August 17, 2007 3:46 PM PDT

Intel ships long-awaited graphics drivers

Owners of PCs with Intel's 965 chipsets can finally download drivers that will immediately improve the performance of games running on those systems.

The 965 chipsets were supposed to be a dramatic step forward for integrated graphics performance. Most PCs come with graphics technology built right onto the chipset that connects the processor to memory and the rest of a PC. Serious gamers opt for discrete graphics made by Nvidia or AMD's ATI division, but most people save a little money and get the basic graphics.

Intel wanted to make an integrated graphics chipset with more powerful graphics performance that would allow basic PC users to play some of the latest and greatest 3D games when it shipped the 965. But it has been unable to write the drivers needed to enable that performance until now.

Windows XP drivers are available here, but if you're on a Vista PC with Intel's 965 chipset, you'll have to wait a little longer. Intel put together a video here that shows the improved performance of PCs with the new drivers.

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) 31 comments (Showing first 20 comments)
intel idiots
by Randys2cents August 17, 2007 6:41 PM PDT
I see intels web designers want to hold
on to their reputation as complete idiots
without a clue. What makes me voice such
a harsh statement. If you go to the page
intel provides to see their video on the
advantages that their new drivers provide,
you will see that it does not work. The page
claims that you need the following:

1. cookies enabled: gee who wants that!!
2. flash: ok fine, but what version?
3. A supported OS: what OS are they referring
to? My new Apple and HP can not get it to
work.

And here is the best part. They provide a link
to a more detailed system requirement page,
but when you click on it, you get a #404 blank
page.

Funny, I never have any problems viewing
videos on CNET, the Apple web site, and many
other web sites that I surf to each day. Come on
intel, get it together. People coming to your web
site do not have the time or desire to have to even
wonder if their system will be able to view the provided
video. Randys2cents
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For Games? HAHAHAHA
by SeizeCTRL August 18, 2007 11:31 AM PDT
Get real, if you want to play the "latest 3d games" you aren't going to want to do it with onboard video. Get a real video card for crying out loud.

As mentioned, gamers go for Nvidia or ATI cards... so Intel is way out of their league when it comes to graphics. It's a market they should just opt out of and leave it to the professionals.
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This chipset is for low end machines...
by slickuser August 18, 2007 12:46 PM PDT
Some morons just assume that Intel is trying to compete with nvidia & bunch of losers company (AMD) with this chipset! you want a cheap computer? This is what you will get! Spend $1500 or more to get a better graphics! you idiots!
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Lots of users
by limefan913 August 19, 2007 1:19 AM PDT
Don't need anything more. Period. I build computers for friends and people they refer to me, and quite often, I just direct them to the department of integrated graphics, regardless of the chipset, just because a LOT of users don't need a dedicated graphics chip. The Intel chips are just fine for the average, non-gamer. Even if they play a few 3-D games, its fine usually. For a person with one 3D game, why spend $100+ on a PCI Express graphics card (I almost said AGP... I need an upgrade badly :()?

That said, I avoid Intel boards PRECISELY for this reason. I usually use an ASUS or something along those lines because they usually have an nvidia or ATI integrated graphics chip, and for no extra.
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Linux?
by ethana2 August 20, 2007 1:04 AM PDT
I was too quick to assume that's what the article was about. It would be nice if they at least released the source to a small group who could port it to Linux, compile it for all architectures, and give the code back, if they must keep it under copyright, trade secrets, and whatever else...
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Wow
by Maclover1 August 20, 2007 3:59 AM PDT
the people that comment here are full of some serious hate.

Looks look at some facts. 90% of people dont buy PC's to play games. Intergrated graphics IS MORE THAN ENOUGH for those people. If they do play an occasional game, its solitare probably.

Even the Intel GMA945 runs Aero just fine. I have watched a movie on a Vista box with a GMA945 and done the 3d flip deal and the movie is going along just fine in the window while and I do that flip deal.

There are few people in here that need to stop gaming for a while and go hug someone...PEACE OUT!!!!
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Throwing hardware at a problem doesn't work...
by pugster August 21, 2007 3:01 PM PDT
Intel makes good processors and chipsets. However, they don't have people who can make good drivers. You hardly see a 965 chipset motherboard with integrated graphics because people know that it won't work. It has gotten so bad that companies like apple want to use the older 945 chipset because those drivers work. I heard that Intel has started hiring some graphics engineers and hope that some of them will start writing usable drivers so that we can start using them.

WII does have lower end hardware than the xbox and ps3 but WII sells much better because of their content.

AMD/ATI has the exact same problem now. They hade the 2900/2600 video cards which can't sell. The graphics cards have poor drivers that hampers with the performance of the cards.
Reply to this comment
New Integrated Graphics
by seth.graphics January 26, 2008 12:46 AM PST
I heard that the next generation of Intel graphics would include a significant increase in performance. Is it true that they are creating a high end card to compete with NVIDIA ? I guess the GPU/CPU integration allows intel's inexpensive integrated to increase in performance and still cost little and take less power
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