Intel GMA 4500MHD current state on Linux

[pedrodh]

Hi there everyone! Anyone that has this graphic card can tell me what's the current state of things under Linux right now (for kernels up to 2.6.35) ? I would like to buy a new laptop, and my focus it's mainly to work, so battery duration it's important to me. How does this card stands up again let's say the Nvidia G200 series? It's it more power efficient?

I would also like to see some movies on the laptop, does this card support x264 video rendering from the GPU, in applications like XBMC or VLC ?

It's the card stable under linux, or there are some glitches using this or that app?

Does it play well with suspend and hibernation under Linux too?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if I asked something that's already on the forum :\.

[whizse]

I have the desktop version, not the mobile one, so can't really say anything about power/suspend usage.

I would also like to see some movies on the laptop, does this card support x264 video rendering from the GPU, in applications like XBMC or VLC ?

Not yet, but support is planned.

It's the card stable under linux, or there are some glitches using this or that app?
.

The i965 driver is, as far as I can tell, the the best supported free driver at the moment. As far as glitches and bugs go, look through bugzilla.

[Kano]

Well apps/games that heavyly use GLSL do not work like Zero Ballistics with the drivers shipped by recent distributions. I would get an iX based system when you need h264 accelleration. VLC should do, xbmc is a bit problematic with iX.

[gbeauche]

Hi there everyone! Anyone that has this graphic card can tell me what's the current state of things under Linux right now (for kernels up to 2.6.35) ? I would like to buy a new laptop, and my focus it's mainly to work, so battery duration it's important to me.

A Core i3 ULV (e.g. 330UM) based laptop would be interesting, performance wise and power efficiency wise. Unfortunately, Intel maintains high prices so this won't be a cheap solution... Some ULV Core iX processors, with an IGP capable to perform dual stream 1080p h.264 decode, have a 18W TDP. Others are around 35W. If you go for an NVIDIA solution, you adds up that chip too. If you don't want to do GPGPU or high end graphics, the Intel solution is enough.

As mentioned above, the Intel GMA 4500MHD GPU does not yet handle H.264 decoding in Linux.

[whizse]

Well apps/games that heavyly use GLSL do not work like Zero Ballistics with the drivers shipped by recent distributions.

ZB is a general problem with Mesa, it's rendering the same with i965 as with the software rasterizer, glsl2 might solve this.