HP dc7900 6.2 Functional Description

Integrated Graphics Subsystem

6.2 Functional Description

The Intel Q45 GMCH component includes an Intel integrated Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500 controller (Figure 6-1). The GMA 4500 operates off the internal PCIe x16 bus and can directly drive an external, analog multi-scan monitor and a DisplayPort-compatible digital monitor simultaneously. The GMA 4500 includes a memory management feature that allocates portions of system memory for use as the frame buffer and for storing textures and 3D effects.

				Q45 GMCH
Analog		RGB
Monitor
				GMA 4500		SDRAM
						Controller
	Digital	DisplayPort		Controller
Monitor			Switch
PCIe x16 Graphics slot [1]
			PCIe data		ICH10
				PCIe I/F
	PCIe x4/x16 slot [1]

NOTE: [1] SFF and CMT form factors only.

Figure 6-1. Q45-based Graphics, Block diagram

The GMA 4500 provides the following features:

DDR2

SDRAM (System

Memory)

■Rapid pixel and texel rendering using four pipelines that allow 2D and 3D operations to overlap, speeding up visual effects, reducing the amount of memory for texture storage

■Zone rendering for optimizing 3D drawing, eliminating the need for local graphics memory by reducing the bandwidth

■Dynamic video memory allocation, where the amount of memory required by the application is acquired (or released) by the controller

■Intelligent memory management allowing tiled memory addressing, deep display buffering, and dynamic data management

■400-MHz core engine

■350-MHz 24-bit RAMDAC

■2D engine supporting GDI+ and alpha stretch blithering up to 2048 x 1536 w/32-bit color @ 75 Hz refresh (QVGA)

■3D engine supporting Z-bias and up to 1600 x 1200 w/32-bit color @ 85 hz refresh

6-2 www.hp.com Technical Reference Guide