Intel-Based Dual-Core Laptops Ready for Vista
Posted by Dan Sommer | Tuesday, March 07, 2006 4:00 PM PT
Yesterday I attended an Intel pre-Developers Forum event in which the chip maker showed off its new Centrino Duo Mobile Technology. That means we saw lots of high-end laptops powered by Core Duo processors as they merrily handled multiple tasks faster than single-core laptops could run them.
The favored demo was to run an antivirus scan in the background while doing something processor-intensive in the foreground such as turning a large PowerPoint presentation into a PDF, talking to and viewing your distant friends via Skype's video product, or editing artwork. The results? The Core Duo machines rocked, of course. I'm ready to buy one now. (For a primer on dual-core computers,
click here. And for a look at our early benchmarks,
click here.)
Intel also got to one-up Microsoft with its dual-core processor. Microsoft
claimed in July 2005 that you would need a dedicated graphics card to run Windows Vista Home Premium (the coming Media Center OS). But I saw an Acer laptop with Intel's
945GM Express Chipset and integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics easily handling Premium's "translucent glass" and rolodexing screens.
Looks like you can future-proof--Windows-wise at least--your next laptop purchase today.
The same integrated Intel GMA 950 GPU is found in the new Apple Mac mini and while many forums have been flooded with people horrified at the idea of integrated graphics it seems this intel GPU can quite comfortably handle HD video when coupled with a Core-Duo 1.6ghz CPU, and is natively supported by Apple's CoreImage technology which handles a lot of the fancy rendering and effects within Mac OS, and real-time image manipulation.
Unless you want to play games it seems we should no longer be afraid of integrated graphics
"Unless you want to play games it seems we should no longer be afraid of integrated graphics"
read that carefully b4 u buy anything....
So does this mean Core Duo is 64-bit, or that some versions of Vista will not be 64-bit?
Core Duo is not 64-Bit. Intel can still copy AMD64's instructions, but it still won't be a 64-bit processor.
Dell Inspiron 6400 (names varies in US) also runs on Intel? Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (with up to to 224MB of shared1 memory)
The 6400 now has a dedicated video aceleerator at 128 mb and 256 mb. I am going to get me one of those puppies i think.
I have ab IBM X60 withe 1.83 Core Duo and Intel 945 graphics. I have installed Vista Beta 2 multiple times on it and frustratingly can not get anything more than the Vista Basic interface working even after install the Intel 945 Graphics drivers.