Intel pushes multimedia higher
- — 29 April, 1999 21:49
Are you worried that the Pentium III doesn't really offer enough horsepower for games and video? Adding high-end multimedia support to its performance PC chip line, Intel has announced its 752 graphics accelerator, optimised for the PIII.
"The Intel 752 offers PC users an all-terrain graphics accelerator," says Gary Thomas, general manager for Intel's US-based graphics component division.
The newest member of the Intel Graphics Technology family, the 752 graphics chip accelerates digital video, boosts 2D graphics quality, and provides enthusiast-level 3D rendering for PC gamers, power users and design professionals, the company said.
Upgradable graphics
Intel's 752 accelerator leverages IGT, the company's scalable graphics architecture. "[IGT] brings standardised drivers across the whole product line," says Michael Hopwood, Adobe's group product manager in the US. This can improve reliability and produce more predictable performance, he adds.
Additionally, the 752 will provide an inexpensive and seamless migration path from AGP2X to AGP4X. Later this year Intel plans to unveil a 754 graphics accelerator -- a 4X version of the 752 that can be swapped with the older chip. "It's a drop-in replacement," says Jay Sturges, a platform architecture manager for Intel's platform components division.
The 754 accelerator will also use drivers that are compatible with Intel's 810 chipset, the company's low-cost graphic chipset configured for Celeron-based systems.
