How bad are Intel graphics drivers?

[VirtualLarry]

I've had trouble with GMA950 drivers in Win7. Intel (at the time, this may have changed) only had a pre-release driver available for Win7, and it caused all sorts of graphics flashing, like things didn't have proper clip regions, so backgrounds were being re-drawn, along with the foreground graphics in front of them, constantly. It was really bad.

Intel drivers suck, IMHO.

 

[Fjodor2001]

@Bearach:

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

I checked and the 82845G is from 2002, 82865V from 2003, and GMA3100 from 2007.

I'm not surprised that there were issues with the first two which are very old, given Intels poor reputation in the GFX department for older chips. It's somewhat encouraging that the GMA3100 which is a more recent chip only has performance issues.

In my case I'm mainly considering using the IGP in the comming Sandy Bridge CPUs with Windows 7 64-bit. If Intel in recent years have made improvements to both hardware and drivers, then I suppose it would be more representative to get experiences from people have used the IGP in the Clarkdale CPUs and associated drivers?

So, are there any Clarkdale users which use the IGP that can share their experiences? Have you had any issues with the hardware or drivers? What are your general impressions? And is the performance good enough for non-gaming usage?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Nothing wrong with Intel's software, their drivers are fine. Their hardware is so slow, but fine for the FarmVille crowd.

 

[Maximilian]

@Bearach:

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

I checked and the 82845G is from 2002, 82865V from 2003, and GMA3100 from 2007.

I'm not surprised that there were issues with the first two which are very old, given Intels poor reputation in the GFX department for older chips. It's somewhat encouraging that the GMA3100 which is a more recent chip only has performance issues.

In my case I'm mainly considering using the IGP in the comming Sandy Bridge CPUs with Windows 7 64-bit. If Intel in recent years have made improvements to both hardware and drivers, then I suppose it would be more representative to get experiences from people have used the IGP in the Clarkdale CPUs and associated drivers?

So, are there any Clarkdale users which use the IGP that can share their experiences? Have you had any issues with the hardware or drivers? What are your general impressions? And is the performance good enough for non-gaming usage?

My server has the clarkdale IGP, they call it intel HD graphics, its their fastest best yet which isnt saying much but its been excellent, zero problems using it. I did use the server as a day to day computer for a little while as my gaming rig was knackered at the time and it was fine, i noticed no fuzzy text or glitches or anything, rock solid.

 

[Ross Ridge]

I've heard game developers complain about Intel drivers more than I have than ATI or NVIDIA's. For non-gaming purposes you shouldn't have any problem, it's Windows that does most of the work anyways. For 3D games though, I'd stick to the big name games that officially support Intel graphics, as they'll do the work necessary to avoid any bugs in the drivers. The biggest complaint I've heard about Intel drivers is that they have a very short life cycle compared to ATI and NVIDIA.

 

[AdamK47]

The Intel graphics drivers are about as good as the Intel graphics chip. Why torture yourself?

 

[WelshBloke]

I'm fairly picky and I've not noticed any problems my laptop or laptop extended desktop (over HDMI). Or any problems with 2D text or video.

Honestly the only thing I wouldn't do with Intel hardware/drivers is try to game.

 

[Ovven]

My sister had to dump her old laptop with 945gm graphics because drivers caused BSOD in WinXP when trying to play the new WoW expansion pack, although all previous packs worked fine before. And the newest drivers either on dell's or intel's site didn't help with the issue either.

 

[Maximilian]

My sister had to dump her old laptop with 945gm graphics because drivers caused BSOD in WinXP when trying to play the new WoW expansion pack, although all previous packs worked fine before. And the newest drivers either on dell's or intel's site didn't help with the issue either.

Theres the problems right there :thumbsdown: