[TheBatfink]

Hmm I tried it using a Core2Duo 4400 and a Fi90-HD abit motherboard which has onboard ATI Xpress 1250 integrated graphics with 256MB ram assigned to it in the bios and it does seem a little un-snappy / Laggy, especially when changing screens.. But is this how its been programed to respond? I can play HDDVD / BLU RAY and 1080p h264 content without any problems and this was a reasonably spec'd HTPC 6 months ago..

I assume theres loads of tweaking and performance improvements due over the months, and maybe its a little early to jump on this right now! but I'd be dissapointed if my shiney new HTPC couldnt even handle the GUI after I specced it to the highest content I ever expected to have to play on it.

I like it and with all the planned features, I think its going to be a worthy sequal to MPI. Just hope I'll be able to use it!!

"With more than twice the minimum required bandwidth for Vista’s graphically intense new Aero™ user interface, ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 handles Aero with ease, and stands up to even the most demanding multitasking environments. Regardless of the number of open windows, playing videos, or application switches, users have a smooth Vista premium experience."

3D Texture support, including projective 3D textures.
Complete 3D primitive support: points, lines, triangles, lists, strips and quadrilaterals and BLTs with Z compare.
Anti-aliasing using multi-sampling algorithm with support for 2, 4, and 6 samples.
New generation rendering engine provides top 3D performance.
Support for OpenGL format for Indirect Vertices in Vertex Walker.
Full DirectX® 9.0 support (Vertex Shader version 2.0 and Pixel Shader version 2.0)
Support for up to 512b per pixel formats (4 color case).

This not going to cut it??