Intel shifts driver support for 11th-14th gen Core CPUs to legacy branch

[Daniel Sims]

Why it matters: Despite Nvidia's dominance in the graphics card market, Intel's integrated graphics chips remain vital for many low-end users. Shifting recent generations of Intel processors to quarterly legacy updates could impact game performance for a large portion of these users.

On Monday, Intel confirmed that it has split graphics driver support into two tracks: Core Ultra processors will keep monthly updates and day-0 game support, while 11th through 14th-generation chips shift to a legacy model with quarterly security and critical fixes only.

Starting with the September 19 update, those older CPUs no longer receive optimizations for new games; the September 10 release, by contrast, added support for Borderlands 4, Dying Light: The Beast, EA Sports FC 26, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Although it supported 11th-gen processors and later, it only applied Game On Driver support to the company's Arc dedicated GPUs and Core Ultra processors with Arc and Iris Xe iGPUs. The next driver release for Arc and Iris Xe Graphics will only support Core Ultra CPUs.

While most users with the affected Intel processors likely also have dedicated graphics cards, the shift might affect many cheap PCs, such as laptops, that rely solely on Intel UHD graphics for low-end gaming.

The Steam Hardware Survey indicates that more users play on Intel UHD graphics than on Nvidia RTX 5000 GPUs or all AMD Radeon dedicated graphics cards. They could be left waiting months for crucial fixes in future games.

The rate at which users upgrade to Intel Iris Xe Graphics on the company's Core Ultra CPUs will depend on sales of new laptops, as the company pushes customers toward AI PCs with embedded NPUs. Team Blue plans to introduce a new generation of laptop processors, codenamed Panther Lake, early next year. Meanwhile, the company is forging ahead with Arc integrated and dedicated graphics despite recently announced plans to build SoCs combining its CPUs with Nvidia RTX integrated GPUs.

Intel's latest desktop GPU, the Arc B580, is an impressive budget-tier 12GB card that recently began reappearing at or near its $250 MSRP. Leaks also suggest that the company's next card, the rumored B770, could emerge soon.

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Intel shifts driver support for 11th-14th gen Core CPUs to legacy branch

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Man, imagine buying an intel equipped laptop with a xe GPU, and only 2 years later, you lose game optimization drivers and get relegated to legacy support.

That right there is why anyone who plays any sort of game should stick to AMD laptops.

 

[Billybobjoey]

Crazy when OEM's are still selling computers with these chips at retailers.

 

[Ja15harder]

Most laptop users probably wont notice. They dont even know what drivers are.

 

[Squid Surprise]

If you have an older Intel CPU and don’t have a dedicated GPU, you aren’t playing any new games that require driver updates anyways… I know it’s fun to bash Intel, but this is a non-issue.

 

[AnilD]

The fact that more people are gaming on Intel UHD than on all AMD dedicated GPUs combined says a lot about how massive the low-end market is. No wonder cloud gaming keeps getting pushed so hard.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

If you have an older Intel CPU and don’t have a dedicated GPU, you aren’t playing any new games that require driver updates anyways… I know it’s fun to bash Intel, but this is a non-issue.

Um.......96 Xe core laptops from literally last year? Not playing new games?

Bruh what world do you live in?

 

[Squid Surprise]

Um.......96 Xe core laptops from literally last year? Not playing new games?

Bruh what world do you live in?

14th gen are 2 years ago…. And if you’re playing NEW games, you have a dedicated GPU… otherwise you don’t need driver updates.

You have to stop equating “no immediate support” with “can’t do anything”…

The computer you bought 2 years ago is just as capable now as it was then…

 

[hahahanoobs]

Crazy when OEM's are still selling computers with these chips at retailers.

I hear more about degrading Intel chips in the comments than the headlines.
I wonder why that is.

 

[themastergoose]

Reminds me of when I had my i7 4790K. The current OS when the CPU come out was Windows 8.1, and the GTX 980 had just launched and went into my new gaming PC.

I used to use Intel Quicksync Video alongside the GTX 980 when I built the PC, and can you imagine how annoyed I was at less than a year after the CPU launched, Windows 10 arrives and Intel didn't ever release updated drivers and control panel for Windows 10. I could never fully use the graphics part as I intended after that (missing features) so ended up disabling it in the BIOS sometime after having run Windows 10 for a year or so waiting for drivers to come.

The TLDR: Not the first time Intel stop updating drivers on something fairly new (in this case, 14th gen).

Edit: Spelling mistake

 

[maxxcool7421]

Huh it is like MS and intel got in a room and said ''lets force everyone to upgrade to direct-x ultimate'' and windows-11 by legacying all other intel gpus and killing game development ..

 

[Theinsanegamer]

14th gen are 2 years ago…. And if you’re playing NEW games, you have a dedicated GPU… otherwise you don’t need driver updates.

You have to stop equating “no immediate support” with “can’t do anything”…

The computer you bought 2 years ago is just as capable now as it was then…

Raptor lake mobile came out january 2024. So....last year.

And no, not everyone who plays new games has a dGPU. That's kinda the point of buying the big iGPU with 96 cores genius. This also means that serious issues with new games will render them unplayable on these machines until they get around to fixing it....which is unacceptable on 2 year old hardware.

you need to stop equating "new games" with "brand new $4000 PC with RTX 5090" and "there are no problems now, therefore there will be none in the future".

 

[Squid Surprise]

Raptor lake mobile came out january 2024. So....last year.

And no, not everyone who plays new games has a dGPU. That's kinda the point of buying the big iGPU with 96 cores genius. This also means that serious issues with new games will render them unplayable on these machines until they get around to fixing it....which is unacceptable on 2 year old hardware.

you need to stop equating "new games" with "brand new $4000 PC with RTX 5090" and "there are no problems now, therefore there will be none in the future".

OK... Jan 2024 is "last year"... but almost 2 years old... you can quibble over exact numbers, but my point stands... Edit: it came out Oct, 2023 actually... but some models came out later...

And the "big iGPU with 96 cores" will STILL play any new games without any new drivers - assuming it has the horsepower for it.

If the game is a AAA title though, and you want to play it without a dedicated GPU, you're gonna be using low res and getting lower framerates. Any "new drivers" will not be changing this.

 

[SRB]

The problem is also that these things mix and match generations sometimes. My AMD advantage laptop is in kind of a legacy state. While the dgpu is RDNA2, the CPU is Vega. While I can load the newer drivers, the main reason that laptop works is the auto switching between the igpu and dgpu to save battery when not playing games. If you load just the latest RDNA drivers, the dgpu is used 100% of the time. I have to wait until a release where both are updated at the same time.

 

[bandit8623]

Man, imagine buying an intel equipped laptop with a xe GPU, and only 2 years later, you lose game optimization drivers and get relegated to legacy support.

That right there is why anyone who plays any sort of game should stick to AMD laptops.

I dont think you will have a good experience playing any new game on igpu. so this is overblown. getting 25 fps vs 30 doesnt really matter. I guess there is a chance the game wont run at all, but 25 fps to me is not running at all anyways.