Vista Tutorial - Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile Increased My Performance Score

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile Increased My Performance
Score

Compaq C301nr Notebook (2006)
Intel 940GML Chipset (Integrated Graphics)
Vista Ultimate 64-Bit
Celeron M 520 (1.6 MHz/533 MHz FSB/1 MB L2)
2 x 1-GB DDR2 RAM (= 2 GB)

Windows Experience Index was all 4's except for Graphics (Aero), which was
2.0, yielding the 2.0 "overall" score, but performance seemed very good to
excellent on this entry-level notebook.

When I finally got around to installing Intel Graphics Media Accelerator for
Mobile, I thought I noticed better visual performance but didn't check the
scores, which I think are less important that our gut feeling for how "fast"
a PC is running. When I finally got around to looking at the Experience
Index, I noticed that it needed to be updated because of "new hardware
found," so I did. The Experience score then went up to 2.3.

I'm not bragging about an 0.3-point increase -- I'm just letting people know
that if you want to squeeze more out of a PC that is based on Intel's
integrated-graphics chipsets, try installing the appropriate Intel Graphics
Media Accelerator (which as far as I know is just a driver, as opposed to
some kind of add-on "accelerator," but I'm no expert).

*Notebook originally came with Windows XP Home 32, Celeron 420 & 512 MB RAM.
Ran fine.
*After upgrading to Vista Home Basic, clearly needed 1 GB RAM, then ran
fine.
*Upgraded to 64-bits (Celeron 520 & Vista Ultimate 64) and 2 GB, runs
excellent.

My Personal Favorite Tips:

+ Check for and update (flash) your BIOS to the latest version. (Some will
say this is unnecessary, but if they're not doing it, how would they know
that it doesn't help?)
+ Check for FIRMware updates for peripherals (not just drivers).
+ Try both MANUFACTURER drivers and Microsoft-supplied drivers and see which
works best. (I usually get better results from manufacturer drives, but one
important exception was an Nvidia graphics card that just couldn't handle
Nvidia's buggy Vista drivers and does just fine with the WDM drivers that
Vista installs.)

++ My All-Time Favorite Tip: If one particular program/application doesn't
run perfectly, uninstall it as soon as possible, because if it can't run
itself well, who knows what parts of Vista it will want to screw up? (When I
discover a program that doesn't run well on Vista, I schedule a complete
reinstall of Vista, and leave it out the next time. Think "residual
collateral damage.")