BPP
• Supports a maximum resolution of 2048×1536 @ 32bpp.
• Support for Microsoft® Windows® XP alpha cursor

Display Controller

• Dual CRT controllers provide independent dual display support
• Display rotation support
• Comprehensive DDC and hot plugging support
• Integrated high precision 300MHz triple 10-bit DAC supports resolutions
  up to 2048 x 1536

Flat Panel Monitor Support

• 12-bit digital output to support DVI, DFP and VESA P&D via external
  TMDS
• Supports up to 1600×1200 screen resolution for LCD panels
• Support for VESA defined reduced blanking modes

TV-Out Support

• Integrated TV encoder with composite, S-Video, and RGB interfaces
• Supports PAL/NTSC TV formats
• 10-bit DAC with 8-tap filter and ATI-exclusive enhancements
• Macrovision 7.02 copy protection standard
• Supports up to 1024×768 32bpp mode

Optimized Software Support

• Microsoft DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL® drivers
• Unified driver support for all RADEON discrete and integrated graphics products
• Support for Microsoft Windows® XP, Windows® 2000, and Windows®
  Me

Presently the Radeon 9100 IGP is for INTEL only. Up to 128 MB of main system
memory can be assigned to the 9100 IGP. That means the IGP is “borrowing”
from main memory, the system RAM, to do its job. An interesting observation
is the IGP can be combined with a standard dual head video card to enable triple
head mode. The Matrox Parhelia is the only other product that can support up
to 3 monitors and the 9100 IGP, with an additional dual monitor capable video
card, could accomplish the same except for less. The 9100 IGP supports dual
CRT monitors up to 2048×1536 @ 32bpp or a single digital flat panel monitor
up to 1024×768 32bpp but a DVI adapter must be used. Only DirectX 8.1 is fully
supported even though the benchmark tests were completed with DirectX 9.0b drivers
in place. The Radeon 9100 IGP supports NTSC/PAL TV-out though the optional bracket
was not included with the review system.

The term “Programmable Pixel Shaders” is given significant emphasis
for a simple reason; realism. Programmable Pixel Shaders allow for an almost
infinite range of visual effects in games. Pixel Shaders work with Vertex shaders
to create game detail and effects and without them the game may lack the realism
in such effects as flares and water to name just two. Programmable Pixel Shaders
can enable more detailed texture lighting and thus more surface detail in an
object.

The IXP250 makes up the southbridge with support for 6 USB ports, Integrated
3Com 10/100 Ethernet controller, ATA-100 Drive Interface, and optional six-channel
AC97 audio. SATA drive support is missing from the IXP250 southbridge which
may have to be addressed in the future as SATA drives become more popular…and
profitable to OEM system builders.

So what?

When it comes right down to it the techno-babble goes right past many PC buyers.
The potential buyer may be poised with a finger on the mouse button as the cursor
hovers over the place order button or facing a salesperson in a store. They
may like the price but the will ask “so how does it play games?” This
is an entirely relative question. Relative to what? The top end video cards
can cost almost as much as the budget systems and the buyer gets top end performance
at top dollar.

It is important to compare the Radeon 9100 IGP to the competition in its class.
Dell and Gateway do use the GeForce FX5200 as a base model video card in their
value and mid-budget systems. Gateway uses the integrated INTEL Extreme graphics
chip as well. The GeForce MX440 SE is another very popular value video card.

All of this boils down to a price/performance number. The Radeon 9100 IGP squarely
targets those budget conscious consumers and ATI wants a piece of that market.

Benchmarks.

The test system

• Intel P4 2.4 GHz 512KB
  800 MHz processor (HT enabled)
• MSI RS3M-IL mATX motherboard
• 2 x 256 MB Corsair PC3200 DDR RAM in DIMM 1 and 2
• Sony 52x CD
• Western Digital 80 GB Hard Drive
• Samsung 950p 19″ Monitors
• USB Keyboard and Optical Mouse
• Retail HSF packaged with processor
• AMK SX1000
  modded PC case (window, fans, cables, loom)
• Enermax 465 Watt FC PSU
• Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 updated.

The video

	ATI Radeon 9100 IGP	NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440-SE	NVIDIA GeForce FX5200
Onboard Memory	Configurable up to 128 MB of main memory	Memory 64MB DDR	Memory 64MB DDR
Core clock	300 MHz	250MHz	250MHz
Memory Clock	400MHz effective DDR memory	333MHz effective DDR memory	333MHz effective DDR memory
AGP	AGP 8x	AGP 4x/2x	AGP 8x
Fill Rate		1.1 billion texels/sec.	1.0 Billion texels/sec.
Vertices		31 million/sec.	63 million/sec.
Memory Bandwidth	6.4 GB/second	2.15 GB/second	2.15GB/second
RAMDAC	400MHz	350MHz	350MHz
Drivers Used	ATI 7.94 test drivers	53.03	52.16

Programs used

• MadOnion
  3DMark 2001 SE
• MadOnion
  3DMark 2003
• Quake
  III Arena
• GL
  Excess
• SpecviewPerf 7.1
• Serious Sam SE
• Unreal Tournament 2003 flyby benchmark
• Aquamark3
• Jurassic Park Operation Genesis
• Call of Duty demo
• X2
  Demo
• Wolfenstein Enemy Territory
• Fraps

All tests were run at default video card settings with VSYNC disabled. Nvidia
cards were set to PERFORMANCE. Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering was left
ticked for application preference. AGP aperture was set in BIOS to match the
memory amount of the video card. DirectX 8.1 was used only for 3DMARK 2001 SE
tests and Splinter Cell tests. DirectX 90b was installed for all other tests.
Windows visual effects was set for ADJUST FOR BEST PERFORMANCE. Windows was
restarted before each test. An process idle command was executed before each
test.

Individual performance will vary with any particular or specific timings or
tweaks enabled by you. A 768 MB page file was moved to D: partition. Temporary
Internet files moved to J: partition at end of drive. OS installed to C: and
programs installed to E:. All programs were benchmarked with initial monitor
settings at 1024×768@75Hz.

3DMark 2001 SE

3D Mark 2001 SE and it’s replacement, 3D Mark 2003, answer the simple question
of how fast the hardware is; all of the hardware that powers the game. The GeForce
MX440 SE would not run 3DMARK 2001 SE.

3DMark 2003

3D Mark 2003 was originally designed to measure performance specifically in
shader-heavy titles.

 

 

 

 

Aquamark3

Aquamark3 is a newer benchmark from Massive Development. For the most part
it is a DirectX 8.1 benchmark though it is run with DirectX 90b installed. Four
measurement sets were used. The first has high and low detail with Anti Aliasing
and Anisotropic filtering turned off. The second has high and low detail with
Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic filtering set at max.

 

Splinter Cell Chinese Embassy timedemo

GL Excess

GL Excess is an OPENGL benchmark that is optimized for DX8.1 as can be seen
by the differences between DirectX software.

Quake III high quality

Serious Sam

UT2003 Flyby

 

Wolfenstein Enemy Territory: Railgun timedemo

 

Wolfenstein Enemy Territory uses an improved version of the heavily
modified Quake III engine from Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The Railgun time
demo results were recorded.

 

 

X2 Rolling Demo

 

X2 – The Threat is a teaser with a benchmark option for Egosoft’s
upcoming release. It does not use pixel shaders.

 

 

Call of Duty Demo

 

Call of Duty is a new game thus using the latest in optimizations.
FRAPS was used to record the average number of frames per second over a minimum
of 100,000 played frames. Call of Duty also finds its roots in the Quake III
engine. The MX440 SE delivered too low a frame rate thus making the game virtually
unplayable.

 

Specviewperf 7.1

SpecviewPerf measures the 3D rendering performance of systems
running under OPENGL. The improved 9800 with its massive amounts of memory only
make the 9700 look silly.

Benchmark Conclusions

The Radeon 9100 IGP turns out impressive performance for an integrated graphics
processor. The 9100 IGP was completely stable throughout all benchmark tests
while the competing cards had their problems with the occaisional lockup or
inability to run a benchmark at all.

Conclusion

The Radeon 9100 IGP is not readily available as of yet but partners ASUS, MSI,
Sapphire, FIC, Shuttle, Soyo, GIGABYTE, BIOSTAR, and Chaintech are lined up
to release 9100 IGP platforms targeted at the pre-built system market. This
market goes to the store, online or retail, and buys a box based on price then
looks at what it can do. They probably will never look inside and it will sit
beside a desk until the next “box” is bought 2-4 years from now. The
business is looking for a cheap upgrade solution. An office may have to look
into replacing 10, 20, 30 or more PCs and the total cost adds up. The Radeon
9100 IGP solution provides a platform that only requires a hard drive, processor,
ram, case, power supply, mouse and keyboard. The Radeon 9100 IGP has 10/100
ethernet, sufficient USB ports and firewire which is more than enough for any
general business use.

All of the test benchmark games worked with the Radeon 9100 IGP but frames
bogged down considerably with more intensive graphic expectations. Call of Duty
was choppy and slow at 1024×768 and almost impossible at 1600×1200.

For the home user the Radeon 9100 IGP provides a comparable performance solution
to present integrated graphics PCs and budget level video cards at what should
be a very cost-competitive price. The Radeon 9100 IGP is not a high performance
gaming solution but is able to accommodate the casual gamer especially with
game resolution and detail kept in check. The stability and enhancements equal
or better the competition it its class. This is where ATI will make headway
is with the pre-built PCs that feature integrated graphics. Most consumers on
a budget won’t care if the GPU is integrated or not. They care mostly about
price and the ATI 9100 IGP is poised to provide a better integrated graphics
solution at a very acceptable price. It will be the smart consumers that are
aware that the current INTEL integrated graphics solution cannot compete against
the Radeon 9100 IGP. It may now say “Intel Inside” but it could soon
say “ATI Inside”.

Our thanks to ATI for their
support of this and many other sites.