Intel Integrated Graphics: It is Time for Games

If ATI/AMD and NVidia are known for being the two main companies fighting to deliver the most competitive GPU, Intel remains the world leader for manufacturing graphic solutions, thanks to its integrated graphics. Of course, the GMA950 powering the Mac mini and MacBook graphic abilities is far from being a GPU killer, and even the recently released GM 3000 (now known as 3001) associated with the Santa Rosa platform was not really bringing the expected performance revolution for integrated graphics. Well, up to couple of days ago...
On paper the GM 3000 is indeed a really improved unit compared to the GM 950, and if the gain of performance was not the one expected, it was mostly due to inefficient drivers. This is where Intel engineers started working on, and came up with the first true dedicated drivers. Currently available only for the Windows XP, those improved drivers allows hardware vertex shading (Vertex Shaders 3.0), and games like Call of Duty 2, Far Cry and Battlefield 2 (which didn’t even run previously) are now playable.
Not convinced yet? Watch the video:

So should we expect better graphic performance for the next revision of MacBook which should then move to Santa Rosa and GM 3001? Not sure, as Apple will have to work on its drivers too... Intel showed Cupertino the way to follow regarding drivers, let's hope that Apple will consider it, but not doing so will look odd especially after EA Games porting announcement during the last WWDC.