I get this question a LOT: "Why hasn't Intel released WDDM drivers for the 915 integrated graphics chipset? I can't run the fancy visual effects in Windows Vista, like Aero Glass, without one!"
People hardest hit by this issue include virtually all Tablet PC and UMPC users, along with lots and lots of people using laptops with that particular Intel integrated graphics chipset. I personally have two systems, a Lenovo X41 Tablet PC and an Asus R2H UMPC, that are affected. The Intel Software Network forum is full of complaints, rants, and even veiled threats on the topic - implying that we, Intel, are sitting on the driver, or not releasing it for some unknown reason (most speculate that it's because we want to force people to upgrade to a newer, more powerful graphics solution).
In this video, I sat down with Intel's Chuck DeSylva, right after he gave a presentation at GDC 2007 on the topic of optimizing your games to take advantage of the Intel G965 graphics chip. I asked him the million dollar question: Why are there no WDDM drivers for Intel 915 graphics?
Watch the video for the answer. It's about 3.5 minutes long, and weighs in at 22MB if you want to download it directly.
The short version (if you're impatient): The WDDM Vista driver spec came out long after the 915 design was complete and in production, and even though it has advanced features like Pixel Shader 2.0, there is a missing hardware feature, called the Hardware Scheduler, that 915 lacks, and without that, it doesn't meet the WDDM spec from Microsoft, and we (Intel) can't release a WDDM driver for it.
There. It's done. I hope that answers your questions. Please link your friends and associates to this video/post for the "definitive" answer.
As always, we're open to your feedback, so please feel free to post a comment, respond in the ISN forums, or contact me directly if you have any more questions or issues.
Comments
Learn to spell bud... back on topic. I heard there's some people out there getting the 945 driver to work? any news on this?
Brett why can't we blame them? they offered aero in the beta driver for the 82915, but instead of offering it microsoft made them take it out since it didn't meet all the requirements
is there any news? are they going to release the damned drivers?
Josh, are you even reading this space?
He posted his response on his main page... calm down...let the man work, and hopefully this will work out for all of us!
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2007/05/07/update-on-the-915-graphics-wddm-vista-driver-issue/
Hey Josh
How can we as the force we all together are, help you to convince the people who's calling the shots on this matter. Intel or Microsoft that releasing a driver or relaxing the Vista requirements in this case would be the smartest thing to do for their interests?
Wow look at all of these.
Intel should do something.
Everyone seen this petition?
http://www.petitiononline.com/intel915/petition.html
Josh Bancroft, what response did you receive when you asked the relevant people about making this driver?
This is so simple to intel resolve. If they don't have the "brain" to make this WDDM driver, put the 915 driver to the open source community. We solve the problem.
Andrew the beta driver was based on the windows xp drivers and they noticed a problem and backed off intel in in the process they said to me when i call them last week because we have some laptops at work that use this chipset and we are supporting windows vista to our customers and we want to have it to be right with our customers but give a chance they are working on it if they cant figure it out intel said they are going to do something with the chipset to make it work
o btw tayler making a big deal over nothing the areo interface does not even run that good unless u are running a 512mb w/fast gpu and like 2 gb of ram to run stable
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