Intel Brings Splashy Graphics to Budget Desktop PCs

SUMMARY

Deskpro EN C466 $1584 Compaq 888/345-1518 www.compaq.com

SUMMARY

Dimension L466 $1259 Dell 800/388-8542 www.dell.com

Hard drives, CPUs, graphics cards. Those are the components that most of us think about when it's time to buy a PC. But who cares about system chip sets? You should.

By the time you read this, Celeron-based desktops from many leading vendors will contain the Intel 810, a system chip set that replaces the traditional graphics card or integrated graphics chip. The chip set, which will appear only in Celeron machines, delivers enough graphics power to satisfy many people's needs. The first Intel 810­equipped systems we've tested, Compaq's $1584 Deskpro EN C466 and Dell's $1259 Dimension L466, did as well on PC World graphics tests as comparable Celeron systems with an 8MB AGP card or an 8MB AGP graphics subsystem on the motherboard.

But there are trade-offs: The 810 doesn't support screen resolutions beyond 1280 by 1024, or color depth beyond 24 bits. And you can't upgrade the graphics capabilities on systems that use this chip set. For these reasons, serious 3D gamers, owners of 19-inch or larger monitors, and people who prize versatility should consider other options.

Memory Tricks

While budget-PC makers have integrated graphics, sound, and modem components onto motherboards for the past couple of years, the 810 is the first system chip set to incorporate graphics functions. It comes in three flavors. The high-end version, used in both systems we tested, contains 4MB of display cache and supports ATA66 hard drives and up to six PCI slots. The other two versions of the 810 lack display cache, and they can handle a smaller number of add-on slots; the cheapest version supports slower ATA-33 hard drives only.

The 810 chip set uses the system's main memory--64MB on both machines we tested--for almost all graphics tasks. The chip set dynamically allocates portions of main memory as needed for graphics work, in a scheme that Intel calls Direct AGP. The 4MB optional display cache is used only for an effect that is most often encountered in games. (For more details, see the illustration above.)

Still, we expect almost all U.S. vendors to use the high-end version of the 810 with the display cache. The added expense is minimal--and one vendor, speaking confidentially, said its internal tests indicate that 810 systems perform 25 to 30 percent slower on graphics tasks without the display cache.

Right at Home

Judging from our tests, Celeron-466 PCs that have the 810 should please a good many budget-minded users of home systems. On our PC WorldBench 98 test suite of several business applications, the Dell and Compaq scored 200 and 203, respectively­-negligibly slower than three comparison systems. And the 810 PCs caught up in the graphics test suite: In almost every test, they equaled or outperformed the comparison desktops, which had 8MB graphics subsystems from NVidia, ATI, and Matrox (see the chart "Desktop PCs: Test Report").

The $1259 Dell Dimension L466, configured with a 17X­40X CD-ROM drive, a 15-inch monitor, a 9.1GB hard disk, and a 56-kbps modem, packs plenty of value. (For $1399, you can upgrade to a 4.8X DVD-ROM drive and a 17-inch monitor.) But the corporate-oriented $1584 Deskpro EN C466 with a 6.4GB hard drive, a 12X­32X CD-ROM drive, an ethernet card, and a 15-inch monitor is expensive compared to other corporate Celeron-466 desktops.

The Dell at least is priced similarly to other Celeron-466 systems with integrated, nonupgradable graphics: For example, the Micron Millennium C466 that we tested costs $1407 configured with a 4.8X DVD-ROM drive, a 17-inch monitor, a 13GB hard drive, and a 56-kbps modem.

If you are willing to live with a slower Celeron/810 system, you can save more: Dell's first new sub-$1000 PCs (as opposed to marked-down older models) are Celeron-400s with the 810 chip set, 15-inch monitors, 4.3GB hard drives, 17X­40X CD-ROM drives, and either 32MB of RAM (for $899) or 64MB of RAM (a better choice for $960).

Gamers Beware

Of course, these 810 systems can't match the graphics performance you'd get from a Pentium-III or AMD K6-III system with a high-end 3D graphics card. The Compaq and Dell 810 machines ably handled our Redline Racer and Incoming game tests at 640 by 480 resolution, but today's most demanding titles, such as Unreal, require more power. People with large monitors who want to set them to ultrahigh resolutions should also avoid the 810. And as noted, if you think you might someday wish to upgrade your PC's graphics, steer clear.

In this regard, Intel's 810 chip set helps PC marketers separate their high-end PIII systems from their Celeron models. Henceforth, all Celeron systems in Dell's Dimension and Compaq's Deskpro line will use only 810 chip sets. So if you want an upgradable graphics subsystem in these lines, you must opt for a more-costly Pentium III machine.

Our advice: Before you pass up good Celeron deals, ask yourself honestly whether you're more likely to jettison your computer in two years than to upgrade it.

Once again, you'll get more for your money if you wait. The Celeron chips will only get faster, and the 810 will face more competition in the next few months.

Boards such as 3dfx's Voodoo Banshee with 16MB of memory--which handily outperformed the 810 on our graphics tests--will appear in an increasing number of Celeron systems as the year progresses, says Peter Glaskowsky, senior analyst at Cahners MicroDesign Resources. New cards will also compete with the 810, he says: "The graphics cards will get better and the 810 won't. Six months from now, the market will look different."

What's more, the 810's days as the only system chip set with integrated graphics are numbered. Scrappy Taiwanese vendor SiS, whose inexpensive components show up frequently in ultracheap PCs, plans to ship an 810 competitor--the SiS630--by the time you read this. And graphics card vendors won't relinquish their turf to Intel without a fight. ATI has plans for a system chip set with graphics instructions that will work with Pentiums, Celerons, and other processors. Consumers should benefit as Celeron systems that are already cheap and loaded continue to improve in the months ahead.