Intel graphics drivers employ questionable 3DMark Vantage optimizations

"Intel may not be playing fair, though. We recently learned AMD has notified Futuremark that Intel's 15.15.4.1872 Graphics Media Accelerator drivers for Windows 7 incorporate performance optimizations that specifically target the benchmark, so we decided to investigate.

"We tested 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1 with these drivers on a G41 Express-based Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2H motherboard running the Windows 7 x64 release-to-manufacturing build, a Core 2 Duo E6300, 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, and a Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drive.

"We first ran the benchmark normally. Then, we renamed the 3DMark executable from "3DMarkVantage.exe" to "3DMarkVintage.exe". And—wouldn't you know it?—there was a substantial performance difference between the two."

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