Late last week we reported on some new real-time rendering extensions for Direct X, released by Intel to help developers get the most from the upcoming Haswell line of processors and their built-in GPUs. Today we have learned that Intel is almost ready to release new drivers for its HD graphics processors including those featured in its Ivy Bridge (IVB) Core processors. An Intel presentation at GDC 2013 informed us that the new driver would be available this week. (screenshot below, from legitreviews)
The new 15.31 driver is for IVB HD4000 and Haswell GPUs
Bit-Tech reports that the new drivers were designed “primarily for the new graphics processors that will form part of Intel's impending fourth-generation Core refresh, codenamed Haswell” (HSW). However the new drivers also support the current third-gen Ivy Bridge HD4000 graphics.
Graphics performance, OpenCL and power consumption
The headline feature of the new drivers, version 15.31, is that overall performance will be boosted by around 10 per cent compared to the current 14.51 driver set. The new drivers also enable support for the OpenCL 1.2 general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) offload language. The support for OpenCL1.2 is seen as an important move with developers of all categories of apps turning to computer processing via the GPU to accelerate calculation intensive applications. Additionally the new driver also benefits the system by reducing power consumption. That’s a great benefit as many people reliant on Ivy Bridge graphics are notebook users who are also without the choice of alternative add-in graphics boards.
Tom’s Hardware informs us that users with Intel’s HD4000 graphics chips will be able to get the upgrade this week by checking “the automatic driver update tool”. Users with Intel HD3000 GPUs will also be getting a new driver soon but it is not clear what performance and efficiency improvements that may offer. The HD3000 doesn’t support OpenCL so it is a completely different kettle of fish...
