Intel(R) HD Graphics Family

finnis21

Hello all. I want to start by saying that I'm really excited about the Enhanced Edition of Baldur's gate. I put hundreds of hours into this and Baldur's gate 2 a while back, and I'm incredibly excited about the idea of playing it again.

However, just as many users, I have questions about whether or not I'd be able to play the game on my computer. I used to be on top of things, years ago, but I haven't been a PC gamer for years, and so my PC literacy has... waned. I'm sorry if this question has already been answered dozens of times on this forum, in sticky threads no less, but I still can't really understand the issue that well, or, more importantly, the likelihood of the game working for me.

I have read the stickies on the subject of the Intel Graphics cards, but I can't tell what kind of card I have (aside from being Intel(R) HD Graphics Family, or the quality of the card at all, so I can't compare my card to the experiences that different users on this board, and can't tell if things would work for me. Truth be told, my specs (I'm pretty sure) pretty far outstrip anything the game requires EXCEPT I'm unsure of the graphics card.

Once again, I apologize that this must seem irritating and redundant, but maybe it'll also be helpful to anyone else that stumbles here without knowing the 25-some-odd-character description of their graphics card along with the equivalents.

I have a fairly new computer, about a year old. Windows 7, 64-bit, dual core (I think) 2.00 Ghz Processor. Something about B940. 8.00 Gigs of RAM (probably my computers best quality at this point). DirectX 11.

I've looked everywhere for details on the graphics card, and best I can come up with is Intel (R) HD Graphics (thats what it says under "display adapters". Nothing else). Approx. Total memory 1760 Mb. According to the "dxdiag" prompt, DirectDraw acceleration, Direct3D acceleration, and AGP Texture acceleration are all enabled.

I'm sure that most of this information is useless, but, these days I don't know whats exactly useful anymore. It isn't that I haven't done my homework on this, I'm just not quite as sharp as I used to be on this kind of stuf.

So, ultimately, is there a pretty good chance the game will work with me? Would it be hard to get there, given that its a fairly updated computer with not too terribly old specs?

I'm sorry to be such a layman about it. I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks.

EDIT: I think I found more information. If I read it right, my card may be Intel 6 Series/C200... or Intel HM65 express chipset. These are all there under system devices, but I can't find any mention of these on the forums. Are they new? Old?

Anduin

Okay. To find your graphic card.

Click start (Windows icon) bottom left.

Look right on pop up menu, click control panel.

On control panel click system and security.

On system security window click system.

On system window (Note you get most of you computer specs here) look left and click device manager.

On device manager drop down menu, find display adapters.

Clicking on this should reveal your chip.



I think you should be fine to run the game with latest drivers. But take a double check when you know your graphics card.

finnis21

Thanks for the comment.

I've gone there, but the only thing it says is "Intel (R) HD Graphics". No numbers or letters. No specific "chipset" or 2000,3000,4000 etc... like I see a lot of individuals who describe their intel chips as. I'll click on the Intel HD Graphics and I get a pretty brief dialog window, but I can't glean any more information from it.

I wouldn't worry about it, but everyone else seems to have a lot more information about their chips, including Intel chips, and I'm worried I'm missing something.

I do have new drivers (I think, I did a manual update of drivers yesterday), and while I'd normally be optimistic about that, I've also read that some say that even new drivers won't work on certain chips... or something.

Is there something else I can check for, or is it really going to be: "Pay $20 and hope for the best, if it doesn't work, too bad."?

Of course I'm not blaming the devs for this problem or my computer. Heck, I'd pay three times the cost for the game (it'd totally be worth it), if I just knew for sure it was going to work.

Being that all it says is "Intel (R) HD Graphics", do you still think it'd run fine?

ermo

@finnis21:

It's actually easier to figure out whether your PC can run BG:EE if you just paste your complete CPU model, as intel IGPs are by design matched to a specific generation of CPU, especially in laptops.

You can find your complete CPU model in "Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> System".

From reading your edit on your chipset (HM65 Express), I'm guessing you have a 32nm Sandy Bridge Core iX 2xxx with a built-in HD3000 IGP, which will run BG just fine, provided you forcibly update your intel graphics drivers as described in the thread of the same name.

finnis21

Well, this is what I got from that page, although I think most of the information is in my original post:

Model: ASUS Notebook K53E Series

Rating: 5.1

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium (R) CPU B940 @ 2.00 GHz 2.00 GHz

System Type: 64-bit operating system

Thats... pretty much it I think. I've searched for the actual computer model, but found some inconsistent results on the type of Intel graphics card. Again, though, I'm not entirely literate on these exact specs. I've seen

Intel HD 3000

Source: http://www.cnet.com/laptops/asus-k53e-b1/4505-3121_7-34533169.html

But I'm not sure its the same exact model. Mine doesn't say B1 anywhere.

On other sites I've also seen "Sandy Bridge" thrown around, although I think its different/inferior to 3000 (or not, I can't tell anymore).

On top of it all, I can't find these numbers or names associated with any news on whether or not the game would play with the card.

Is there something else involved with "pasting" that I missed, or is this it?

finnis21

Just going to post a quick update, in case it can help anyone else out there.

I went ahead and downloaded the game, and it works like a dream. The only issue was, after opening it up the first time, there was that flashing main menu screen, which promptly went away.

After that I played... for WAY too long... and no problems at all. I saw magic, those fountains outside, monsters, videos, tons of effects and magic (that wild magic does some crazy stuff) and all sorts. No problem.

If anything, there is the occasional stutter of about a second, and if I haven't been to a particular screen for a long time, it may take another second to load up. If I've been switching around, it'll be fine.

I can even alt-tab back to desktop and back with no issues (better than I can say with neverwinter nights).

So, just wanting to say that about my particular computer specs (found above). It seems that as long as your computer isn't ancient, even the Intel chipset can work just fine.

Thanks everyone for your help.

ermo

@finnis21 said:

Well, this is what I got from that page, although I think most of the information is in my original post:

(...)

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium (R) CPU B940 @ 2.00 GHz 2.00 GHz

System Type: 64-bit operating system

Thats... pretty much it I think.

(...)

Is there something else involved with "pasting" that I missed, or is this it?

The bolded part was all I needed to know to confirm that, yes, you have a 32nm chip that was developed under the code name "Sandy Bridge", which implies that it can run BG:EE just fine as you have already discovered.

You should probably still do yourself a favour and ensure that you have the newest drivers from intel and forcibly install them per Nathan's post.