Intel X3100 users rejoice! It's finally here! New Pre-Beta Drivers

I was suspecitng that it's something I should try. What boggles me is why it worked before though.

 

I tried WC3 too and it doesn't always crash in hardware mode. But it does pretty often. Software helped a lot.

 

That's ok, I even thought that x3100 get -150 FPS in GTA4

 

WC3 works VERY well for me at playable framerate @ 800x600 (Vista SP1 + latest drivers)

I don´t get it... one thing is to play some PES 2009, CS Source, WC3, another is ask for GTA4, FAR CRY 2 at playable FPS + RES...

http://optimitza.cat/news/2008/09/0...m-9500m-9600m-mobility-radeon-3450-3470-3650/

The lowest are *obviously* Intel GMA... Even my friend´s Asus 10" Netbook with Atom + GMA 950 + Nvidia 9300M is A LOT FASTER on 3D than my C2D + X3100... obviously. When he changes to Nvidia GPU (from GMA 950) but he keeps Nvidia GPU speed down (thru SW) battery is only slightly worse (from 5h to something like 4.45). 15 minutes are nothing compared to the extra power he gets when at full power!

Atom + GMA 950 = very choppy 1080p playback and CS Source garbage
Atom + Nvidia 9300M = smooth 1080p playback and CS Source with 35% CPU load

C2D + X3100 = smooth 1080p playback but with high CPU load (we´re talking about DUAL core more than 3x faster than an Atom)

Not complaining, just warning future laptop buyers. The extra money does worth it.

 

It does run beautifully in software mode. I think it runs even better than before, the starting animation for the main menu is a lot faster, and loading times seem shorter. Thanks alot guys!

 

Actually you can add the X4500HD = smooth 1080p playback with low CPU load but maybe not to stellar gaming.

 

15.12.0.1599 / 15.12.64.1599
gma965
GLView 3.11 says :
OpenGL v2 - 10/10 - 100% supported (photoshop still says no ogl2 though)
OpenGL v2.1 - 1/3 - 33%
OpenGL v3.0 - 1/21 - 4%

 

You know what? somehow the owner of that site didn't like it when I mentioned that the benchmark results shown was not accurate at all in terms of real-world game testing, as the author mentioned that both GMA950 and X3100 were not capable of playing any games even those with "light demand".

When I put a link to the x3100 gaming info blog and the gma950 blog as a reference where these benchmarks are proven wrong, my comment got deleted.

Some people really don't like it when they are proven wrong.

 

Hello everybody!

I have a problem with warcraft 3 TFT and the intel GMA x3100. I posted my problem in this (http : // forum . notebookreview . com / showthread . php?t=327459) thread and got some help from ATG! (Thanks again!) After trying the -opengl, -swtnl, using 14.31. driver and performing warcraft on Software mode I still get bluescreens.
My first question is: Did I make some mistakes by getting warcraft run in software mode? I created a _War3.exe DWORD in my regedit folder HKLM/SYSTEM/Services/ialm/Device0 and set the value to 0 (and 1 - I tried both several times)

Screenshot: http : // img155 . imageshack . us/my . php?image=war3zp9 . jpg

And second question if I did everything right: Is there any other way to get rid of the bluescreens?

Thanks!
muzillah

 

Hi to all... I'm from Brazil and I just recently bought an Acer Aspire 5920-6690 notebook...

I'm very happy with it, and I even can play some games and have fun with them... I really recommend 2 racing games that run well on the X3100...

World Racing 2 = It's pretty old, from Synetic... its a cool racing game that has beautifull graphics (for its time, and even now, its a pretty game... it doesnt have todays effects and stuff, but it is pretty)... this game have a lot of addon tracks and cars, my game has about 300+ addon cars, and for racing freaks it's a cool addiction, just plain simple and fun racing.

Xpand Rally Xtreme = it's a hard game to master, because control is realistic and difficult in the keyboard... I haven't played much of it, but the graphics are beautifull, including some cool effects (blur and some kind of HDR) and runs quite well here at 1024x768 (with glare/HDR on, but blur of)...

I was testing Need for Speed Undercover. Ok, it's a new game.

And I was SURPRISED how well it runs, runs really playable at 640x480 with little things at low, and major of the in off... and in 800x600 it loses a little fps... but, it hangs the game... in 640x480 it plays well all the time and only freezes after a race that game a HD movie after it... and when going to car selection screen it freezes and closes igp something.dll... go back to 16 colors and ask to restart...

In 800x600 it freezes after some gaming...

Someone had these problems? I'm using windows xp sp3 with latest intel drivers.

 

I got it many times but mostly with Firefox and some games like Mech Warriors. Guess this is a problems with the driver and we can't do anything but hope for a fix in future releases.

 

Well... Would be cool if anyone that stills uses X3100 tell more about the gaming xperience... I've been playing World Racing 2, GTR2 (directx8 mode), CS Source (some old version, I dunno) and Hitman Blood Money

 

this thread is getting long. All hail the x3100

I love u X3100... even though u killed me at CSS that time and i missed that epic head shot because of ur lame FPS!! Still.. i love u

 

Well... I need to love it... I've sold my desktop with my good and old GF6200 and got this Acer notebook... I even have one old Toshiba Celeron M 1.3Ghz notebook with some really old intel graphics card with 64mb and I used to do some gaming on it... it was a brave machine... runs GTASA!

 

@diegoborges: you can find a little info on gaming using x3100 on this site:

x3100gaming . blogspot . com

I got a little improvement after following some suggestions there. Just to be realistic though, you will be able to play some games deemed unplayable for x3100 (by the dedicated game card fanatics) but don't expect for high graphics settings or eye candy for that matter. You'll be lucky enough if you get to bump it to medium with acceptable framerates, but hey, we gotta do with what we've got, don't we?

 

Yeah, but I was expecting someone smart to modify Intel drivers (as people does with nvidia/ati as Omegadrivers) and to find an overclocking app.

With my old ATI 9700 Mobile I got almost 50% speed increase with Omegadrivers + Overclocking App...

Even 4500HD is slow as h*ll... Well, if someone with good programming skills manages to change that LOTS of sad guys will be happy! It could be an excelent christmas gift!

 

@cwb

Yeah... I've found this site very interesting... I'm a brave man and I always believe that everyone can play. I never had top end graphics card, so I'm a bit of used to have to do serious tests and tweaks to play the games I like...

And I'm really surprised with what our X3100 can do...

Except for Need for Speed Undercover, that is hanging on my machine sometimes (and it runs good fps in 640x480, very enjoyable, but It locks the X3100 in some part of the game), I'm playing a lot of games that I like with playable fps and in some cases, good graphics... I'm playing CS Source (avg 20-30fps, @ 1280x800 all details HIGH, playing with 16-20 bots), Hitman Blood Money (15-22fps @ medium graphics, high quality textures and models) 1280x720), World Racing 2 (20-50 fps, some low details, but high quality car models, this game have really beautifull graphics, even for it's age, I strongly recommend), GTR2 (1280x800 low details, but nice graphics and fps between 15-25)...and Xpand Rally Xtreme @ 1024x768 with some eye candy (HDR!), beautifull game that runs well (I haven't measured fds, but its perfectly ok for me)

I will test more games soon, I'm downloading Kung Fu Panda game (for my girl ) Devil May Cry 3 and the new Bully Game for PC (Bully Scolarship Edition), and after I play them, I will post the results...

People that keep saying that we cannot play games should think about that not everyone can afford a million dollars PC...

Let's keep in contact X3100 warriors! All we need is hope for better drivers... X3100 has a great potential and I've already sent email to Intel to beg them to give more attention to us... If everyone do this, maybe we can get more attention?

And anyone knows how to tweak the drivers or something like this? I know that is some guy doing this for GMA950...

 

A bit ironic to use an expensive SSD on a entry level laptop using X3100 integrated graphics, but from my experience the X25-M SSD is making frame rates more stable on higher-end settings on the desktop X3000.

Has anyone tried out the 14.37/15.12 drivers??

EDIT: The support for first generation of the new Intel IGP architectures are dying. The X3000 on the desktop is no longer supported by the 14.37 XP drivers. The last drivers for it are 14.36.x. Vista support still continues. It's not time for the X3100 but its not far away.

 

i used the 14.37 for about 2 weeks and it increase my 3d mark score from 370 to 394. In games i dont notice much difference but maybe a few frames here and there.

 

I'm using the latest drivers for XP... well... I have little experience with the X3100... I'm only with it about 1 month.

I got 572 in 3dmark 06...

My specs:

Acer 5920-6690
Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz Santa Rosa 4MB cache
2GB RAM
250GB HDD
Windows XP Lite SP3

I was a long time AMD enthusiast and lover, and It's my 2nd Intel machine... but I'm getting disappointed with this lack of support from them...

 

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3430&p=4
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3417&p=4

Look at the link above. X4500 barely advanced over the X3500.

Hopefully, that's not the same trend we will get to see with Nehalem's IGP.

 

Wow... they were destroyed by AMD IGPs...

But... I believe in our IGPs... it's just poor drivers... If they can include things such as T&L, DX10 compatibility with driver programming, I'm sure if someone really invest some time on them we can have at least 50% performance boost on our IGPs...

Maybe my hopes are too high?

 

Well if Nehalem´s IGP runs as hot as the old P4 and the same "sh*tty" performance I doubt we´ll see something that does anything but 1/3 of AMD/NVIDIA IGP´s performance.

"Most movies are recorded at 24 frames per second, [...] On one end of the spectrum we have Intel's G45 which absolutely does not support proper 24p playback. The G45 still does not have official support for it in the drivers and although 24 fps playback is possible in the hardware, we seriously doubt the software group will implement it (that's a dare).

The AMD 780G/790GX results were very choppy at times; even when they seemed smooth we experienced audio sync problems.

The only platform that can properly handle 24 fps output is NVIDIA's GeForce 8200/8300. It just works"

The usual. Software department sleeping all day.

 

Dear X3100 users... just one question... My notebook actually have 2GB of RAM, 2x 1GB in dual channel...

If I replace one of 1GB memory for 2GB and be with 3GB, I will lose the dual channel right? Is this good or bad? It will make diference in the X3100 performance?

 

I haven't bought a computer before and the one I have is a '98 Gateway..suffice to say...it sucks.
I'm in grave need for a flexible laptop (school, multipurpose) that is able to play games like AoE III at max settings, but that is under $1000. I've found a few that I like, but frequently the graphics card is something like this
(Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD graphics)
and I'm not sure what it equates to in terms of capability.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Also, what do y'all think about the Sony Vaio VGN-NS140E/W? It has what I'm looking for in processing, as enough RAM, and has a decent hard drive for the cost ($800).

 

It will still run on dual-channel mode, albeit in dual-channel asymmetric (or asynchronous) mode.

www . intel. com/Assets/PDF/whitepaper/313207 . pdf

It will run interleaved for the first 1GB which is common to your two sticks, then on the last 1GB it will run asynchronous.

That's exactly what I'm wishing for too. Sadly, Intel's graphics driver team (who a reviewer on this site refers to as "Jim" ) seems overworked (and probably underpaid) which must be the reason why we don't get as much updates and improvements as ATI/Nvidia does.

I hope "Jim" leaks out whatever codes are used for the drivers so that some bright guy (or more) from the community gets an idea and makes tweaks to it.

 

Actually I heard they are just underfunded. It is one of the caveats of branching out into different areas rather than focusing on one expertise.

The latest 15.12 Vista drivers support 24p without stutter according to some user reports.

Graphics drivers are the single reason that plagues could-be new graphics vendors. The reason S3 didn't succeeded was because of the drivers. It took ATI years to catch up to Nvidia since Nvidia would just release new drivers that unlocks new features(often purposefully) that goes ahead of ATI products.

Intel yet does not have a big financial incentive to have a high performance IGP. They are getting the HTPC features right, but for 3D, I don't know. The gain for them spending 2 or even 3x the amount to get measely small 3D benefits is not worth it. OTOH for Nvidia/ATI its easier for them to make a capable IGP since they have a foundation to scale down from.

Graphics part of the core take 60-70% of the die yet adds a mere 10% to the price.

 

Hi all,

I was just playing that new game Bully Scholarship Edition... it's playable at 640x480 but the game hangs in some parts... well, I just knew that the game is a bad conversion from X360 and have lots of bugs. But one thing I've noticed is that it sometimes freezes and unloads gma965 driver...

Well, anybody knows why this happens? Would be nice if nothing unloads the graphics driver... I've never seen this happen that easy with nvidia, for example... I know, its Intel graphics but... anybody knows a way to contact them direct?

Thanks

 

Dear UnReaL596,

NEED FOR SPEED CARBON HELP!

im verry sorry that i contacted you this way but i need the config tool that you upload at http://www .mediafire . com/?2bbwy1i9tdb obviously doesn't seem to work. AND YES I have tried it without the spaces.

I am getting to play this game but it seems i only get 5-9fps with swiftshader and 3d analyzer.

I really want to play this game bad... please help me

 

Some new driver revisions to report:

Vista 32-Bit v15.12.1 winvista_15121.zip dated 12/10/2008 ( Release Notes)
Vista 64-Bit v15.12.1 winvista64_15121.zip dated 12/10/2008 ( Release Notes)

 

Man no wonder I couldn't find the new drivers. I went to this part of the Intel site and it ran some system analyzer tool and keep telling me my driver was current. It wasn't.

 

Dear UnReaL596,

NEED FOR SPEED CARBON HELP!

im verry sorry that i contacted you this way but i need the config tool that you upload at http://www.mediafire.com/?2bbwy1i9tdb obviously doesn't seem to work. AND YES I have tried it without the spaces.

I am getting to play this game but it seems i only get 5-9fps with swiftshader and 3d analyzer.

I really want to play this game bad... please help me

 

I don´t see the point of trying games that run <15-20fps and complaining...

X3100 is for light games and still works with some at VGA and PES 2009 at 800x600/1024x768 and even 1280x800 if you have a decent CPU so why ask more?

X3100 speed is as of 2-3 year-old medium-to-low end cards, the advantage is that is (kinda of) DX10. Unless an overclocking app apears, you won´t do anything more with it.

 

anybody notice a phenomenal increase in fps when you play your games in windows 7? CS:S source in particular as well as FS2004 for me...

AMAZING. I think it has something to do with the new WDDM drivers that 7 uses

 

This is very interesting. Do you have the actual figures to quantify the difference? Can you do some benchmark (like 3dmark for example)? What driver are you using, the one that comes with Windows 7 (made by Microsoft)?

 

Well I am now getting avg 40fps in source everything maxed. I used to get somewhere around 20 maybe less. In fs2004 i am getting at the default field 30-40fps Ultra High with Hardware T & L turned ON. It is about 15 in Vista. The driver I use is the one that comes with Vista 7.

I would run 3dmark but I dont have it. I could download the free version i suppose

 

Please, do it.

 

Well, that is a very nice boost in performance. I would be nice, if you can, to run a 3dmarl (yes, a free version can be downloaded), and if you have the time and bandwidth, test a new gen game (like cod4 or cod5 demo).

 

ive tried over 20 or so games I have on windows 7(compared to vista),not only higher framerates, but overall steady/smoother looking.
your not the only one.Its the new WDDM drivers.

I love windows 7

 

Do you have the x3100? Is there any game or program that doesn't work in windows 7?

 

I am running 3dmark06 now. My vista score was 556...by the looks of it it seeMs that 7 may actually score lower. I'll keep you posted

My suspicions were correct:

VISTA - 556
Win7 - 474

Both tests were done using default settings..no tweaks

I wonder why I am getting such a performance boost with Source and FS2004 - Probably because they are older games. The x3100 cant run anything fairly new at acceptable framerates. However the increase in performance in encouraging. Maybe intel is finally up to something good

 

Second life doesn't work for me. It says video card not supported

 

You guys all heard that upcoming SP2 for Vista will offer 3D performance optimizations?? I think they'll benefit the IGPs the best. It could be related to what's coming in Vista.

The important comparison is not how it compares to Vista but compared to XP. If its similar to XP then MS has "fixed" Vista's problems with low-end 3D cards.

 

The fact that 3dmark06 doesn't show any progress doesn't surprise me. The x3100 simply does not have enough horsepower to be competitive in new, shader-intensive, games. The point is that some old games, with are only geometry and fill-rate intensive should work better than they do.

In my opinion, Intel should focus in optimize performance for old games instead of adding useless capabilities, like hardware directx10 support (does anyone really used it??). Maybe it is precisely what they are doing with the windows 7 drivers, and that would be very nice indeed. However, AFAIK, the windows default drivers are done by Microsoft and not by Intel, so is Microsoft understanding what x3100 needs to go better than Intel?

Thank you mooler very much, for taking time for doing the test and sharing your results with us. If you have the time, I have other things i would like to know about x3100 under Windows 7:
-Have you tried any Source engine game (HL2, Counter Source, Left4Dead)? How does it perform? Does the fog color bug been solved?
-Have you tested any OpenGL game (Doom 3, Quake 4)? How does it perform?
-Can you run an older 3dMark (like 3dmark03, for example)?

 

I have tried Counter Strike Source in windows 7 and it runs remarkably well. In the video stress test I get an average of 55fps on high settings. In maps with 20 players or so my fps vary from 25-65. I have not encountered the fog color bug. However, grenade explosions and the like do cause a dramatic drop in fps still. sometimes a 20 frame decrease. I have not tried OpenGL games.

I will run 3dmark03 and see what kind of results I get and I will post them.

 

Hmm this discovery can really help us X3100 users out XD
Where did you get Windows 7 anyways? The beta isn't out yet... I think..

 

I've already got my "test" copy... let's see how the mighty X3100 handle it.

If only my NFS Undercover bugs go out, I'll be happy.

 

The beta has been released to some select testers, but other than that, there are no legal ways to get it so nobody post anything regarding torrents, etc.

The public beta *should* be released soon.

 

3dmark03

VISTA - 1740
Win7 - 1370

I dont get why im getting better performance and frame rates in some games when the tests clearly show otherwise.

 

It's strange, but I really don't trust in any of these benchmark tools... I prefer testing and playing the real things to see how each game is running... and in the case of our X3100s this is even more recommended because every game is a different story.

Ah, just to tell, i've an Acer too! 5920-6690... C2D T7300, 2GB, 250HDD...