Intel HD Graphics

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Revision as of 16:16, 26 February 2012 by JamieKitson (Talk | contribs) (Linux support: power saving)
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The Intel HD Graphics (sometimes also called GMA HD) is the Graphics Memory Accelerator (GMA) integrated in the Intel Core i3, Intel Core i5 and selected Intel Core i7 processors.

Features

  • Chipset: Arrandale (GMCH Ironlake)
  • PCI ID: 8086:0046
  • PCI-E
NOTE!
While almost all new ThinkPads have integrated Intel HD Graphics, on those ThinkPads with a Discrete NVIDIA GPU, the Intel GPU is disabled and cannot be enabled. There is no support for Switchable Graphics.
NOTE!
Contrary to the statement above, you can select the GPU in the BIOS of recent models with Nvidia Optimus, e.g. the T510 4384GEG. Windows seems to be able to switch between the GPUs, too.

Linux support

A very recent Linux distribution with kernel 2.6.33 and Intel Xorg driver 2.11 or newer is recommended.

Note that XVideo (Xv) playback at certain frame sizes does not work properly unless you have at least version 2.12 of the Intel Xorg driver.

Desktop Effects do not work in Ubuntu 10.10 (at least, on an X220).

T420s

The BIOS for the T420s (and presumably also the T420) settings for _Graphics Device_ default to NVIDIA Optimus and the OS Detection for NVIDIA Optimus is set to Disabled which is not a good set of defaults for Linux since Optimus is only supported by Windows 7. To get the NVidia drivers working for Linux I had to set the Graphics Device to Discrete Graphics. This was as of 2011-11-26 using driver version 290.10. Then run sudo nvidia-xconfig. Both TwinView and Xinerama worked fine.

Power Saving Kernel Options

The following boot options may help considerably with power:

i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.semaphores=1 pcie_aspm=force

Source

Models featuring this Technology

Resources