New Intel HD drivers 11/20 for those interested

[demandarin]

Because I was curious, I did a test with 3dmark Icestorm three times, averaging 40,000 score with the microsoft provided drivers. I updated the intel drivers to the latest release and re-ran the tests. Scores remained the same averaging 40,000 again, very little margins of variance.

This is on a SP2 256gb fyi.

I think a better benchmark should be used. I had that one. My pro1 maxed out both tests including the extreme one. I think its more for android or baytrail. when I ran the test with pro 1 I maxed both out. use a FPS counter to measure the differences.

 

[jollywombat]

I think a better benchmark should be used. I had that one. My pro1 maxed out both tests including the extreme one. I think its more for android or baytrail. when I ran the test with pro 1 I maxed both out. use a FPS counter to measure the differences.

The Surface pros will not max this benchmark out, you can get scores of 150k+ on high end PCs for this test

I ran the extreme version of the Icestorm only once on each driver set as it was late, didnt feel like running it a minimum of three times each to make sure of a baseline. For MS drivers, result was 28093, Intel driver result was 28089.

I am busy a little for thanksgiving, but at some point in the next few days I will test again using the mid level test Cloudgate and maybe just get the Firestrike torture done for the fun of it. If there is alot of interest, I might try out the Valley benchmark as well.

If anyone else would like to run the same tests to make sure of consistency between units, that would be helpful

At present, I am not running anything like throttlestop

 

[demandarin]

I must have it mixed up with metro version. I ended up uninstalling it. You talking the real desktop version.

 

[be77solo]

The biggest difference I've noticed is not necessarily max performance, but it made BF4 run more consistent by bumping up the minimum and average framerate.... ie, I can set the gametime.maxvariablefps to 30 and it will stay right there and play smooth. With the Microsoft drivers, I'd get the same basic max framerate, but it would dip and jump around more below 30 FPS.

 

[jollywombat]

Sorry for the delay in posting results, got busy this past week here.

I re-imaged my surface and ran the tests again with 3dmark. Long story short, no change in scores, framerates remained consistent across all tests between MS drivers and intel ones (overlaid the run graphs of the FPS over each other to check for variances). Unable to read the GPU temperature, but since its an IGPU the CPU temp should reflect any change, logged temps durring the runs remained consistent. Settings were on High power option with appropriate settings adjusted for max performance, no background applications running (fresh image of the surface), and surface laying flat on a good laptop cooler to help dissipate heat.

Something to note here, scores should be a little higher, but 3dmark automatically adjusts its setting after the first initial run or two to use stretched screen settings instead of centered, which drops performance scores just a touch, unable to adjust this in 3dmark like you used to be able to with 06/11.

Icestorm MS Driver 3 run average = 39524
Icestorm Intel Driver 3 run average = 39489

Cloudgate MS Driver 3 run average = 4472
Cloudgate Intel Driver 3 run average = 4478

Firestrike MS Driver 3 run average = 650
Firestrike Intel Driver 3 run average = 650

 

[Ruffles]

One advantage I found to the Intel driver is that with the Intel control panel, you can control scaling. I have a situation where I have to mirror my Surface to a 1600x1200 4:3 monitor. The mode I use is 1400x1050. With the MS driver, the surface display was stretched. With the Intel driver, I can tell it to just center (Actually, the MS driver centered the first time but then switched to stretch and I could never get it back).

 

[Dane]

I've been forced to use the Intel drivers since, out of the blue, I started having the dreaded "screen flickering" issue mentioned in other threads. Since then, I've upgraded to the driver mentioned in this thread and haven't had any issues, or noticed any difference in battery life. I'm not much of a gamer, so I haven't noticed anything in that department either (for what it's worth).

 

[demandarin]

I think the access to graphics/display control panel is more than worth it alone. From there you can control more aspects of device than with stock driver and settings.

 

[bluegrass]

I downloaded and installed the Intel drivers but can't figure out how to get to the Intel control panel you talk about be worth the install. I've done some searching but all I have come up with is the normal display adjustment window.

 

[jollywombat]

I downloaded and installed the Intel drivers but can't figure out how to get to the Intel control panel you talk about be worth the install. I've done some searching but all I have come up with is the normal display adjustment window.

Install the intel drivers first through the .zip file and manually selecting the driver from the device manager manual driver selection, then go ahead and download and run the exe package for the intel drivers, it will install the control panel for you, and place links on the desktop, start screen, and right click options on the desktop.

 

[bluegrass]

I followed the link that was on the first post of this thread and downloaded the zip file. I then had to install a zip utility and unzip the file which was Win64_15338. I went to device manager and selected display adapter (Intel WDDM 1.3) and chose right clicked and chose Update Driver Software. I pointed to the unzipped folder of files and it proceeded to install but then messaged me that the best driver software for your device is already installed. I then assumed that I must have already installed the latest driver previously so I went back and downloaded the .exe file. When I run the file (it looks like it's just an executable way of installing the driver), it goes through an extraction process and after the extraction process, it posts and error stating "The driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer manufacturer. Setup will exit.". Any ideas what I may be doing wrong. Is the executable a separate file to install the Intel Control Panel?

 

[jollywombat]

You have to select the "have disk" option when doing the manual install and actually tell it the driver file to use.