The new Intel Arc graphics driver improves gaming performance by up to 155%
Intel has released a new driver for its Intel Arc graphics cards, specifically the ‘Meteor Lake’ Intel Core Ultra mobile processors with built-in Arc graphics cards.
The new driver update includes performance updates for cards like the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, Ultra 5 125H and Ultra 9 185H and includes massive improvements to DirectX 11 titles, ranging from 7% to 155% increases in framerate. Some of the most impressive jumps include a 65% framerate increase Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare And Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and a massive 155% framerate increase Just cause 4.
It’s important to note that this driver covers DirectX 11 titles at 1080p resolution and the ‘Medium’ settings are enabled. While DirectX 11 is used in older titles, there are also some new games like it Palworld also use the API, which gets a staggering 155% boost in framerate. Moreover, this new driver covers Last era as well as the DirectX 12 update for Sea of thieves.
The release notes for the update also address known bugs and issues such as sporadic crashes Dragon Quest X onlinefield corruption Diablo 4crashed in the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collectionand other apps crash. These are likely the issues that will be fixed in the next update.
Below you will find the full list of improvements for their respective games.
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (DX11) – Up to 65% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (DX11) – Up to 17% average FPS improvement at 1080p with normal settings
- Divinity Original Sin 2 (DX11) – Up to 25% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- Far Cry5 (DX11) – Up to 8% average FPS improvement at 1080p with normal settings
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection (DX11) – Up to 19% average FPS improvement at 1080p with original settings
- It takes two (DX11) – Up to 24% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- Just cause 3 (DX11) – Up to 18% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- Just cause 4 (DX11) – Up to 155% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- Palworld (DX11) – Up to 14% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- The Rise of the Tomb Raider (DX11) – Up to 9% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- Rust (DX11) – Up to 9% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- FOAM (DX11) – Up to 6% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (DX11) – Up to 27% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- Snow runner (DX11) – Up to 49% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- War frame (DX11) – Up to 7% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
- XCOM2 (DX11) – Up to 8% average FPS improvement at 1080p with medium settings
Intel Arc graphics are good, but could be better
Intel Arc graphics cards continue to improve in performance and efficiency with each new update and are quickly approaching some of the best graphics cards on the market. Not to mention that Intel’s cards are in the low-end budget spectrum, a market that is severely lacking this generation due to AMD and Nvidia’s apathy.
Cards like the Intel Arc A770 and Intel Arc A750 are also on a roll when it comes to creative and editing tasks, with whopping 40% better performance compared to the 2022 launch drivers. These graphics cards are indeed a far cry from their underpowered launch versions and deserve to stand alongside their rivals from Team Green (Nvidia) and Team Red (AMD).
However, Team Blue (Intel) cards still lag behind in key areas such as AI development and gaming, meaning they are not considered a viable investment. The January 2024 Steam Hardware & Software Survey proves this to be true, with Nvidia still considered the golden child. It also struggles with running many older games and all together couldn’t run Starfielda problem that Nvidia and AMD do not share.
All in all, these are points that Intel should take into account before launching a new generation of graphics cards. If the tech giant can address these issues, it will truly have the best cheap graphics cards.