Why doesnt the Intel 915 Express chipset family support Windows Aero*?
The graphics architecture and design of the Intel 910 and 915 Express chipset families (with the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900 or Intel® GMA 900 graphics engine) was finalized prior to Microsoft releasing the WDDM specifications. Thus, there are hardware limitations in the Intel GMA 900 architecture that would limit graphics performance and memory capabilities when attempting to run WDDM on Windows Vista. The hardware limitations of Intel GMA 900 are centered around not having a large enough memory table to support Windows Aero user interface, a key feature that is part of WDDM driver support. This, along with hardware restrictions on surface placement and graphics memory alignment, results in graphics memory usage that is not optimized for Windows Aero performance. Additionally, the lack of native hardware support in the Intel GMA 900 for Windows Vistas dynamic memory management would result in slower graphics performance and a suboptimal user experience with Windows Aero. Wit
