Intel HD Graphics

The Intel HD Graphics (sometimes also called GMA HD) is the Graphics Memory Accelerator (GMA) integrated in the Intel Core i3, Intel Core i5 and selected Intel Core i7 processors. Sandy Bridge architecture processors use HD Graphics 2000 or HD Graphics 3000 model, Ivy Bridge architecture processors use HD Graphics 2500 or HD Graphics 4000. Features Model Processor architecture Release date PCI ID Execution units HD Graphics Arrandale 2010 8086:0046 6 HD Graphics Sandy Bridge January 2011 8086:0106 6 HD Graphics 2000 Sandy Bridge January 2011 8086:0102 6 HD Graphics 3000 Sandy Bridge January 2011 8086:0116 16 HD Graphics 2500 Ivy Bridge April 2012 8086:016A 6 HD Graphics 4000 Ivy Bridge April 2012 8086:0166 16 NOTE! While almost all new ThinkPads have integrated Intel HD Graphics, on those ThinkPads with a Discrete NVIDIA GPU, the Intel GPU is disabled and cannot be enabled. There is no support for Switchable Graphics. NOTE! Contrary to the statement above, you can select the GPU in the BIOS of recent models with Nvidia Optimus, e.g. the T510 4384GEG. Windows seems to be able to switch between the GPUs, too.

Linux support

Kernel module driver supporting this card is i915, Xorg driver is xserver-xorg-video-intel. Linux distribution with kernel 2.6.33 and Intel Xorg driver 2.11 or newer is recommended.

Note that XVideo (Xv) playback at certain frame sizes does not work properly unless you have at least version 2.12 of the Intel Xorg driver.

Desktop Effects do not work in Ubuntu 10.10 (at least, on an X220).

T420s

The BIOS for the T420s (and presumably also the T420) settings for _Graphics Device_ default to NVIDIA Optimus and the OS Detection for NVIDIA Optimus is set to Disabled which is not a good set of defaults for Linux since Optimus is only supported by Windows 7. To get the NVidia drivers working for Linux I had to set the Graphics Device to Discrete Graphics. This was as of 2011-11-26 using driver version 290.10. Then run sudo nvidia-xconfig. Both TwinView and Xinerama worked fine.

T430

For T430 with Intel HD Graphics 4000 I experienced random screen freezes, that disappeared only after upgrading kernel to version 3.5 and Xorg driver to version 2.19.

Power Saving Kernel Options

The following boot options may help considerably with power:

i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.semaphores=1 pcie_aspm=force

Source

Models featuring this Technology

• ThinkPad Edge 11", Edge 14", Edge 15"
• ThinkPad L412, L512
• ThinkPad T410, T410i, T410s, T410si, T420, T420s, T430, T510, T510i
• ThinkPad X201, X201i, X201s, X201 Tablet, X220

Resources

• http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/quick-reference-guide-to-intel-integrated-graphics/
• http://intellinuxgraphics.org/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Graphics
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_graphics_processing_units