Gaming on Integrated Graphics: No Longer Crazy Talk
posted by Nick Knupffer on August 17, 2007
Intel has launched new drivers for its G965 integrated graphics chipset. But what does this mean?
Traditionally, integrated graphics have been the weaklings of the graphics world – sure there are a lot of them sold, but traditionally they have been practically useless for 3D gaming. Until now that is - G965 has grown some muscle…
See the video below.
Intel has never marketed integrated graphics to gamers who demand great 3D performance (that is what PCI-Express is for) - but we have said that it is suitable for casual gaming. The graphics core in Intel’s G965 is actually very advanced – based on 8 programmable micro-execution engines. You can program these execution engines to do whatever you like, including pixel and vertex shading.
Now, we come to the main issue - until very recently, Intel’s G965 software drivers did not support hardware vertex shading, but rather let the CPU do the work instead (we have very powerful CPU’s so this translates into fabulous 3DMark scores, and great performance on some games). But quite a few of the latest and most popular games require hardware vertex shaders and so this approach had an Achilles Heel.
Some in the press has bemoaned the lack of this functionality – some others ignored the fact that most people use integrated graphics for business use and or video – areas where the chip shines: Full WHQL support existed for Vista’s Aeroglass from the word go, and Intel’s little wonder boasts the type of video quality you should expect from advanced discrete cards with scores around 95 in the HQV benchmark. All this from a part that effectively costs you less that lunch at the company canteen. (The price difference between the G965 and P965 chipsets is tiny, about the cost of a visit to Starbucks, the cost in power use is also small).
But the release of the latest Windows XP drivers changes things quite considerably by introducing support for hardware vertex shading. So if you want better performance for free just click here.
Now G965 owners can boast much higher performance and support for more games. Games like Call of Duty 2, Far Cry (the game used as a poor example by some of our competitors) and Battlefield 2 (which didn’t even run) are now playable. Overall, expect a significant boost in performance for many games. But don’t just take my word for it, download the drivers here. The driver will also support the mobile chipset and upcoming Intel G35 chipset.
I visited Intel’s graphics labs where Mike Abel showed me some demos – see the video:
More good news is that the driver boys have implemented a cool new switching technology that automatically switches between hardware and software vertex shading depending on the application to give you the benefit of optimum performance. Nifty eh?
PS: The equivalent Vista drivers will be out soon.
PPS: If the video above doesn’t work in your browser - there is a youtube version, just click here.
Comments (148)
tagged: gaming, graphics, integrated graphics, processor, video
Comments
Aug 17 | Javier said:
Awesome to see HW TnL support finally out. BF2 looks really good.
Aug 17 | firesuite said:
Mark Rein from Epic said a short time ago that Intel will kill the PC gaming market with its onboard video chipsets, im inclined to agree with him here if they carry on the way there going. Personally i think they should leave it to the big boys. I mean all those games are hardly cutting edge by todays standards. And no Vista improvement yet… wonder how far they are away from DX10…
Aug 17 | Nick Knupffer said:
That is assuming that all PC’s sold are meant for the gaming market. Many customers do not wish to spend an extra $600 and 180 watts for a graphics card just in case they want to play a game one day. This way potential gamers get enough graphics power to casually play a game or two - and then upgrade to a graphics card if they like (the chipset support a x16 PCI-Express slot). No one is tying anyone down to integrated graphics - the object of the exercise is choice.
Aug 18 | Orlando Smith said:
And, where are the drivers for OS X Tiger (10.4x) and Leopard (10.5)?
Aug 18 | xtraSico said:
It’s great to see that kind of performance on an onboard video chip. As Nick said, it is a matter of choice. I am 36yo and in my PC there has to be a HQ video card because I play a lot of games, like TES Series (Oblivion), Splinter Cell Series, Prince of Persia series… But in my kids pc’s I can benefict from this because all they do is surf the web, chat, myspacing, rip music, homeworks, and other stuff that don’t require an HQ video card. They only play like once a month or less, in my pc of course. They don’t require pc’s with the latest video graphics card and it’s great that now they can use their pc’s to play and leave MY pc alone. ;)
Aug 18 | Website said:
Hmmm, how hard is it to place a video in a website that works in all browsers? A retarted 4 year old could to this… but not on THIS site. And to top it off? the link for the “broken” video “for further help, ‘click here’” link is also broken.
Never coming back. this wasn’t even a good try. buh bye
Aug 18 | Nick Knupffer said:
If you cannot see the video player - make sure you have Flash version 9 installed, alternatively you can watch the video on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OogVYWQLAhM .
Aug 18 | Andrew said:
The video works fine here under Kubuntu 7.04 :-)
Aug 18 | RdX said:
I would like to know if Intel are going to include this drivers in the linux open source drivers.
Thanks.
Aug 18 | miguel mauol said:
why not a benchmark result with old a newer dirvers? Why not a stage6 video with this flash and the youtube version? Why not a fps counter un a corner in the games?
Perhaps becouse 985 is not for hard games.
It would be great a hard gamers intel graphic card, but they are far away in preformance, and even in price/preformance, but they are the marjket leaders.
Then PC market is more for working than for hard gaming, that is a little part of the market cake, if intel want this part too, work for ot, perhaps they can beat nvidia and AMD Ati, but not now.
Aug 18 | Anurag said:
Hi I just installed new drivers and downloaded a demo of Fry Cry. In starting, game detected and set graphics options to medium. When I started the demo, everything was PURPLE!!! Yes purple. I wasn’t able to see a damn thing. Only way to come out of this was to set settings to LOW, and still water stuff looked bad. Tell me honestly, was it G965 on which you demonstrated far cry?
Aug 18 | Nick Knupffer said:
I am sure the review sites will publish benchmarks. Fraps is running in the top right hand corner of all the demos. What is Stage6?
These drivers and this product is not meant to compete with discrete graphics solutions from ATI and Nvidia - there is no way a graphics solution that costs the same as a cup of coffee can possibly compete.
If you really want to game like a pro - get a card from ATI or Nvidia. but if you are just a casual gamer, you can do it on G965
Aug 18 | Rodrigo said:
Pretty nice… but if Intel really wants to commit with casual gaming community, it better launch the drivers with this high performance on the chipset launch or close to it…. when the G965 was launched? I cannot even remember that…
And why the drivers for Windows XP support chipsets G965 and G35, but no support for G33 and G31?
With G965, Intel did the same lame thing NVIDIA did with 8800… too bad… let´s hope this does not happen again.
And casual gaming on integrated graphics was no crazy talk for some time now… see the X1250 integrated on AMD 690G chipset… Intel now can fight back due to these new drivers (that should have been released on G965 launch).
Answering Nick Knupffer, Stage 6 is a cool website for video download, from Divx guys… learn more about them here http://stage6.divx.com/info/about or go to the website and check out the videos they have… http://stage6.divx.com/
Aug 18 | Zeke B said:
So if they had hardware support for Vertex Lighting why was it never enabled in hardware, Intel doesn’t release chipsets often enough for them to not test it with their driver dev boys. This whole thing seems like a ploy to keep integrated graphics crappy and they’re just scared by fusion. Let’s hope ATI/AMD kicks the crap out of intel, if you’d released your drivers open source you’d have had this months ago! Who are you competing against? Matrox?!
Aug 19 | Hern said:
This is great news, and now I feel sorry for upgrading to vista last week, because that means I will still have to wait for final drivers.
Aug 19 | SgtDirtbag said:
Wow, this really looks impressive for an IGP.
But I’d really like to know the configuration of the computer it ran on, including screen resolution and the detail settings (high, medium, low) of the games you showed. (especially BF2)
Aug 19 | Artur said:
Thank youuuuuuu Intel :)
Aug 20 | bug said:
what is the ram and cpu used in demo?
Aug 20 | Daniel said:
Any plans for Mac version ? Thanks
Aug 20 | Greg said:
What about the T&L support for 945GM Express Chipset Family?
Will it be included in the Vista version of the driver?
Thanks, Greg
Aug 20 | Nick Knupffer said:
If anyone is having issues - please contact Intel Customer Support here: support.intel.com
Aug 20 | Nick Knupffer said:
The config included the new driver, a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 E6600, 2GB of RAM and Windows XP with SP2 and all the updates. The games ran at several different resoutions from 800x600 to 1024x768.
In answer to other questions: There are no plans to extend support for this to the 945G.
If you would like to see additional demos for popular games - let me know and I will see what I can do.
Aug 20 | Ben said:
As a previous poster said, where does this leave the G33 and G31?
Aug 20 | Andreas Juch said:
I really love that G965 chipset. I bought it because of its linux drivers. They are really the best. I formerly used to buy AMD systems, but with them it’s nearly not possible to avoid ATI/NVidia binary drivers when you want a certain anmount of 3D power. Anyway. When will these improvements be supported in the X.org intel driver? Thanks for the great work!
Aug 20 | PLACEBOiSTiC said:
Is something going to happen with the really lousy GMA 950 drivers?
Intel should be ashamed, or maybe they are as they turned their back on the GMA 950, wonder why? (A)
Aug 20 | Clayton said:
I’m trying to play BF2 with a Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset and it’s obviously not working…. Any ideas?
Aug 20 | Nick Knupffer said:
Did you install the latest drivers?
Aug 20 | Nick Knupffer said:
GMA950 (as used in the 945G chipset) is older and as such does not have support for these technologies.
Aug 20 | Clayton said:
I tried installing the latest driver from intel’s site but during the install it says it’s not compatible… I’m running on a Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E.
Aug 20 | Alexandru said:
ok.. this sucks really bad.. even though the 945 is 2nd generation now, you guys should still provide support for it. basically the drivers that intel provided for it are a piece of s%^*!!! many games can’t play, or they have huge resolution issues. like C&C3. it would play but only on medium quality and that caused it to be slowed down a lot! intel, the company that supposedly wants to give the best experience to its customers should launch at least one more driver release for the 945! at least fix some of the bugs that this release has!!! currently i am very unhappy with my 945 graphics from my laptop. it’s slower than the ati 200 that my dad has onboard on his laptop!
Aug 20 | Nick Knupffer said:
Intel does support the 945G - the hardware doesn’t support Shader Model 3.0 however. As I said - 945G is an older chipset. It can still run Vista in all it’s AeroGlass glory - and it is excellent for video. It sounds like you want a machine specifically for gaming - perhaps integrated graphics is not for you?
Aug 20 | San Flores said:
This would cut down prices then of high end video cards!!!do post what games does this driver & chipset support …if possible all the best games…Up for another great technology!
Aug 21 | Peter Whitehouse said:
To Alexandru, if you were sold a laptop with GMA 950 IGP graphics and told it would be ok for gaming then I’m very sorry you were mis sold it. You need a laptop with a discrete graphics card (oh and yes the ATI Express 200 graphics are better than GMA 950).
Keep up the good work Intel its nice to get this sort of thing as an added bonus.
Thanks
Aug 21 | Howard Leibov said:
Clayton: The VGN-FZ140E is a Vista machine (it comes stock with Vista Home Premium x32). The drivers linked to here and discussed in this blog are XP drivers. “Equivalent Vista drivers are coming soon” was mentioned in the PS of the blog. My guess is you either downloaded the 14.31 divers discussed in this blog and tried to install them on Vista or you downloaded the Vista 15.6B Beta drivers, which are not the topic of this posting…
Aug 21 | Ed Hurtley said:
The G965 and the G35 are the only Intel chipsets that have T&L. (The X3000 and X3100 graphics, of which, the X3100 on the G35 isn’t even out yet.) No other Intel chipset will benefit from this. That doesn’t mean that their other chipsets aren’t DirectX 9.0 compatible, they are, and can run Aero just fine. (The 945G and above. The 915G and before cannot.)
As for Mac support, it’s irrelevant. No Mac has a G965 or G35 chipset. The Macs with Intel integrated graphics use the 945G chipset (called “GMA 950” graphics,) which, again, does not have a hardware T&L unit. If/when Apple releases an updated MacBook, it will likely have a G965 chipset, and thus would benefit from this advance, assuming Apple and Intel get the drivers going (I can’t imagine they wouldn’t.)
(I have no inside knowledge. I have never worked for Apple, and was a contractor in Intel’s server division 7 years ago, but have no insider knowledge of current Intel products or plans.)
Aug 21 | tcsenter said:
It leaves them G33 and G31.
As with 945G (GMA 950), neither G33 nor G31 support hardware T&L capability. This isn’t a driver-do thingy, its a silicon-do thingy. If its not in the chip, no driver can put it there.
Only G965 (X3000), GM965 and GL960 (X3100), and G35 (X3500) support hardware T&L engine. All the non-X GMA models only support software T&L, which is much slower.
Aug 21 | titan said:
What about newer games like Company of Heroes (game of the year last year)? Or upcoming games like Quake Wars and Starcraft 2?
Aug 21 | Nick Knupffer said:
Company of Heroes runs on G965 at slightly under 20 frames per second at Medium settings. Tolerable for an RTS, but you can always lower the settings a bit more for better performance.
Aug 21 | butters said:
Three questions:
1) Why did it take about a year from hardware release to hardware enablement?
2) What is the status of G965/G33 hardware shader support in the Linux/X.org drivers?
3) Will shader model 4.0 support for G35 be provided by the Windows drivers when the chipset is launched? Will Linux driver support even exist?
You can stop pretending that integrated graphics is the limiting factor. We all know that NVIDIA and AMD produce integrated graphics solutions that are quite a bit more capable than Intel’s offerings.
I stick with Intel because the Linux drivers are less evil. Keep it honest. Give us driver support or don’t advertise the features. Idle silicon is worthless. Got it?
Aug 22 | joe random user said:
The hardware T&L completely breaks Super Mario 64 under the “1964” emulator - the graphics (after game begins) become a complete mess. I’m using the default plugins which come with 1964 v0.9.9 - no separately downloaded ones. If testing, uncheck “software T&L” in Video Settings. BTW even with software T&L, Mario’s shadow is missing :(
Aug 23 | John Vestor said:
I am confused are Intel 82G965 chipset and Intel G965 express chipset one at same or different?s
Aug 23 | Steve Vansickle said:
Keep up the good work! Our integrated graphic chipsets will get better and so will the drivers. When they get good enough, “causal gamers” who are about 80% of the market will adopt our chipsets as their choice for their gaming needs. The remaining “hardcore gamers” who are about 20% of the market will be left to ATI/nVIDIA. What would I like to see next? Obviously, increased FPS somewhere around the 60 - 80 range (20 is still too low).
Aug 23 | Ben Sanford said:
I’m waiting for the G35 boards to come out for an upcoming build. I plan to use it primarily for HDTV video applications with Vista, and perhaps some minor casual gaming. Therefore I’m really interested in the HQV benchmarks with the integrated G35 graphics. Will this improve as drivers improve?
I understand from some things I’ve seen in the media that DX10 support will be delayed for several months. Will a board purchased now (soon once released) work with the newer drivers coming.
Aug 23 | iftekhar said:
The new driver really works great. now it gives ~40fps for nfs carbon, and fear , farcry which used to give ~30 improved too. I hope things will get better as the publish new drivers. And i really can’t understand the people who have problem with igp. it’s sth u’re getting free, if u don’t like it buy a new pci x16, that’s it.
Aug 24 | alpha0ne said:
The GA G33M S2 board has GMA3100 vga so looks like this new driver does help some G33 boards
Aug 24 | Bryan said:
How’s vista going? I want my hardware T&A! I mean T&L.
Aug 24 | hugh said:
With the latest driver (14.31), 3DMark2000 reports that hardware T&L is not supported, and also the screen is rotated 90 degrees (not fatal for a benchmark perhaps but it’s a serious bug which would make a game unplayable). What is the proper place to report bugs?
(BTW I had to run 3DMark2000 in Compatibility Mode (->Win98/ME) to get it to run at all under WinXP)
Aug 26 | Rikku said:
I just wish Intel will do further improvements to clean up the remaining bugs and improve performance in the next driver release. After all, the architecture is programmable
As for the Vista driver, are we expecting it at September?
Aug 29 | Ed said:
I remember i read somewhere that Nvidia had more software developer on drivers then Hardware Developers. Which just shows now that Driver quality is much more important.
As much as i would like an very decent IGP with good quality driver. I dont think Intel will invest so much many power into such a free product.
Although i do hope Intel can have some Video Hardware acceleration engine built into all IGP. H.264 and VC-1 for example.
Aug 29 | John Gardner said:
The G695 sounds like it would make a good co-processor for HPC. Has anyone looked at this?
Aug 29 | Dave said:
Dear intel,
I just purchased a Toshiba notebook with a x3100 integrated graphics chip. I thought I’d restricted to gaming only on my desktop PC… but now I can game on the go! CSS, UT2k4, BF2,COH, HL2…… YESSS!!!
Thanks INTEL!
And I read the x3100 supports shader model 4.0. I’m guessing the new Vista driver update for the x3100 will include support for dx10 then? Wow, if that’s the case I’m impressed.
Keep up the good work!
Aug 30 | arijit said:
hi can i run vista with full aero on this rig - pentium D820 ( 2.8 ghz ) , intel 945 GC chipset mobo with GMA 950 , 1gig ram …….. i mean run with full aero glass effects . if yes can i also play some old ( pre 2004 ) games at same time sometimes . i cannot buy a new graphics card soon i have to wait a bit .
Aug 31 | scottm said:
The beta Vista 15.6b driver located here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&Inst=Yes&ProductID=2576&DwnldID=13639&strOSs=156&OSFullName=Windows%20Vista*%20Ultimate,%2032-bit%20version&lang=eng
…certainly improves things a great deal. With vertex now finally active, Bioshock, which previously would NOT run, will now run. Barely…but it will run. In addition the other game I’ve dabbled with, GTR2, shows much improved framerates. I am really looking forward to the “gold” driver hopefully soon. September guys?
In the interim, I am going to try VMWare on Vista to run XP and their release drivers.
Aug 31 | isaidiego@msn.com said:
okay, uhm… im trying to play BF2 on a Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family, but the driver needs to be updated and everywhere i go, THEY DONT HAVE THE UPDATE!!! not even Intel…. wtf is up with that? the version i have now is 6.14.10.4297, i need to up date to 6.14.10.4299…
Sep 01 | Polad said:
Well that seems like a good news at first but the thing is I downloaded and installed the above noted Graphics Media Accellerator driver for my Intel 945GM integrated video card and I still have the same issue with Battlefield2 game. It doesn’t even start(run) the game. What happens is it gives me the splash creen of the game then screen goes black for a few sec and then exits the game to the WinXP desktop. I was having this very same problem before this driver too. And though they claim they’ve solved this issue from what I see now they apprently haven’t :)
For information here are the specs of my laptop: Intel Core Duo 1.66 Ghz / 2GB Ram / Intel 945GM integrated video
Anyone has any idea of what I’m doing wrong here? I mean do I have to do anything else to active/enable some new features of the video card (maybe vertex shading stuff) after I installed the driver?
Sep 01 | Nick Knupffer said:
The new drivers enable the hardware vertex shading only on the G965. The 945G hasn’t got this feature built into the hardware.
Sep 01 | copx said:
I have tried the new driver and it is indeed capable of running a 3D game - namely Civilization IV. However, there are some graphical glitches. The leader background of the Kymer leader is completely black for example. Oh, and there is no support for anti-aliasing at all which decreases the visual quality of the game a lot. The performance is not that good either. It is definitely playable, but the animations just do not look right because of the low frame rate. Any hope for further improvements?
Sep 03 | Brento said:
I’m looking at the Toshiba notebook with the GL960 chipset. Does the new driver run Civ IV? I’m just a caual gamer but would only settle for med res & reasonable frames/sec. I noticed the spec is for dedicated memory - is this a prob for integrated chips?
Sep 05 | Mustafa Adel Ali said:
I got from 2 monthes a new HP pavilion laptop instead of my older one “still relatively new toshiba qosmio f20” I was really bugged by the fact that the older integrated Nvidia go 6600 had superior graphical performance & I could run my fav & only game medieval II TW with an acceptable FPS only on that laptop I really hope that this new vista driver enhances the GM965 graphical performance specially that in a laptop you’re stuck with the factory hardware. my Vista computer performance with the 15.4.4 driver “still no hardware TnL enabled”
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5450 @ 1.66GHz 4.7
(RAM) 0.99 GB 4.5
hard disk 40GB Free (120GB Total) 4.5
Graphics Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family 3.4 ????!!!!
Gaming graphics 251 MB Total available graphics memory 3.5 ????!!!!
Sep 06 | Mustafa Adel Ali said:
I just downloaded the released 15.6 driver for win vista 32, Thanks for the good work, thought I couldn’t find any reference to enabling the HW TnL in the release notes, please confirm such feature in that version I just got the medieval TW expansion & I can’t wait to try it out :))
Sep 06 | Mike said:
The new Vista drivers enabling HWVP/SM3.0 for G965 have been released: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2880&OSFullName=Windows+Vista*+Ultimate%2C+32-bit+version&lang=eng&strOSs=156&submit=Go%21
Sep 06 | David said:
Installed the Vista 15.6 driver and what do you know it’s DX10! Well that’s what all the games have been playing are listing my graphics card as. I can play Counterstrike Source at Maximum graphics (with trillnear filtering and no AA). I’m very satisfied with the driver release and I would like to thank the team at intel that put this driver together. It really makes all the difference in game performance and I even notice Vista is a little faster now too. Well off to play some more games on a laptop I never even intended to play games on! Thank you!
Sep 07 | Balaji said:
15.6 driver still does not enables anti aliasing is there any problem with the architecture,this drivers drops fps upto 6 to 8 in cricket2007,aoe3 etc
Sep 07 | tcsenter said:
Mustafa,
The Toshiba’s GeForce Go 6600 is a dedicated (discrete) GPU with its own graphics memory (128MB), just like a graphics card in a regular PC. It is nearly identical to the desktop GeForce 6600 GPU, except for lower operating frequencies and power consumption. Intel’s 965G has an integrated graphics processor (IGP) built into the system Northbridge chip and must share system memory.
There is no IGP in existance today that offers performance comparable to a dedicated GPU like the GeForce 6600. The GF 6600 chip has over 100 million transistors. A typical IGP Northbridge today has approx. 30 ~ 35 million transistors for the entire chip, including the IGP.
The GeForce Go 6600 added at least US$150 to the price of a laptop. The graphics component built into the 965G adds less than US$10 to the cost. The fact that your 965G laptop is ‘newer’ than the Toshiba is irrelevant. A 1997 Chevy Corvette would still out-perform a 2007 Toyota Corolla, in spite of 10 years between them.
It will be at least three more years for the gaming performance of IGP solutions to reach the level of GF 6600, if not longer.
Sep 10 | scottm2 said:
Anybody even TRY to run Bioshock with the new 15.6 Vista X3000 driver? I actually had better luck with the beta—the ‘gold’ driver locks up (or black-screen) at the load screen. XP drivers do work as well. Am I missing something?
Sep 10 | tb101 said:
Hey guys i just got my Fujitsu Lifebook 2010 its amazing with this gm965 chipset but oh man is this x3100 gma awsome only thing is i have vista and every time i try to update to the current driver it says that it is not compatible. even when i try to do the driver update manually it doesnt even recogonize it what should i do any suggestions would be helpful?
Sep 12 | scottm2 said:
Wow…there’s yet ANOTHER Vista driver as of 9/7. Hey…bring on the updates :)
Sep 12 | JC said:
Hello there, when will intel release new driver again?? will it be able to play neverwinter nights 2 smoothly?
Sep 12 | JC said:
hello there, When will intel release new driver again?? will it be able to run Neverwinter nights 2 smoothly?
Sep 13 | orclev said:
Some time ago I read in a forum that intel was working on discrete graphics cards, and current rumor was a 16 processor card with a gig of video memory. I’ve looked around various parts of Intel’s site, and this is the closest thing to graphics cards being discussed. Any more info on this, or was this more of something Intel was toying around with and the rumor mill got wind of and blew out of proportion.
Sep 14 | Juraki said:
I’m wondering the same thing that tb101 is. If the 15.6 driver is out for vista, and it includes the changes that the recently released XP driver does,is there any way to bypass the error during install and still use the driver without relying on (in my case Sony) to get the driver out in a timely fasion? I’d really like to use the driver straight from intel as I have a good feeling Sony is going to drag thier feet and take too long getting it out for my notebook (VGN-cr123e)
Sep 15 | Ivan said:
I’m also curious whether it is possible to install a 15.6 driver on my HP Compaq 6710b (Mobile™ Intel® 965GM Express with X3100; Vista Business) or I will have to wait like Juraki for an official release from HP. I am dying to play Call of Duty 2, but so far I couldn’t even get into the main menu. I always run into a fatal DirectX error.
Sep 15 | Ben said:
Juraki, and tb101 (i have a Sony CR120) - i got the new driver to install by following the manual install guide in the readme file as provided on the intel website. If following that doesn’t help, tell me which bit(s) you get stuck with and i can try to help you further.
The driver seemed to make only a 5-10fps difference in Counter-Strike Source, and i have yet to try any other games (HL2 runs at 20-30 fps will all settings on high and no AA or HDR). However, i think openGL games will probably see a more notable performance increase (games with an nvidia bias like UT2004 and others). I base this purely on the fact that the settings are edited through openGL, so i could be wrong about that!
I’ll try out some more games either today or tomorrow and tell you how i get on.
Sep 15 | tb101 said:
Once again the updates are great but considering they dont install on the vista units they are just encoded drivers building dust on them. any other info on fixing/installing the drivers would be nice.
Sep 17 | tb101 said:
Ok ill see if i can install it via the manual way again i tried the first time and it didnt work at all i guess ill give it another shot and let yall know in a couple days
Sep 19 | oz said:
I’m on Vista 64bit, and get a black screen when trying to run games like Oblivion and BioShock.
What can I do?
Sep 20 | jackn said:
I have HP 6710b notebook (GMA3100). I can’t setup new drivers because it’s said that this driver not working with your cumputer.When does rapairs this problem?
Sep 21 | tb101 said:
Alright i got the driver to install under the manual installation… it seems that intel didn’t quite pay to much notice to the driver since compression to the installation file… it apperently is showing this because of the fact that there is no figure in the exe or inf files for compatability through installation of the exe file…
Sep 21 | gemmaprod said:
So how does the hardware vertex switch work? Can I tell if vertex processing is on or not? Can I control it? Why is it nifty?
Sep 22 | maryoosh said:
Hi! I want to ask you, when Intel is planning to release new version of drivers for VISTA with FULL support for H&W/Vertex Processing?
Current 15.6 doesn’t seem to carry out geometric operations in some games performed hardwarly (examples: Test Drive Unlimited, Tomb Raider: Anniversary).
Oct 04 | biranjia mukesh said:
i have purchase a toshiba laptop p30,win xp, series and i install a flight simulator 2004, but when i play the game the image is not good, i tried all setting, still not good.. everytime a message appear that my laptop do not have programma to play the 3D games,….please can anyone help to sort out this problems…
Oct 06 | mrwan said:
hey all i have a laptop with igp ati x200 graphics card iam thinking about getting another one with intel x3100 its 200$ difference in price is it worth it ????
Oct 11 | dr.zeissler said:
hopefully apple will choose santa-rosa and x3100 for the upcoming macbooks and macminis that are expected in calender week 44 - 45 of 2007 instead of the new nvidia onboard series.
please take care of the best drivers for osx that are possible.
any opinions ?
thx Doc
PS: I expect cpu/gpu in one chip with raytracing optimization (SaarCore) from intel, that will be the upcoming killerfeature in 2008/2009/2010 and this will be changing the gpu market like 3dfx did with theire voodoo graphics in 1996.
Oct 13 | Ragnorakk said:
hey, cool information and nice demonstration nick. i bought the c571nr compaq and was wondering if intel also plans to upgrade the 945 family with some of these features… its the gma 950 on my compaq c571nr which is running windows vista and is fully upgradeable to home premium/etc.
Oct 15 | Kev said:
Will games like Call of Duty 2 ever be able to work with 965 chipset on Vista?
Oct 18 | dr.zeissler said:
http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20071016PD216.html
wow! three times faster than the actual g965, that’s quite good, but please built in more features, so that the quality is compatible to entry/midrange graphic cards.
doc
Oct 21 | chris said:
Intel 965. Make it work for oblivion. The game is how many years old now and it doesn’t work on your ‘new’ drivers…that’s a bit scary. I will definitely not be buying another laptop with intel or any other integrated video card when I but another computer.
Oct 23 | Brent said:
Any word on G35 motherboard release and will it have HDMI.
Oct 24 | Eric said:
I am using a Toshiba Satellite…2G Ram and a Mobile Intel Chipset 945Gm express. I am having probelsm running games like Age of Empirs 3. I get a messgae indicating that my graphics adaptor is not compatible with the versions of DirectX installed…in this case DriectX 10. Is there anyway to install an older version of DirectX…will this help or should my Graphics Adaptor be DirectX 10 compatible.
Oct 26 | chris williams said:
hi i would like some help i just got a new laptop from toshiba it cost £899 and the system is intel core 2 duo centrino Duo 1.8Ghz T7100 2GB DDR2 667 hard drive 120GB intel GM965 (X3100) its a toshiba satellite pro A200. im trying to update my drivers for my graphics but when ever i try install the latest driver from intel it says. the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. please obtain the appropriate driver from the computers manufacturer setup will ext. but it is the right driver help me!! i have windows Vista business but when i try playing games like the sims 2 and dawn of war the first time i play it it will say i have not got T&L support bla bla bla and some features may not be featured or something help me please i want my T&L and vertex shader 4.0 or 3.0 i dont have it it says i havent got it but this onboard supports it i read it please help.
Nov 05 | Coolwhip said:
I tried the instructions on this URL here but to no avail (Probably because the instructions are for XP). I have a Intel 89245G Express chipset and I’ve checked if my OS was compatible with the requirements of the driver (and they are), but it still won’t change! I have the same problem as Chris Williams so if anybody could solve my problem, I would be very grateful.
Nov 05 | Nick Knupffer said:
Sounds like you need to go to your OEM and ask them to supply you with new drivers. Some OEM’s need a little time to do additional validation.
Nov 05 | derek rice said:
pleeeeeaasssseee make the intel 965 duo centrino work with oblivion!!
Nov 07 | Andre said:
Hi all. Im having toubles with my new laptop.It it an Intel Core Duo 1.66 Ghz / 2GB Ram / Intel 945GM integrated video. When I try to install Company of Heroes it said that I dont have shader model instaled in my system. I have the lastest driver for GMA and directx9.0c on XP. Any ideia why it said that I dont have shader model. I read somethings about 945GM and it support shader 3.0.
thanks all
Nov 07 | Bruno said:
I can not install the driver 14.31 in my OS, a get error mensage
Nov 11 | C said:
same problem as chris above: “the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. please obtain the appropriate driver from the computers manufacturer setup will exit” Can somebody help? I have a Dell with Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express chipset
Nov 15 | george said:
I have some problems running games on my Sony Vaio Vgn-Fz140e. They dont start at all, or just in a window in the middle of the screen. Could that be a problem related to the drivers, or my computer has another issue. I tried different drives and checked the settings, did not help :(
Nov 17 | dekks herton said:
nay sign of vista drivers with working t&l?
Nov 18 | tangles said:
I have a dell inspiron 6400 with the intel mobile 945gm graphics card. I tried to install Company of Heroes opposing fronts. Same dramas as you guys, no pixel shader.. have downloaded the latest drivers from intel and dell, but only one installed the one from intel gave me the same error mesg. Does my computer support this pixel shading or am I wasting my time ????
Nov 19 | brian said:
although it improves performance of some games, the vista drivers are having a total wreck with older games which people with integrated mostly play. Vista drivers give less performance than gma950 and even 945 in some older games…
Nov 25 | Dave said:
After reading this post I decided to buy a new Intel DG965 motherboard and while I do like Intel graphics on Linux and this board runs quite well with Compiz Fusion, the gaming performance leaves a lot to be desired. Even relatively simple games like Scorched3D are slow.
Hopefully these driver improvements make their way into the X.org Intel driver soon. While I enjoy Intel’s commitment to Open Source I do not enjoy being left behind the Windows crowd when it comes to drivers.
Nov 26 | Pak said:
i just got a Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family and i got the latest drivers and stuff for it, im wondering if bf2 is compatible with it
Nov 27 | Scott T. said:
BF2 Didn’t work with my BRAND NEW Latitude D360. Has Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset. Todays date is 11/27/07!!! Unbelievable…
I’m gettin an AMD!
Dec 01 | Core performance said:
in my mind its best chipset.
Dec 02 | William said:
Hi, I’m trying to play NFS Prostreet on my toshiba Portege M500 laptop with Mobile Intel® 945GM Express Chipset, running XP SP2 with DirectX 9.0. But, the screen just turned black everytime I started the game. As I thought Prostreet requirements might be too high for my laptop, I tried installing FF VII, but I encountered the same problem as well. Does this Mobile Intel® 945GM Express Chipset support 3D Gaming? Will updating to latest intel driver help? I tried to update to the latest driver and I got the same problem with some of you, “the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. please obtain the appropriate driver from the computers manufacturer setup will exit”. Anybody has some suggestions?
Dec 04 | Jason Collins said:
Hi, I am trying to play FarCry with little luck.
I have a brand new Sony Viao VGN-N385E notebook running Vista Home with a 945GM Express Chipset Family. I would like to play my FarCry game but the graphics are terrible. Is there anything I can do? Are there 3D settings which need to be changed?
Any assistance would be appreciated….
Thanks!
Dec 04 | RLte said:
Hi, I recently got Battlefield 2 and installed it with my Windows XP SP2. I have 1 GB ram and I also have a Intel® 82945G Express Chipset for my Display Adapter. I double click on BF2 and then it opens up a splash screen, but then closes back to the desktop/ where i was originally. Im very distressed about this as this computer is brand new and BF2 is quite old. Any help?
Dec 04 | RLte said:
Hi, I recently got Battlefield 2 and installed it with my Windows XP SP2. I have 1 GB ram and I also have a Intel® 82945G Express Chipset for my Display Adapter. I double click on BF2 and then it opens up a splash screen, but then closes back to the desktop/ where i was originally. Im very distressed about this as this computer is brand new and BF2 is quite old. Any help?
Dec 06 | Devin said:
I wonder when people will stop complaining about integrated graphics. I’ve had this arguement several times with numerous users; people just expect too much from integrated graphics. They are meant to get you by, with the bare minimum; you paid somewhere close to $4 for it so what kind of video card do you expect for that kind of money? Even the lowest of the low descrete card, nVidia 8400GS, is a better gaming card than the GMA X3000/X3100, but it costs $50 and you paid the equivilent of pocket change for your integrated graphics. It’s not meant to rival descrete cards high nor low end; compare it to ATi and nVidia’s offerings in the integrated graphics market and you’ll see where it competes. It’s Intel’s first really successful integrated graphics that are actually feasible for light gaming. I currently have a few benchmarks from several different games on VR-Zone.Com (link below) accompanied by a few videos on YouTube that show a several games that work on the GMA X3000. I started the topic as a user of GMA X3000 integrated graphics, it is meant to allow fellow users to post problems, give feedback on working games and to keep everyone updated on information as it’s readily availible. Check it out if you’re interested. Oh and by the way, Battlefield 2 works fine…..
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=129343
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CJackson1984
Dec 17 | Bryan said:
Battlefeild 2 was ok, Far Cry had good graphics but the game play wasnt impressive, call of duty 4 that just came out looks very promising!!!
Dec 17 | Ed said:
Those of you getting an error “the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. please obtain the appropriate driver from the computers manufacturer setup will exit”, download the ZIP file and follow the manual install instructions in the readme. It will install without a problem.
Those of you who are saying their “brand new” laptops with the GM965 chipset aren’t able to play the game, make sure your driver version is 7.14.10.1364.
I saw a huge difference in game performance after installing this patch (granted it’s still integrated graphics and you’re not going to be turning settings on new games past low), and I hope Intel continues to provides great updates such as this.
Dec 18 | Lukas said:
problem with “the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. please obtain the appropriate driver from the computers manufacturer setup will exit” on my sony vaio fz140eb(Mobile Intel® 965GM Express Chipset) was solved with updating drivers manualy( from zip file) and now bf2 running on high video options without problems. p.s. bf2 should be run as administrator on Vista p.p.s. nice work Intel, thanks.
Dec 20 | Shocker said:
I just got a new D630 (ya…a bit late).
I had to update vid. driver via Dell Website…
Then did a yahoo/google search for 965 chipset games. and came up with with Intel link. It tells of the games, and recomended setting, that the chipset can handle.
Sorry…no Oblivion or NVN….but there is always WoW.
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/intelgm965/sb/CS-026146.htm
Dec 26 | din said:
how to increase my graphic card memory to the maximum??my laptop has intel 945gm chipset..help me…my laptop is lenovo Y400
Dec 29 | Alex said:
are the vista drivers out yet??
Dec 29 | Nick said:
when are the vista drivers gonna come out?
Dec 29 | Johnny said:
i tryed downloading it but it said i dont meet the requirments.? what r they? and i have a dell p4 dem2350 766mb with intergrated vid card i have and older pc 98 p3 can i take that intergrated vid card and put it in one of my open slots in my dell pc to boost up game preformance or any preformance??
Dec 30 | Thomas said:
Would the new driver help me play counter strike source on my laptop :
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium Language: English (Regional Setting: English) System Manufacturer: TOSHIBA System Model: EQUIUM A200 BIOS: BIOS Version 1.60
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.5GHz Memory: 2038MB RAM Page File: 1681MB used, 2614MB available
Card name: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family Manufacturer: Intel Corporation Chip type: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family DAC type: Internal
Display Memory: 358 MB Dedicated Memory: 0 MB Shared Memory: 358 MB Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
because when i do play css now i only have 10fps
Dec 30 | Thomas said:
i downloaded the driver http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2880&OSFullName=Windows+Vista*+Ultimate%2C+32-bit+version&lang=eng&strOSs=156&submit=Go%21 but it doesnt work for my laptop i have got a Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family why doesnt it work?
Dec 31 | thomas said:
why is the 7.14 better as the 7.15 wenn i play css with the 14(13-22fps) and with the 15(9-15fps) can someone tell my why and when the better driver for 965 is coming out,thx.
Jan 02 | hust said:
yeah that be real great if someone actually gave us an answer as to when to expect the driver for vista
Jan 02 | Nick Knupffer said:
Vista drivers are here (and are also linked to in several comments above.)
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2880&DwnldID=14962&strOSs=163&OSFullName=Windows%20Vista*&lang=eng
Jan 03 | paul said:
Please dont tell me that the aformentioned drivers http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2880&DwnldID=14962&strOSs=163&OSFullName=Windows%20Vista*&lang=eng are the new drivers for vista that are supposed to increase performance…..becuase if they are im gonna cry im still running games like trash
Jan 04 | nick said:
yeah i agree paul
Jan 09 | thompy said:
hey brilliant news, i hav laptop just for casual gaming and can now play bf2, my friend has a GMAX300 are there any drivers that will allow him 2 play aswell cuz we wanna play each other real bad,
Jan 10 | davinder singh said:
i m using toshiba laptop with Intel on board chipset 965,has integrated video accelerated card intel X3100.But the problem i m facing is that i cant play high graphic games.It need to increase shared memory for display accelerated card.So reply me if anyone know how to increase video display shared memory……..waitin 4 any reply….
Jan 12 | Ben said:
Hi there, I’ve been monitoring the progress of the GMA X3100 drivers since i bought a Sony laptop back in september with the X3100 chipset. The release of the new Vista drivers have shown absolutely zero increase in performance in all games i have tried (Max Payne 2, All source engine games (HL2, TF2, CS:S etc), Dawn of War, Civ4, along with many others).
This may seem like a rant, but i would like to see some drivers that make a real difference to performance rather than a number of false promises that customers have been given.
My laptop specifications are; T7300 Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB DDR 667 RAM, 160gb Hard disk, GMAX3100, and windows vista home premium.
Thanks for reading!
Jan 13 | Sam said:
hey, i just bought a brand new toshiba laptop with an INTEL GMA X3100, but i can’t update the drivers, i downloaded them from the INTEL website, but every time i install them a box comes up saying ‘The driver installed is not validated for this computer. PLease obtain appropriate driver from computer’s manufacturer’. Could someone please email me and help out beause i’ve spent hours trying to get the driver update but found nothing which works. Thanks!
Jan 14 | Adam Dorrington said:
i also quite recently bought a toshiba laptop with a GMA x3100 and it says the same. should i downgrade to windows XP but im worried that the XP driver i have got wont work. can some one email me a link for the GMA x3100 driver for the toshiba equium a200-iv0
Jan 14 | bananah said:
Someone may have already mentioned this, but I had the same problem with trying to get intel’s new drivers installed on my 965gm/x3100 chipset. I had the same problem and couldn’t play bf2. Now I can. Here’s the instructions. You have to download the zip file, not the exe.
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-022355.htm
Jan 16 | Flávio said:
Hi, I have recently seen a post in the Steam site forum, and it says Intel is working on a new driver for the mobile 945 GM to correct some game issues (Orange Box, Half Life 2). Is it true ? When will this driver be ready ? Thanks for helping !
Jan 25 | Sam said:
nice, but even if you have a slower integrated graphics card, or if you want better performance on intel integrated, check out my intel integrated-based blog, at www.intelintegratedgaming.blogspot.com - has guides for running source-engine games on unsupported hardware and emulating Hardware T&L + Pixel shaders. just try it out!
Feb 05 | eng said:
hi every one plz i want to got the intel 82945g graphic driver for win98 thanx
Feb 07 | waqas khan said:
please can any one tell me..i have intel d945gccr board its graphics does not support the (call of duty 4,NFS prostreet)..please can any one tell me how can i play and increased my 3d card performance..reply me as soon as possible.
Feb 14 | TabletUser said:
Hi,
I have TabletPC ASUS R1E-B1 with Core2Duo 2.4GHz, 4GB of RAM, Intel 965 graphics is configured with 448MB RAM, Vista Ultimate 64-bit, latest ASUS BIOS and latest Intel graphics driver (1/10/2008). I’m trying to play FSX, but I’m unable to get higher frame. I’m able to get 10 frames per second in areas without any buildings (or perhaps more then 10, but I locked in 10 as max value). When using Dense Scenery and flying in areas with buildings, I’m able to get 7 - 8 fps and 6-7 during night. I tried all options and this is the best result. I could change Scenery density to Normal or Low, but I want to land helicopters on buildings, ships etc. so I want to use settings Dense. Is there a way to increase fps or is this information about playing the latest games on 965 misleading (or lie)?
Another problem is with Age Of Empires III, it works relatively good until I start a fight with ships. I get about 1 frame per 2 minutes and game basicaly stops. I have to click on map to move to an area where there are no burning ships in order to continue. So I have to build ships and send them to atack enemy and then quickly move somewhere else and hope that they defeat enemy on their own. I already disabled everything in graphics options. I have the latest patch 1.12 for AoE III. Is there a way to increase fps to at least 5?
Thanks.
Feb 17 | Cheah said:
hi guys i am wondering if i can play CSS with the max graphics and a resolution of 1024 x 768 with this specs:
intel pentium D dual core 2.66Ghz (2 CPU running)
G965 Express Chipset Family with X3000 and driver is updated with vertex 3.0, pixel 3.0 and H&L support on Windows XP SP2
1.5GB ddr2 533 Ram
please email me at stealthcheah@gmail.com
thanks
Feb 25 | Havoc said:
I have an Intel E4500 2.2 Ghz Processor on the DG965RYCK motherboard with 2Gb RAM. I’m having problems playing Test Drive Unlimited even in single player - the fps is just too low. Can anyone tell me if my system is capable of playing the game?
Feb 25 | jogi said:
please, can anyone tell me what i have to do to make my G965 Express Chipset Family graphics(on HP Compaq 6710s) support ”vertex data” on win xp? I trying play -Pro Evolution Soccer 2008- and call of duty 4, and only works on low level settings!i have a latest driver update! Help please! Sorry on my bad english !
Mar 21 | find dl lfiles said:
Can anyone tell me if my system is capable of playing the game?
Apr 20 | ahmed said:
hi i have intel 82945G Express Chipest family and the problem is i cant get battlefield 2 to open. i open it and the screen goes black for a few seconds then back to the desktop. if anyone know the slove of this problem pls tell me
May 06 | adam said:
I also have a Intel 82945G chipset, it says it’s 256
I need to be able to run “shader 3.0” I believe plz help
May 17 | Wynand said:
Thank you and well done Intel for excellent work, keep it up.
If you experience difficulties in playing certain games then either: a. you are using the wrong OS, b. you installed the wrong drivers, c. you should rather not try to play games on graphic adapters meant for an entire different purpose in the first place, d. you should rather buy a high-end gaming system
Please people, read up on different products, focus and try to understand that drivers are not miraculously going to improve your frame rate or allow you play all games at high-level detail.
If you’re serious about gaming, get a gaming system, it’s simple.
Intel did a great job on improving an already great product, stop bugging them with stupid questions and expectations.
May 26 | Romero said:
I have a Dell XPS M1330 laptop, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5450 @ 1.66GHz 2GB RAM with a Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family 448Mb. I just bought the Company of Heroes game, and I can´t even install it, because the installer says my video card does not support shader model 1.1. I went to downloadcenter.intel.com but I couldn´t install the Media Accelerator Driver for Windows Vista, because “the controller is not validated for my system”. It told me to get the appropriate controller from the system manufacturer. I went to Dell.com and downloaded and installed the Intel - Driver for the GM 965 express chipset family, but it didn´t work out. What can I do? Is there any way I can play “Company of Heroes” on my laptop computer? Thank you very much. chava.romero@gmail.com
Jun 01 | Fish said:
Why the hell do so many Vista laptops come built with the GMAX3100 when the driver for Vertex Shaders etc hasn’t even been released?! According to systemrequirementslab.com my laptop can run games such as Crysis, the only thing stopping it is the lack of Vertex Shaders etc. SUrely it would make sense for Intel to actually FINISH the god damn drivers before releasing their stupid card?!
Jun 10 | MAXB said:
I´m wondering on those graphics on my geforce 4 ti4200. That´s a magnificiency card.
Now I´m looking on my g31 integrated card and wondering when this Half Life 2 graphics gonna fit on it.
Taking a clear look, Nvidia still got best results than it, shame on me when I think that´s Intel Integrated got better than it.
My comment here is about how long a Graphics card deserve the credits and how good a new card can be and worth the value.
I can Play Half Life 2 with the graphics on top (or better) with G31 graphics integrated, or it´s just a wonder from my vendor when he said I can play it like the top new ones?
BTW The better option still is a big look on the especifications, but when your old Machine was stoped? how to choose?
Who can I trust? the vendor, my self, or the updates on the driver for games such like this.
I trust myself when I go to a shop, but how this information are going around is very annoying.
Anyway, anybody have a soultion to play Half Life 2 like half Life 2 is, with G31 Graphics integrated?
Jun 20 | Edmond said:
Come on! What a tease! If you don’t have the Vista drivers ready, don’t post this blog! I have a Vista laptop and I really wanna play Battlefield 2, which won’t run…
Jun 27 | Marius said:
I have a Intel(R) GM965 Express Chipset, its a Lenovo R61e laptop, i downloaded the chipset identification utility to double check that it is the correct chipset. But when i try to install the 14.34 drivers from intel, it says its not the correct drivers for my system? How can this be? G965 express is supported, coz my ghapics sucks at the moment
Jul 03 | IntelJeff said:
@marius: If you got your Intel integrated graphics from an OEM (such as Lenovo), then you need to get the 14.34 driver from them. OEMs sometimes repackage Intel’s driver to integrate with their platform (e.g. hot keys, etc). As such, the Intel download driver won’t install over an OEM repackaged driver to avoid breaking the OEM customizations.
@Edmond, @Fish - what Vista drivers are you referring to? This thread was started August 2007. Intel released Vista drivers with T&L support shortly after the initial blog post. Go to your OEM and download the latest drivers.