Introduction

Does the term 'built-in graphics' equate to you as S3 Virge3D? Well, in today's context, it does not do any justice to the term especially if you compare it to an infamous vintage chipset. However, the users today still have that general perception.

The trouble with integrated graphics was the complexity in sandwiching something like a modern graphics chipset within the Northbridge of the system chipset or utilizing extra motherboard PCB space to integrate a GPU somewhere on the board. The second challenge is to set aside a dedicated frame buffer for this graphics processor. When the common Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) system is implemented, the difficulty was to have memory that is fast enough and has bandwidth wide enough for a good GPU as well as for the system’s own needs.

Those were some of the basic reasons why motherboards with built-in graphics were relegated to office systems, servers, small form-factor PCs and end-users who hardly dabble in 3D games.

NVIDIA’s nForce chipsets however, have managed to change some of this perception and it is getting even better with the recent nForce2. With the initial launch of the nForce chipset, the Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP) variant had a GeForce2 MX equivalent core built in. The chipset is also equipped with dual memory controllers to double memory bandwidth when more than one module of memory is used. That was crucial in maintaining the large memory bandwidth required for the integrated graphics core and for its time, it had some respectable performance figures (for a built-in graphics solution of course).

The nForce2 upped the ante with its IGP variant that has an integrated GeForce4 MX core. A GeForce4 MX based graphics card is a very common mainstream AGP card that systems are equipped with these days and its performance is quite acceptable for most games when average game quality settings are set. With such a core integrated within the nForce2 system chipset, there is no other built-in graphics based chipset that can rival it. The integrated GeForce4 MX core is capable of performance 300% faster than other integrated graphics chipsets such as the Intel 845GE.


Just a short while back, we reviewed the MSI K7N2-L nForce2-ST motherboard that utilized the nForce2 SPP Northbridge (which is without the graphics core). The MSI K7N2G-LISR nForce2-GT motherboard that we are focusing today is based on the nForce2 IGP Northbridge and uses the very same layout that we have seen on the MSI K7N2-L board. This makes the MSI K7N2G-LISR the very first nForce2 board with integrated graphics. Below are the technical specifications of the board and the integrated graphics core:-