Ubuntu 20.10 / GNOME 3.38 Could See Better Intel Gen9 Graphics Performance

While more laptops are shipping these days finally with Icelake "Gen 11" graphics and Tiger Lake with "Gen 12" graphics are expected soon, there still is an incredible amount of hardware out there making use of Intel Gen 9 graphics that have been in use since Skylake. It's looking like for the Ubuntu 20.10 cycle, there is going to be an emphasis on offering better performance for this very common generation of Intel UHD Graphics.

Canonical's Daniel Van Vugt, who is very well known for his GNOME optimization work over the past several years, is taking up better Intel Gen9 graphics as a goal for the Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" development cycle.

Daniel noted in a weekly status update, "Spent a day with a 4K monitor and good/bad news: gnome-shell performance at 4K with Intel HD Graphics 630 is quite bad. So that will be another goal this cycle..."

Given UHD Graphics 630 (Gen 9) is incredibly common given the longevity of the platform, any improvements will reach many GNOME/Ubuntu users. Depending upon where he ends up finding areas for improvement, some optimizations may also carry over to other generations/drivers. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with over the months ahead for better Intel graphics 4K experience under GNOME Shell.