Intel has published Arc and Iris Xe graphics drivers 101.4952 offering massive performance improvements in a bunch of titles alongside new game support.
Version 4952 adds support for:
- The Talos Principle 2
- Robocop: Rogue City
- Star Ocean II R
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
- Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
It’s good to see optimised drivers before the release of games, giving players a better experience from day one. But you know what’s even nicer? Double-digit framerate increases in your favourite games. After all, that’s what truly makes the best graphics card.
Compared to version 101.4887 from a couple of weeks’ ago, this update brings massive performance improvements. Notably, you get up to 19 per cent average uplift in The Talos Principle 2 using DirectX 12, 53 per cent in Returnal using DirectX 12, 113 per cent in World War Z using DirectX 11, and 154 per cent in Yakuza 0 with DirectX 11, not to forget the craziest one, up to 750 per cent in Halo: The Master Chief Collection using DirectX 11. What!
Needless to say, for Halo players, the game is now transforming from barely playable to a high-refresh experience. Also, note that these figures were recorded on a test system housing an Arc A750 GPU plus i9-13900K CPU alongside 32GB of DDR5-5600, so A770 owners may get a little more fps.
More details can be found in the table below:
Game | Per cent fps improvement | Settings |
The Talos Principle 2 (DX12) | 19 | 1440p High |
Returnal (DX12) | 53 | 1080p Epic Ray Tracing |
Guild Wars 2 (DX11) | 53 | 1080p Ultra |
Halo: The Master Chief Collection (DX11) | 750 | 1080p Enhanced |
Sid Meier’s Civilization V (DX11) | 6 | 1080p High |
Total War: Warhammer (DX11) | 10 | 1080p Ultra |
Lost Ark (DX11) | 15 | 1080p Very High |
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (DX11) | 16 | 1080p Extreme |
Sniper Elite 3 (DX11) | 37 | 1080p Ultra |
World War Z (DX11) | 113 | 1080p Ultra |
Euro Truck Simulator 2 (DX11) | 27 | 1080p Ultra |
Yakuza 0 (DX11) | 154 | 1080p Ultra |
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (DX11) | 20 | 1080p Ultra |
Alien: Isolation (DX11) | 9 | 1080p Ultra |
Far Cry Primal (DX11) | 14 | 1080p Ultra |
Far Cry 5 (DX11) | 14 | 1080p Ultra |
Far Cry New Dawn (DX11) | 11 | 1080p Ultra |
Intel Arc and Iris Xe Graphics drivers 101.4952 can be downloaded from Intel’s website here.
If you were waiting for a specific bug fix, then this update is not for you, since no issues have been resolved this time around.
Known Issues:
Intel Arc Graphics Products:
- Ghostrunner 2 (DX11) may experience sporadic application crash during gameplay.
- Total War: PHARAOH (DX11) may exhibit corruption after changing resolution in game on certain displays.
- Starfield (DX12) may exhibit corruption when using Dynamic Resolution Scaling. A workaround is to change the Render Resolution Scale slider value.
- Dead by Daylight (DX11) may experience an application crash during gameplay.
- Topaz Video AI may experience errors when using some models for video enhancement.
Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics Products:
- Driver installation may not complete successfully on certain notebook systems with both Intel Iris Xe + Iris Xe MAX devices. A system reboot and re-installation of the graphics driver may be required for successful installation.
Arc Control Known Issues:
- Using Arc Control Studio capture with certain games may incorrectly generate multiple video files.
- The “Connector” type in the Display page may incorrectly show DP when using an HDMI display connection.
- May observe “stream has already ended” pop-up after the power events with Capture/Highlights/Broadcast toggle on.
- Arc Control may not retain overall application settings in Overlay mode after system reboot. A workaround is to use Desktop mode of Arc Control.