Windows* 7 Driver (32-bit) - Version 1091 - Intel® GMA 3600

[NICHOLAS_F_Intel]

Hello again everyone. Following in the same spirit as the last Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3600 driver feedback thread, I'm making a new one to announce our latest driver release. Version 1091 just went live today, and I would again like to ask everyone to provide constructive feedback on it.

The link to the download is here; http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3468&DwnldID=22633&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Netbook+and+Tablet+Graphics&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Graphics+Media+Accelerator+3600+Series&DownloadType=Drivers&lang=eng Download Center

The same rules apply for this thread as did apply for the last one. This thread is dedicated specifically to this driver and the feedback for this driver. This thread is not a discussion place for Windows* 8 GMA 3600 driver questions/complaints, nor is it for Windows* 7 GMA (64-bit) driver requests/complaints. Any such comments will be promptly deleted. However, please feel free to use any of the already-existing threads of that topic to discuss and provide feedback there.

Along with the feedback, if there are any new issues that resulted from the new driver, please provide detailed information on where you saw them, how it happened, and what steps to reproduce.

Thank you,

-Nicics_media_

[KHans13]

I recorded more videos of bugs, all of the same nature: polygon morphing. I'll admit, I got a little carried away with my FRAPSing, but still, these bugs shouldn't be here in the first place.

https://www.box.com/s/xd8d4311gsy5kfxrae7m https://www.box.com/s/xd8d4311gsy5kfxrae7m - Genetos

https://www.box.com/s/t56rn3kn94fbg2yz37ss MCM2MenuBug.mp4 - Box - Motocross Madness 2, in the out-of-game menu. There's a lot of flickering here, but it wasn't recorded.

https://www.box.com/s/35tygqq2r2jwvthgu93t https://www.box.com/s/35tygqq2r2jwvthgu93t - Midtown Madness 2, 'cause a screenshot just doesn't do justice to how terrible it looks.

https://www.box.com/s/1k64ncmwcr2cjajb2rre MCMBug.mp4 - Box - Motocross Madness

https://www.box.com/s/ggyndtpmi2hxkugm5478 Re-VoltBug.mp4 - Box - Re-Volt, showing the badly rendered logo in the first 2 seconds

https://www.box.com/s/9r7ht55c2v4w8m6f28nd V-Rally2Bug.mp4 - Box - V-Rally 2 Expert Edition; the morphing here is quite subtle. Blink and you'll miss it. I had to triple the video bitrate so it would be visible.

https://www.box.com/s/as4zh4yh1ymwl6dn6n0d Project64Bug.mp4 - Box - Project64, running Super Mario 64. Super Smash Bros. has exponentially less rendering corruption, probably because of the camera angle.

https://www.box.com/s/6t23qt3jrobi3vq42b29 MCM2InGameBug.mp4 - Box - Motocross Madness 2 in-game

[NICHOLAS_F_Intel]

Thanks for all the detailed feedback Kory, can I ask for some more detail for some of these? The videos uploaded to Box* are not able to be previewed unless you have a Premium account (that is the error I'm getting at least).

* What is the buggy behavior with Genetos?

* What is the buggy behavior with Motocross Madness?

* What is the buggy behavior with Motocross Madness 2?

Also to confirm, Midtown Madness is not the same as Motocross Madness, correct? And you are also referring to both the 1st and 2nd version of "Motorcross Madness"?

@Everyone: I've submitted all feedback thus far, please keep adding more with as much detail as you can

Thanks,

-Nic

[KHans13]

Thank you for sending this on, Nic. You're correct, Box won't let you watch the videos in-browser, they must be downloaded first. All of the games you've mentioned have the same problem; when the camera is at a certain angle, some polygons stretch out, change positions, or perform some other unwanted transformation. In Genetos, it's only visible on the 4th stage, and briefly at that. In the Motocross Madness games, it's especially visible in Supercross mode.

Yes, the Midtown Madness and the Motocross Madness series are different, and all have the same polygon problem except the 1st Midtown Madness.

[KHans13]

It turns out there are no bugs in Rollcage Stage 2 (that I can see). Once I moved the Texture Adjustment slider from the far right to the center, the problem was fixed. The screenshot on Box has been deleted.

On the other hand, FRAPS is having major problems recording OpenGL games. DirectX recording works just fine, taking a reasonable performance hit for the recording, but nothing extreme. Switch to OpenGL and there're less than 2 fps while recording. What's going on? Does the driver hijack the CPU and starve FRAPS? I don't get it.

[ASt_]

Hello together!

Regarding the recording of errors on video... Fraps isn't working for me. As soon as I activate it, FPS drops down to 1. So I decided to record with my smartphone and upload it to YouTube.

Farming Simulator 2008 (also 2009, 2011)

The grain and lawn disappears as soon as you approach (it doesn't matter if by foot, with a tractor or with a harvester). This makes the game unplayable since it's the goal of it to harvest grain and so on

The framerate is pretty good so far.

http://youtu.be/do3yaKJ9ThY http://youtu.be/do3yaKJ9ThY

Painkiller

There are disturbing artefacts. They get more as soon as enemies appear on the screen.

http://youtu.be/ysG1GdQlxjs http://youtu.be/ysG1GdQlxjs

[KHans13]

FRAPS doesn't work because both of those games are OpenGL-based. I'm thinking that the GPU delegates certain OGL functions to the CPU, which would explain why FRAPS is super-slow in most OGL apps that run very well otherwise. Also explains why Doom 3 is so inconsistent in framerate...

[idata]

The Full HD 1080p playback is still not perfect, there are some dropped frames here and there, it would be nice if this problem could be resolved, to be finally be able to watch fluidly FULL HD videos in full Screen mode.

I would also like to have a bit more 2D performance, because I work and play a lot with these applications (and games).

Please increase the 2D game compatibility and performance, at least a bit if possible.

Thanks, for any attempt.

P.S.

If its a flash player problem for HD Videos ,please ignore this post, in that case I will wait the new flash player releases.

[KHans13]

I've created a video of all the bugs FRAPS could pick up, and believe me, there are lots of bugs that can't be FRAPS'd (because the app is OpenGL or 2D or has flickering that FRAPS doesn't catch).

http://youtu.be/qm7JKG-h17k Gaming with Netbooks Presents: The Many Bugs of the GMA 3600 - YouTube

Hopefully this provides enough detail for Intel to work with.

@Nic, would it be possible to get a response from an Intel employee as to why FRAPS and OpenGL won't work together? Being prohibited from recording OpenGL-based apps is detrimental to both my YouTube channel and my blog, and I'm sure some fellow Cedar Trail users (at least one involved in this discussion) don't like it either.

[idata]

Hi all...

The issue with 2D performance could be because of the program you are trying to run uses the old Windows GDI/GDI+.

Now I'm not a programmer but I stumbled across this link that states that all GDI+ are software-rendered making it very slow. http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/3607 http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/3607

Could this be some of the issues seen?

The graphics controller simply doesn't have "raster hardware" acceleration anymore. It's all vector based.

Now this doesn't explain why PassMark's benchmark software can't detect it's DirectX10 capabilities.

Something is wrong...

[KHans13]

That might be a problem. I recently discovered that I can get Cave Story to run fluidly by switching to the NXEngine, which is SDL-based. Before the switch, the game produced about 1 fps, and it ran in super-slow motion. 2D OpenGL apps also run up to snuff.

PassMark doesn't detect DX10 capabilities because there aren't any in the driver. Yes, the GMA 3600 can theoretically execute DX10 commands, but without the software support, it's the same as having no support at all for any apps that can take advantage of it.

[KHans13]

I gave Nitronic Rush a try on my netbook, and I was surprised (not) to find that, in certain areas of a map, big chunks of the screen stop refreshing, causing beyond-massive lag. Have a look:

http://youtu.be/ypJbRiGDYK8 Nitronic Rush on a Gateway LT4004u Netbook - YouTube

The bug in question occurs at the end of the video.

Naturally, this makes it extremely hard to judge direction and distance travelled. Another thing: When you start up a race for the first time (of each time NR is played), the PA says something like "Upgrade your graphics card! You're computer is tooooooooo slow!" I would if I could.

[NICHOLAS_F_Intel]

Thank you all again for the feedback. Rest assured I am still forwarding it all to the appropriate folks!

-Nic

[KHans13]

I tried playing GLQuake the other day. My eyes almost melted out of my head. There's so much unintentional motion blur that after a minute of play, my eyes took a beating. Yes, I exaggerate, but still, it's a horrible experience. There's also a lot of flickering whenever something on the HUD changes, like the increase in health when walking over a health pack. I would record a video, but since it's OpenGL-based, I can't. Screenshots don't capture anything, because there's nothing wrong with any one frame on its own.

[idata]

I noticed a sort of scrolling bug, when I move the mouse to scroll the screen in a 2D strategy game or when I move the character in an 3D isometric game and the game scrolls the result is the same, its a bit sluggish or jerky, anyway not smooth, same in certain web pages.

I hope this will be resolved soon, bye and good work.

[idata]

I Dont get all the replys about gaming on gma 3600. If you want to play games get another graphics card!

The performance of x264 1080p, you tube hd material etc. Is a problem That needs fixing!

This is a nice little nas server, internet machine, no noise and low power usage.

It plays my movies okay, xvid, divx, mp4 x264 series etc. but is useless for higher bitrates or even x264 720 and 1080 movies. Hd youtube etc.

The board here i spend money on sold itself by 1080p playback so now i just want what i payed for..1080p playback! It says on the box 1080p playback!

FIx this please.

If it is not possible to make the d2700dc board run x264 1080p movies without getting to hot. 

I Would even be happy with a fix that requires me to add some sort of cooling on d2700dc mainboard. If it would playback 1080p as promised. Just x264 would be fine.

Make some sort of overclock thingy that would require cooling... I would even do it at own risk! Even i still would like what it says on the box 1080p playback 

[KHans13]

News flash: NOBODY buys a netbook for gaming (unless it has Nvidia or AMD graphics). If we could upgrade our graphics, then we would've done so a long time ago. I knew perfectly well before I bought mine what the GMA 3600 was capable of in hardware, and it's good enough for my needs. The problem's that we were promised DirectX 10.1 and twice the performance of previous netbook graphics, and got neither. And where's the Windows 8 support? Win8 would be perfect for a netbook because of the streamlining Microsoft did, but no, we can't use it.

Of all the things to complain about, H.264 acceleration is at the bottom of the list. It seems to be the least broken of all the GMA 3600's functions. The GMA handles local H.264 just fine. Problems with YouTube are a Flash problem, I believe.

[idata]

Cory im not using a netbook here.... but d2700dc motherboard with fanless d2700 cpu and it handles win and browser just fine. I have problems with ordinay mp4 264 pirate movies in 720 and 1080p even ordinary movies started stuttering after this update... displayd on 1080p tv not 1024x600 netbook screen. ofcourse i disabled aero and skinned windows etc.

CAn be that 264 playback for you is bottom line but on top for me. I use mine as miniserver and movie playback

I Agree its unacceptable just to in some way abandon support on netbooks but expecting them to play any games at all i never did... I have an hp5101 mini netbook 1366x768 3g etc. top of the line old netbook collecting dust aswell. As for win8 i knew when i got this board but ofcourse its completly stupid with no support for those tile thingys even i newer have used them.

lets just agree....INTEL FIX!,!,

[KHans13]

Claus silverstone wrote:

Cory im not using a netbook here.... but d2700dc motherboard with fanless d2700 cpu and it handles win and browser just fine. I have problems with ordinay mp4 264 pirate movies in 720 and 1080p even ordinary movies started stuttering after this update... displayd on 1080p tv not 1024x600 netbook screen. ofcourse i disabled aero and skinned windows etc.

CAn be that 264 playback for you is bottom line but on top for me. I use mine as miniserver and movie playback

I know that, but those of us who do game use netbooks (I think). It just seems odd that http://techonbudget.com/laptops/intel-atom-n2600-gma-3600-review-benchmarks Intel Atom N2600 / GMA 3600 Review & Benchmarks | Tech on Budget says that H.264 playback is almost flawless. I'll bet they were using the 1065 driver, though. It's quite probable that the 1091 driver worsened acceleration capabilities. I wouldn't know; I don't have any 1080p videos.

Claus silverstone wrote:

lets just agree....INTEL FIX!

Agreed.

[idata]

It does some movies okay.. But "almost" is just no good enough when watching video. It does or does not. And that is the problem. You get the usual pixel errors when just touching the mouse and so on... action sceens in fast pace skips and jumps even freezes sometimes. 1080 you tube ...forget it.

im not saying it dows not play 1080 but it far from allways a pleasure to watch. It could be that hardware encoder does not support some codecs.

[KHans13]

YouTube failing is expected, given the inefficiency of Flash and browsers in general. According to Wikipedia, the GMA 3600 supports full acceleration of MPEG-2, AVC (which I interpret to be the same as H.264), and VC-1 (WMV?). Maybe, just maybe, you're not using one of those codecs. I'm pretty sure that VC-1 is broken, though (see page 3 of this thread).

[powerarmour]

Kory Hansen wrote:

I'm pretty sure that VC-1 is broken, though (see page 3 of this thread).

Yeah, VC-1 decoding isn't too great with the GMA 3600/3650, it's not using CPU acceleration as the load is still fairly low (<20%), but the driver or just simply the GPU struggles with high bitrate VC-1 so it often plays them slowly.

H.264 and MPEG2 in general are accelerated fine under Windows 7 however, but I agree that this 1091 driver isn't as stable as the 1065 driver in regards to video playback (better in many other areas, but I've noticed more video playback glitches)