Intel InTru 3D coming to H67 desktop systems over HDMI 1.4a

NVIDIA has been pushing its 3D Vision stereoscopic support for what feels like a long while now and AMD got in on the game via its HD3D Technology open eco-system with the launch of its Radeon Catalyst 10.3 driver back in March. Who are we missing, though? Oh, Intel!

During our visit to the ASRock headquarters today, we got an early look at one of their Intel H67 Express based motherboards and noticed something interesting on the packaging. Something along the lines of "Intel" and "3D" in the same line got our attention pretty quickly.



It turns out that as long a H67 motherboard comes with a HDMI 1.4a connector, Intel will be able to provide 3D support to desktop systems early in 2011 when the Sandy Bridge platform officially goes on sale around CES time.

The technology used is "InTru 3D" and it was originally thought the technology would only be reserved for laptops. The Sandy Bridge HD Graphics IGP (onboard graphics) will be able to process full dual H.264, VC1 and MPEG-2 high definition decodes, which is what is required to provide 3D viewing.



One of ASRock's upcoming motherboards will include a free set of red and blue polarized lense glasses, pictured above. When asked what type of software would be required for 3D Blu-ray playback, the comment was that any software could be used. As far as quality goes, unfortunately we didn't see a demo, but when asked, the comment was that it provides "acceptable" quality and considering the cost of entry into 3D on this platform is basically free once you've bought the motherboard (no expensive active shutter glasses required like the NVIDIA 3D Vision solution), it sounds like a pretty good deal to us.

Final conclusions on Intel's 3D technology will be reserved until we can try it out for ourselves.