Intel is constantly improving the drivers for the Arc graphics cards, as ComputerBase was able to determine just yesterday in a renewed test of the A770 and the A750. Now, with a new beta version, the Game On Driver 31.0.101.3959, the performance under DirectX 9 in particular is supposed to increase.
Intel promises more Performance with DirectX 9
Even before the official local launch of the first Arc graphics cards, Intel made it clear in August 2022 that the corresponding graphics drivers would come without native support for the DirectX 9 graphics API, which was introduced in 2002 and has since been outdated. The interface has long since ceased to play a role for new releases, but is nonetheless relevant on the PC: Numerous classics run under DirectX 9, but the popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive also relies exclusively on the long-serving API. These games can only be run indirectly from Arc graphics cards via the open source D3D9On12 interface.
At the beginning of October, the editors were finally able to understand in the first test of the Arc GPUs that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive runs playable, but not well. In particular, the frame times and regular stuttering were problematic. The driver version 31.0.101.3959, which is now available as a beta, should improve this again: The patch notes say that the performance in the following DirectX 9 games has been improved.
DirectX- 9 titles with improved performance
League of Legends
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Payday 2
Stellaris
Starcraft 2
Guild Wars 2
NiZhan
Moonlight Blade
Common optimizations and bug fixes
Intel also explicitly names some newer games with DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 , for which the new driver has been optimized. Among them are some new releases of the last few days and weeks.
DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 titles with improved performance
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
Warhammer 40K: Darktide
Marvel's Midnight Suns
The Callisto Protocol
Fortnite (Chapter 4/UE5. 1)
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Far Cry New Dawn
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
DOTA 2
Dying Light 2
Apart from that, there are the usual lists of fixed and still open bugs. The fact that there are not just a few, but numerous points in both cases shows on the one hand again the precarious state Intel's graphics drivers are in – but also that the manufacturer is working on escaping this state.
Fixed Issues
Victoria 3 (DX11) may exhibit ghosting corruption when applying MSAA x16 settings.
Hearts of Iron IV (DX11) may exhibit texture corruption when applying MSAA x16 settings.
Stellaris (DX9) may exhibit texture and flickering corruption during Star previews.
Sonic Frontiers (DX11) may experience flickering corruption on Intel® Arc™ A380 Graphics Products when Frame Rate Limit setting is set to 60. A workaround is to set Frame Rate Limit to 30.
Arc Control may not scale automatically and may cause some UI toggles to become unresponsive when changing from a 1080p resolution to a 4K resolution. A workaround is to revert resolution or reboot.
Some applications may exhibit pixel corruption when Sharpening Filter is enabled globally.
Arc Control Studio Capture may exhibit a “Selected audio device not found” error after resuming the system from sleep.
Open Issues
Diablo II: Resurrected (DX12) may cause system instability or application crash.
Conqueror's Blade (DX12) may experience corruption in benchmark mode.
Call of Duty: Vanguard (DX12) may experience missing or corrupted shadows during the Submarine mission.
Payday 2 (DX9) may exhibit flickering corruption on specific water surfaces.
System may hang while waking up from sleep. May need to power cycle the system for recovery.
GPU hardware acceleration may not be available for media playback and encode with some versions of Adobe Premiere Pro.
Blender may exhibit corruption while using Nishita Sky texture node.
Windows UAC Admin is required to install and launch Arc Control.
Some applications may exhibit a transparent or blank window when CMAA is set to “Force ON” globally.
A 1440p resolution selection in Arc Control Studio Capture may be unavailable when the display native resolution is 4K.
Arc Control Studio Camera overlay position may not retain desired position and size after a system restart.
The Arc Control Studio Camera tab may take longer than expected responsiveness upon the first navigation.
Arc Control may report incorrect memory bandwidth value.
< h2 class="text-width text-h2" id="section_download_auf_computerbase">Download on ComputerBase
The new graphics driver Intel Arc & As usual, Xe 31.0.101.3959 Beta can be downloaded directly below this message from the ComputerBase download area. It can be found at the bottom of the version overview.
Downloads
Intel Arc & Xe graphics driver download
3.8 stars
Graphics drivers for Intel CPUs, dedicated graphics cards and older mainboards with integrated graphics.
