diff --git a/docs/docs/configuration/hardware_acceleration_video.md b/docs/docs/configuration/hardware_acceleration_video.md
index 360ca1a50c..25cdaf1b12 100644
--- a/docs/docs/configuration/hardware_acceleration_video.md
+++ b/docs/docs/configuration/hardware_acceleration_video.md
@@ -132,7 +132,8 @@ ffmpeg:
 
 Frigate reads Intel GPU utilization directly from the kernel's per-client DRM usage counters exposed at `/proc/<pid>/fdinfo/<fd>`. This requires:
 
-- Linux kernel **5.19 or newer** for the `i915` driver, or any release of the `xe` driver.
+- An Intel GPU from Broadwell (5th gen) or newer. Older GPUs do not expose these counters on any kernel.
+- Linux kernel **5.19 or newer** for the `i915` driver (**6.5 or newer** on 12th gen and newer), or any release of the `xe` driver.
 - Frigate running with permission to read other processes' fdinfo. Running as root inside the container (the default) satisfies this; non-root setups may need `CAP_SYS_PTRACE`.
 
 No `intel_gpu_top` binary, `CAP_PERFMON`, privileged mode, or `perf_event_paranoid` tuning is required.
diff --git a/frigate/util/services.py b/frigate/util/services.py
index 38737907ef..de17e29711 100644
--- a/frigate/util/services.py
+++ b/frigate/util/services.py
@@ -487,8 +487,9 @@ def get_intel_gpu_stats(
     Each DRM client FD exposes monotonic per-engine busy counters via
     /proc/<pid>/fdinfo/<fd>. For i915 this requires kernel 6.5 or newer:
     earlier kernels omit the per-engine counters whenever GuC submission is
-    active, which is the default on 12th gen and newer. Xe has exposed them
-    since its first release. We sample twice and divide busy-time deltas by
+    active, which is the default on 12th gen and newer. i915 never exposes
+    them on GPUs older than Broadwell (Gen8). Xe has exposed them since its
+    first release. We sample twice and divide busy-time deltas by
     wall-clock to derive utilization. Render/3D and Compute are pooled into
     "compute"; Video and VideoEnhance into "dec". Overall "gpu" is the sum of
     those pools (clamped to 100%).
@@ -557,10 +558,11 @@ def get_intel_gpu_stats(
         # i915 suppresses per-client engine counters while GuC submission is
         # active on kernels older than 6.5 (kernel commit 1324680a80eb lifted
         # this), which covers stock Debian 12 and Ubuntu 22.04 on 12th gen
-        # and newer.
+        # and newer. It never publishes them for pre-Broadwell GPUs.
         logger.warning(
             "Unable to collect Intel GPU stats: found %d DRM client(s) for %s but "
-            "no per-engine counters. Kernel 6.5 or newer is required.",
+            "the kernel reports no usage for them. GPUs older than Broadwell "
+            "(5th gen) are not supported. 12th gen and newer need kernel 6.5+",
             len(snapshot_a),
             "/".join(sorted({client["driver"] for client in snapshot_a.values()})),
         )