Intel Graphics Media Accelerator driver for Windows Server 2008

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Hi,

I have to be able to use HW acceleration on Windows Server 2008 platform. Why is there no drivers for this platform?

[IDZ_A_Intel]

Hi Vassili,

Only Windows Vista and Windows 7 are currently supported.

There is more information on support for other OSes in this thread:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/showthread.php?t=84259


Thank you for bringing this up. We will post here and elsewhere as soon as we have more on this topic.

Jeff

[IDZ_A_Intel]

Hi again Vassili,

I'd like to track down more details on when support might be available for your case. Could you tell us a bit more about the system(s) you are targeting? Information like processor number would be helpful sincethere are several graphics options available on ourserverprocessors.

Jeff

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Hi Jeffrey,

Current system weare targeting is a server system with SuperMicro C7Q67 motherboard with Intel Q67 Express chipset and single 2nd generationIntel Core i7-2600K processor and Windows Server 2008 as installedOS, but currently we testing only with Windows 7, because driver is not available for server platform. This configuration is OK forencoding of raw video streams from several camera's with normal framerate orone or two camera's with high framerate (>300 fps)though more powerfull configurations are will be pleased.
There is also annoying problem that there is impossible to use hardware acceleration during video encoding process runnig as a service (I've previously posted about it), eventhere is no GUI used and there is no need init in our case.

Vassili

[IDZ_A_Intel]

Since the 2600K is considered a desktop processor (more info at ark.intel.com) the graphics driver and Media SDK are only validatedfor Windows 7 and Vista. Media SDK supportwith Windows Server 2008 is being investigated for some server class processors, but no official plans or timelines are available yet. As covered previously, using Media SDK as a service may also need to wait on developments for other operating systems.

Since one of the benefits of Media SDK is a high-level API , progressin yourWindows 7 environment should port easily. We will get the message out as soon as the supported platforms list changes.

Jeff

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Is there aserver processor with Intel HD Graphics? I didn't find any.

[IDZ_A_Intel]

Yes. See

http://ark.intel.com/products/family/59137/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-Family/server

You may also be interested in this thread

http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/showthread.php?t=84752

There are several graphics options for this family of processors. On ark.intel.com check the "Graphics Specifications" section. If Quick Sync Video is listed there is at least a possibility for Media SDK hardware acceleration to work.

However, as I mentioned before, Media SDKhardware accelerationvia the graphics driverfor these processors is still under investigation. Please stay tuned.

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Hi Jeffrey,

OK, we are going to test with Xeon E3 processor. What do we have to do in order to install Intel HD Graphics driver under Windows 2008 server and get HW acceleration?

[Nina_K_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hi Vassili,

To be able to install Intel GFX driver on Windows 2008 Server you'll need to manually install "Desktop Experience" feature first. It will add evr.dll to the system which is required for Media Foundation Transforms registration. Hardware accelerated MFTs are part of driver installation package.

With this done you should be able to install driver and use hardware acceleration of Quick Sync Video.

Regards,

Nina

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Hi Nina,

Which driver can I install on Windows Server 2008? I can't find driver specific for Windows Server 2008, only for Windows 7/Vista, which cannot to be installed correctly, after install and reboot the screen becomes black and is impossible to do anything except to reboot in safe mode and remove drivers. Therewas also no Media SDK folder in Program Files created.

[Nina_K_Intel]

Hi Vassili,

There is no Windows Server specific driver as this is not an officially supported OS. But due to general similarity we expect standard Win7/Vista driver to install on Windows Server. The workaround I suggested was actually proved working on a previous generation of Intel HD Graphics so it was an assumption to expand this to 2000/3000 generation (1st gen Intel Core ix processors). I'm sorry - I should have warned you about that, but I thought it'll work fine.

Our team will try Win7/Vista driver installation on a Windows Server 2008 based system with HD Graphics 2000/3000. We will be also exploring official Win Server support possibilities in parallel.

I'll get back to you as soon as we get some results.

Regards,

Nina

[Nina_K_Intel]

Vassili,

Just in terms of a double check, have you confirmed that your model of Xeon E3 has HD Graphics 2000/3000 and does support Intel Quick Sync? If you are unsure could you please tell me your model so I can check too.

Thanks,

Nina

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Yes, Xeon E3 has HD Graphics 3000 and supports Intel Quick Sync. It's Intel Xeon E3-1275

Sorry for delay - I didn't paid attention that there is second page also )

Vassili

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Hi Nina,

Is there any news about Intel HD Graphics drivers for Windows Server 2008?

Kind regards,
Vassili

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Hi Nina,

Is there any news about Intel HD Graphics drivers for Windows Server 2008?

Kind regards,
Vassili

[Nina_K_Intel]

Hi Vassili,

We tried latest publicky available Win7/Vista HD Graphics driver installation on a 2nd gen Core i7 with Windows Server 2008 and the workaround worked fine there (no issues). We need to work with gfx driver team to get more information on exepcted behavior for server processors such as Xeon E3. Let me try get the latest status from them. This problem probably hasn't achieved much attention so far as server platforms weren't the target originally, but we are definitely looking into expanding the usage models of QuickSync.

Regards,

Nina

[edlee]

I purchased a lenovo ts130 server which has a xeon e3-1225 processor and hd p3000 gpu.

I plan on installing server 2008 r2 and running the trick install to allow the GPU HW acceleration.

Will this hardware acceleration show up in video acceleration (dxva) as well as quicksync?

And it is very strange that install has produced a server cpu with graphics built in, but is not giving any driver support in server environment.

Just so you know, in the future, sql software is going to have the ability to be accelerated by gpu, and its a shame intel has is not showing any support for a real driver for server envioronment.

[Nina_K_Intel]

Hello,

Yes, DXVA should be available as well as quicksync (actually, all feature of HD Graphics 3000 should be available), if you succeed with Win7 driver install.

Thankyou for your feedback, that's a fair point. We are working on similar requests already and will inform the community as soon as we have some news.

Best regards,

Nina

[jaydioss]

Hi everyone.

I just installed Windows Server 2008 R2 on a new machine running with a Core i7 2600K.
I enabled "Desktop Experience" and installed the latest Windows 7 drivers for the Intel HD Graphics 3000 and everything is working fine.
Thank you Nina for your help, this is the only place where I found info on installing drivers on a Windows Server 2008 R2.
I wanted to take advantage of the QuickSync and bought a Z68 board especially to be able to overclock and use the built-in graphics for video encoding.

Thanks again :)

[Nina_K_Intel]

Great to hear that! Thanks for your positive feedback. -Nina

[Vassili_Yakovlev]

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator driver can be installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 (only 64-bit available) and Media SDK (needed for hardware acceleration)can be installed together with the driverif you install .NET Framework first, and will NOT be installedon Windows Server 2008 - see below. 64-bit system brings complications to the solution in the way that not all needed SDK's and drivers we are usingare available for 64-bit systems.

When Intel Graphics Media Accelerator driver setup running on Windows Server 2008 (note: not R2!), you can see that setup creates registry entries for dispatcher and hardware accelerator, but in the "C:\Program Files\Common Files" the directory "Intel" with "Media SDK\s1\2.0" sub directory was not created and no files copied in it ofcourse.
I ve manually copied all needed files in it, and it seems that hardware acceleration works, though regularly Iget black screen and not responsive system. The driver seems to be unstable on Windows Server 2008.