Intel Releases Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.5972 WHQL

[AleksandarK]

Intel has released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.5972 WHQL, rolled out on August 24th, 2024, focuses on game-ready optimizations to bring support for new games to Intel GPU users. The latest driver update provides day-one support for several highly anticipated titles, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Beta, SMITE 2, Star Wars Outlaws, and Visions of Mana. For Intel Arc A-Series GPUs, known issues include intermittent flickering corruption in Doom Eternal (Vulkan) during gameplay and in the game menu, potential application crashes in Blender while rendering certain benchmark scenes, and possible errors in Topaz Video AI when exporting videos after using some models for video enhancements.

Users of Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs may experience application crashes in Enshrouded (Vulkan) during gameplay and in Diablo IV (DirectX 12) with ray tracing enabled. Other issues include color corruption in Horizon Forbidden West (DirectX 12), game crashes in Fortnite (DirectX 12) when performing Alt + Tab operations, system instability in SPECworkstation3.1 during certain workloads, missing texts in CATIA's quality toolbar with HQAO settings, and application crashes in Procyon AI while running benchmarks with precision float32. Intel Arc Control users should be aware that the Schedule Updates for Drivers feature may not work intermittently. Additionally, Arc Control Studio capture or stream may not stop consistently when using the stop option. As a workaround, users can use the Exit app option in Settings to stop the recording.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.5972 WHQL




Game Ready

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Beta
• SMITE 2
• Star Wars Outlaws
• Visions of Mana

Known Issues:
Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:

• Doom Eternal (VK) may exhibit intermittent flickering corruption in the game menu and during gameplay.
• Blender may experience application crash while rendering certain benchmark scenes.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors when exporting videos after using some models for video enhancements.

Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

• Enshrouded (VK) may experience an application crash during gameplay.
• Diablo IV (DX12) may experience an application crash with ray tracing settings enabled.
• Horizon Forbidden West (DX12) may experience color corruption during gameplay.
• Fortnite (DX12) game may crash while performing Alt + Tab operations
• SPECworkstation3.1 may exhibit system instability while running certain workloads.
• CATIA texts may not appear in quality toolbar with HQAO settings.
• Procyon AI may experience an application crash while running benchmark with precision float32.

Intel Arc Control Known Issues:

• Schedule Updates for Drivers may not work intermittently.
• Arc Control Studio capture or stream may not stop intermittently when using the stop option. A workaround is to use Exit app option in Settings to stop the recording.

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[lexluthermiester]

Looks like Intel is on it!

 

[GoldenX]

Notice how 11th to 14th gen CPUs have been absent from their changelogs recently, even in the known bugs section (check the PDF on Intel's site). Gen12.1 graphics is basically abandoned.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Notice how 11th to 14th gen CPUs have been absent from their changelogs recently

Is Intel wanting us to get Lunar Lake? A.K.A., "the Core processors with the totally new model naming".

They are doing well with Arc, but not with Raptor Lake!

 

[GoldenX]

Intel wants us to forget anything under Gen12.7 ever happened.

Buy shiny new thing, consumer, don't mind we EoL'd 2 years old hardware.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Intel wants us to forget anything under Gen12.7 ever happened.

Buy shiny new thing, consumer, don't mind we EoL'd 2 years old hardware.

I think you're being a bit too harsh. They are making excellent progress for jumping whole hog into a sector they previously had not taken much interest in.

 

[GoldenX]

I think you're being a bit too harsh. They are making excellent progress for jumping whole hog into a sector they previously had not taken much interest in.

While I agree, that road is paved with leaving the older stuff forgotten.

Gen 12.1, the iGPUs, can no longer run Forza Motorsport or Horizon 5, they can't properly render Helldivers 2, the new Direct3D 11 driver that made ARC usable never got backported, Vulkan hasn't gotten an update in almost 3 years (last one was even one of my reports), and OpenGL support is nonexistent.

The best part, the driver devs are trained to respond with a "this product doesn't meet the minimum requirements to run those games"... Of course they won't, you haven't coded a single line for that hardware since 2022.

So yeah, can't wait to see the reaction of Alchemist users when they lose driver support too.

Android level of developer laziness, and they want to call themselves the 3rd player.

 

[lexluthermiester]

While I agree, that road is paved with leaving the older stuff forgotten.

I just don't see that happening. With all the work they have been putting into making driver updates and refinements, it just doesn't seem likely that they would drop this first gen series when the next gen comes out.

 

[GoldenX]

They will most likely keep ARC Alchemist working, but anything else is already dead. The iGPUs, any dedicated card released before ARC, etc.

 

[lexluthermiester]

One could argue that the drivers are stable for all of the IGP models and don't need updating, but I digress.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

They will most likely keep ARC Alchemist working, but anything else is already dead. The iGPUs, any dedicated card released before ARC, etc.

I would hope so, for Arc! Yes, the "UHD" graphics suck, but not like Intel graphics did 20 years ago! The meme of Intel graphics of 20 years ago, was that they were regularly banned by game developers.

 

[Solaris17]

One could argue that the drivers are stable for all of the IGP models and don't need updating, but I digress.

Dont fall for the bait. They are literally dumping and I mean DUMPING code commits for battlemage and lunar lake into linux, which generally precurses windows.

Programmable Search Engine

cse.google.com

 

[lexluthermiester]

Dont fall for the bait. They are literally dumping and I mean DUMPING code commits for battlemage and lunar lake into linux, which generally precurses windows.

Programmable Search Engine

cse.google.com

This seems like a good thing, yes?

 

[Solaris17]

This seems like a good thing, yes?

Yeah its good. Its actually how most people find out the "code names" for hardware. Assuming some leaker on twitter didnt snap pics of a slide deck; names, deviceIDs etc are generally caught by commits to linux. Long before someone spots some random run on geekbench. Unironically, I think thats how the "Alchemist" code name got known, from a kernel commit for prelim support.


EDIT: here is a recent example that was posted even here.

Intel's Next-gen Xeon "Clearwater Forest" E-Core CPU Series Spotted in Patch

Intel presented its next generation Xeon "Clearwater Forest" processor family during September's Innovation Event—their roadmap slide (see below) included other Birch Stream platform architecture options. Earlier this week, Team Blue's software engineers issued a Linux kernel patch that contains...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yeah its good. Its actually how most people find out the "code names" for hardware. Assuming some leaker on twitter didnt snap pics of a slide deck; names, deviceIDs etc are generally caught by commits to linux. Long before someone spots some random run on geekbench. Unironically, I think thats how the "Alchemist" code name got known, from a kernel commit for prelim support.

Oh ok, good. Was thinking for a second that some context slipped past. Hadn't seen any of that yet, but had read that drivers were incoming for Linux. So a Battlemage release might be soon. IIRC Intel doesn't distribute the driver code unless the matching product is imminent.

 

[Solaris17]

Oh ok, good. Was thinking for a second that some context slipped past. Hadn't seen any of that yet, but had read that drivers were incoming for Linux. So a Battlemage release might be soon. IIRC Intel doesn't distribute the driver code unless the matching product is imminent.

Exactly, its all speculation as far as time frames are concerned, but we are way way ahead of just adding device IDs. They are patching in usability for actual HW. I predict months at this point.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I predict months at this point.

That would be my guess as well. Perhaps a holiday release? Might be a nice Christmas present if they're as good as the rumors imply. I'm genuinely excited for this new gen of ARC cards!

 

[Solaris17]

That would be my guess as well. Perhaps a holiday release? Might be a nice Christmas present if they're as good as the rumors imply. I'm genuinely excited for this new gen of ARC cards!

I hope they look similar to the A series LEs or like the AMD OEM 79xx cards. damn they looked good. We can hope!

 

[GoldenX]

One could argue that the drivers are stable for all of the IGP models and don't need updating, but I digress.

By that logic, there was no need to upgrade from the HD 520, just keep updating the media engine.

How long until this lack of commitment reaches the desktop cards?

 

[lexluthermiester]

How long until this lack of commitment reaches the desktop cards?

To me, this seems overly pessimistic. Intel is not a slouch where driver and code updates are concerned. They may be less frequent than other companies, but they do happen when needed.

 

[GoldenX]

I can no longer play games that were very playable before, and their reply is "haha go buy a new device"

 

[lexluthermiester]

I can no longer play games that were very playable before, and their reply is "haha go buy a new device"

Then revert to the older drivers that worked. Driver updates are not always required for all users/systems. My personal computing ethic is as follows: I don't update drivers without good reason and if problems take place, I revert back to the previously functional versions.

NVidia and AMD are just as guilty on that front.

 

[GoldenX]

Then revert to the older drivers that worked. Driver updates are not always required for all users/systems. My personal computing ethic is as follows: I don't update drivers without good reason and if problems take place, I revert back to the previously functional versions.

NVidia and AMD are just as guilty on that front.

Forza updated their engine to use enhanced barriers, a more recent D3D12 feature that anyone supports except old EoL GCN or Intel, and Intel won't add it.
So they sell a D3D12 product that isn't D3D12 capable.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Forza updated their engine to use enhanced barriers, a more recent D3D12 feature that anyone supports except old EoL GCN or Intel, and Intel won't add it.
So they sell a D3D12 product that isn't D3D12 capable.

I haven't seen this, so I'll take your word for it. If this is your issue, might be time to think about an upgrade.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

and their reply is "haha go buy a new device"

That sounds like the early-to-mid-first-decade-of-the-century mentality, where I would be changing processors like no tomorrow, LOL.

Back then, a reply I would expect, would be something like, "Sorry, you must get another video card." and "Sorry, you must get another processor.".

Back then, video cards aged worse! Same with processors! It would only be a year and I would be itching to replace my PC!