Jonathon Watkins
04-18-2004, 04:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040412_000002.html' target='_blank'>http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnew...412_000002.html</a><br /><br /></div>As <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=26714&">we mentioned </a>last week, Intel has just launched a new graphics accelerator for handheld devices. Called the 2700G (codenamed Marathon), the multimedia chip is designed to deliver high performance graphics rendering on mobile devices. Well, someone's actually managed to get their hands on one to see if it does.<br /><br />"A first live demonstration of the chip at Tom's Hardware Guide labs in Munich supports Intel's bold performance statement. "The graphics performance of the reference platform appears to be on the same level as those of chips currently used in game consoles," said Harald Thon, managing editor. So far it is just an subjective impression, but Thon said he was surprised by lighting and shader effects, display of detail and the frame rate of the FPS demo which ran in VGA resolution." Objective benchmarks, they've heard of them! <br /><br />"There is no doubt that Intel's market entry will accelerate the development of graphics chips for handheld devices. You don't have to be a visionary to forecast that PDAs and cell phones will evolve to gaming platforms which will rival the performance of your Playstation in the not too distant future. Despite the doubt of analysts, Intel is first to publicly demonstrate game demos and videos in VGA resolution approaching 30 frames per second on a handheld device - at least to our knowledge. As comparison, typical PocketPCs currently reach maximum frame rates of about 20 fps with software acceleration such as Fathammer's X-Forge. For now, we have to believe Intel and will have to wait until we can get our hands on a review unit to see what the 2700G is capable of." I'm all for decent 3D graphics on the PPC, but as I've said before, I hope that this won't impact the battery life too much. Too much of a good thing and all that........