14 DAY TRIAL // We were quite surprised to hear Intel talking about high-quality screens and very high resolutions back in April of this year. Intel was lobbying and encouraging the industry to move towards ultra-high resolution (UHD) displays.
We’re glad Intel is actually working on improving the customer’s experience at the same time they’re trying to fill its shareholders’ pockets.
In a very surprising move, the company has reportedly announced that the current generation of Ivy Bridge processors will already receive 4K resolution support in October, this year.
During this year’s IDF conference in San Francisco, California, Intel has announced it will be soon releasing a driver update for Ivy Bridge that will enable 4K x 2K resolution support.
Hardware accelerated 4K video decode capabilities will also be enabled, but the user should know that he needs two DP outputs to drive a 4K panel from an Ivy Bridge system.
This means that most if not all of the current Ivy Bridge systems are not capable of using such a display.
On the other hand, Haswell will support 4K through a single DP output or a normal HDMI connector.
Here’s Intel getting back at its old habits that usually require the buyer to spend money on a new mainboard.
We don’t know how much good 4K support will do for the Ivy Bridge platform as the HD4000 is fast, but not fast enough to run any 3D application in such a high resolution.
It’s clear that 3D performance was not Intel’s target, but professionals working in 2D and movie enthusiasts.
There are many applications for such a high resolution and generally we’re glad to see that the user is getting much more quality in the end.
