[gentoo-user] Intel GMA 4500MHD

James · External Since: May 06, 2004 Posts: 590

Hello,

I'm looking at a Dell Vostro 1720 Laptop with this Intel video
chip: Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD

Anyone with any experience or comments as to Intel's video
offerings, as far as it related to (X)/Gentoo on the laptop
are most welcome.

Here's an old review, best I could find.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_x4500hd&num=1

Maybe some can point me to a forum where the Intel video chip
issues are discussed by folks on the front line of those
support issues for X. The aforementioned review seemed
to dissuade me from the Intel video chip, but those issue
may be overcome with video chip comparison, used in Laptops
if anyone has a url for that sort of thing, or experience.

tia,
James

Norman Rieß · External Since: Dec 21, 2006 Posts: 2

James schrieb:
> Hello,
>
> I'm looking at a Dell Vostro 1720 Laptop with this Intel video
> chip: Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
>
> Anyone with any experience or comments as to Intel's video
> offerings, as far as it related to (X)/Gentoo on the laptop
> are most welcome.
>
> Here's an old review, best I could find.
> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_x4500hd&num=1
>
>
> Maybe some can point me to a forum where the Intel video chip
> issues are discussed by folks on the front line of those
> support issues for X. The aforementioned review seemed
> to dissuade me from the Intel video chip, but those issue
> may be overcome with video chip comparison, used in Laptops
> if anyone has a url for that sort of thing, or experience.
>
>
> tia,
> James
>
>
>
>
>
>
Hello James,

i have this Chip running on Gentoo. What is your usage focus?

Regards,
Norman

Neil Walker · External Since: Oct 21, 2004 Posts: 48

James wrote:
> IntelÂ® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MH
>

My experience of these chips is that they work but performance
is abysmal.

Be lucky,
Neil
http://www.neiljw.com

Albert Hopkins · External Since: Aug 17, 2009 Posts: 7

On Fri, 2009-11-06 at 17:18 +0000, James wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm looking at a Dell Vostro 1720 Laptop with this Intel video
> chip: Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
>
> Anyone with any experience or comments as to Intel's video
> offerings, as far as it related to (X)/Gentoo on the laptop
> are most welcome.
>
> Here's an old review, best I could find.
> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_x4500hd&num=1
>
>
> Maybe some can point me to a forum where the Intel video chip
> issues are discussed by folks on the front line of those
> support issues for X. The aforementioned review seemed
> to dissuade me from the Intel video chip, but those issue
> may be overcome with video chip comparison, used in Laptops
> if anyone has a url for that sort of thing, or experience.

The software support for Intel graphics itself is pretty good. They
have in-tree DRI drivers and X drivers and support for GEM and XRANDR
1.3. IIRC Keith Packard works both on X11 development and the Intel
drivers so you get a lot of support software-wise.

As some have reported Intel Graphics cards don't perform as well as
other competitors in 3D graphics. It's fine though for people like me
who aren't gamers and need powerful graphics hardware. I use
GNOME/Compiz and things work pretty exceptional (except for the Blur
plugin in Compiz; there's no hardware rendering support; you'll want to
disable that).

James · External Since: May 06, 2004 Posts: 590

Albert Hopkins <marduk <at> letterboxes.org> writes:

> As some have reported Intel Graphics cards don't perform as well as
> other competitors in 3D graphics. It's fine though for people like me
> who aren't gamers and need powerful graphics hardware. I use
> GNOME/Compiz and things work pretty exceptional (except for the Blur
> plugin in Compiz; there's no hardware rendering support; you'll want to
> disable that).

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll keep looking, as Intel graphics
does not seem to be what I want.

thx,
James

Albert Hopkins · External Since: Aug 17, 2009 Posts: 7

On Sun, 2009-11-08 at 19:54 +0900, daid kahl wrote:
> My experience matches this. If I try to run composite rendering, X
> eats my CPU time to the point that I can't even use the system for
> practical purposes.
>
> I have a 945GM Intel video card.
>
> I had tried compiz-fusion through kde3 last year, but the performance
> was much to jittery and slow, so I removed it. I tried to upgrade to
> kde4 this week, but again X was eating CPU time and making the whole
> machine run hot and slow. I can't be 100% sure it was the video card
> and composite rendering, but I believe it was the problem. So I
> switched to xfce and now I'm happy.
>
> So, if you want to run 3D graphics and composite rendering, maybe not
> intel?
>
>
I also have this GPU.

I have 3 machines with Intel graphics that I run compositing on with
compiz and they run fine. Like I said so long as you disable the blur
plugin in compiz it's pretty solid. Actually, recently I installed KDE4
on a VM and ran KDE through XDMCP with all the compositing effects
turned on and it ran smoothly as well.

The "X was eating CPU" seems to indicate that it's not the GPU that's
doing the 3D rendering but the CPU. Now if you got slow performance yet
your CPU was sitting there doing nothing then I'd suspect the Intel
Graphics.

daid kahl · External Since: Oct 09, 2009 Posts: 2

>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm looking at a Dell Vostro 1720 Laptop with this Intel video
>> chip: Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
>>
>> Anyone with any experience or comments as to Intel's video
>> offerings, as far as it related to (X)/Gentoo on the laptop
>> are most welcome.
> The software support for Intel graphics itself is pretty good. They
> have in-tree DRI drivers and X drivers and support for GEM and XRANDR
> 1.3. IIRC Keith Packard works both on X11 development and the Intel
> drivers so you get a lot of support software-wise.
>
> As some have reported Intel Graphics cards don't perform as well as
> other competitors in 3D graphics. It's fine though for people like me
> who aren't gamers and need powerful graphics hardware. I use
> GNOME/Compiz and things work pretty exceptional (except for the Blur
> plugin in Compiz; there's no hardware rendering support; you'll want to
> disable that).
>

My experience matches this. If I try to run composite rendering, X
eats my CPU time to the point that I can't even use the system for
practical purposes.

I have a 945GM Intel video card.

I had tried compiz-fusion through kde3 last year, but the performance
was much to jittery and slow, so I removed it. I tried to upgrade to
kde4 this week, but again X was eating CPU time and making the whole
machine run hot and slow. I can't be 100% sure it was the video card
and composite rendering, but I believe it was the problem. So I
switched to xfce and now I'm happy.

So, if you want to run 3D graphics and composite rendering, maybe not intel?

~daid