G965 and G35: What's the difference??

[davidc1]

I can't seem to find the difference between G965 and G35 chipset in terms of graphics capability, except for DX10 support. I don't think DX10 is enough of a difference since G965 was presented to be DX10 capable long before it came out, but it got scrapped due to bugs in hardware.

Are they essentially the same chip?? Is G35 just a G965 with better Clear Video and DX10 support?? Or are there enhancements graphics-wise. More fill rate perhaps??

[7oby]

G965 -> G35 :

Vertex Shader 3.0 -> 4.0
Pixel Shader 3.0 -> 4.0
OpenGL 1.5 -> 2.0 (at some point of time hopefully)
only G35 : in-loop deblocking filter for VC-1 videos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X3100#Table_of_GMA_graphics_cores_and_chipsets
http://download.intel.com/products/graphics/intel_graphics_guide.pdf

You may also study the datasheets to finde more differences. However regarding memory bandwidth limited fillrate is no difference.

Regarding API library versions: I'd think more about compatibility. The X3x00 isn't a great performer, but certain applications will require a certain version of some library. Even demos like those:
http://breakpoint.untergrund.net/download.php?dir=

If you've got a choice, I'd go for G35 (or even G45 once it's available). One of the reasons is: Longer software maintainance and support from intel. You do see the postings here like this one: "i915 is no longer supported ...". On the other hand you could argue: But it's the same X3x00 architecture and will outdate most likely at the same point of time in the future.

If you compare the memory controller specifications for both chips, you'll notice some differences. E.g. see page 338 of http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/313053.htm
which mentions for the G965
"Note: 800MHz 1Gb technology is not supported"
and referes to the technology of the DRAM chips. If you compare that to the corresponding page 287 of
http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/317607.htm
for the G35, you see that is not present.

Using 1Gbit technology means you'r stuck at DDR2-667, when using 1Gigabyte size DIMMs with 8 Chips. The G35 can go full speed (DDR2-800). Using 512MBit technology both can go DDR2-800. The latter one uses 16 DRam chips (most likely double sided).

Maximum fillrate is proportional to memory bandwidth and does make some difference.

[davidc1]

SM4.0 support is same thing as DX10 support, so going back to my post, other than DX10 I guess G35=G965. The VC1 acceleration addition isn't enough of a difference either.

I use G965 btw.

[infocom-solutions]

Hi,

Is their a dedicated GPU in G35 Chipset...... Does G35 is available in the market ?

Please share more info on the chipset and themotherboard which has G35 chipset.

Cheers

Praveen

[7oby]

pavihunt@rediffmail.com:

Is their a dedicated GPU in G35 Chipset...... Does G35 is available in the market ?

The G35 chipset features a northbridge chip which includes a memory controller and a graphics engine as well. The graphics engine is called GMA X3500:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#Table_of_GMA_graphics_cores_and_chipsets

But the G35 doesn't feature memory dedicated only to the graphics engine. Based on demand G35 takes memory for video processing and display from the installed main memory. This is what people mean by saying "shared memory graphics card". The amount of memory isn't static. On my X3100 and a 1920 x 1200 display it eats ~180MB most of the time.

I know that the Asus P5E-VM HDMI mainboard features G35 and is available on the market.