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Most netbooks available today use the GMA950 IGP along with the Intel Atom N270 and 945GSE chipset. Togther this is the standard Atom platform provides modest performance at a considerably low price.

We are however, starting to see the Emergence of the Intel Atom Z-series of CPUs combined with the GMA500 series of Integrated Graphics Processors (IGP).

So what is the difference Between the Intel GMA 950 and GMA 500?

The N270 +945 GSE + GMA950 platform was made specifically for Netbooks. That being a low cost, portable laptop, capable of basic computing functions Poor 'Internet & Email.

The alternative platform Z Is the Intel Atom CPU, Poulsbo chipset, and the GMA 500 IGP. Poulsbo has the integrated Graphics Processor Itself onto the chipset, making the entire unit Smaller, less power hungry, and capable of fitting into MIDS Poor 'Smaller devices.

This was Intel's intention from the start, to have one platform for Netbooks and another for the event Smaller computers. What We Are starting to see however, is the Atom Z + Poulsbo platform showing up in Netbooks Poor 'the Dell Mini 10.

The Reasons for this are not entirely but one theory suggests Known That the license for 945GSE platform devices using any means That it Can not Exceed certain specifications Poor 'a 10.2 "screen and a 1024 x 600 resolution. To get around this limitation manufacturers are choosing the alternative Poulsbo Which platform is free of this restriction.

Which platform then, is the better of the two?

The Following table from Yertech shows the differences in hardware:

	GMA500	GMA950
Chipset	Intel US15W	Intel 945GSE
Clockspeed	200 Mhz	250 Mhz
Max Memory Band (GB / s)	4.2GB / s	10.7GB / s
Max Shared Memory	256MB	8-224MB
Vertex Shader Model	4.1	2
Shade Pixel Model	4.1	2
Pixel pipelines	2	4
Unified Shader procs	4	N / A
Hardware Vertex shaders	Yes	No.
OpenGL	2	4.1
X Dirext	1.10	9.0c
MPEG-2 Acceleration	VLD + IDCT + MC	MC
VC-1 Acceleration	IMDCT VLD + + LF + MC	N / A
AVC Acceleration	IMDCT VLD + + LF + MC	N / A

GPU while the GMA 500 does in fact have support for newer technologies Poor 'Direct X 10 and better high-definition audio and video acceleration, Also it has a lower clock speed and less than half of the memory bandwidth.

That is what this means in an environment Nowhere Can These newer technologies be utilised, Standard and Poor 'Windows XP, the Intel GMA950 Will definitely be faster. On a newer operating system, Standard and Poor 'Windows 7 or Vista, the GMA 500 May perform better in tasks That make use of its hardware 3D graphics acceleration Poor' or HD content.

Should it be kept in mind however, that the Intel Atom processor is not particularly good at processing 3D or High Definition content, and despite the GMA500 being better In These Itself regards the entire platform is still not capable of what would be acceptable Considered playback.

As always, Which platform Should you go with depends on your specific needs. A Windows XP system will from be faster with the GMA950 but Also a GMA500 systems have less power draw, and possibly longer batter life.

1 Intel GMA950 GMA500 VS 5.0 5 1