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Is there something wrong with Microsoft customized driver for Intel's HD Graphics 515 GPU?

m___
Beginner
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Four months ago, I bought a Surface pro 4 tablet (windows 10 Pro) with a m3 0.9 GHZ base frequency CPU with 4 GB RAM and Intel HD Graphics 515 GPU. However, now I have realized that the performance of the GPU is very bad but my understanding is that this can be related to Microsoft's customized driver and not the hardware itself.

https://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/Intel+HD+Graphics+515+Mobile/review https://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/Intel+HD+Graphics+515+Mobile/review

Such poor performance of the GPU is also confirmed when I test the performance of my tablet

http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/3978541 http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/3978541

The reason why the inferior performance my of tablets GPU gives me headaches is because I have a software of my tablet called iota wallet for a cryptocurrency called iota that uses the CPU and GPU to do POW (proof of work)

https://github.com/iotaledger/wallet/releases/ https://github.com/iotaledger/wallet/releases/

When you send a transaction without any fees in the iota wallet you must do POW. The iota wallet uses the CPU and GPU for POW. I have not been able to send one single transaction in the iota wallet on my tablet because after 30 minutes of POW my tablets overheat and automatically shuts down.

I therefore tried to install iota wallet on my 5 years old laptop which is an Acer Aspire V3-771G with a i7 2.3 GHZ CPU, 16 GB RAM and with 2 GPU's Intel HD Graphics 4000 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M and the transaction is sent (the POW is completed) under a minute!

I know that the i7 CPU is better than the m3 CPU but how is it possible that a 5-year-old laptop has a better CPU and better graphical performance than a tablet I bought four month ago? I therefore decided to compare the performance of the GPU of my tablet (Intel HD Graphics 515) with the 2 GPUs of my 5-year old laptop (Intel HD Graphics 4000 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M).

It turned out that my tablets GPU (Intel HD Graphics 515) is 27% faster than one of the GPU on my old laptop (Intel HD Graphics 4000)

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-HD-515-Mobile-Skylake-vs-Intel-HD-4000-Mobile-125-GHz/m38173vsm7653 http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-HD-515-Mobile-Skylake-vs-Intel-HD-4000-Mobile-125-GHz/m38173vsm7653

but my tablets GPU (Intel HD Graphics 515) is also 39% slower than one of the GPU on my old laptop (NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 M)

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-HD-515-Mobile-Skylake-vs-Nvidia-GeForce-GT-640M/m38173vsm8030 http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-HD-515-Mobile-Skylake-vs-Nvidia-GeForce-GT-640M/m38173vsm8030

I therefore have 4 questions:

1) Do my old 5-year old laptop with 2 GPU's have twice the graphical performance of my tablet with only one GPU?

2) Can that explain the poor graphical performance of my tablets and the problem it has with completing the POW?

3) Is it possible that Microsoft surface pro 4 tablet with an m3 CPU has a poorly designed GPU driver for Intel's HD Graphics 515 hardware?

4) What would happen to my surface pro 4 tablet with windows 10 pro if I just installed the latest generic version of the driver from intel for the HD Graphics 515 GPU instead of the customized Microsoft...

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Stefan3D
Honored Contributor II
1,698 Views

regarding questions 1) - 3)

MS is generous with firmware updates, probably sth. of that fixes your bottleneck

https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/install-update-activate/surface-pro-4-update-history?os=windows-10 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 update history | Surface firmware updates

regarding question 4)

You would reduce the custom 10 bit gamma of the Surface to 8 bits.

Only relevant if you are a graphics artist i guess.

Create a system restore point before trying the generic driver so you can easily roll back if you don't like it

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/e6bbddb0-9db4-4d88-9063-42c52c79a96e/create-a-system-restore-point

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idata
Employee
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Hello mr.marc,

 

 

I understand you are having performance issues with the graphics controller that comes in your Microsoft* Surface Pro 4.

 

 

Let me apologize for any inconvenience this issue may be causing to you.

 

 

In order to help you better I would like to gather more information about the configuration you have in the computer. Please attach to this thread the .txt file the Intel® System Support Utility will generate https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility

 

 

Please also run the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool and let me know if the test passes or not. You can download the tool from this link https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool

 

 

t is not possible for us to measure/compare graphics performance of systems that have completely different hardware. There is a chance the performance issue might be related to overheating instead of a design issue. It is not normal the system shuts down by itself while you are using it. if you use our generic graphics driver you might lose some of the customizations that were made by Microsoft*.

 

 

To attach a file, you must click "Use Advanced Editor" on the upper right hand corner of the response box, then the "attach" option will appear on the bottom right hand corner of the response box.

 

 

Regards,

 

Fred D.
m___
Beginner
1,698 Views

Thank you for taking time to answer my question 🙂

I have run the first test that you suggested that I should run. Please see attached. The second test that you suggested does not download for me. There might be something wrong with your server because I tried to download the file like 5 times. I managed to download 4% once but that is it! Most of the time you don't download anything. I will try to download that file a couple of more times later and see if its works.

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m___
Beginner
1,698 Views

I actually checken the log file for my GPU and I had 8 errors. Maybe you can take a look at it and comment if you think it is the cause of my problem?

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idata
Employee
1,698 Views

Hello mr.marc,

 

 

Thanks for the information you sent to me.

 

 

I would like you to try installing latest graphics driver we have available on our website. If our driver does not work correctly in your Microsoft* Surface Pro 4 please reinstall latest graphics driver Microsoft* provides on their website. You can download our graphics driver from this link https://downloadmirror.intel.com/26836/eng/win64_154519.4678.zip https://downloadmirror.intel.com/26836/eng/win64_154519.4678.zip

 

 

Please install the driver with the steps that are on this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1KzoQDjMMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1KzoQDjMMY

 

 

If issue persists even with our latest graphics driver then the issue might be related to overheating. It is not normal the computer shuts down itself while you are using it. If issue persists the best option would be contacting Microsoft* so they can check why your tablet is overheating. This link will give you their contact information https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/

 

 

Regards,

 

Fred D.
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m___
Beginner
1,698 Views

Fred D, IntelCorporation

I updated the driver for the Intel HD Graphics 515 GPU on my surface pro 4 tablet and now everything works correctly 🙂 So thank you. Microsoft's customized GPU driver for the surface pro 4 was the problem! Strange that Microsoft does not recommend using Intel's default GPU driver for the Surface pro 4 when Microsoft's customized driver was causing the problem. In the future I will trust Intel before I trust Microsoft.

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idata
Employee
1,698 Views

Hello mr.marc,

 

 

I am glad to hear the issue has been fixed. Do not hesitate to contact us back if you have any other inquiry.

 

 

Regards,

 

Fred D.
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