Intel integrated graphics performance in W7b

I posted a similar comment in the 'bugs' thread but I think a separate thread on integrated video performance and problems is warranted due to the huge number of notebooks that use integrated graphics (and this is a notebook forum after all). All integrated Intel video users chime in! How is W7b video performing for you? What drivers are installed?

I have an aopen minipc with Intel 945 video and a 1920x1200 display. Aero works but is quite choppy - not smooth at all. Of course if I reduce the resolution it becomes much more smooth but the picture quality is terrible because of the non-native resolution. Vista aero performance is much better in comparison.

Windows 7 beta installs the WDDM 1.0 driver for the 945 and older graphics as far as I understand.

Apparently the WDDM 1.1 driver does not work with the 945 or older video cards but will install automatically for 965 and newer.

I am getting a tonne of system freezes (no blue screen - just a total freeze) which all seem to be related to video problems. This requires a hard reset. Aside from system freezes, video performance is quite poor: the display flashes, videos show scan lines, aero performs poorly (choppy). I get fairly constant screen flashes after which I get a system tray notice that says that the Intel video driver has had a problem and recovered.

System freezes seem to occur when the video is strained. For example, when windows media player has a visualisation running and the dynamic desktop background tries to change the picture. Another example is when I'm using the display in portrait mode just browsing the web. I'm not sure why the latter scenario is such a problem but it is.

 

I replied to you in the bugs thread - try installing the AOpen Vista video driver.

 

I have the X3100 graphics, and Aero runs fine, just like it has in Vista.

I don't know it it's a driver issue, but in some cases, parts of the screen will begin flashing at random, mostly the taskbar will grow a thick flashing/flickering line from left to right going through the center of it. The only way to fix it is to move the mouse across the line a few times. Then it stops.

The same thing sometimes occurs in the menu/title bar area of some programs-parts of on screen controls like the minimize/maximize/close buttons will start to flash/gain artifacts.

At one point, even my start menu colors inverted!

I'm not too worried though, it's a beta and hopefully it'll be fixed before it ships.

 

I'm definitely in the minority with my ancient Intel 915 but I have to say, I kinda expected it to run fine on my 1024x768 resolution. It chokes completely and 7 has to revert back to the Standard VGA adapter.

 

My X4500 has worked flawlessly. No issues whatsoever.

Greg

 

No problems here with Intel 965

 

Just like the others, I ask you - have you installed the Vista display drivers?

 

I installed the vista display driver tonight and aero works without a hitch. Video performance is normal again also. Haven't had a system freeze yet.

Thanks to kegobeer for the suggestion. I guess I assumed that MS would default to Intel's vista driver if it works better than WDDM 1.0 but I guess not!

Edit: I may have spoke too soon...video performance is actually still choppy. It seems to depend on the codec.

Additionally, I ran the WEI again and the aero graphics score dropped from 2.6 (WDDM 1.0) to 2.5 (current Intel Vista driver). This suggests that I'm better off with the default driver for aero. I perceived a smooth aero experience with the Intel Vista driver but maybe I'm fooling myself. Will update later.

 

I noticed with my X4500M that it showed better WEI scores with the WDDM driver vs the most recent driver from intel (Gaming went from 4.9 to 3.3) tho my actual game performance increased slightly with the intel driver. Tho I did notice that game performance is worse than my Radeon 9000 which seems weird. Either way no issue with Aero or video playback tho I do have glass and most other effects turned off.

 

I have no issues on W7 with my x3100, it works fine. The performance is worse compared to Vista though, I get like 10fps more in CS:S under Vista.

 

My x41 tablet works just fine with Win 7 on the 915 integrated. Check your drivers.

 

I'm using Windows 7 on my netbook with the beta drivers from Intel, never experienced any problems what so ever Aero runs smooth and fast with all features turned on

 

I have installed drivers for intel 915 from HP site, and it allowed me to set the correct resolution 1280x768 on my laptop. Though, I am still in doubt if it was a really necessary step.

However, when I am trying to benchmark the video using Control Panel > Performance Information and Tools > Rate this Computer, the system regularly freezes after few seconds of test.

I suggest to everybody on this thread to post their Windows Experience index and relevant hardware for comparison.

Which drivers did you use? My laptop is pre-vista, so intel drivers update tool did not work under W7, so I had to look for i915 vista drivers from other souces.

 

I used the Win XP drivers, but had to run them in compatibility mode to get them to install. They seem to have helped a bit.

 

Great idea.

Graphics: Mobile Intel 945 Express
Resolution: 1920x1200
Driver: Intel 7.14.10.1504 (for Vista)

WEI graphics subscore: 2.5

Performance: Aero runs no problem even at this high resolution although performance could be smoother.