# mesa VIDEO_CARDS intel and/or i915 with i915 latpop

## jeffk

I have a Thinkpad x220 ~amd64, and just noticed that I'm running with VIDEO_CARDS="intel" and not enabling i915. WebGL demos under google-chrome-unstable have been working well lately.

What is the difference between intel and i915 VIDEO_CARDS driver settings? Is one active and one legacy? Recommendations appreciated.

```
% grep VIDEO /etc/portage/make.conf 

VIDEO_CARDS="intel"

% sudo lsmod |grep 915

i915                 1016878  6

drm_kms_helper        110450  1 i915

drm                   312888  5 i915,drm_kms_helper

intel_gtt              12714  1 i915

video                  29066  2 i915,thinkpad_acpi

backlight               8037  3 i915,video,thinkpad_acpi

button                  5667  1 i915

aes_x86_64              7915  0

i2c_algo_bit            5467  2 igb,i915

i2c_core               27020  6 drm,igb,i915,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit

% sudo eselect mesa list

i915 (Intel 915, 945)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *

i965 (Intel GMA 965, G/Q3x, G/Q4x, HD)

  [1]   classic *

r300 (Radeon R300-R500)

r600 (Radeon R600-R700, Evergreen, Northern Islands)

sw (Software renderer)

  [1]   classic

  [2]   gallium *

% sudo emerge mesa --oneshot -pv

[ebuild   R    ] media-libs/mesa-11.2.2::gentoo  USE="classic dri3 egl gallium gbm gles2 llvm nptl udev xvmc -bindist -d3d9

-debug -gles1 -opencl -openmax -osmesa -pax_kernel -pic (-selinux) -vaapi -vdpau -wayland -xa" ABI_X86="(64) -32 (-x32)"

VIDEO_CARDS="intel (-freedreno) -i915 -i965 -ilo -nouveau -r100 -r200 -r300 -r600 -radeon -radeonsi (-vc4) -vmware" 0 KiB
```

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## derk

intel use flag  allow both  i915 and i965 x11 video drivers to be built .. and supported by mesa .. this is not the same as the i915 kernel module .. 

the i915 x11 video mesa driver supports older chipsets  

the i965 x11 mesa driver  supports the newer chipsets 

note: these also require xf86-video-intel to be built as well

.. see the gentoo wiki for details  https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Intel

the i915 kernel driver supports "all" intel chips sets .. currently provided by intel to the kernel driver sources

be aware that the newest intel chipsets appear to be  getting a new kernel driver ..

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## charles17

 *derk wrote:*   

> the i915 x11 video mesa driver supports older chipsets  
> 
> the i965 x11 mesa driver  supports the newer chipsets 

 

derk

How should the user know if a certain chipset is »newer« or »older«?  I have always found that table given under https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Intel#Feature_support being quite confusing.

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## derk

the auto configure of xorg-server is very good these days ..  and if you use the intel use flag ... the correct mesa module is selected during start-up ...check your /var/log/Xorg.0.log ..( or Xorg.*.log 's )

newer or older is  "a relative term" .. in the wiki as you go down the main table the "technology is newer" .. more capabilities are added to the video card gpu chips

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