Disabling vsync on Intel Integrated HD graphics with driconf

First install driconf:

sudo apt-get install driconf

Then run driconf from a shell, enable Expert Mode, and set the synchronize with vertical refresh to Never. Then under Image Quality settings enable  S3TC. Hit save.

Then add the following to your ~/.drirc:

      <device screen="0" driver="dri2">
          <application name="Default">
              <option name="vblank_mode" value="0" />
          </application>
      </device>

Your drirc should look like the following when you're done:

<driconf>
      <device screen="0" driver="dri2">
          <application name="Default">
              <option name="vblank_mode" value="0" />
          </application>
      </device>
      <device screen="0" driver="i965">
          <application name="Default">
              <option name="force_s3tc_enable" value="true" />
              <option name="no_rast" value="false" />
              <option name="always_flush_cache" value="false" />
              <option name="stub_occlusion_query" value="false" />
              <option name="always_flush_batch" value="false" />
              <option name="bo_reuse" value="1" />
              <option name="texture_tiling" value="true" />
              <option name="early_z" value="false" />
              <option name="allow_large_textures" value="2" />
              <option name="fragment_shader" value="false" />
          </application>
      </device>
</driconf>

To test if it worked run glxgears and you should see your FPS in the thousands, way above your monitors refresh rate:

16233 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3246.366 FPS
17469 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3493.649 FPS

Installing the Intel HD integrated graphics drivers on Linux

To get the Intel HD x000 drivers working in Linux do the following:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:glasen/intel-driver

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

sudo init 6

 

I am using Kubuntu 12.04 x64 but any Ubuntu derivative should work.