Intel Graphics Releases Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4499

[btarunr]

Intel Graphics today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4499 beta adds optimization for F1 23, Aliens: Dark Descent, Forever Skies, and Counter Strike 2. There are major performance uplifts to be had. Counter Strike 2 sees up to 8% uplift at 1440p with high settings, and up to 10% at 1080p with Very High settings. F1 23 players can expect up to 33% uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings and RT on, and an 18% uplift with RT off; and a 27% uplift at 1440p with high settings. Intel also updated its Destiny 2 optimization, with a neat 11% uplift to be had at 1080p with the highest settings. An error or black screen seen on applications embedding WebView2 frames, has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: Intel GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4499 Beta



Gaming Highlights
Intel Game On Driver support on Intel Arc A-series Graphics for:

• Counter-Strike 2
• F1 23
• Aliens: Dark Descent
• Forever Skies

Game performance improvements versus Intel 31.0.101.4382 software driver for:

• Counter-Strike 2 (DX11)
  • Up to 10% uplift at 1080p with Very High settings
  • Up to 8% uplift at 1440p with High settings
• F1 23 (DX12)
  • Up to 33% uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings with Ray Tracing off
  • Up to 18% uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings with Ray Tracing on
  • Up to 27% uplift at 1440p with High settings
• Destiny 2 (DX11)
  • Up to 11% uplift at 1080p with Highest settings

Fixed Issues
Intel Arc Graphics Products:

• Destiny 2 (DX11) may experience less than expected performance or stuttering during gameplay.
• A blank screen or error may be observed in certain applications when embedding content using WebView2

Known Issues
Intel Arc Graphics Products:

• 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.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors when using some models for video enhancement.
• Some users may experience a crash in F1 23 when changing the XeSS presets. Intel and the developer are aware of the issue and a fix will be coming in a future game patch.

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.

Intel Core Processor Products:

• Total War: Warhammer III (DX11) may experience an application crash when loading battle scenarios.
• Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 (DX12) may exhibit corruption on certain light sources such as fire.
• Conqueror's Blade (DX12) may experience an application crash during game launch.
• A Plague Tale: Requiem (DX12) may experience application instability during gameplay.

Intel Arc Control Known Issues

• Using Arc Control Studio capture with certain games may incorrectly generate multiple video files.
• With Intel Arc Control installed, systems may experience slightly higher than expected power consumption during system sleep or hibernate.
• May observe "could not stop Highlights" notification when stopping Auto-Game Highlights.
• The Camera on-screen preview may incorrectly persist when switching between Desktop and Overlay modes.
• The "Connector" type in the Display page may incorrectly show DP when using an HDMI display connection.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Space Lynx]

So like if you want to play really old games, does ARC run them fine? Like Dragon Age Origins, or Stronghold HD, or is it a case by case basis? or is it just as good in really old games as Nvidia/AMD are? or is ARC only for newish games?

 

[Scrizz]

So like if you want to play really old games, does ARC run them fine? Like Dragon Age Origins, or Stronghold HD, or is it a case by case basis? or is it just as good in really old games as Nvidia/AMD are? or is ARC only for newish games?

Maybe @Solaris17 would have some insight?

 

[Aretak]

So like if you want to play really old games, does ARC run them fine? Like Dragon Age Origins, or Stronghold HD, or is it a case by case basis? or is it just as good in really old games as Nvidia/AMD are? or is ARC only for newish games?

No, it doesn't, and it's certainly not anywhere near AMD and Nvidia in that respect. It's very hit and miss. In general anything pre-DX12/Vulkan will run a lot worse than it should for a card of this tier. I did some head to head comparisons between my GTX 1070 and Arc A770 and the former was often faster in DX11 games. Even recent DX11 games like Yakuza: Like a Dragon, where the A770's performance is all over the place and incapable of even a locked 60fps. Intel have fixed up a handful of really popular titles like CS:GO, but that's it. DXVK is a very useful tool for getting older stuff running better on Arc, though it's not a magic bullet. Compatibility will be similar to what you'll find on Linux when using that. There's also other stuff that just plain doesn't work, from specific games to Switch emulators.

For all the cheerleading online, you're still getting a heavily compromised experience with Arc if you want to play anything except the most popular AAA games as it stands. That's not to say you 100% shouldn't buy one, but you should go in with your eyes open and be ready to tinker incessently. That will get you around or at least mitigate most problems, though some you'll just have to wait for driver updates to hopefully fix in the future.

 

[Space Lynx]

No, it doesn't, and it's certainly not anywhere near AMD and Nvidia in that respect. It's very hit and miss. In general anything pre-DX12/Vulkan will run a lot worse than it should for a card of this tier. I did some head to head comparisons between my GTX 1070 and Arc A770 and the former was often faster in DX11 games. Even recent DX11 games like Yakuza: Like a Dragon, where the A770's performance is all over the place and incapable of even a locked 60fps. Intel have fixed up a handful of really popular titles like CS:GO, but that's it. DXVK is a very useful tool for getting older stuff running better on Arc, though it's not a magic bullet. Compatibility will be similar to what you'll find on Linux when using that. There's also other stuff that just plain doesn't work, from specific games to Switch emulators.

For all the cheerleading online, you're still getting a heavily compromised experience with Arc if you want to play anything except the most popular AAA games as it stands. That's not to say you 100% shouldn't buy one, but you should go in with your eyes open and be ready to tinker incessently. That will get you around or at least mitigate most problems, though some you'll just have to wait for driver updates to hopefully fix in the future.

this is the most important thing no one is telling you, lot of people like to play older games sometimes... thanks for your input.

 

[Solaris17]

Maybe @Solaris17 would have some insight?

I really need to write my experiences I have all my screen shots and notes.

I was playing never winter nights 1 which was DX8 it was running fine. So were some other older games I was playing. It is much better with recent drivers.

some games are cherry picked optimized like CS:GO but that’s not at all and shouldn’t be representative of the rest of the stack. I think glitches and bugs are expected when you are working with games that are over a decade old and span multiple DX versions. With that said at current I think people cherry pick the bad ones and try to use them as representations of how bad ARC is. From what iv seen the majority of older games on current drivers are playable at decent frames.

I think that in most cases AMD and Nvidia beat these cards at older games; but for example when you are comparing nwn1 100fps vs 111fps is that actually a playability issue? No.

I don’t test emulators, they aren’t representative of a meaningful portion of any kind of gaming and most emulation engines are inconsistent in their own right even on AMD or Nvidia hardware. I mean emulation sites are filled with posts or news about “groups” trying to get “X” game working.

 

[GoldenX]

No, it doesn't, and it's certainly not anywhere near AMD and Nvidia in that respect. It's very hit and miss. In general anything pre-DX12/Vulkan will run a lot worse than it should for a card of this tier. I did some head to head comparisons between my GTX 1070 and Arc A770 and the former was often faster in DX11 games. Even recent DX11 games like Yakuza: Like a Dragon, where the A770's performance is all over the place and incapable of even a locked 60fps. Intel have fixed up a handful of really popular titles like CS:GO, but that's it. DXVK is a very useful tool for getting older stuff running better on Arc, though it's not a magic bullet. Compatibility will be similar to what you'll find on Linux when using that. There's also other stuff that just plain doesn't work, from specific games to Switch emulators.

For all the cheerleading online, you're still getting a heavily compromised experience with Arc if you want to play anything except the most popular AAA games as it stands. That's not to say you 100% shouldn't buy one, but you should go in with your eyes open and be ready to tinker incessently. That will get you around or at least mitigate most problems, though some you'll just have to wait for driver updates to hopefully fix in the future.

Thankfully, after public shaming them, we got them to fix the drivers so Switch emulation is stable now.

Put public pressure, it's the only way to get them to even start moving.

 

[BSim500]

No, it doesn't, and it's certainly not anywhere near AMD and Nvidia in that respect. It's very hit and miss. In general anything pre-DX12/Vulkan will run a lot worse than it should for a card of this tier. I did some head to head comparisons between my GTX 1070 and Arc A770 and the former was often faster in DX11 games. Even recent DX11 games like Yakuza: Like a Dragon, where the A770's performance is all over the place and incapable of even a locked 60fps. Intel have fixed up a handful of really popular titles like CS:GO, but that's it. DXVK is a very useful tool for getting older stuff running better on Arc, though it's not a magic bullet. Compatibility will be similar to what you'll find on Linux when using that. There's also other stuff that just plain doesn't work, from specific games to Switch emulators.

For all the cheerleading online, you're still getting a heavily compromised experience with Arc if you want to play anything except the most popular AAA games as it stands. That's not to say you 100% shouldn't buy one, but you should go in with your eyes open and be ready to tinker incessently. That will get you around or at least mitigate most problems, though some you'll just have to wait for driver updates to hopefully fix in the future.

Thanks for posting this. As someone who often plays more older games than new ones, it confirms what I've witnessed on a friend's Arc system (having to "emulate" pre DX-12 then spend more timehand-tweaking around the damage whilst AMD & nVidia don't seems to be an absurd compromise). Whilst I'm all for a (much needed) 3rd player in the GPU market, it's sad that there's an enormous amount of cherry-picking reviewing only DX12 / hand-tweaked DX 9-11 titles by reviewers who seem to be reviewing "around" the issue rather than addressing it - basically 'untweaked' performance for a lot of older games looks like this, except CS:GO was fixed / tweaked whilst in the real world it's pretty obvious that out of the 70,000 PC games available to play (of which only a tiny fraction are DX12), Intel aren't going to go back and tweak any more than the "top 50-100" DX9-11 games)...