New Intel Arc "Game On" driver improves DirectX 11 performance up to 268%

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Magic Driver: More than a year after the lackluster launch of the first generation of its discrete GPUs, Intel is still working to enhance compatibility with existing games. The latest driver release for Intel Arc now offers significantly improved performance in a variety of titles.

Intel recently released the new "Game On" version of graphics drivers for its Arc GPUs. Game On drivers are designed to deliver an optimized experience for the latest games, but the new 31.0.101.5186 release can significantly boost older titles as well, at least according to official benchmark scores provided by Intel.

The new driver includes official support for the following games: Tekken 8, Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Palworld. Users can expect a modest frame rate increase for these games; for example, Intel estimates a 15 percent speed uplift in Tekken 8 (4K, Ultra settings).

The new Game On driver release continues Intel's "unending journey" to improve DirectX 11 games on Arc GPUs, the company said. The Santa Clara corporation is bringing yet another massive performance boost to 23 titles, some of which date back to 2013. Intel has "reworked" driver support for those games to provide double the average frames per second in some titles.

Games such as Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Sons of the Forest, and Watch Dogs: Legion were previously unable to surpass low 50 FPS (on Arc A750), but now they achieve up to 60 FPS. Other games that were already improved in previous Arc driver releases can now push further, with Just Cause 3 going from 58 FPS to 151 FPS and Just Cause 4 experiencing a substantial (average) 268 percent increase from 31 FPS to 115 FPS.

Proper support (or lack thereof) for older games and DirectX versions is one of the main issues faced by Intel's first foray into the highly competitive discrete GPU market. The Xe-based "Alchemist" architecture does not offer native hardware support for Direct3D 9 features, relying on the D3D9On12 wrapper to translate D3D9 calls to their Direct3D 12 counterparts.

Even in recent games using DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 APIs, Intel Arc still falls short of expectations. The suggested FPS improvements in the latest Arc drivers are mostly related to 1080p resolution with variable graphics settings. Intel is, however, boasting a +10 percent performance increase in 4K with Ultra settings for Elder Scrolls Online.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/101659-new-intel-arc-game-driver-improves-directx-11.html

 

[bviktor]

Still buggy af. Video playback randomly locks up on UHD Graphics 730 so much that Windows can't even log the crash and I have to hard reset the comp.

 

[fazy shah]

It would be great if similar performance improves on intel Xe laptop gpus.

 

[redgarl]

And people are complaining about AMD drivers...

Look how bad Intel drivers are. If you can get 200+% performance uplift, it is because it was broken from the get go.

Benchmarks means nothing if your only experience is a bunch of BSOD.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

It's good that intel hasnt given up. They'll need to really knock battlemage out of the park.

 

[trparky]

Benchmarks means nothing if your only experience is a bunch of BSOD.

That's true. I've often entertained the idea of getting a cheap ARC graphics card but with all the driver issues, I can't pull the plug. I can't do it. Yeah, they're (relatively) cheap to buy when compared to that of AMD and nVidia cards but stability is still king.

 

[Skjorn]

And people are complaining about AMD drivers...

Look how bad Intel drivers are. If you can get 200+% performance uplift, it is because it was broken from the get go.

Benchmarks means nothing if your only experience is a bunch of BSOD.

Do yall not realize just exactly how much there is to this? Their first dGPU in forever. Of course that thing won't be perfect. Getting performance uplifts like that is nothing but a good thing.

How anyone could see that and go "trash gains. should've been launched this way instead" is beyond me. That's like wanting kids but only if they're potty trained when they're born.

 

[OortCloud]

Hopefully this is all learning lessons and establishing a decent foundation so that their gen 2 discrete GPU's can launch in a reasonably optimised and stable state...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Do yall not realize just exactly how much there is to this? Their first dGPU in forever. Of course that thing won't be perfect. Getting performance uplifts like that is nothing but a good thing.

How anyone could see that and go "trash gains. should've been launched this way instead" is beyond me. That's like wanting kids but only if they're potty trained when they're born.

Counterpoint: Intel has been making graphic drivers for decades for their chipsets. Yes, they were not meant for games, but at the minimum iris plus GPUs were capable and those date back to 2014. They're not starting from 0.

Perhaps that is a major part of the problem.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Do yall not realize just exactly how much there is to this? Their first dGPU in forever. Of course that thing won't be perfect. Getting performance uplifts like that is nothing but a good thing.

How anyone could see that and go "trash gains. should've been launched this way instead" is beyond me. That's like wanting kids but only if they're potty trained when they're born.

-and?

GPUs are a mature industry, if you're going to break in, you have to be perfect, you have to offer something the entrenched, trusted players in the industry don't. Otherwise why will anyone shop your product vs the tried, true, and trusted products?

Even AMD is getting crushed by NV and they've been in the game in one form or another(ATI) for decades.

People like me are critical of Intel because we want them to succeed and provide a viable alternative to NV, and to bring down prices across the board.

If they keep flubbing, it just means we'll be right where we started with an NV hegemony and AMD hoovering up the scraps they leave behind.

 

[veLa]

Look how bad Intel drivers are. If you can get 200+% performance uplift, it is because it was broken from the get go.

Benchmarks means nothing if your only experience is a bunch of BSOD.

Intel has been super transparent about how much work the driver team had cut out for them, and reviewers were very forthcoming about the potential downsides of being an early adopter.

These uplifts are a good thing. I want Intel to succeed and offer us an acceptable third option from NVIDIA and AMD. They don't even need to compete at the high end if they can take ownership of the low end to mid range.

 

[trparky]

People like me are critical of Intel because we want them to succeed and provide a viable alternative to NV, and to bring down prices across the board.

If they keep flubbing, it just means we'll be right where we started with an NV hegemony and AMD hoovering up the scraps they leave behind.

THIS!!! Preach it!

 

[JamesBlond]

A heading "New Intel Arc "Game On" driver improves DirectX 11 performance up to 268%"

This basically means the Driver Dev team is small, not a lot of help from Intel.

But this is good news, ZERO cost to us the End User for a massive performance boost.

Selling my RTX and getting 1 x Arc 770 16GB