IGPs (Integrated Graphics Platform) are often used as a building block for budget or non-gaming computers. Although still very weak when it comes to 3D performance, todays IGP based solutions have come a long way. This is primarily due to the involvement of ATi and NVIDIA, as they have the experience and abilities to very easily integrate their existing graphics card technologies into an IGP chipset. They have continued to do so over the past few years, with their current IGP chipsets offering the best 3D performance.

The worlds largest CPU manufacturer also plays a major role in the chipset market. For quite some time now they have been developing IGP based chipsets. Although their solutions may not be all that powerful for the latest and greatest 3D games, this is by no means what they are designed for. Naturally Intel only designs these chipsets strictly for the use with their own processors such as the Pentium 4. Their previous IGP chipset featured what Intel called the Extreme Graphics 2 engine. Despite sounding like an extreme solution, the Extreme Graphics 2 engine was anything but.

Intels Extreme Graphics 2 engine was really obsolete before it became available, offering just a single pixel pipeline and two texture-mapping units. Then Intel moved to the GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) with the first version being the GMA900. This graphics engine was featured in the Intel 915G chipsets and was again quite a poor performer when it came to 3D rendering. Now Intel has updated the GMA900 with the new GMA950 featured in the 945G chipsets.

The new Graphics Media Accelerator 950 engine will feature four pixel pipelines and operate with an engine frequency of 400MHz (67MHz faster than the GMA900). The engine also features eight texture-mapping units along with DirectX 9.0 and Shader 2.0 support. While all these features are far inferior to those of todays 3D graphics cards, this IGP solution is designed more for office based applications. Integrated graphics platforms have never been recommended for gaming use for as long as I can remember and wont be for quite some time to come I imagine.

This Micro-ATX motherboard, known as the 8I945GMH-RH features the new Intel 945G chipset along with VIIV Technology. Well from what I gather VIIV is more of a specification than a technology. Supposedly a VIIV motherboard will grant the user easy access to on-demand movies, music, games and photos on your TV. It allows the user to instantly turn the computer on/off (after initial boot up) for immediate entertainment and it supports up to 7.1 channel surround sound. This does not really give us a clear picture of what VIIV really is, so I will explain this specification in the coming section of this review.

Personally I find solutions such as the 8I945GMH-RH quite valuable given what they have to offer. For just $100 US the board not only offers an in-built graphics solution, but it also boasts a number of up to date technologies such as Serial ATA, PCI Express and lets not forget, the LGA775 Pentium 4 processor support. Computer users that deal mainly with office based kind of work, or even areas such as web design, will certainly benefit from a solution such as the 8I945GMH-RH. Those that fall under the Power Users category, such as gamers and overclockers, will most likely not be suited to an integrated graphics solution as seen in the past.