# modesetting vs intel driver?



## Loala (Aug 9, 2017)

Hi.

I am using a laptop with intel graphic card.

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html

Above handbook section explains that to set intel driver in xorg.conf,
but when I tried to 'X -configure', the xorg.conf file is generated with modesetting driver (not  with intel driver) automatically.

So which driver between intel and modesetting should I use? or which one do you recommend?
Is there any performance differences?

I tested both of them drivers and both are working generally good.


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## SirDice (Aug 9, 2017)

Please stop using `X -configure`:


> Manual configuration is usually not necessary. Please do not manually create configuration files unless autoconfiguration does not work.



And follow this:
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html#x-config-video-cards-file


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## PaddyMac (Aug 19, 2017)

Generally you do not need an xorg.conf unless you need special settings. I personally use the xf86-video-intel driver with good results. The generic modesetting driver (which is built into recent X server versions and doesn't need an external X driver) is *unaccelerated*, so you won't get as good performance as with the Intel driver. But it may be worth a try if you have problems using the Intel driver. In any case, use the Intel driver unless you have problems with it.

If you do want to use the modesetting driver, you still shouldn't need to edit xorg.conf. Simply remove xf86-video-intel, and the X server will automatically attempt to use it. You can verify this by checking /var/log/Xorg.0.log


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