From the outside it sounds more like Intel has been infighting about this for 20+ years... The original i740 was theoretically a capable card; although fairly

From the outside it sounds more like Intel has been infighting about this for 20+ years... The original i740 was theoretically a capable card; although fairly hampered by being forced to use Main Memory for Textures. Intel eventually backed down from the graphics market back then, and instead continued to use the 740 as a basis for the integrated graphics in the i810/815 chipsets. But, as GPUs became closer to what we saw as real GPUs, Intel continued to press on with the idea that keeping things done in the CPU was better for them (i.e. encouraging upgrades to higher end CPUs vs selling more lower margin graphics cards.) You saw a similar pattern with the 845/855/865: Shaders were all done in software (Hey, it finally almost justified Netburst, right? ;) And this pattern seems to continue with various forms of infighting between groups up to this day. The other Consistent problem they have had is driver compatibility/capability.