Intel Arc Beats NVIDIA and AMD to Hogwarts Legacy Game Ready Drivers

[btarunr]

Intel became the first of the three discrete GPU makers to release a day-0 graphics driver for "Hogwarts Legacy." The new Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers version 101.4123 beta comes with optimization for the hotly anticipated Harry Potter universe-based RPG, as well as the survival horror "Returnal," so gamers on Intel Arc "Alchemist" discrete GPUs can get gaming the moment the game goes live. The company didn't release any fixes for outstanding issues with this particular release, but identified a bunch of new issues with its driver and the Arc Control app.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4123 beta



Update 14:02 UTC: Today's release of NVIDIA GeForce software (version 528.49, lacks "Hogwarts Legacy" optimization.

Update 14:55 UTC: We asked NVIDIA whether a driver update with game-ready support is planned and if there's any estimate when it will come out. The company answered that it had no comment on these questions.



Game Ready

• Hogwarts Legacy
• Returnal

Known Issues
Intel Arc Graphics Products:

• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan) may experience application crash in benchmark mode when Screen Type is Fullscreen.
• Halo Infinite (DX12) may exhibit color corruption during gameplay when Reflections settings are enabled.
• Sea of Thieves (DX11) may exhibit color corruption on water edges.
• Conqueror's Blade (DX11) may exhibit corruption in benchmark mode.
• 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.

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:

• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (DX12) may exhibit texture or striped corruption during gameplay.
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (DX12) may exhibit texture or striped corruption during gameplay.
• Dysterra (DX12) may exhibit texture corruption during gameplay.
• 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 buildings and floors during gameplay.
• Conqueror's Blade (DX12) may experience an application crash during game launch.
• A Plague Tale: Requiem (DX12) may experience application instability during gameplay.

Arc Control Known Issues

• Windows UAC Admin is required to install and launch Arc Control.
• The Live Performance Monitoring page may not apply the desired removal of some performance metric tiles.
• The Resizable Bar status may show an incorrect value on systems with multiple Intel Graphics Adapters.
• Using Arc Control Studio capture with certain games may incorrectly generate multiple video files.
• Using Arc Control Studio capture with AVC codec selected may incorrectly use the HEVC codec
• Modifying performance sliders may fail to apply back to their default values. A workaround is to use the "Reset to Defaults" button.

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[spnidel]

omg... no way...

 

[Vya Domus]

Could it be that for Nvidia and AMD GPUs day 0 driver updates aren't actually necessary for everything as opposed to Intel's ?

Weird flex but OK.

 

[Deleted member 211755]

You can play this game on highly outdated AMD drivers, not to mention NVIDIA drivers whereas if Intel didn't bring "optimizations"
you wouldn't be able to open the app all together.

 

[Pumper]

Looks like the game itself is broken, as usual with these "AAA" PC releases, so new GPU drivers won't help either way.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Could it be that for Nvidia and AMD GPUs day 0 driver updates aren't actually necessary for everything as opposed to Intel's ?

Weird flex but OK.

Exactly what I thought I would prefer if it just worked anyway with no driver update, the API isn't a weekly changing thing .

A lame bit of pr.

 

[Vayra86]

In Intel's PR world, this is a fantastic achievement. They honestly believe it is. Raja slept well last night.

 

[JustJohnny]

"AMD and NVIDIA beat Intel for not having to release a game ready driver for Hogwarts Legacy as current drivers just work"

FIFY.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Good on them. Funny how, when intel does something right, suddenly the peanut gallery thinks game ready drivers are unnecessary. Bet every single one of them was slagging intel or their drivers, and in the past have slagged both nvidia and AMD.

Could it be that for Nvidia and AMD GPUs day 0 driver updates aren't actually necessary for everything as opposed to Intel's ?

Weird flex but OK.

You mean the same drivers that "just work" that result in AMD's 6900xt going rom a 3090 competitor to a 3080 competitor?

The same game ready drivers that people say is the biggest advantage of going nvidia?

It's a great look for AMD and nvidia when intel of all groups beats them with GPU drivers.

 

[Denver]

The problem is that even without the driver optimized specifically for this game, competing GPUs are still light years ahead in both performance and stability. :')

 

[Emanulele]

Locked 120 FPS on Ultra with no DLSS and Ray tracing to max on a 4090 at 3840x1600, I mean, good job Intel, but still....

 

[lemonadesoda]

First to fix drivers, but last in performance.

it’s a bit like saying, i was first to hand in my exam paper, but i came last.

 

[Zareek]

I personally find these game ready drivers to be a nuisance! Every damn month, I need to update my drivers! Damn, what happened to the good ole days when you went six months or more with a driver, and it just worked?

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

I find it hard to understand the reaction of many here. Considering that there is an optimization for about 4 new releases with every driver update by any of the manufacturers, it seems illogical to pick on Intel for doing the same thing faster.

No doubt that it will be limited by the overall performance, but that is another story.

I see it as a good thing, if they can optimize for new games quickly they may be able to work through the backlog of games released before the cards were designed, which AMD and Nvidia don't have to do as they did it when the games came out.

 

[Fasola]

What does "Game Ready Driver" mean in practical terms? It seems like marketing fluff to me.

 

[mechtech]

Ewwwww. Who has hog warts??

Hey intel. How about you fix my motherboard i225v rev1 network chip.

thanks

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

What does "Game Ready Driver" mean in practical terms? It seems like marketing fluff to me.

They modified the driver to improve performance with that particular game. Exactly how they do that is beyond me.

 

[medi01]

So it is 2023 and we still need "game ready" drivers when some new crappy game is out, eh?

Amazing progress.

 

[Deleted member 211755]

They modified the driver to improve performance with that particular game. Exactly how they do that is beyond me.

I was thinking the same thing - no matter the company - game still uses the same API to communicate.
Maybe they're tinkering something to play better with a specific engine? I don't know...
What I do know is people are having trouble with Intel's new GPUs.
From systems not booting correctly to screen flickerings or no output whatsoever.
I never experienced none of this with my NVIDIA or AMD GPUs
and I had a couple of AMD cards way back when their drivers were considered "utter mess".

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

What I do know is people are having trouble with Intel's new GPUs.
From systems not booting correctly to screen flickerings or no output whatsoever.
I never experienced none of this with my NVIDIA or AMD GPUs
and I had a couple of AMD cards way back when their drivers were considered "utter mess".

Very true. Intel is very much still working out the issues they are having with Arc.

I was thinking the same thing - no matter the company - game still uses the same API to communicate.
Maybe they're tinkering something to play better with a specific engine? I don't know...

I don't know what it is. Real-time 3D rendering of a dynamic scene is a very complicated process with a lot of moving parts that could be specifically tailored in the driver.

 

[Steevo]

I personally find these game ready drivers to be a nuisance! Every damn month, I need to update my drivers! Damn, what happened to the good ole days when you went six months or more with a driver, and it just worked?

DX9 was long in the tooth. Modern drivers (at least AMD and Nvidia) patch specific issues with game optimization that game developers used to work out in their code before release.

 

[THU31]

There is a profile for Hogwarts Legacy in the new NVIDIA driver. They didn't mention it for obvious reasons.

 

[Fasola]

There is a profile for Hogwarts Legacy in the new NVIDIA driver. They didn't mention it for obvious reasons.

Oh no! It's because of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!

They modified the driver to improve performance with that particular game. Exactly how they do that is beyond me.

I get the theory, but what about the practical? For example, does it increase performance by x% vs the previous driver, or perhaps stops texture flickering. If all it does is create a generic profile, them whoop-de-do. I can create profiles myself. And I'm not singling out Intel about this.
Anyway, I'm just ranting about this practice and there's no need to answer.

 

[mama]

Good on Intel. My 7900X has to work extra hard in this game while my 6900XT seems to be taking a casual stroll. Get up to speed AMD!

 

[THU31]

I get the theory, but what about the practical? For example, does it increase performance by x% vs the previous driver, or perhaps stops texture flickering. If all it does is create a generic profile, them whoop-de-do. I can create profiles myself. And I'm not singling out Intel about this.
Anyway, I'm just ranting about this practice and there's no need to answer.

One thing I know they used to do was to include shaders optimized for running on their cards. That's one of the reasons the driver package has gotten so big. Not sure if that's still a thing, but I expect so.

There are probably other optimizations to the way games execute specific code.

But new drivers usually aren't necessary to run new games. The difference is marginal most of the time.