The launch of the Intel 915G integrated chipset and the expected introduction of the ATI Technologies RS400 and RS480 integrated chipsets in August are expected impact the entry-level graphics card market, said sources at Taiwanese motherboard makers.
The 915G chipset, which features Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900 and supports DX9 and PCI Express, could deliver more than twice the performance of 865G chipsets and perform comparably to the Nvidia GeForce FX5200 and ATI Radeon 9200, according to testing results by the makers.
The 915G, with a built-in PCI Express interface and including a graphics core, will be priced only US$4 higher than the Intel 915P chipset, making it a very competitive solution, said local makers.
The performance of the ATI RS400 integrated chipset (supporting the P4 platform) and the RS480 integrated chipset (supporting the K8 platform) is similar to the Intel 915G chipset, the makers indicated.
However, current bugs in the south bridge and I/O of the RS400 chipset could delay the expected August launch, and therefore affect market demand, the makers cautioned.




