SPCR

Hey, just wondering if anyone here uses an i5 or i3, only using the on-chip graphics? What are your experiences? Is video playback smooth? Also, I'm a linux-only guy, so have anyone here had Debian or Ubuntu on a Intel H55 platform?

Reason that I'm asking, is that I'm considering an upgrade to my rig, and I want to go either with i5-6xx with the IGP or if the graphics is really sucky, I might as well keep my nVIDIA 8400GS and get a i5-750, so I can compile stuff with -j4, rather than -j2.

I have an i3-530 on a Gigabyte MB, my only video experience was watching the Avatar DVD, far as I was concerned, it was flawless. That was on XP SP2, never used any Linux OS.

If you plan to go discrete, no sense getting any of the Clarkdale CPU's. I wanted the power savings: 28W idle using a Dell RM112 w/ 2-HDD's.

HTH

Clarkdale graphics under Linux is still maturing. Ubuntu requires 2.33 to work correctly, which is not an official kernel (2.32) in 10.04. There is a repo that has it, I've used it and it works pretty well though still a little glitchy with 3D accelerated video (Compiz).

That said, I purchased a 5770 and I've been overjoyed with the performance in both Ubuntu (daily use) and Windows 7 (gaming only). I went with the 530 for budgetary reasons and went to the 5770 about a month later when I had more money in the budget.

I think your 8400 is on par(better than in a number of factors), performance wise, with the Intel IGP. The question is power/noise of the 8400 versus the integrated graphics. If it were me and the 750 were an option I'd go for it and I'd keep/upgrade the 8400...

Hey, thank you for the opinions! I don't really do anything that requires 3D, I even have Compiz disabled. I do use a molecular 3D viewer from time to time, but that works smooth even on my old laptop which has integrated graphics. So my GS8400 is way more than I'll ever need in that sense. So I'm wondering if an IGP is adequate.

I think I'll do some reading at the Ubuntu forums, since the OS support for the Clarkdale IGP is probably what could be limiting me the most. My current rig has 55 watts idle, but I'd like to shave a bit off, just for the kicks of it.

There`s nothing stopping you from using the 8400 until your favorite distro fully supports the clarkdale igp. Ubuntu/Debian should be one of the first to do so..

If you don't need 3d at all then I'd say you should be fine with the 530's IGP with Kernel 2.6.33:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/ma ... 3.4-lucid/

Yes i checked it. it working fine. i play NFS undercover and it is working smoothly.
I install Ubuntu on my i5 it working fine but i faced some problem for driver but now its working fine.

If you're starting a linux-specific thread, could you indicate that in the thread title? Thanks.