Intel is clearing the board of support for its graphics starting with its 10th generation chips and older.
According to the latest post on its Intel Communities Graphics support board, Intel will be “moving 6th – 10th Gen Intel Processor Graphics and related Intel Atom®, Pentium®, and Celeron® processor graphics to a legacy software support model.”
For anyone sporting any of the above processors, Intel will now only provide quarterly timed software support for affected products on critical fixes and security vulnerabilities related to integrated graphics.
Be on the lookout for devices sporting processors with the following Codenames: Skylake, Apollo Lake, Kaby Lake, Amber Lake, Coffee Lake, Whiskey Lake, Comet Lake, Gemini Lake, Ice Lake, Lakefield, Jasper Lake, Elkhart Lake.
In addition, here are the specific branded chips that will be affected by the move to legacy support.
- 10th Generation Intel® Core® processors with Intel® Iris® Plus graphics (Codename Ice Lake)
- 10th Generation Intel® Core® processors with Intel® UHD Graphics (Codename Comet Lake)
- 9th Generation Intel® Core® processors, related Pentium®/Celeron® processors, and Intel® Xeon® processors, with Intel® UHD Graphics 630 (Codename Coffee Lake-R)
- 8th Generation Intel® Core® processors, related Pentium®/ Celeron® processors, and Intel® Xeon® processors, with Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics 655 and Intel® UHD Graphics 610, 620, 630, P630 (Codename Kaby Lake-R, Coffee Lake)
- Intel Pentium® and Celeron® processor family (Codename Gemini Lake)
- 7th Generation Intel® Core® processors, related Pentium®/Celeron® processors, and Intel® Xeon® processors, with Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics 640, 650 and Intel® HD Graphics 610, 615, 620, 630, P630 (Codename Kaby Lake)
- 6th Generation Intel® Core®, Intel® Core® M, and related Pentium® processors with Intel Iris® Graphics 540, Intel® Iris® Graphics 550, Intel® Iris® Pro Graphics 580, and Intel® HD Graphics 510, 515, 520, 530 (Codename Skylake)
- Intel® Pentium® Processor family and Intel® Celeron® Processor family (Codename Jasper Lake),
- Intel® Core® Processor with Intel® Hybrid Technology (Codename Lakefield)
- Intel® Atom®, Pentium® and Celeron® processor family (Codename Elkhart Lake)
Another downside to Intel’s move to legacy support is that Day 0 Game support will “no longer be available on these products,” however, users can still expect a regularly monthly cadence of updates for the remainder of the year aligned with Day 0 game support.
Intel also notes that in the next update to these chips affected by the move, will be a downloader package containing driver files for 10th Gen Intel processors and older as well as secondary for 11th Gen Intel processors and newer.
The installation process for this double package should be automatic with the graphics installer choosing the graphics update necessary for the device.
Intel is in the process of rolling out its 12th Gen chips and expected to show off devices in January of 2023 powered by even newer processors, the move to legacy support for older chipsets and graphics drivers was inevitability.
