Core i5 2500K and Core i7 2600K review - Overview: IGP graphics properties

Overview: IGP graphics properties

Once the hardware is installed we of course need to install the drivers and software suite for the integrated graphics as well.

The new drivers are very pretty looking alright. You'll have all standard and accustomed options available. New features have been added for Sandy Bridge though. The graphics chipset is compatible with all current standards, including HDMI 1.4 for 3D display playback. With the GPU merged so closely into the processor a heap of options are also opened up for encoding video content, Intel calls this QuickSync where your processor, video encoder and AVX extension all work together in matters of transcoding video content.

But yeah, for video playback there are some nifty features available. The IGP can accelerate and enhance high-definition 1080P content. All standard color control functionality can be found here. What I absolutely adore is an image sharpening function which can really help out with 1080P content on the HD bigscreen.

Especially with HDTV playback of a movie you kind of want to enable a little image sharpening to make the HD content really stand out. That's just very nice. Anyway, let's move onwards to some actual testing.