Intel’s Latest Arc Driver Includes Long List of Gains

Intel’s Arc has been out for well over a year now and has received many driver updates bringing it more up to scratch with its competition, though still a bit behind, it’s impressive how well they’ve done for a first launch. A new driver update has been released which includes a long list of performance improvements across a variety of games.

Intel Arc Graphics Driver Ver. 101.5234

Kicking off this driver update is support for newly released games including Enshrouded, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Tekken 8 and Palworld, but the meat is in the game performance improvements which are as follows.

• Albion Online (DX11)
  Up to 11% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• Anno 1800 (DX11)
  Up to 33% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings
• Apex Legends (DX11)
  Up to 26% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (DX11)
  Up to 13% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings
• Black Desert Online (DX11)
  Up to 18% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• Elder Scrolls Online (DX11)
  Up to 10% average FPS uplift at 4K with Ultra settings
• Elex II (DX11)
  Up to 101% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• Humankind (DX11)
  Up to 11% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Fantastic settings
• Hunt: Showdown (DX11)
  Up to 27% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings
• Just Cause 3 (DX11)
  Up to 160% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Very High settings
• Just Cause 4 (DX11)
  Up to 268% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Very High settings
• New World (DX11)
  Up to 13% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Very High settings
• Returnal (DX12)
  Up to 8% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Epic settings
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (DX11)
  Up to 32% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings
• Sons of the Forest (DX11)
  Up to 15% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• Space Engineers (DX11)
  Up to 69% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Extreme settings
• Star Citizen (DX11)
  Up to 9% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Very High settings
• Star Wars Squadrons (DX11)
  Up to 6% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• Stellaris (DX11)
  Up to 5% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings
• Tekken 8 (DX12)
  Up to 15% average FPS uplift at 4K with Ultra settings
• The Last of Us Part 1 (DX12)
  Up to 8% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• Warframe (DX11)
  Up to 20% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX11)
  Up to 16% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• XCOM 2 (DX11)
  Up to 4% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Maximum settings

The performance improvements are very welcome especially for Just Cause 3 and 4 both seeing large improvements of 160% and 268%. Other notable improvements are in Space Engineers with a 69% improvement and Elex 2 seeing a 101% improvement.

Users using Intel Core Ultra with Arc Graphics will also see some gains:

• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (DX12)
  Up to 25% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings
• Returnal (DX12)
  Up to 6% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Low settings
• The Last of Us Part 1 (DX12)
  Up to 6% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Very Low settings

Various issues have been fixed across both Arc A Series and Core Ultra with Arc Graphics

Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:

• Alan Wake 2 (DX12) may exhibit white corruption on reflective surfaces when Transparency is set to Off. A workaround is to set Transparency to Low or High.
• Sons of the Forest (DX11) may exhibit corruption on the item text in the game inventory.
• Intel Smooth Sync may not work as expected with certain DX11 games.

Intel Core Ultra with Intel Arc Graphics Products:

• The Talos Principle 2 (DX12) may experience an application crash during gameplay with certain Upscaling Presets.
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare III (DX12) may experience application crash in certain gameplay scenarios.
• Blackmagic Fusion may experience intermittent application crash during render operations

This driver update can be downloaded from intel.com or through the Arc Control app.