Intel to Use PowerVR Graphics in New Atom CPU?

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Next Atom to have the graphics of a super tablet.

Intel's Atom has never been a strong performer in the graphics area. That apparent weakness in the modest but power-conscious CPU led the way for Nvidia to step in with its Ion chipset.

For the next generation Atom, Cedarview, Intel is reportedly turning to PowerVR for its graphics technology. While PowerVR hasn't been in the commercial desktop graphics space for the last decade, the company has been thriving well by pushing its graphics in the ARM market. PowerVR provides graphics technologies for the smartphone and tablet processors for Apple, Samsung, among others.

According to a slide obtained by VR-Zone, it looks like PowerVR will be doing the graphics for Cedarview. Specifically, it will be the PowerVR SGX545, which is a faster version of the SGX543 that ships with the iPad 2 today.

VR-Zone reports that Intel has worked with PowerVR's SGX535 with the GMA 500/600, and that this new SGX545 chip will support DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.0 as well as hardware accelerated video decoding for MPEG-2, MPEG-4 part 2, VC1, WMV9 and H.264.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
33 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Interesting, DX10.1 Support as well, hmmm, shall see where this pops up!
    Reply
  • Parsian
    interesting, i wonder how it compares to ION 2.
    Reply
  • COLGeek
    While it will likely be an improvement over the current Atom/GPU offerings, it is still likely to be an underwhelming implementation. When we get the benchmarks, we can pass judgment then, but I wouldn't bet the farm on any huge increases in overall performance (there will still be an Atom in the mix after all).
    Reply
  • This is Intel conceding defeat on graphics, by licensing somebody else's architecture. People give them way too much credit for Sandy Bridge graphics, only a few SKUs have the "good" graphics, and those aren't even that good. It equates out to the most entry-level discrete card you can buy, which still can't do much.
    Reply
  • proton9
    they should've tried to integrate the HD 300 imho
    Reply
  • jezzjc
    sounds lame compared to the 6250/6310 in the AMD C/E series APU.
    Reply
  • internetlad
    concession_standIt equates out to the most entry-level discrete card you can buy, which still can't do much.
    but is still more than what 95% of PC users need.
    Reply
  • proton9
    3000 lol :D
    Reply
  • belardo
    Gee...

    AMD already has Fusion CPUs with DX11 that use less power than Atom...

    Want to see more AMD on the market, they have the better product in this area.
    Reply
  • internetlad: Really, so 95% of users don't need graphics capable of running the most simple of 3d applications? You know, applications might actually leverage 3d capabilities if the lowest common denominator wasn't Intel integrated. Heck, by what you're saying, people don't need things like Aero or Compiz, or GPU accelerated web browsers... Let's all buy Intel because they're 10% faster than AMD, who cares if the AMD part can enable features that came with my PC, and the Intel cannot.
    Reply