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Intel Graphics Technology (GT) is the collective name for a series of
integrated graphics processor A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobil ...
s (IGPs) produced by
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
that are manufactured on the same package or
die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
as the
central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...
(CPU). It was first introduced in 2010 as Intel HD Graphics and renamed in 2017 as Intel UHD Graphics. Intel Iris Graphics and Intel Iris Pro Graphics are the IGP series introduced in 2013 with some models of Haswell processors as the high-performance versions of HD Graphics. Iris Pro Graphics was the first in the series to incorporate
embedded DRAM Embedded DRAM (eDRAM) is dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) integrated on the same die or multi-chip module (MCM) of an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or microprocessor. eDRAM's cost-per-bit is higher when compared to equival ...
. Since 2016 Intel refers to the technology as Intel Iris Plus Graphics with the release of
Kaby Lake Kaby Lake is Intel's codename for its seventh generation Core microprocessor family announced on August 30, 2016. Like the preceding Skylake, Kaby Lake is produced using a 14 nanometer manufacturing process technology. Breaking with Intel's ...
. In the fourth quarter of 2013, Intel integrated graphics represented, in units, 65% of all PC graphics processor shipments. However, this percentage does not represent actual adoption as a number of these shipped units end up in systems with discrete graphics cards.


History

Before the introduction of Intel HD Graphics, Intel integrated graphics were built into the motherboard's northbridge, as part of the Intel's Hub Architecture. They were known as
Intel Extreme Graphics This article contains information about Intel's Graphics processing unit, GPUs (see Intel Graphics Technology) and motherboard graphics chipsets in table form. In 1982, Intel licensed the NEC μPD7220 and announced it as the Intel 82720 Graphics Di ...
and
Intel GMA The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) is a series of integrated graphics processors introduced in 2004 by Intel, replacing the earlier Intel Extreme Graphics series and being succeeded by the Intel HD and Iris Graphics series. This series t ...
. As part of the
Platform Controller Hub The Platform Controller Hub (PCH) is a family of Intel's single-chip chipsets, first introduced in 2009. It is the successor to the Intel Hub Architecture, which used two chips - a Northbridge (computing), northbridge and Southbridge (computing), ...
(PCH) design, the northbridge was eliminated and graphics processing was moved to the same die as the
central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...
(CPU). The previous Intel integrated graphics solution, Intel GMA, had a reputation of lacking performance and features, and therefore was not considered to be a good choice for more demanding graphics applications, such as 3D gaming. The performance increases brought by Intel's HD Graphics made the products competitive with integrated graphics adapters made by its rivals,
Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...
and ATI/AMD. Intel HD Graphics, featuring minimal power consumption that is important in
laptop A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
s, was capable enough that PC manufacturers often stopped offering discrete graphics options in both low-end and high-end laptop lines, where reduced dimensions and low power consumption are important.


Generations

Intel HD and Iris Graphics are divided into generations, and within each generation are divided into 'tiers' of increasing performance, denominated by the 'GTx' label. Each generation corresponds to the implementation of a Gen graphics
microarchitecture In computer engineering, microarchitecture, also called computer organization and sometimes abbreviated as µarch or uarch, is the way a given instruction set architecture (ISA) is implemented in a particular processor. A given ISA may be impl ...
with a corresponding GEN
instruction set architecture In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an ' ...
since Gen4.


Gen5 architecture


Westmere

In January 2010, Clarkdale and
Arrandale Arrandale is the code name for a family of mobile Intel processors, sold as mobile Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 as well as Celeron and Pentium. It is closely related to the desktop Clarkdale processor; both use dual-core dies based on the '' Westme ...
processors with Ironlake graphics were released, and branded as
Celeron Celeron is Intel's brand name for low-end IA-32 and x86-64 computer microprocessor models targeted at low-cost personal computers. Celeron processors are compatible with IA-32 IA-32 (short for "Intel Architecture, 32-bit", commonly called ...
,
Pentium Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and Pe ...
, or
Core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the centra ...
with HD Graphics. There was only one specification: 12 execution units, up to 43.2 
GFLOPS In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...
at 900 MHz. It can decode a H264 1080p video at up to 40 fps. Its direct predecessor, the
GMA X4500 The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) is a series of integrated graphics processors introduced in 2004 by Intel, replacing the earlier Intel Extreme Graphics series and being succeeded by the Intel HD and Iris Graphics series. This series t ...
, featured 10 EUs at 800 MHz, but it lacked some capabilities.


Gen6 architecture


Sandy Bridge

In January 2011, the
Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge is the codename for Intel's 32 nm microarchitecture used in the second generation of the Intel Core processors (Core i7, i5, i3). The Sandy Bridge microarchitecture is the successor to Nehalem and Westmere microarchitecture ...
processors were released, introducing the "second generation" HD Graphics: Sandy Bridge Celeron and Pentium have Intel HD, while Core i3 and above have either HD 2000 or HD 3000. HD Graphics 2000 and 3000 include hardware video encoding and HD postprocessing effects.


Gen7 architecture


Ivy Bridge

On 24 April 2012, Ivy Bridge was released, introducing the "third generation" of Intel's HD graphics: Ivy Bridge Celeron and Pentium have Intel HD, while Core i3 and above have either HD 2500 or HD 4000. HD Graphics 2500 and 4000 include hardware video encoding and HD postprocessing effects. For some low-power mobile CPUs there is limited video decoding support, while none of the desktop CPUs have this limitation. HD P4000 is featured on the Ivy Bridge E3 Xeon processors with the 12X5 v2 descriptor, and supports unbuffered ECC RAM.


Gen7.5 architecture


Haswell

In June 2013, Haswell CPUs were announced, with four models of integrated GPUs: The 128 MB of eDRAM in the Iris Pro GT3e is in the same package as the CPU, but on a separate
die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
manufactured in a different process. Intel refers to this as a Level 4 cache, available to both CPU and GPU, naming it ''Crystalwell''. The Linux drm/i915 driver is aware and capable of using this eDRAM since kernel version 3.12.


Gen8 architecture


Broadwell

In November 2013, it was announced that Broadwell-K desktop processors (aimed at enthusiasts) would also carry Iris Pro Graphics. The following models of integrated GPU are announced for Broadwell processors:


Braswell


Gen9 architecture


Skylake

The Skylake line of processors, launched in August 2015, retires
VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...
support, while supporting
multi-monitor Multi-monitor, also called multi-display and multi-head, is the use of multiple physical display devices, such as monitors, televisions, and projectors, in order to increase the area available for computer programs running on a single computer sy ...
setups of up to three monitors connected via HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 or Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) 1.3 interfaces. The following models of integrated GPU are available or announced for the Skylake processors:


Apollo Lake

The Apollo Lake line of processors was launched in August 2016.


Gen9.5 architecture


Kaby Lake

The Kaby Lake line of processors was introduced in August 2016. New features: speed increases, support for 4K UHD "premium" (
DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement milita ...
encoded) streaming services, media engine with full hardware acceleration of 8- and 10-bit
HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In compari ...
and
VP9 VP9 is an open and royalty-free video coding format developed by Google. VP9 is the successor to VP8 and competes mainly with MPEG's High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265). At first, VP9 was mainly used on Google's video platform YouTube. ...
decode.


Kaby Lake Refresh / Amber Lake / Coffee Lake / Coffee Lake Refresh / Whiskey Lake / Comet Lake

The Kaby Lake Refresh line of processors was introduced in October 2017. New features: HDCP 2.2 support


Gemini Lake/Gemini Lake Refresh

New features: HDMI 2.0 support,
VP9 VP9 is an open and royalty-free video coding format developed by Google. VP9 is the successor to VP8 and competes mainly with MPEG's High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265). At first, VP9 was mainly used on Google's video platform YouTube. ...
10-bit Profile2 hardware decoder


Gen11 architecture


Ice Lake

New features: 10 nm Gen 11 GPU microarchitecture, two HEVC 10-bit encode pipelines, three 4K display pipelines (or 2× 5K60, 1× 4K120), variable rate shading (VRS), and integer scaling. While the microarchitecture continues to support double-precision floating-point as previous versions did, the mobile configurations of it do not include the feature and therefore on these it is supported only through emulation.


Xe LP architecture (Gen12)

These are based on the Intel Xe-LP microarchitecture, the low power variant of the Intel Xe
GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
also known as Gen 12. New features include Sampler Feedback, Dual Queue Support, DirectX12 View Instancing Tier2, and
AV1 AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an open, royalty-free video coding format initially designed for video transmissions over the Internet. It was developed as a successor to VP9 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a consortium founded in 2015 th ...
8-bit and 10-bit fixed-function hardware decoding.


Arc Alchemist Tile GPU

Intel
Meteor Lake A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...
and Arrow Lake will use Intel Arc Alchemist Tile GPU microarchitecture. New features: DirectX 12 Ultimate Feature Level 12_2 support, 8K 10-bit
AV1 AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an open, royalty-free video coding format initially designed for video transmissions over the Internet. It was developed as a successor to VP9 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a consortium founded in 2015 th ...
hardware encoder,
HDMI 2.1 High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
48Gbps native support


Arc Battlemage Tile GPU

Intel
Lunar Lake Lunar most commonly means "of or relating to the Moon". Lunar may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lunar'' (series), a series of video games * "Lunar" (song), by David Guetta * "Lunar", a song by Priestess from the 2009 album ''Prior t ...
will use Intel Arc Battlemage Tile GPU microarchitecture.


Features


Intel Insider

Beginning with
Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge is the codename for Intel's 32 nm microarchitecture used in the second generation of the Intel Core processors (Core i7, i5, i3). The Sandy Bridge microarchitecture is the successor to Nehalem and Westmere microarchitecture ...
, the graphics processors include a form of digital
copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, describes measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on ...
and
digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
(DRM) called ''Intel Insider'', which allows decryption of protected media within the processor. Previously there was a similar technology called
Protected Audio Video Path The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) is a series of integrated graphics processors introduced in 2004 by Intel, replacing the earlier Intel Extreme Graphics series and being succeeded by the Intel HD and Iris Graphics series. This series t ...
(PAVP).


HDCP

Intel Graphics Technology supports the
HDCP High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. Types of connections include DisplayPort ...
technology, but the actual HDCP support depends on the computer's motherboard.


Intel Quick Sync Video

Intel Quick Sync Video Intel Quick Sync Video is Intel's brand for its dedicated video encoding and decoding hardware core. Quick Sync was introduced with the Sandy Bridge CPU microarchitecture on 9 January 2011 and has been found on the die of Intel CPUs ever since. ...
is Intel's hardware
video encoding In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression ...
and decoding technology, which is integrated into some of the Intel CPUs. The name "Quick Sync" refers to the use case of quickly
transcoding Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital conversion of one encoding to another, such as for video data files, audio files (e.g., MP3, WAV), or character encoding (e.g., UTF-8, ISO/IEC 8859). This is usually done in cases where a target devic ...
("syncing") a video from, for example, a
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
or
Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
to a format appropriate to, for example, a
smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
. Quick Sync was introduced with the Gen 6 in Sandy Bridge microprocessors on 9 January 2011.


Graphics Virtualization Technology

Graphics Virtualization Technology (GVT) was announced 1 January 2014 and introduced at the same time as Intel Iris Pro. Intel integrated GPUs support the following sharing methods: * Direct passthrough (GVT-d): the GPU is available for a single virtual machine without sharing with other machines * Paravirtualized API forwarding (GVT-s): the GPU is shared by multiple virtual machines using a virtual graphics driver; few supported graphics APIs (
OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...
,
DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct", ...
), no support for
GPGPU General-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU, or less often GPGP) is the use of a graphics processing unit (GPU), which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditiona ...
* Full GPU virtualization (GVT-g): the GPU is shared by multiple virtual machines (and by the host machine) on a time-sharing basis using a native graphics driver; similar to AMD's MxGPU and Nvidia's vGPU, which are available only on professional line cards (
Radeon Pro Radeon Pro is AMD's brand of professional oriented GPUs. It replaced AMD's FirePro brand in 2016. Compared to the Radeon brand for mainstream consumer/gamer products, the Radeon Pro brand is intended for use in workstations and the running of ...
and
Nvidia Quadro Quadro was Nvidia's brand for graphics cards intended for use in workstations running professional computer-aided design (CAD), computer-generated imagery (CGI), digital content creation (DCC) applications, scientific calculations and machine l ...
) * Full GPU virtualization in hardware (SR-IOV): The gpu can be partitioned and used/shared by multiple virtual machines and the host with support built-in hardware, unlike GVT-g that does this in software(driver). Gen9 (i.e. Graphics powering 6th through 9th generation Intel processors) is the last generation of the software-based vGPU solution GVT-G (Intel® Graphics Virtualization Technology –g). SR-IOV (Single Root IO Virtualization) is supported only on platforms with 11th Generation Intel® Core™ "G" Processors (products formerly known as Tiger Lake) or newer. This leaves Rocket Lake (11th Gen Intel Processors) without support for GVT-g and/or SR-IOV. This means Rocket Lake has no full virtualization support.


Multiple monitors


Ivy Bridge

HD 2500 and HD 4000 GPUs in Ivy Bridge CPUs are advertised as supporting three active monitors, but this only works if two of the monitors are configured identically, which covers many but not all three-monitor configurations. The reason for this is that the chipsets only include two
phase-locked loop A phase-locked loop or phase lock loop (PLL) is a control system that generates an output signal whose phase is related to the phase of an input signal. There are several different types; the simplest is an electronic circuit consisting of a ...
s (PLLs) for generating the
pixel clock In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the sm ...
s timing the data being transferred to the displays. Therefore, three simultaneously active monitors can only be achieved when at least two of them share the same pixel clock, such as: * Using two or three
DisplayPort DisplayPort (DP) is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device su ...
connections, as they require only a single pixel clock for all connections. Passive adapters from DisplayPort to some other connector do not count as a DisplayPort connection, as they rely on the chipset being able to emit a non-DisplayPort signal through the DisplayPort connector. Active adapters that contain additional logic to convert the DisplayPort signal to some other format count as a DisplayPort connection. * Using two non-DisplayPort connections of the same connection type (for example, two HDMI connections) and the same clock frequency (like when connected to two identical monitors at the same resolution), so that a single unique pixel clock can be shared between both connections. Another possible three-monitor solution uses the
Embedded DisplayPort DisplayPort (DP) is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device su ...
on a mobile CPU (which does not use a chipset PLL at all) along with any two chipset outputs.


Haswell

ASRock ASRock Inc. is a Taiwanese manufacturer of motherboards, industrial PCs and home theater PCs (HTPC). Founded by Ted Hsu, it was founded in 2002 and is currently owned by Taiwanese electronics company Pegatron. History ASRock was originally sp ...
Z87- and H87-based motherboards support three displays simultaneously. Asus H87-based motherboards are also advertised to support three independent monitors at once.


Capabilities (GPU hardware)

OpenCL 2.1 and 2.2 possible with software update on OpenCL 2.0 hardware (Broadwell+) with future software updates. Support for
Direct3D 9 Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardwa ...
in Mesa is only implemented for Gallium3D-style drivers, and is thus only available with the newer Gallium3D Iris driver, which is the default for Broadwell+ since Mesa 20.0. It is not supported in the classic Mesa i965 driver. The classic Mesa i965 driver, which is the only one for Haswell and older on Linux, only supports core profile for OpenGL 3.1+, not compatibility profile. The Iris Gallium3D driver supports compatibility profile for OpenGL 4.6. All GVT virtualization methods are supported since the Broadwell processor family with KVM and Xen.


Capabilities (GPU video acceleration)

Intel developed a dedicated SIP core which implements multiple video decompression and compression algorithms branded
Intel Quick Sync Video Intel Quick Sync Video is Intel's brand for its dedicated video encoding and decoding hardware core. Quick Sync was introduced with the Sandy Bridge CPU microarchitecture on 9 January 2011 and has been found on the die of Intel CPUs ever since. ...
. Some are implemented completely, some only partially.


Hardware-accelerated algorithms


Intel Pentium and Celeron family


Intel Atom family


Documentation

Intel releases programming manuals for most of Intel HD Graphics devices via its Open Source Technology Center. This allows various
open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
enthusiasts and hackers to contribute to driver development, and port drivers to various operating systems, without the need for
reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
.


See also

*
Video card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer moni ...
*
Accelerated processing unit AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), formerly known as Fusion, is a series of 64-bit microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), combining a general-purpose AMD64 central processing unit ( CPU) and integrated graphics processing unit ...
(APU) *
Free and open-source graphics device driver A free and open-source graphics device driver is a software stack which controls computer-graphics hardware and supports graphics-rendering application programming interfaces (APIs) and is released under a free and open-source software license ...
*
List of Intel graphics processing units This article contains information about Intel's GPUs (see Intel Graphics Technology) and motherboard graphics chipsets in table form. In 1982, Intel licensed the NEC μPD7220 and announced it as the Intel 82720 Graphics Display Controller. Firs ...
*
List of Nvidia graphics processing units This list contains general information about graphics processing units (GPUs) and video cards from Nvidia, based on official specifications. In addition some Nvidia motherboards come with integrated onboard GPUs. Limited/Special/Collectors' Editio ...
*
List of AMD graphics processing units The following is a list that contains general information about GPUs and video cards by AMD, including those by ATI Technologies before 2006, based on official specifications in table-form. Field explanations The headers in the table listed b ...


Notes


References


External links


Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers 2022.2

Intel's Embedded DRAM

Intel Open Source Technology Center: Linux graphics documentation
(includes the GPU manuals) {{Intel processors Graphics microarchitectures Graphics processing units Intel microprocessors Intel microarchitectures Intel graphics Graphics cards