there really isn't an obvious reason why an integrated graphics set can't go toe-to-toe with a better-than-average off-board chipset.
Of course there is a reason. It's called cost. Cost is very important, if not #1 factor, and integrated graphics increases die size substantially. Its said 90% of the die is integrated graphics for Radeon Xpress 200(Anandtech). Intel charges $7 extra for integrated graphics. $7 can't compete with discrete. When chipsets used to have 7-10 milliont transistors back in Pentium 4 Northwood days, and graphics nowadays have 100+ million(
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=1752) for budget graphics cards....
You're comparing today's lowest end external card to tomorrow's best internal.
I'm fairly sure GMA950 beats out a Geforce MX 4200 as well.
Hmm. GMA900 is pretty slow, GF4MX 420 is actually faster than GMA900, but GMA950 got nice driver changes and much better support for games, so I am not sure.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2427&p=1
That aside, here are the specs of GMA X3000 for desktop, with
GMA 950 in brackets
667MHz core clock(400MHz)
Pixel Shader 3.0(2.0)*
Vertex Shader 3.0 Hardware support(3.0 software)*
G965/Q965/Q963 datasheets show 4 pixel pipeline fill rate(4 pixel pipeline)'
Hardware Transform & Lighting(Software, by CPU)*
32-bit Full Precision FP(24-bit)
256MB DVMT(128MB)*
Unified pipelines for Video and 3D**
*Means it will be supported when the drivers are ready, current driver versions support NONE of the features listed by the *. Even though GMA950's DVMT is said to be 128MB, datasheets say maximum DVMT is actually 224MB, not 128MB. There are talks for 384MB DVMT, so could that be it for GMA X3000??
**DirectX 10 features will be enabled by driver when DirectX 10 is finalized. That includes Shader Model 4.0 for both Pixel and Vertex shaders. Some Intel documents leaked also indicated OpenGL 2.0, perhaps near DX10 time, now its OGL 1.5.
I am hoping they'll pull a miracle out, but I guess I might be expecting too much. Expecting previous-gen budget graphics card performance card is too much for integrated. Rumors are Intel wants piece of discrete graphics anyway.