Intel GMA HD - Lack of Adequate OpenGL Support

idata · ‎06-28-2010

Okay, so far, I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised by the performance capabilities of the Intel GMA HD on a Core i5-430M - that is, when it comes to DirectX. But as for OpenGL/GLSL, support is partial at best. Yes, it does support it, that's a definite plus over other integrated GPUs I've seen before, but I still use OpenGL applications quite a bit, and the lack of support is a bit annoying.

I do a lot of 3D work, with the open source Blender 3D and the not-so-open source Lightwave. Both use OpenGL in the 3D display, and some things are missing. For example, with Lightwave, I select a face of an object, the face should be outlined in yellow immediately after I click. But it does not act so; I have to manually update the display by rotating around the object. Sure I can work around it, but it's annoying and time consuming.

In Blender (although the issue has been around on past versions of the software with other GPUs [i.e. GeForce 6800 & 7150M using v. 2.48a]), I cannot correctly view objects in edit mode with the occlusion view type activated. Everything turns red, which makes it very difficult to select faces/vertices/edges. This has been fixed in the second alpha of the 2.5 version (error currently in 2.49b).

Are there any plans for improved OpenGL support on integrated graphics, or a solution already out there? So far, I'm not pleased on this side of things, but as I have stated, the DirectX performance is much better than previous integrated solutions.

idata · ‎06-28-2010

As a note, I left out the driver # of my GPU. It's 8.15.10.2119

The driver is up-to-date currently.

The laptop model, if it helps to view other specs, is an MSI A6200, with a Core i5-430M (there's an i3 variant out there too, just for clarification)

idata · ‎06-28-2010

Check http://software.intel.com/file/24575

I suspect if NVIDIA didn't implement it well then intel will not do much better. Although I suspect a workstation GPU will be more suitable for your task, as they are designed for your type of work in particular.