Quite often the quietest chipset launches are those that are built with the inclusion of some kind of graphics engine. In other words IGPs (Integrated Graphics Platform) often go unnoticed. Recently two major 3D graphic card developers have moved into the motherboard chipset market, creating a lot more attention for IGP based solutions. These two manufacturers were obviously ATi and NVIDIA. The NVIDIA IGP solutions have unfortunately been quite weak performance wise leaving much room for improvement. On the other hand ATi has done a fantastic job implementing their Radeon technology into the RS300 (9100 IGP) chipset. Of course the other major manufacturers have been offering similar IGP solutions for years. Unfortunately they have failed to land much interest in the enthusiast market for obvious reasons.

Taiwans largest chipset maker VIA has been playing with IGP chipsets for quite some time now. 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. There have been few IGP chipsets released for the AMD platform from VIA over the last few years, with the KM400 being the primary solution for the AthlonXP processor. There was no updated KM600 chipset as VIA really had nothing new to offer such a revision. With the recent success of the K8T800 chipset and obviously the Athlon64 processor for AMD, things have been looking good in this market. Therefore VIA were quick to spill their IGP technology onto the Athlon64 market.

The K8M800 chipset is not exactly new as it has been available since December of last year. Do not be surprised if you are yet to hear about this chipset as it was announced very quietly. Furthermore there are no performance or high-end motherboards utilizing the chipset. This is because VIA and motherboard manufacturers alike know very well there will be little interest in such a chipset among the enthusiast crowd. However during April of this year DFI announced their adoption of the VIA K8M800 chipset. DFI claim that their K8M800-MLV is the worlds first uATX motherboard for the AMD64 platform to boast an IGP chipset.

VIA named their graphics engine that powered the KM400 chipset the UniChrome IGP which utilized a single pixel pipeline and operated with an engine frequency of 133MHz. The K8M800 is based on the same UniChrome IGP with the improvements of a Pro revision. This means there are now dual pixel pipelines and the engine frequency has been stepped up to 200MHz. The UniChrome IGP Pro will also operate with no less than 16MB of shared system memory and can utilize a maximum of 64MBs. While the changes may not be all that significant given the years gone by since its original implementation, it will still carryout the basic purposes in which it is designed to do.

Personally I find solutions such as the DFI K8M800-MLV reasonably valuable given what they have to offer. For just $90 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 and lets not forget the Athlon64 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 K8M800-MLV. 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.