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IMHO Intel GPU's are not that bad. If you're not gaming they handle most tasks such as image editing with Photoshop and driving multiple screens at high resolut

IMHO Intel GPU's are not that bad. If you're not gaming they handle most tasks such as image editing with Photoshop and driving multiple screens at high resolutions. And frankly, that's all a consumer really needs. Sure, an external dedicated GPU is nice to have, but being able to buy a decent processor (ie. Pentium G4560) with an integrated GPU for 50 dollars is really awesome, if you're on a tight budget. PS: I'm writing this on a laptop that has the very first Intel HD Graphics (1st gen i7). I don't have any problem with it, except gaming and a two monitor limit.

dman 9y ago
The quality of their opengl drivers has been really lacking.
- amluto 9y ago
  Except on Linux, where they're excellent.
  - dman 9y ago
    I still havent gotten over Intels poulsbo fiasco on Linux. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMyODA http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMyODA .
    - scott_karana 9y ago
      Um... isn't that misstep exactly why they avoided it the next time around, by making the GPUs in-house, and having open specs and drivers from the very start? Seems like genuine efforts to mitigate.
gshulegaard 9y ago
This is also my opinion. I don't understand the vehemence for the integrated GPUs...I think they perform remarkably well. I am currently typing this from a bus on a Dell Alienware 13 r3 which has both an integrated Iris and a discrete Nvidia. TBH, I run my Ubuntu environment through the integrated graphics chip for the watt savings and because 90% of the stuff I do under Linux performs flawlessly on the integrated GPU. Of course I can switch to the Nvidia GPU using `prime-select` but besides running games or playing with CUDA I don't need the GTX 1060 day-to-day.
- jackmott 9y ago
  they work fine when they are just rendering ubuntu's window manager yeah, but so would a cpu with avx2. That is a pretty low bar. those of us complaining are using them for gaming, or serious compute jobs.
  - gshulegaard 9y ago
    Like I allude to...I can swap cards at any time: $ sudo prime-select nvidia $ sudo logout But having the intel option to roughly double my battery life is really nice on a laptop that sees a fair bit of use as a portable.
  - EpicEng 9y ago
    >those of us complaining are using them for gaming, or serious compute jobs. Then... don't do that? Seriously, they're not intended for this. Are you also upset that your $50 Ryobi drill doesn't have enough torque to bolt together a 747?
- Theodores 9y ago
  I never got that weird loop through Nvidia adapter working satisfactorily on Ubuntu so decided on Intel all the way on laptop GPUs - I am not building in 3D or playing games so nothing is missed. Would not mind knowing how it works on your Dell though, do you have to call things differently to use the Nvidia adapter? Bumblebee rings a bell.
  - Crespyl 9y ago
    Back when I had an an "Optimus" laptop with that kind of setup, I had to use bumblebee/optirun/primus (I forget how the parts fit together) to launch programs that I wanted to use the dedicated card with. It worked a little like Wine does, you'd just wrap your program invocation with `optirun <game>` and it would set everything up for you. IIRC it was also possible to combine this with wine, `optirun wine <game>`. The first year after I got the laptop (this was maybe 5-6 years back) support was kind of flaky, but things got smoothed out pretty quickly. Eventually I would just launch Steam with optirun and any programs started by Steam would inherit the dedicated GPU settings. I haven't used a setup like that for a few years now, I'm sure it's only gotten better since. The Arch wiki has a good rundown.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
squeaky-clean 9y ago
> PS: I'm writing this on a laptop that has the very first Intel HD Graphics (1st gen i7). I don't have any problem with it, except gaming and a two monitor limit. Damn, and that's one of the ones I would consider pretty bad. They started getting decent around Sandy Bridge / HD 3000. Before then, most 3d applications would just fail to open from my experience.
ksec 9y ago
Using it for anything like Browsers GPU acceleration causes many oddballs problems. ( Actually Firefox will just blacklist those drivers / Hardware ) The newer Iris are actually acceptable, But we will have to wait and see in a few years time if they will continue to provide Drivers Support. Those IGP from Sandy to Haswell didn't get supported and GPU acceleration gets turned off. And if they dont intend it for gaming or any GPU usage ( Which is perfectly fine ), how about stop wasting silicon on GPU? After all the majority cost of developing GPU isn't even in the hardware, but the software and support of drivers.

dman 9y ago

The quality of their opengl drivers has been really lacking.

amluto 9y ago
Except on Linux, where they're excellent.
- dman 9y ago
  I still havent gotten over Intels poulsbo fiasco on Linux. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMyODA http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMyODA .
  - scott_karana 9y ago
    Um... isn't that misstep exactly why they avoided it the next time around, by making the GPUs in-house, and having open specs and drivers from the very start? Seems like genuine efforts to mitigate.

gshulegaard 9y ago

This is also my opinion. I don't understand the vehemence for the integrated GPUs...I think they perform remarkably well. I am currently typing this from a bus on a Dell Alienware 13 r3 which has both an integrated Iris and a discrete Nvidia. TBH, I run my Ubuntu environment through the integrated graphics chip for the watt savings and because 90% of the stuff I do under Linux performs flawlessly on the integrated GPU. Of course I can switch to the Nvidia GPU using `prime-select` but besides running games or playing with CUDA I don't need the GTX 1060 day-to-day.

jackmott 9y ago
they work fine when they are just rendering ubuntu's window manager yeah, but so would a cpu with avx2. That is a pretty low bar. those of us complaining are using them for gaming, or serious compute jobs.
- gshulegaard 9y ago
  Like I allude to...I can swap cards at any time: $ sudo prime-select nvidia $ sudo logout But having the intel option to roughly double my battery life is really nice on a laptop that sees a fair bit of use as a portable.
- EpicEng 9y ago
  >those of us complaining are using them for gaming, or serious compute jobs. Then... don't do that? Seriously, they're not intended for this. Are you also upset that your $50 Ryobi drill doesn't have enough torque to bolt together a 747?
Theodores 9y ago
I never got that weird loop through Nvidia adapter working satisfactorily on Ubuntu so decided on Intel all the way on laptop GPUs - I am not building in 3D or playing games so nothing is missed. Would not mind knowing how it works on your Dell though, do you have to call things differently to use the Nvidia adapter? Bumblebee rings a bell.
- Crespyl 9y ago
  Back when I had an an "Optimus" laptop with that kind of setup, I had to use bumblebee/optirun/primus (I forget how the parts fit together) to launch programs that I wanted to use the dedicated card with. It worked a little like Wine does, you'd just wrap your program invocation with `optirun <game>` and it would set everything up for you. IIRC it was also possible to combine this with wine, `optirun wine <game>`. The first year after I got the laptop (this was maybe 5-6 years back) support was kind of flaky, but things got smoothed out pretty quickly. Eventually I would just launch Steam with optirun and any programs started by Steam would inherit the dedicated GPU settings. I haven't used a setup like that for a few years now, I'm sure it's only gotten better since. The Arch wiki has a good rundown.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

squeaky-clean 9y ago

> PS: I'm writing this on a laptop that has the very first Intel HD Graphics (1st gen i7). I don't have any problem with it, except gaming and a two monitor limit. Damn, and that's one of the ones I would consider pretty bad. They started getting decent around Sandy Bridge / HD 3000. Before then, most 3d applications would just fail to open from my experience.

ksec 9y ago

Using it for anything like Browsers GPU acceleration causes many oddballs problems. ( Actually Firefox will just blacklist those drivers / Hardware ) The newer Iris are actually acceptable, But we will have to wait and see in a few years time if they will continue to provide Drivers Support. Those IGP from Sandy to Haswell didn't get supported and GPU acceleration gets turned off. And if they dont intend it for gaming or any GPU usage ( Which is perfectly fine ), how about stop wasting silicon on GPU? After all the majority cost of developing GPU isn't even in the hardware, but the software and support of drivers.