These systems continued to use aging SDRAM memory, which limited them to a maximum of 1066 MB/s of bandwidth, similar to earlier GPUs. The first implementation appeared inside of Intel's i830 chipset family (Almador), which was designed for Pentium III-M. The performance of Intel's Extreme Graphics iGPUs was heavily dependent on the chipset, RAM and processor.
Motherboard manufacturers could optionally place 4MB of dedicated video memory onto their platforms, connected directly to the graphics processor via AGP x4 and providing an additional 1066 MB/s. Although this throughput was shared with the processor, the iGPU never had access to the whole pipe. At the time, Intel used 66, 100 or 133MHz FSB configurations alongside asynchronous SDRAM, giving the system a maximum bandwidth of 533, 800 or 1066 MB/s, respectively. Their performance was dependent on two factors: RAM speed, which was often linked to the FSB, and in turn dependent on the processor, and the CPU itself. The GPU was incorporated into the northbridge, becoming the first integrated graphics processors sold by Intel. Around the same time, Intel began using its graphics technology inside of chipsets like the i810 ("Whitney") and i815 ("Solano").
I752 Graphics Chip And The 81x Series Chipsets (1999)Īfter the i740 disaster, Intel developed and briefly sold a second graphics card named the i752 "Portola", though in very limited quantities. Intel attempted to improve the situation by compelling motherboard manufacturers to bundle the card with 440BX-based platforms, but this failed too. The i740 ultimately proved to be a disaster.
Early drivers further crippled the card's performance, and its picture quality was questionable because of a slow RAMDAC. It also reduced CPU performance, as the processor had less bandwidth and memory to work with. System RAM couldn't be accessed as quickly as on-board memory, which negatively impacted performance. Unfortunately, the GPU encountered a number of difficulties. Without having to pay as much for pricey RAM, Intel sold its i740 at a relatively low cost. As such, the i740 uses the on-board memory only as a frame buffer, while storing all textures inside of the platform's memory. In order to get around the shortage of on-board memory, Intel planned to take advantage of a feature built into the AGP interface that allowed the card to utilize system RAM. It also supported DirectX 5.0 and OpenGL 1.1. Comparable cards cards of the time typically included at least 8MB and ranged up to 32MB. In 1998, Intel launched its first graphics card: the i740 code-named "Auburn." It was clocked at 220MHz and employed a relatively small amount of VRAM between 2 and 8MB.