GMABooster gives your netbook's integrated graphics a nudge

It won't exactly provide an Ion-level boost in performance, but it looks like the GMABooster app that's been floating around for a little while does indeed deliver on its promise of providing a small helping hand to the stock Intel GMA 950 graphics found in the majority of netbooks out there. More specifically, the application boosts the clock speed from the standard 133MHz or 166MHz to a full 400MHz, or the same as the non-low voltage chipset found on standard laptops. According to the folks at UMPC Portal, that translates to about a 20% gain in Crystal Mark benchmarks, although you can also unsurprisingly expect to take a slight hit in battery performance as a result. Better still, the app is even available for OS X and in addition to Windows and Linux, so folks that have already been busy tweaking their netbooks in other areas aren't out of luck.

[Via TweakTown]

[zenstylejunglist @ Apr 30th 2009 1:58PM]

Too bad Intel graphics still suck. Overclocked or not.

[Mehdi Cheddadi @ Apr 30th 2009 2:08PM]

I don't care, I'm stuck with it on my laptop and I'll take whatever I can get! Maybe i'll even be able to play Halo Trial at ...*gasp* native resolution!!!! (1280x800)

[Oli D @ Apr 30th 2009 2:22PM]

My MSI has fucktuplets every time it gets over 40C, GMA sucks potatoes.

[Slick @ Apr 30th 2009 2:31PM]

A gold plated turd is still a turd.

Koodos for trying to help though

[ZenStyleJunglist @ Apr 30th 2009 3:09PM]

Slick you made me lol.

[teej @ Apr 30th 2009 5:08PM]

what is Halo Trial?!

[Frogboy @ Apr 30th 2009 2:00PM]

That's probably my biggest dissappointment with my netbook. Every little bit will help here. Good stuff.

[Alan Strangis @ Apr 30th 2009 2:02PM]

Hmm... time to test quakelive.com on my Aspire again, though I'm not sure this'll be enough.

[Cosmo @ Apr 30th 2009 2:03PM]

Would this work on all notebooks with the GMA 950, not just netbooks? I'd like to try this on a Sony Vaio TZ. I hope there won't be any heat or stability issues....

[Dafrety @ Apr 30th 2009 2:08PM]

You would probably be better off than someone with a netbook, I'm guessing that laptop has good cooling.

[Cosmo @ Apr 30th 2009 2:29PM]

I found out my Vaio TZ uses the lower voltage version of the GMA 950, not the standard chipset and so this program would help out.

[Level 5 @ Apr 30th 2009 2:04PM]

What's the heat tradeoff is what I'm wondering. Plus, does this need a reboot to change? I don't wanna fry my balls with a netbook, but I figure if it's quick to enable/disable, it'd be very worth it. Enable on a table, disable when gonads are in danger.

[brotato @ Apr 30th 2009 3:43PM]

I got it running on my eeePc and there is no reboot to overclock. You do have to reboot if you want to run back to stock speeds. Now I am able to play Half Life with the settings maxed! ^_^

[mcschaeffer @ Apr 30th 2009 2:05PM]

And will it make it whine or even fry it like overclocking my old PDA did?

[v3xx @ Apr 30th 2009 2:07PM]

i got this yesterday for my may 07 macbook. it only gives me the options of 250 and 400. does that mean my default is 250? also i have been pleasantly surprised by this app. i like to connect my laptop to my 24 inch monitor and watch hd movies and it used to have random slowdowns and short freezes but after the bump i watched two movies in 1080 without a single hiccup.

[Ren @ Apr 30th 2009 5:55PM]

Can you provide more details? I've always found my MacBook unable to play 1080p on an external display. Do you have it set up as an additional display, or mirrored, or do you have your MacBook display off? What sort of encodings for 1080p can it play? This would be a big step up if, with the booster, I could play 1080 on my MacBook. Anyone else tested it out on the mac?

[iofthestorm @ Apr 30th 2009 6:04PM]

I think this is intended for netbooks because they use an extra slow version of the GMA 950 that regular laptops don't. I'm not sure whether your macbook uses that same version so it might not be applicable.

[James Mack @ Apr 30th 2009 10:49PM]

@ v3xx

Yes it does. The Technote here:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Conceptual/HWTech_Video/Articles/Video_implementation.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40003994-DontLinkElementID_13

confirms that it runs at 250mhz. I'm going to try it on mine now. :D

[Simon493 @ Apr 30th 2009 2:06PM]

Maybe now I can run Half-Life 1!

[darok3k @ Apr 30th 2009 2:06PM]

overclock!!!

[Oli D @ Apr 30th 2009 2:11PM]

My GMA already freaks out when it gets hot, i dont need any more heating...

Why did i buy MSI... :(

[Dusty @ Apr 30th 2009 2:13PM]

Will I be able to install this on my HP mini running Ubuntu?

[Oli D @ Apr 30th 2009 2:20PM]

Yes, you can!

[Dafrety @ Apr 30th 2009 2:20PM]

They have Mac, Windows, and Linux versions. I'm guessing... yes.

[Dusty @ Apr 30th 2009 2:23PM]

Thanks!

[Oli D @ Apr 30th 2009 2:27PM]

btw Hp Mini + Ubuntu = Sweeet

they are sexy sexy machines

[Dusty @ Apr 30th 2009 2:31PM]

I am very pleased with it.

[Dusty @ Apr 30th 2009 2:33PM]

BTW, has anyone tried this on their mini ubuntu style? Noticeable improvements?

[oliver hart @ Apr 30th 2009 2:21PM]

this is old news. i guess it came out around march 3rd

the download site is SKETCHY (uses a megaupload type method)


word on the msiwind forums, it doesnt help much

[Cosmo @ Apr 30th 2009 2:29PM]

Well I wouldn't have found out without Engadget so thanks!!!

[oliver hart @ Apr 30th 2009 9:21PM]

I thought cosmos were smart.

[TareX @ Apr 30th 2009 2:25PM]

I think it actually made my laptop slower....

[Albert Valera @ Apr 30th 2009 2:31PM]

umm.. i wonder if this will allow my eeebox to do 1080p now... as it is in ubuntu it drops a few frames every now and then and 720p is decent... *i'm ecited at the thought ^_^*

[ash @ Apr 30th 2009 2:41PM]

I will try this tonight. I was so close to being able to play 720p videos on my thinkpad but just lacked a bit of juice.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Oli D @ Apr 30th 2009 3:26PM]

Be careful, this has made my Mac Mini go fucking bananas,
CPU now running at 80oC!!!

[Rob @ Apr 30th 2009 3:46PM]

My EEE PC 901 can almost chug through LoTRO when it is OCed to 2Ghz. now I can OC the GMA too! that would put me in the relm of playable. Thanks Engadget!

I never understood why they underclocked it in the first place :-/

[richb93 @ Apr 30th 2009 3:59PM]

So you don't have a laptop melted onto you after prolonged use

[Rob @ Apr 30th 2009 4:02PM]

I like to think of it more as attached to my hip, than melted onto my hip :)

actually, the OC program I use also OCs the fan. so I just keep it elevated enough not to overheat too much. I'm not to worried about the life of the netbook because I plan on replacing it with an ION netbook once they come out :)

[Alex @ Apr 30th 2009 4:13PM]

How did you OC the processor?

[shawnmos @ Apr 30th 2009 3:48PM]

This is good news. Maybe now I can get Red Alert 3 to work on my Wind. Still though, how could it possibly run at 400Mhz stable?

[Fat Tony 117 @ Apr 30th 2009 4:02PM]

I like how the fasted overclocking option had an exclamation point and the others did not...

[Covarr @ Apr 30th 2009 4:11PM]

Does this just work with GMA950, or will it also work with the earlier GMA915 (and maybe a few others)?

[sjs2626 @ Apr 30th 2009 4:38PM]

I was wondering the same thing, cause I have a GMA 965 and this would be EXTREMELY useful. I'm gonna try it out anyway.

[oZ @ Apr 30th 2009 8:16PM]

No such thing as GMA 965. 965 chipset is either 3100 or X3100, or sometimes 3000.

[Alex @ Apr 30th 2009 4:13PM]

Sweet! Can't wait to play Crysis on my NC10 netbook! Bahahah!

[Joseph @ Apr 30th 2009 4:31PM]

MSI WIND 100 Net Top - you sealed the deal.

330 dual core atom, full size hdd and now GMA overclocking. HTPC here I come.

[KeegdnaB @ Apr 30th 2009 4:52PM]

any chance of one of these for a geforce go 6150?

my 2 year old laptop's achilles heal....I should have sprung the extra cash for something not so horrible.

[NuclearEcko954 @ Apr 30th 2009 5:23PM]

KeegdnaB you can use a program called ATITool to overclock your nvidia Geforce Go 6150( Yes it can be used on Nvidia stuff too). I use it for my Ati Mobility Radeon Express 200 on my notebook. I can overclock to 400Mhz from 300Mhz. I can even underclock to 100Mhz to save power.

[iofthestorm @ Apr 30th 2009 6:06PM]

You could also use rivatuner to overclock, although it probably won't help much. I tried overclocking my Geforce 6150 and it made little difference and also made it unstable/hot.

[JuanJose @ Apr 30th 2009 5:30PM]

I've had this since the very very first release. Engadget, you've been slow in catching this one!