IGP graphics properties

The motherboard is ready for Clarkdale processors (Core i5 series 600 and core i3) hence the graphics outputs. To utilize the graphics features on this motherboard, thus such a processor is a requirement. Once the hardware is installed we of course need to install the drivers and software suite for the integrated graphics as well.

So the drivers picked up Dutch localization, sorry about that. The new drivers are very pretty looking alright. You'll have all standard and accustomed options available.

Here we have the 3D settings tab, with 12 Shader units and no HW AA available do not expect wonders. But we can select things like VSYNC, texture quality and 16x anisotropic filtering. But again, the IGP does not support hardware anti-aliasing.

For video playback there are some nifty features available. First off, the IGP can accelerate and enhance high-definition 1080P content. All standard color control functionality can be found here. What I absolutely adore is an image sharpening function. Something that NVIDIA and ATI lack completely, IMHO a very important feature that can make a big difference for Intel.

Especially with HDTV playback of a movie, you kind of want to enable a little image (pixel based) sharpening to make HD content really stand out. That's just very nice. Anyway, let's move onwards to some actual testing.