Do quad core i7's come without the HD3000 GPU?

I ask because I assumed that my new/used DV7 with the i7(2630QM) processor would also have the integrated Intel HD3000 graphics GPU... but the Win7 Device Manager and Performance Info lists the Intel chip as just Mobile Intel HD Graphics and its' performance index is only 5.4... well below the 6.3 I see on other's posted indexes on the Intel 3000 HD GPU?

Did I buy a laptop with an old dud i7 processor?

Did the HP Support Assistant app just not load the right driver for the HD3000?

EDIT: Probably a moot point now anyway since switched the bios setup from Dynamic to Fixed and now the Radeon 6490M does all the GPU work. Ran Win7 performance index again and Graphics went from 5.4 to 6.5. Now the weak link in my system is the HD which rates a 5.9. A new M4 SSD should fix that.

 

All Sandy-Bridge i7's come with HD 3000 graphics. First gen Arrandale core i7 processors don't have an Intel HD graphics card.

Now, your laptop could be like mine, the Intel GPU is disabled by HP.

 

well, arrandales are all dual cores anyways?

 

Actually yes, Arrandale's are all dual core. Clarksfield were quads with no IGP.

A 2630 is a Sandy Bridge part though, and it has an Intel IGP on die.

 

Yes Arrandales are dual, but Arrandale is often used to refer to the whole first gen mobile core i. A bit like a lot of people use GPU and video card interchangeably.

 

Well, it is a 2630QM and it has an Intel IGP/GPU on board but is seems that is isn't the 3000HD IGP but something just called Intel HD Graphics?

When I go to device manager and click on update driver, it tells me the latest driver is loaded even though it shows as being from ATI with a date of 4/12/2011 and version 8.830.6.2000?

Should I try and force an update using some other utility or by manually updating some other driver?

 

windows update is more than good enough to handle downloading intel's driver. are you up to date on the updates?

 

You need to go to the HP website to get your latest drivers - your's is ancient!

See:
AMD High-Definition Graphics Driver HP Pavilion dv7-6178us Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Good luck.

 

Only some few desktop CPUs come without HD 3000 (IGP)

 

Actually that applies to every Sandy Bridge Desktop CPU except for the ones ending in K's I think and a few i3's. Sandy Bridge-E lacks an iGPU all together.

 

What I meant was without IGP. Extreme processors are the only ones without yes. The rest have HD 2000 (counting out the ones with HD 3000)

 

Except the 2400K, 2500K, 2600K, 2700K and two i3's uses HD 3000 though...

 

Even the K SNB do have the HD3000, however chipset p67 doesn't give the possibility to use it. On a desktop with a z68 board, you can run the onboard on a 2600K though.

 

Took your advice and used the link to download and install new drivers and CCC for both the GPU and IGP.

Here is what the Device Manager says now:
Radeon 6490M - AMD - 9/30/2011 - 8.882.2.3000
Intel HD Graphics Family - AMD - 9/30/2011 - 8.882.2.3000

Still no sign that my IGP is a HD3000?

 

Use GPU-Z and switch it to the Intel iGPU. It should read HD 3000. I can guarantee you that the 2670QM has HD 3000 as its iGPU.

 

Just used HWinfo64 and it showed this for GPU0
Intel Sandy Bridge-MB GT2 - Integrated Graphics Controller [D2/J1/Q0] [Hewlett-Packard]
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge GT2)

GP1 looks like this:
ATI Radeon HD 6490M/6470M/6450M/7490M/7470M/7450M (SEYMOUR XTX/XT/PRO) [Hewlett-Packard]

I am satisfied that I have a HD3000 IGP... not using it most of the time since I changed the Bios from Dynamic to Fixed... 6490M. Went to battery power tonight and it still switched to the HD3000 when unplugged.. so it looks like Fixed in the Bios is the way to go.

Thanks to everyone for all the help and advice!

 

It boils down to what the Driver calls it. MS's driver calls it the Intel Integrated Graphics Controller while Intel's Driver calls it the HD3000. Same hardware, different names. If you knew enough about the Driver files, you could get DevMgr to call it a Rosebush.

 

The thing that threw me and made me doubt was the Win7 performance index. Mine showed as a 5.4 while I saw screenshots of other's showing 6.3 or thereabouts, for the Intel HD3000 IGP.

Must have been due to the ancient drivers which I had loaded at the time. Haven't tested since upgrading to new drivers, since I am too lazy to go back into the bios and change back to dynamic so the IGP is used.

 

Older drivers could very well do that. 9 times out of 10, the newer drivers have performance tweaks in them that wring the best out of the graphics chip. So that could be your issue.