System Builder Tip: Vista Aero Performance Rating - ATI X1650 512 MB PCI-E

We just received a system configured as follows:

• Intel BOXDQ965GF series motherboard.
• Intel Q6600 2.4 GHz Core 2 Quad CPU.
• 2 GB Kinston DDR2.
• Sapphire ATI X1650 Pro PCI-E 512 MB video.
• Antec Sonata III Chassis.

The system has the newest ATI Catalyst driver installed.

We ran the Windows System Assessment Tool to establish the Windows Vista video performance for the X1650 Pro.

Here is a screen shot of the scores:


The Desktop performance for Windows Aero for this video card scored a very respectable 4.5 and a 3D business and gaming graphics performance score of 4.9.

This is a pretty good step up from the ATI X1550 Aero performance score of 3.4 and a 3.8 for 3D business and gaming graphics performance.

It is looking more and more like the entry level video cards available from ATI are more than capable of running the Aero Glass among other demanding 3D requirements.

In one of our earliest tests, we pitted an X850 series PCI-E video card in a P4 HT system against an X1300 configured in an E6400 Core 2 Duo based system. This side-by-side comparison made it clear that the CPU had very little influence over the video card's performance scores. The X850 kicked butt! :D

The Sapphire X1650 Pro PCI-E 512 MB video card is now our de facto choice for our corporate systems. It as very good value for the money.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

System Builder Tip: Vista Aero Performance Rating - ATI X1250 on AMD 690G Chipset

A while back, we went to the AMD/Microsoft TechTour which offered us a Tour Bundle at a discount over purchasing through distribution.

According to the coupon we received to redeem for the bundle, we were to get an AMD X2 4400+, Asus M2A-VM AM2 series motherboard, a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate NFR, and a one year subscription to McAfee's security product *cough*. ;0)

We decided to take a risk and purchase the bundle.

This is the first time in over five (5) years that we have purchased anything AMD!

Why? Because, we were burned so badly by a number of AMD based systems back then that we never turned back. We had to fight with the motherboards to work with any add-in cards like network or video for example. Or, we had to fight to get the drivers to work properly or the system to run stable at all. There were a number of times we were replacing components or motherboards to get things to play together nicely. Any so-called cost savings was obliterated by the time fighting with the systems.

So, that was that. Remember the three strike rule? :D

And here we are, with the processor, motherboard, some Kingston RAM, a couple of 320 GB Seagates setup in a RAID 1 array and having just finished installing Windows Vista Ultimate.

All in all, the install went smoothly.

The one glitch we ran into was getting Vista to recognize the on board ATI X1250 video subsystem. Vista refused to. After fighting with it for about half an hour, we extracted the driver ZIP file, and went into the Device Manager and forced the driver to update via the Update Drivers button on the Standard VGA driver.

After a reboot the Standard VGA was still there, though the display setting was reset to 640 x 480. So, tried one more reboot and it worked. We now had Vista recognizing the video as an ATI X1250.

By the way, we had a bit of a struggle trying to figure out where to find the video driver in the first place. The lingo used on Asus' site didn't have anything labelled video. It only had what turned out to be one massive "chipset" driver:


Um, Intel's "chipset" drivers tend to be something like 2-3 MB. So, the only logical conclusion with a 149 MB download, is that Asus packages both the chipset and video drivers together.

That is a pretty chunky download by the way.

Here is the current Catalyst driver size:

A whole whopping 40 MB.

So, take 3 MB for Intel's chipset drivers and 40 MB for ATI's Catalyst drivers, and that leaves 100 MB+ of what exactly? Not too sure on that.

The first run at the Windows System Assessment Tool failed. That was after the first reboot post ATI driver install.

The Windows System Assessment Tool ran fine after the second reboot.

Here is how the ATI X1250 did:



Desktop performance for Windows Aero scored a 2.5 and the 3D business and gaming graphics performance scored a 2.8.

So, how does the on board ATI X1250 stack up to Intel's on board GMA 3000 series video chipset?

Not really that well I am afraid.

In our System Builder Tip: Vista Aero Performance Rating - Intel GMA 3000 on DQ965GF and ATI FireMV 2200 PCI-E,

the on board GMA 3000 series graphics ran a 3.9 score for Vista Aero and a 3.7 score for 3D Graphics.

Intel's 945GM chipset in a Toshiba Portégé M500 had a Desktop performance for Windows Aero score of 2.0 while the 3D business and gaming graphics performance scored 2.8.

For most users that use the Internet, e-mail, and perhaps Microsoft Office this performance level would be okay.

I think that the occasional gamer may be a bit disappointed in the ATI X1250 performance and go out and pick up at least an ATI X1600 or above to get better performance.

Please keep in mind that since this is our first foray into AMD in so many years, we are not exactly up on what's the fastest and newest stuff from them and those that manufacture their system parts. So, hopefully we won't need any flame retardant underwear! ;)

This particular box is going to be our test desktop mule for our SBS Cougar beta testing. So, it is going to get a lot of use, as well as tear downs. Hopefully it is up to the task.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

System Builder Tips: Vista Aero Performance Rating - Intel 945GM on Toshiba Portégé

A client brought in a brand new Toshiba Portégé M500 laptop to fix some driver related issues after he did an in-place upgrade to Windows Vista.

After booting up the laptop, we ran the Windows System Assessment Tool and achieved the following scores:


Desktop performance for Windows Aero scored 2.0 while the 3D business and gaming graphics performance scored 2.8.

The Intel on board D945GTP (points to the D945GTP assessment) based graphics scored 2.1 and 3.0 respectively.

We updated the graphics driver to Intel's drivers dated late March and the score did not change.

Other than perhaps demonstrating that there is a bit of a restriction in performance due to the laptop chipset, the performance is as expected.

The 945GM based graphics runs Aero.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

System Builder Tip: Vista Aero Performance Rating - ATI X1550 256 MB PCI-E

The ATI X1550 is a relatively new entry level video card.

It has the ability to be installed in a low profile case much to my pleasant surprise.

It has been installed on our Vista test system consisting of:

• Intel DQ965GF
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
• 2 GB Kingston RAM
• 2 Seagate hard drives in RAID 1

The system has an already installed Catalyst 3.6 driver set.

When the system booted up, it picked up the X1550 as an X1300.

The initial Windows System Assessment Tool put the X1550 at 3.4 on desktop performance for Aero and 3.8 for 3D graphics.

Here is a screen shot of the initial scores:

After downloading and installing the Catalyst 3.7 drivers, verifying that the card is now picked up as an X1550, I reran the Windows System Assessment Tool and received the same scores as the Catalyst 3.6 drivers.

In my opinion, the ATI X1550 represents a good step in performance over the previous generation X1300 for about the same price. Thus, it is great value for corporate systems or entry level CAD stations.

UPDATE: Wasn't paying too much attention to the title that was beyond the one line view in Blogger. Updated it by removing the "Intel" out of it. Also, in the second paragraph above this one, I updated what was "default Windows Vista drivers" to Catalyst 3.6 drivers. Oops :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

System Builder Tip: Windows Aero Performance Rating - Intel D945GTP

I have been fighting for quite a while now trying to get Vista to install on an Intel D945GTP motherboard with Pentium D installed. The ordeal is blogged about extensively on an earlier post about the Vista Stop Error that we kept getting on this particular board.

No combination of component changes and BIOS settings worked up until today. A new BIOS released by Intel in the last day or so fixed the compatibility issues!

So, we were finally greeted with this Windows System Assessment right after install:

I reran the Windows System Assessment Tool to verify the initial findings:


We ended up with a final score of 2.1 for Aero and 3.0 for 3D Graphics. Not a great score, but it will work.

We have now confirmed first hand the the Intel onboard 945 chipset based graphics can indeed run Windows Aero with no real issues.

What a relief!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

System Builder Tip: Vista Aero Performance Rating - Intel GMA3000 on DQ965GF and ATI FireMV 2200 PCI-E

I finally gave up trying to install Vista on the Intel D945GTP with Pentium D and 1 GB of RAM for now. When I have more time, I will try and figure out the factor that enables us to install on that board.

For now we have the following base system:

• Intel DQ965GF series MicroATX motherboard.
• Intel E6400 Core 2 Duo processor
• 2 GB of Kingston ValueRAM
• Onboard GMA 3000 Intel graphics
• 2 x 200 GB Seagate SATA 300 in RAID 1

With the default Vista Ultimate installed drivers we ended up with the following when we first ran the Windows System Assessment Tool:

The assessment failed. We could not get anywhere with it out of the box.

Off to Intel's site for the DQ965GF motherboard's updated drivers.

After the download and install, we reran the Windows System Assessment Tool and we received what is, to me, a rather impressive result for an onboard video chip:


The onboard GMA 3000 series graphics ran a 3.9 score for Vista Aero and a 3.7 score for 3D Graphics.

Considering the ATI X1300 PCI-E, a fully independent video card, ran a 2.8/3.0 on Vista, the score is pretty good.

We then went ahead and installed an ATI FireMV 2200 PCI-E low profile video card. The components are stuffed into an Antec Minuet II chassis for ease of carrying around to clients to demonstrate Vista and Office 2007.

With the stock drivers picked up by Vista we ended up with the following:


A fairly poor Graphics score of 2.1 and a 3D Graphics score of 3.1. Not really too good.

The card was purchased to work with the D945GTP board if we could ever get it going with Vista and realized that the onboard Aero performance was nil, as in it wouldn't run.

In a pinch, such as the need for low profile, the FireMV 2200 will work, but a higher end low profile card would be needed for anything beyond the pedestrian Office and IE type usage.

Here is a Quick List of Intel's Desktop Motherboards.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

Vista Aero Performance Rating - ATI X1300 & X850

I realize that there are a number of variables for hardware performance.

However, here is my experience with a couple of different systems and their graphics performance as rated by the Windows Vista video hardware assessment for Graphics (Desktop performance for Windows Aero) and Gaming Graphics (3D business and gaming graphics performance):

• P4 650 3.4 GHz. HT
• Intel D925XCEV
• 4 GB RAM
• 320 GB Seagate SATA 300 (2) RAID 1
• ATI X850 Pro PCI-E

The above system's Windows Vista 32bit Video score for Graphics and Gaming Graphics: 4.8

• Intel E6400 2.13 GHz.
• Intel DQ965GF
• 2 GB RAM
• 320 GB Seagate SATA 300 (2) RAID 1
• ATI X1300 Pro PCI-E

The above system's Windows Vista 32bit Video initial score for Graphics and Gaming Graphics: 3.0

For the second system, I went and downloaded and installed ATI's latest drivers for Vista 32bit. I re-ran the assessment and the score ended up lower! The score with the ATI drivers was: 2.8

I rolled back the video driver and re-ran the assessment again. The proper Microsoft WDDM driver was there as it was before I installed the ATI driver.

The damage was done, the score came out at 2.8 again. I wasn't about to go in and clean everything out to bump the score up a whole two tenths.

Our E6400 system client was happy with the overall performance increase they experienced with this particular upgrade. They were originally running a P4 2.8 GHz. with on board video. We upgraded their hardware to the above E6400 configuration, their OS to Windows Vista Business, and their Office to 2007.

The P4 650 is my home based system.

For system builders, video performance on Vista may be an important consideration, and perhaps should become one of the key questions that the client gets asked when planning a hardware upgrade, whether partial or a whole new box, in preparation for Vista.

This example also goes to show that a much more powerful CPU will not make up for a slower performing video card when it comes to Windows Aero and 3D performance!

Happy system building!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists