Intel GMA HD and OpenGL

[NeXEkho]

Not understanding personally why laptops are shipping with monster processors, oodles of RAM and a rubbish graphics card. I bought this laptop because it was about all I could afford. I don't care for dual core or 3Gb, give me a 9400M at least. Not this HD4250 pile of rubbish that can't run Unreal 3 or Oblivion at an acceptable framerate on bottom settings whilst the processor and RAM idle at under 60% usage.

And don't get me started on modern screens... gone are the crystal clear, matte, high-res displays that look perfect from any angle, everything ships with this reflective junk that has no perfect viewing angle - the black is blue from one spot and whites are grey from another. And there's your silhouette squinting back at you.

[maru00]

At least some of them are pretty cheap but I totally agree with you.

Such laptops are great for basic computer graphics and other processor and ram-eating applications but my problem is why Intel lie to users. It's like saying "hey our graphics card supports 1080p HD resolution, 32bit colour depth and pixel shaders" and after you buy it they say "oh it only supports VGA resolution, 256 colours and can only handle DOS games, sorry". But yeah, you can still run 3ds max and photoshop pretty smooth... with those settings.

[mhagain]

The thing is though that those laptops aren't really meant for intensive graphical usage. Playing some DVDs, running some simplistic games, and accelerating the Vista/Win7 desktop is about all the 3D chips are good for. And in total fairness there is plenty of evidence available online to those who do their research in advance of purchasing.

[bbear]

Wow, I am so glad to have come across this discussion as I believe that my sons Toshiba laptop is suffering from exactly the same problems.

A week after getting the laptop for his birthday, he went out at bought a game called 'Minecraft' but was really disappointed when it wouldn't run. It won't even start due to java erroring out, complaining about bad display drivers.

I have done my research and found that the processor in his computer, i3-380M 'supports' OpenGL 2.1 (well, according to Intel documentation), which is enough to run the game. I have installed the latest Intel Generic Display Driver and it doesn't help. OpenGL Extension viewer tells us that it is still running the Microsoft Generic driver, OpenGL 1.1.0

The laptop is running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. So far I have not found a way of preventing the Microsoft Generic Display driver from being loaded. There was a post to the Minecraft forums to a hack to the registry to stop the Microsoft driver being loaded but the poster said not to do this if it was onboard video for some reason.

Unfortunately I am three days over the date where I would have been able to return the laptop for a full refund.

If anyone knows how to stop the Microsoft driver being loaded I would love to hear from them.

[mhagain]

The laptop is running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. So far I have not found a way of preventing the Microsoft Generic Display driver from being loaded. There was a post to the Minecraft forums to a hack to the registry to stop the Microsoft driver being loaded but the poster said not to do this if it was onboard video for some reason.

So far as I'm aware Intel only supports OpenGL on 32-bit Windows. Another rung up the ladder of suck.

[bbear]

seems like it's going from bad to worse. What are Intel playing at?

I didn't buy the laptop for gaming, but my son isn't really asking for much when he says he would like to play Minecraft on it. From what I have seen in youtube videos of the game, it should not be pushing the 3D capabilities of the i3.

I find the Intel marking hype for the i3 and their 'HD video' extremely misleading/deceiving.

For my son's laptop, I don't suppose he really cares if it's running 64 or 32bit, so maybe I can use the Toshiba restore disks to change it to running 32bit.

Before I do that though, I am going to wait for Toshiba technical support to get back to me. They have escalated the problem to tier3 support. I think they are taking the problem seriously and would like to see a resolution themselves. To be honest, before I got on the phone to them, I don't think they were aware that there was any problem with running OpenGL on their laptops.

[maru00]

So far as I'm aware Intel only supports OpenGL on 32-bit Windows. Another rung up the ladder of suck.

32bit only?

[kyle_]

So far as I'm aware Intel only supports OpenGL on 32-bit Windows. Another rung up the ladder of suck.

Highly unlikely.
Where did you read that?

[bbear]

I managed to get my sons laptop swapped for another Toshiba. The new one has i5-480M CPU, but more importantly it has ATI graphics! (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470). I was very fortunate as it was past the official max number of days I had to return it for refund.

The new laptop (L635-07N) worked out of the box. OpenGl extension viewer confirms that it is running version 3.2. My son is very happy now that he can play Minecraft.

If Toshiba get back to me with a workaround for my original laptop (the one with just the i3, but no ATI graphics) I will update this thread.

[anisotropic]

So far as I'm aware Intel only supports OpenGL on 32-bit Windows. Another rung up the ladder of suck.

Intel does support OpenGL 3 on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, VIsta, 7.
You can always download recent drivers at support pages of intel.com