New Intel HD Graphics Driver Improves Game Performance
Subject: General Tech | April 8, 2013 - 03:13 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: Ivy Bridge, intel hd, Intel, hd 4000, hd 2500
Intel recently released an updated graphics driver for Ivy Bridge processors sporting either HD 4000 or HD 2500 GPUs. The new 15.31.3.3071 (or 15.31.3.64.3071 for those running a 64-bit OS) driver features several under-the-hood optimizations to reduce CPU overhead and improve the driver architecture itself.
The driver architecture improvements have also led to improved game performance. Intel claims up to 10% better performance in StarCraft II, Batman: Arkham City, and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (among others).
The chip giant also notes that the new driver supports OpenCL 1.2 for GPGPU calculations. The graphics driver update is only for Ivy Bridge hardware, and is compatible with Ivy Bridge hardware and both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8. If you are running Intel's Driver Update Utility, you should get the new driver automatically.
Otherwise, you can grab the new driver from the following link, depending on your OS.
- 15.31.3.3071 for 32-bit Windows 7/8
- 15.31.3.64.3071 for 64-bit Windows 7/8
Unfortunately, these drivers are generic Intel HD graphics drivers. If your OEM computer is running Windows with an OEM-customized version of Intel's drivers, you are out of luck. You will need to wait for your OEM to update its driver package in order to take advantage of the performance improvements.
Windows versus Linux in an OpenGL free for al
Subject: General Tech | April 8, 2013 - 01:59 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: linux, ubuntu 13.04, fedora 18, win7, opengl, Ivy Bridge
One major barrier to switching to Linux for many users is the graphical performance of the OS; Steam may be releasing a variety of games which will run on Linux but if the performance is awful there are not going to be many who think about making the switch. Phoronix has been a close eye on the development of OpenGL drivers for Linux, this time specifically the onboard Intel graphics present on Ivy Bridge chips. With one driver available for each OS the tests were easily set up, except for the aforementioned Steam games as there is a bug which prevents Phoronix from collecting the performance data they need. Check out the performance differences between Ubuntu 13.04, Fedora 18 and Win7 in the full article.
"Last month Phoronix published Intel OpenGL benchmarks showing Windows 8 outperforming Ubuntu 13.04 with the latest Windows and Linux drivers from Intel. I also showed that even with the KDE and Xfce desktops rather than the default Unity/Compiz desktop to Ubuntu, Windows 8 still was faster on this Intel "Ivy Bridge" platform. The new benchmarks to share today from this Intel Ultrabook are the Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.04 results but also with performance figures added in from Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 x64 and Fedora 18."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Intel is sampling Avoton Atom chips ahead of IDF Beijing @ The Inquirer
- HP announces low-power Moonshot system based on an Intel Atom chip @ The Inquirer
- The Surprising SUSE Linux @ Linux.com
- AMD to fully replace FM1 with FM2, AM3 with AM3+ in 2014 @ DigiTimes
- Solar powered robot mows your lawn while you chill indoors @ Hack a Day
- Microsoft to slap 9 patches on Windows junkies on Tuesday @ The Register
- ASUS AiCloud: A Fresh Face for Networking @ Bjorn3D
- Gadget Show Live 2013 – The Public Event @ Kitguru
- DIY MultiCopter - Part 1. @ Metku.net
Introduction and Technical Specifications
Introduction
Courtesy of ASUS
The P8Z77X-I Deluxe is ASUS' high-powered answer to the small form factor crowd. Through some unique design decisions and an upright daughter-board, ASUS was able to cram a full 10-phase digital power delivery system into this board without sacrificing any other integrated components. It's nice to see a manufacturer step up and design a mini-ITX board in the same vein as its full-sized counterpart. We put the board through our normal gamut of tests to see how well this mighty Mini-ITX board sized up with its full-sized brethren. At a retail list price of $219, the P8Z77-I Deluxe needs to prove its worth against the full sized boards.
Courtesy of ASUS
ASUS designed a full 10 phases of digital power, housed in the board's upright daughter card sitting parallel to the CPU cooler. The P8Z77-I Deluxe with its high-end power plant is packed full of features, including SATA 2, SATA 3, e-SATA, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0 ports for storage devices. Networking capabilities include an Intel GigE NIC, a Broadcom dual-port 802.11n adapter, and a Broadcom Bluetooth adapter. The board also features a single PCI-Express x16 slot for graphics cards and other expansion cards.
Courtesy of ASUS
Continue reading our review of the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard!
Introduction and Technical Specifications
Introduction
Courtesy of MSI
With the Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt, MSI took an award winning design and tweaked it to bring an affordable Thunderbolt-based solution to the masses without sacrificing on quality or performance. We put this board through our grueling battery of tests to validate the board's performance promises. The MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt can be found at your favorite retailer for the reasonable price of $169.99.
Courtesy of MSI
The Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt sports a simple design and layout with some of the bells and whistles found on the higher priced boards omitted to keep the feature set intact and the price to a minimum. MSI includes the following features in the Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt's design: SATA 2 and SATA 3 ports; a Realtek GigE NIC; three PCI-Express x16 slots for up to tri-card support; USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports; and a single Thunderbolt port in the rear panel. For an in-depth overview on Thunderbolt technology and its advantages over other interconnect technologies, please see our review here.
Courtesy of MSI
Continue reading our review of the MSI Z77A-GD45 motherboard!!
Recent gains in gaming on Linux
Subject: General Tech | January 28, 2013 - 12:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: linux, Ivy Bridge, ubuntu 13.04
Phoronix has released a pair of reviews focusing on the graphical performance changes we have seen recently when gaming on a Linux system. The first looks at the last seven major kernel updates and how they changed the performance of Intel's HD4000 graphics core. The news is not great, in most cases the performance remained mostly unchanged and there are a few instances where the performance gain seen by kernel 3.4 have disappeared by 3.8 and in some cases it would make sense to wait until Mesa 9.1 arrives.
Their second article looks at the upcoming Ubuntu 13.04 release and the support the OS will have for AMD's GPUs straight out of the box with no customization. From there they move onto Intel's HD3000 graphics with good results to report. The new OS will not be out until April, but from what Phoronix has seen not only will this kernel handle discrete and integral GPUs well, the performance is the best they've seen yet.
"With the Intel Haswell product launch coming up soon, here's a look at how the Intel "Ivy Bridge" HD 4000 graphics support has matured on the seven most recent Linux kernel releases. This benchmarking shows how the performance of the Intel DRM driver has changed between the Linux 3.2 kernel and the Linux 3.8 kernel that's presently under development when using the integrated graphics found on the latest-generation Core i7 CPU."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Gartner says Intel getting Cisco as a foundry customer is a good move @ The Inquirer
- Microsoft may be readying Outlook for ARM – or not @ The Register
- Microsoft acknowledges the long and winding road ahead @ The Register
- Why I'm excited about Microsoft's Surface Pro @ Tweaktown
- Ninjalane Podcast - Borderlands 2 Farming
- Win an Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe & Asus HD7970 Matrix @ Kitguru
Intel is still playing coy when it comes to 7W SDPs
Subject: General Tech | January 15, 2013 - 04:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Intel, SDP, 7 watt, core i5, 3339Y, Ivy Bridge
One of the biggest controversies coming out of CES 2013 was Intel's redefining of TDP as SDP so that they could rate their new Ivy Bridge processor at 7W. Scenario Design Power is a measurement of the power consumed in certain specific usage situations, which Intel refuses to disclose the specifics of. From what The Inquirer found out, there will actually be a spectrum of SDPs which consumers can choose from, though again Intel is not saying much about the specifics of the workloads or of the chips themselves. You can check out what little we know here, though until we have more details it is hard to decide if this will obfuscate the actual power draws of chips or become a new useful metric in the future.
"CHIPMAKER Intel remains coy about the precise definition of the workload used to calculate its scenario design power (SDP) metric that it has applied to its Y series Core processors.
Intel quietly introduced the new SDP metric at CES where it revealed a 7W Ivy Bridge chip and received some criticism for relying on a new metric to hit its headline figure. When The INQUIRER asked Intel to define the scenario in which the Core i5 3339Y chip hits the 7W figure, the firm said it was "not prepared to talk about the workload at this time"."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Fedora 18 Released @ Slashdot
- Microsoft flings out emergency patch for Iatest gaping IE hole @ The Register
- YOUR Cisco VoIP phone is easily TAPPED, warns CompSci prof @ The Register
- 'Red October' has been spying on WORLD LEADERS for 5 years - researchers @ The Register
- Rumors say Dell again thinking of going private @ The Register
- Linux for the Masses at CES 2013 @ Linux.com
- CES 2013: Seagate, Antec, Intel, A-Data, Digital Storm, Sapphire & More @ Legit Reviews
Ultrabooks 2.0
Intel is a yearly presence at CES and typically have a few interesting things to talk about. Last year we got to see Will.I.Am on stage telling us all about how the Ultrabook has changed his artistic life. Oddly enough, things have not changed dramatically for the company. Ultrabooks have inherited the latest Ivy Bridge processors which were released last Spring. Medfield is still the primary cell phone processor for Intel.
The first area they covered is the cellphone market. Medfield is still the go-to processor and Intel claims that it has better performance and battery life than even the latest Qualcomm products. Intel is introducing a new reference phone for emerging markets around the world codenamed Lexington. Based on the Z2420 and the XMM6265 modem, this budget smartphone will be Android based with certain optimizations instituted by Intel in collaboration with Google.
Intel has achieved more wins throughout the next few months. Acer, Safaricom, and Lava will all be announcing new smart phones based on Intel silicon. Details of these products will be released later in the quarter.
Medfield will be replaced by Clover Tail+ and then further on with their next gen 22 nm product.
Introduction and Technical Specifications
Introduction
Courtesy of EVGA
Sometimes, good things do come in small packages. The latest board on our test bench from EVGA proves that fact, the EVGA Z77 Stinger. The Z77 Stinger is a micro-ITX form factor board based on the Intel Z77 chipset, but don’t let its size fool you. This board is packed with features and delivers the performance that we’ve come to expect out of its full-size brethren. At a mere $199.99 base price, the EVGA Z77 Stinger would be at home in any enthusiast’s full tower case or HTPC build.
Courtesy of EVGA
Even with its small stature, the EVGA Z77 Stinger promises to pack some power. It features support for the following: SATA 2, SATA 3, eSATA, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 type devices; two different network types featuring an Intel GigE NIC and an Atheros Bluetooth adapter; PCI-Express x16 3.0 and m-PCIe ports; and HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.1a style video ports. With the addition of an m-PCIe adapter, the board can support onboard Wi-Fi as well.
Continue reading our review of the EVGA Z77 Stinger mini-ITX Motherboard!!
New 22nm Pentiums and Celerons for the new year
Subject: General Tech | November 29, 2012 - 12:43 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: pentium, celeron, Intel, 22nm, G2130, G2020, G2020T, G1620, G1610, G1610T, Ivy Bridge
There won't be any new Intel desktop processors for Christmas and even in the New Year it will be the entry level lineup that is first refreshed. Six older Pentium and Celeron models will hit EOL and be replaced with new Ivy Bridge based 22nm models, likely with similar specs and reduced power consumption. The news for mobile processors is a little better with the Core i7-3687, Core i5-3437U, Celeron 1037U, 1007U, 1020M and 1000M all slated for the first quarter of 2013. DigiTime also mentions a new 20nm member of the 530 series of SSDs should be arriving at the same time.
"Intel is set to upgrade its entry-level desktop Pentium and Celeron product lines in the first quarter of 2013 with the launch of Ivy Bridge-based 22nm Pentium G2130, G2020 and G2020T and Celeron G1620, G1610 and G1610T processors, while its existing Sandy Bridge-based 32nm Pentium G870, G645 and G645T as well as Celeron G555, G550 and G550T will be phased out of the market starting the end of 2012, according to sources from the upstream supply chain."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Ten weird Chinese mobile phones @ The Register
- RIM reveals Blackberry 10 Dev device with physical QWERTY keypad @ The Inquirer
- Samsung printers have secret admin account @ The Register
- Electrical Applications for Infrared Thermometers @ TechwareLabs
- Protect Your Home from Burglary & Vandalism: There’s an App for That @ TechwareLabs
- Win a Nokia Lumia 820 Windows 8 Phone With Scancom @ eTeknix
Ivy Bridge without the HD Graphics
The processor market is kind of stale these days; there aren't a lot of releases and the dominance of Intel in the high-end CPU market kind of makes things uninteresting. We still have lot of great AMD processors in the low and mid-range markets but if you want a $200+ card part you will probably find your way into the world of Intel.
Today's processor review cuts across segments with a unique twist. The Intel Core i5-3350P can be picked up at Newegg.com for $189 putting it right in the price point of the AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi) and the AMD FX-8320 (Vishera). It also undercuts the very popular Intel Core i5-3570K by $50 or so while still offering some impressive performance results.
The only catch: this Ivy Bridge based processor does not include any integrated graphics.
The Intel Core i5-3350P
Intel recently released a couple of Ivy Bridge based processors that have disabled the integrated graphics completely, the 3350P being one of them. This allows Intel to sell processor die that might have a defect on the GPU portion to increase the relative yield rate of their 22nm process and also gives them another weapon to fight off any pricing competition from AMD.
Continue reading our review of the Intel Core i5-3350P Ivy Bridge Processor!!
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