How to Install Intel GPU Drivers on Windows and Ubuntu

Introduction

OpenVINO is an open-source toolkit for optimization and deployment of AI inference. OpenVINO results in more efficient inference of deep learning models at the edge or in data centers. OpenVINO compiles models to run on many different devices, meaning you will have the flexibility to write code once and deploy your model across CPUs, GPUs, VPUs and other accelerators.  

The new family of Intel discrete GPUs are not just for gaming, they can also run AI at the edge or on servers. Use this guide to install drivers and setup your system before using OpenVINO for GPU-based inference.

OpenVINO and GPU Compatibility

To get the best possible performance, it’s important to properly set up and install the current GPU drivers on your system. Below, I provide some recommendations for installing drivers on Windows and Ubuntu. This article was tested on Intel® Arc™ graphics and Intel® Data Center GPU Flex Series on systems with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Windows 11. To use the OpenVINO™ GPU plugin and offload inference to Intel® GPU, the Intel® Graphics Driver must be properly configured on your system.  

Recommended Configuration for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

The driver for Ubuntu 22.04 works out of the box with Kernel 5.15.0-57. However, if you upgraded/downgraded your kernel or upgraded from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to 22.04, I suggest updating the kernel version to linux-image-5.19.0-43-generic.  

After updating the kernel, check for the latest driver release. I updated my Ubuntu machine to version 23.13.26032.30, which was the latest version at the time of publishing this article, however OpenVINO could be run on discrete GPU with older or newer driver versions.  

NOTE: If you upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04, please verify your kernel version `uname –r` before updating the driver.  

Recommended Configuration for Windows 11

Many driver versions are available for Windows. To run AI workloads, I suggest using the latest beta driver.

Getting Help

Even if you are using the latest available driver, you should always check if your AI models are running properly and generating the expected results. If you discover a bug for a particular model or failure to run a specific model, please file an issue on GitHub. Before reporting an issue, please check whether using the latest Beta version of the driver and latest version of OpenVINO solves the issue.  

NOTE: Always refer to the official GPU driver documentation when setting up your system. This blog provides additional recommendations for the best results when using OpenVINO but it is not a replacement for documentation.

Conclusion

Checking the system requirements in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Windows 11 resolves some issues running Generative AI models like Stable Diffusion with OpenVINO on discrete GPUs. These updates prevent crashes and compilation errors or poor performance with Stable Diffusion. I suggest testing your AI models with the new driver installation, as it will likely improve the performance of your application. Try out this Stable Diffusion notebook for testing purposes.  

Resources

https://github.com/intel/compute-runtime/

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/discrete-gpus/arc/software/drivers.html

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/729157/intel-arc-iris-xe-graphics-beta-windows.html

https://docs.openvino.ai/2023.0/openvino_docs_OV_UG_supported_plugins_GPU.html  

https://github.com/openvinotoolkit/openvino_notebooks/tree/main/notebooks/108-gpu-device