I'm totally clueless about hardware so please can someone tell me how I can know if a PC has this: "OpenGL-compliant 3D compositing graphics processor"
any particular card that interest you? Which you can then research in depth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL#cite_ref-16 ".. ^ Supported cards for OpenGL 2.0: Radeon 9650, Radeon 9500, Radeon 9500/9550/9600/9700/9800 (Pro, SE, XT), Radeon X1050, Radeon Xpress 200 / 1100, Radeon X300, Radeon X550, Radeon X600/Pro, Radeon X700, Radeon X800 (VE, SE, GT, Pro), Radeon X850, Radeon Xpress 1250, Radeon X1200, Radeon X1250, Radeon 2100, Radeon X1300, X1550, X1600, X1650, X1800, X1900, X1950 (Pro, XT, GT), GeForce 6800, Quadro 600, Qaudro FX 500, Quadro FX 700, Quadro FX 1000, FX 2000, FX 3000, Quadro FX 1400, Quadro FX 1500, Quadro FX 3450, Quadro FX 3500, Quadro FX 4500X2, Quadro FX4500 SDI, and all later cards. It is also included in Intel GMA X3500, X4500 and clarkdale family (core i3, core i5 inbuilt gpu chip on cpu) CPUs .."
I'm not sure that there's any card present. The PC in question has this processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10 GHz 3.10 GHz This is what the Firefox Help > Troubleshooting Information has in the Graphics section: Are there sites that can be used to test whether a PC has what is needed to be "OpenGL-compliant"? I understand that that is necessary to get the "full" Unity experience in Ubuntu 11.04 and that's why I'm asking.
Hi, Not sure whether this will help you. First, I don't know anything about Ubuntu. Secondly, I think the question "OpenGL compliant or not" is too general, because there is OpenGL 1.1 , ..., 4.2. There is the non-free program AIDA64 that gives info whether there is compliancy with OpenGL version x. It runs only on Windows. There is a 30 days trial with limited functionality. There are two versions of the program (extreme and business). http://www.aida64.com/ Example on a very old laptop: OpenGL Compliancy OpenGL 1.1 Yes (100%) OpenGL 1.2 Yes (100%) OpenGL 1.3 Yes (100%) OpenGL 1.4 No (66%) OpenGL 1.5 No (33%) OpenGL 2.0 No (0%) OpenGL 2.1 No (0%) OpenGL 3.0 No (0%) OpenGL 3.1 No (0%) OpenGL 3.2 No (0%) OpenGL 3.3 No (0%) OpenGL 4.0 No (0%) OpenGL 4.1 No (0%) OpenGL 4.2 No (0%)
What is the context? All modern cards should be OpenGL capable and ready for 3D. The phrase is maybe a bit too general.
the inbuilt graphics that you seem to have will not have as many features as a dedicated stand alone graphics card. It seems to support OpenGL ES 2.0 . Will that be sufficient for Unity experience I don't know. You've got nothing to lose and try if it does support
The context is the Unity "desktop" of Ubuntu 11.04. That's where I got the phrase from (though I can't find the source right now). If the system determines that the PC isn't compliant, it defaults to Gnome 2 instead of Unity. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DemystifyingUnityGraphicsHardwareRequirements
Yes, I did try from a live USB and I think it provides the 2D version which is good enough for me. That's on my ~2 year-old Dell 1545 laptop. I also have a PC (desktop) with Intel's i3 processor and that appears to be fully capable according to this if I understand correctly: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/UnityHardwareRequirements But I haven't yet tried to run the live USB from the PC as yet.
You can use this tool to check the OpenGL compliance on your graphics card: http://www.ozone3d.net/gpu_caps_viewer/ I think Intel HD graphics supports upto OpenGL 3.x, so it's not a huge issue and will most likely be enough for most accelerated computing tasks including browsing.
This video nicely represents what I see on my laptop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAcdFd0MmH0 I don't have a separate graphics card and I don't have requirements such as those encountered in advanced gaming, animation, or other graphic intensive stuff. All in all, it looks that what I have is okay for my needs, basic browsing and watching some video clips.
Just to wrap this up ... This link, https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DemystifyingUnityGraphicsHardwareRequirements, has a command to assess one's hardware's ability to run Unity: And this is what my kit showed:
