New Intel HD Graphics, Iris, Iris Pro drivers benchmarked

By William Harrel Published September 13, 2014

Recently, Intel released new drivers for its Intel HD, Iris, and Iris Pro integrated graphics chips.

To test the company’s claims of improved performance, we downloaded the new drivers, and installed them on a laptop running on a 4th-gen Intel Core i7-4500U processor, which contains Intel’s HD 4400 Graphics GPU.

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To establish points of reference, we ran 3DMark Fire Strike and Cloud Gate before installing the new drivers as well. These are popular benchmarks which we use to test graphics performance regularly.

Related: First Intel Core M benchmark scores released

After that, we installed the new drivers, and ran the same benchmarks again. While we expected the new drivers to perform somewhat faster, we were a little surprised by the results.

For example, when we ran the tests at the laptop’s highest resolution, 1920×1280, we saw very little difference in the results. In 3DMark’s Fire Strike test, before installing the new drivers, the laptop scored 405. After the update, it scored 407.

However, when we lowered the resolution to 1366×768, the new drivers seemed to play a bigger role, speeding up image rendering and screen redraws by a few percentage points.

Related: Nvidia GTX 980 and 980M 3DMark benchmark scores leak

When we ran 3DMark at 1,366×768 prior to installing the drivers, our PC scored 782 in Fire Strike. After installing the drivers, it jumped to 812.

We saw similar results in Cloud Gate. The laptop scored 3,717 before we installed the drivers, and it improved to 3,865 afterward.

It’s clear that these new drivers could increase graphics performance. Just don’t expect a huge boost.

If your Intel Core processor contains one of the following Intel HD Graphics GPUs, you should download and install the new drivers. To get started, click on the links below to download the new driver that matches up with the integrated Intel GPU that’s in your system.

Granted, a few percentage points of improvement is always good, especially when all you have to do is install some new drivers. The process should only take a few minutes, and best of all, it’s free!

Former Digital Trends Contributor

William Harrel has been writing about computer technology for well over 25 years. He has authored or coauthored 20…

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