AMD Radeon RX 400 series and RX 500 series graphics cards based on the "Polaris" graphics architecture are simply unable to run "Forspoken," as users on Reddit report. The game has certain DirectX 12 feature-level 12_1 API requirements that the architecture does not meet. Interestingly, NVIDIA's "Maxwell" graphics architecture, which predates AMD "Polaris" by almost a year, supports FL 12_1, and is able to play the game. Popular GPUs from the "Maxwell" generation include the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 960. Making matters much worse, AMD is yet to release an update to its Adrenalin graphics drivers for the RX Vega, RX 5000, and RX 6000 series that come with "Forspoken" optimization. Its latest 23.1.2 beta drivers that come with these optimizations only support the RX 7000 series RDNA3 graphics cards. It's now been over 50 days since the vast majority of AMD discrete GPUs have received a driver update.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 527.56 WHQL comes with optimization for Portal with RTX, a remaster of the cult classic with enhanced with NVIDIA RTX, which we took for a spin. Besides, the new drivers also add optimization for The Witcher 3 Wildhunt Enhanced Edition, which will debut later this month, and Jurassic World Evolution 2. Among the issues fixed with this release include flickering noticed when looking at the sky in Watch_Dogs 2, on machines powered by RTX 4090; games with DLSS 3 crashing when ending a recording using Shadowplay or OBS with NVENC; display corruption noticed in Minecraft Java Edition, hotplugging between HDMI and DP not working correctly on RTX 4090; and certain issues with Adobe Premiere with H.265 and HEVC content.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 527.56 WHQL

Intel Arc "Alchemist" graphics architecture was originally developed as a forward-facing PC GPU architecture with many of the contemporary graphics technologies, including full DirectX 12 Ultimate support, however, the GPU curiously lacks hardware support for DirectX 9. Released 20 years ago, DirectX 9 continued to power AAA PC titles well into the 2010s as game console development lagged (the era of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), and most e-sports titles of the time included either native or fallback DirectX 9 support for those on older GPUs. This is a problem for Intel, as many of the currently-popular e-Sports titles may still use DirectX 9, and so the Intel Graphics team set out to individually optimize DirectX 9 titles with each new Arc GPU driver release.

While Arc GPUs lack DirectX 9 support, foolproof API translation technologies exist, which convert DirectX 9 API instructions into DirectX 12. This is not fundamentally unlike how 32-bit applications work on 64-bit Windows (using WOW64 machine-architecture translation). This, however, requires per-game optimization to ensure any engine-level special features are correctly translated. With the latest 101.3959 Beta drivers, Intel optimized popular DirectX 9 titles "League of Legends," "Counter Strike: Global Offensive," "Starcraft 2," "Payday 2," "Guild Wars 2," "Stellaris," "NiZhan," and "Moonlight Blade." The company seems to be going about this the smart way, by relying on market analysis for selecting the games in need of optimization (understanding what DirectX 9 games are still being played).

UL Solutions is excited to announce that our new DirectX 12 Ultimate Benchmark 3DMark Speed Way is now available to download and buy on Steam and on the UL Solutions website. 3DMark Speed Way is sponsored by Lenovo Legion. Developed with input from AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and other leading technology companies, Speed Way is an ideal benchmark for comparing the DirectX 12 Ultimate performance of the latest graphics cards.

DirectX 12 Ultimate is the next-generation application programming interface (API) for gaming graphics. It adds powerful new capabilities to DirectX 12, helping game developers improve visual quality, boost frame rates, reduce loading times and create vast, detailed worlds. 3DMark Speed Way's engine demonstrates what the latest DirectX API brings to ray-traced gaming, using DirectX Raytracing tier 1.1 for real-time global illumination and real-time ray-traced reflections, coupled with new performance optimizations like mesh shaders.

It's the moment you've been waiting for! (And the moment our teams have been working towards!) The Intel Arc A750 and A770 GPUs will be for sale on October 12th starting at $289 and $329 respectively, with the Arc A770 Limited Edition available for $349. After years of price increases in the massive $200-400 GPU segment, Intel is bringing balance back to the GPU market. Pricing seems to have gone off the deep end and we're working to reel it back in with the Intel Arc A-series GPUs. As we've shown in earlier performance blogs, the Arc A750 and A770 trade blows with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060—a popular mainstream GPU. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger called out the extreme GPU prices in his Intel Innovation Day 1 keynote, showing that the last four years have seen a nonstop upward trend in prices of mainstream GPUs. By entering the GPU space as a third player, Intel is ready to turn these tides in gamers' favor and disrupt the market.

On average, a new GeForce RTX 3060 will set you back $418. (This number was calculated on Newegg.com, targeting in stock, sold by Newegg, new RTX 3060 cards as of Sept 22, 2022.) Picking up an Intel Arc A750 on October 12th for $289 gets you 53% more performance per dollar on average, or an 8 GB Arc A770 for $329 provides 42% more perf/dollar. Why is that? The Arc A700-series performance beats the 3060 in most modern titles using DirectX 12 or Vulkan APIs and our GPUs aren't far behind in most DX11 games—all for much less cash.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 517.48 WHQL comes with optimization for Overwatch 2. It also offers optimization for Microsoft Flight Simulator with DLSS support. A number of bugs are addressed with this release. To begin with, display brightness settings not being applied correctly on certain kinds of Lenovo notebooks in dGPU mode, has been fixed. The "NVIDIA GPU only" toggle not persisting on reboots on certain notebooks, has been fixed. The "reduce noise" option with ray tracing in Adobe Illustrator appears pixellated, which has been fixed.

Random crashes in DirectML.dll with Adobe Photoshop have been fixed. Performance issues with VRR monitors in Fusion 360 has been fixed. Shadow flickering with "Jurassic World Evolution 2" has been fixed. Some UWP apps in Windows 11 exhibit lag with G-SYNC, which has been fixed. Language bugs with NVIDIA Control Panel has been fixed. External displays connected via USB-C or Thunderbolt dongles in Razer notebooks not correctly being detected, have been fixed. MS Flight Simulator exhibiting texture corruption after extended gameplay, has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 517.48 WHQL

The latest Community Update 1 patch of "Dying Light: Stay Human" adds support for the AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 (FSR 2.0) performance enhancement. This adds several more quality-performance presets that improve visuals over FSR 1.0 at a given frame-rate, or improve frame-rate at a given quality-level. The update also improves the game's memory-management of the GPU's video memory in DirectX 12 mode, which should benefit features such as real-time ray tracing. There are other minor fixes for SSAO and TAA temporal anti-aliasing.

Intel Graphics over the weekend released the Arc Graphics Drivers version 30.0.101.3268 beta. These drivers add performance optimization for Saints Row and Madden NFL 23, but that's hardly the defining feature. In our testing, the drivers were found to to be night-and-day compared to the previous version, in terms of overall system stability. The release comes hot on the heels of a report that Intel fixed as many as 43 bugs just by watching a product review video by Gamers Nexus.

Among the fixed issues are lower-than-expected performance with Marvel's Spider Man (Remastered) in DirectX 12 mode; an application crash with SoTR in DirectX 12 mode with ray traced shadow quality set to "high," a texture-corruption issue with Battlefield 2042 in DirectX 12 mode; artifacts and object loading failures seen in Halo Infinite, an application crash with Horizon Zero Dawn, and the nasty bug where Windows Update attempts to replace the installed driver, causing severe stability issues. As many as 17 bugs related to Arc Control and 11 bugs related to Arc Control Performance Tuning, have been fixed, as listed below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc 30.0.101.3268 beta

Intel earlier this week released its own performance numbers for as many as 50 benchmarks spanning the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs. From our testing, the Arc A380 performs sub-par with its rivals in games based on the DirectX 11 API. Intel tested the A750 in the 1080p and 1440p resolutions, and compared performance numbers with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. Broadly, the testing reveals the A750 to be 3% faster than the RTX 3060 in DirectX 12 titles at 1080p; about 5% faster at 1440p; about 4% faster in Vulkan titles at 1080p, and about 5% faster at 1440p.

All testing was done without ray tracing, performance enhancements such as XeSS or DLSS weren't used. The small set of 6 Vulkan API titles show a more consistent performance lead for the A750 over the RTX 3060, whereas the DirectX 12 API titles sees the two trade blows, with a diversity of results varying among game engines. In "Dolmen," for example, the RTX 3060 scores 347 FPS compared to the Arc's 263. In "Resident Evil VIII," the Arc scores 160 FPS compared to 133 FPS of the GeForce. Such variations among the titles pulls up the average in favor of the Intel card. Intel stated that the A750 is on-course to launch "later this year," but without being any more specific than that. The individual test results can be seen below.The testing notes and configuration follows.

NVIDIA's next-generation GeForce RTX 4090 "Ada" flagship graphics card allegedly scores over 19000 points in the 3DMark Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmark, according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. This would put its score around 66 percent above that of the current RTX 3090 Ti flagship. The RTX 4090 is expected to be based on the 5 nm AD102 silicon, with a rumored CUDA core count of 16,384. The higher IPC from the new architecture, coupled with higher clock speeds and power limits, could be contributing to this feat. Time Spy Extreme is a traditional DirectX 12 raster-only benchmark, with no ray traced elements. The Ada graphics architecture is expected to reduce the "cost" of ray tracing (versus raster-only rendering), although we're yet to see leaks of RTX performance, yet.

Today marks a year since gamers could try out AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution technology for themselves with our spatial upscaler - FSR 1. With the introduction of FSR 2, our temporal upscaling solution earlier this year, there are now over 110 games that support FSR. The rate of uptake has been very impressive - FSR is AMD's fastest adopted software gaming technology to date.

So it seems fitting that we should pick this anniversary day to share the source code for FSR 2, opening up the opportunity for every game developer to integrate FSR 2 if they wish, and add their title to the 24 games which have already announced support. As always, the source code is being made available via GPUOpen under the MIT license, and you can now find links to it on our dedicated FSR 2 page.

AMD on Thursday released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 22.2.1 beta comes with optimization for "Dying Light 2: Stay Human," and "Lost Ark." It also adds support for the Vulkan 1.3 graphics API, and feature-support for Vulkan Roadmap 2022. A bug which caused "Fortnite" players on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards to observe flashing or colored lights in DirectX 12 mode, has been fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.2.1

NVIDIA on Tuesday released the latest version of its GeForce Game Ready software. Version 511.65 WHQL comes with support for the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU and RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU. The drivers also come with optimization for "Dying Light 2: Stay Human," and "Sifu." The drivers also add a few security updates, improvements to the interoperability between OpenCL and Vulkan APIs, an updated NVIDIA OpenCL compiler; and application profile for "Dead by Daylight Epic Games version."

Among the bugs fixed are geometry corruption for "Far Cry 6" in Windows 11, stuttering noticed in multiple apps; a black screen noticed in notebooks with Advanced Optimus configured for dGPU mode; DLDSR causing black screens on certain 3440 x 1440-pixel displays; GeForce Experience filters causing flickering in certain DirectX 12 games; and "Forza Horizon" game freezing noticed when applying certain trims on cars. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 511.65 WHQL

AMD released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 22.1.2 beta comes with optimization for "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction," and support for new graphics cards launching today, including the Radeon RX 6500 XT, RX 6400, RX 6500M, and RX 6300M. The only issue fixed with this release addresses longer-than-expected load times for "Borderlands 3" in DirectX 12 mode with Radeon Boost enabled, on certain RDNA2-series GPUs. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.1.2

AMD released the year's first Radeon Software Adrenalin software update. Version 22.1.1 comes with optimization for "Monster Hunter Rise," and "God of War," with up to 7% performance increase measured at 4K Ultra settings with the RX 6900 XT, compared to the previous 21.12.1 drivers. A handful issues were also fixed. To begin with, high idle memory clocks noticed on machines with multiple high-resolution monitors, has been fixed. Power Tuning components of a saved tuning profile not correctly loading following a Radeon Software update, has been fixed. Visual corruption noticed with "Halo Infinite" when zoomed-in, on machines with products such as the RX 5600 XT, has been fixed. Flickering noticed in "Fortnite" with RX 6000 series graphics cards in DirectX 12 mode with Radeon Boost enabled, as been fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.1.1

AMD is preparing to wrap up its Radeon RX 6000 series desktop discrete graphics card family with two new SKUs, the RX 6500 XT and the RX 6400. The two debut the company's smallest piece of silicon based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture, codenamed "Navi 24," to the desktop space. The RX 6500 XT maxes out this silicon, enabling all 16 compute units physically present, working out to 1,024 stream processors. The RX 6400 is significantly cut down, featuring 12 out of 16 CUs, which means 768 stream processors.

The Navi 24 silicon features a 64-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, which is paired with 4 GB of discrete memory on both SKUs. This memory operates at 14 Gbps data-rate, which works out to 112 GB/s memory bandwidth. Interestingly, the Infinity Cache makes a comeback, in the form of a tiny 16 MB on-die cache that cushions the memory sub-system. The RX 6500 XT could have just enough muscle for e-sports gaming at 1080p, while the RX 6400 seems more like a card you'd buy just because your processor lacks integrated graphics (eg: if you're using a Ryzen 5000X processor and just need a graphics solution that meets the latest display I/O and media-acceleration standards). At this point we don't know if the Navi 24 is DirectX 12 Ultimate compliant, i.e., featuring Ray Accelerators on its compute units. Both cards are expected to launch in Q1, 2022.

Intel's fourth-generation Core processors, codenamed Haswell, are subject to new security exploits. According to the company, a vulnerability exists inside the graphics controller of 4th generation Haswell processors, happening once the DirectX 12 API loading occurs. To fix the problem, Intel has found that disabling this API results in a fix. Starting with Intel graphics driver 15.40.44.5107 applications that run exclusively on DirectX 12 API no longer work with the following Intel Graphics Controllers: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200/5100, HD Graphics 5000/4600/4400/4200, and Intel Pentium and Celeron Processors with Intel HD Graphics based on 4th Generation Intel Core.

"A potential security vulnerability in Intel Graphics may allow escalation of privilege on 4th Generation Intel Core processors. Intel has released a software update to mitigate this potential vulnerability. In order to mitigate the vulnerability, DirectX 12 capabilities were deprecated." says the Intel page. If a user with a Haswell processor has a specific need to run the DirectX 12 application, they can downgrade their graphics driver to version 15.40.42.5063 or older.

Today marks an exciting milestone in the history of Windows. As the day becomes October 5 in each time zone around the world, availability of Windows 11 begins through a free upgrade on eligible Windows 10 PCs and on new PCs pre-installed with Windows 11 that can be purchased beginning today. Windows is a driving force for innovation. It's an enduring platform for each one of us to create. And its home for over a billion people to do their jobs, live their dreams and connect with the people they love.

We're pumped to be launching Windows 11; the entire user experience brings you closer to what you love, empowers you to produce and inspires you to create. Windows 11 provides a sense of calm and openness. It gives you a place that feels like home. It's secure and everything is designed to be centered around you. To fully understand the magic of Windows 11 you must get it in your hands. The gorgeous graphics, sounds and animations of Windows 11 along with the innovative and beautiful hardware from our partners and Surface provides an experience like none other.

AMD on Monday released the latest version of the Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 20.10.1 beta comes with optimization for the Windows 11 operating system. Game-specific optimizations include "Far Cry 6," where it posts 10% performance gains over the previous driver; "Battlefield 2042 Open Beta," "Naraka: Bladepoint," and a 12% performance uplift for "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" with DirectX 12 at 4K with Ultra settings.

Among the issues fixed include rare driver timeouts noticed on "Horizon Zero Dawn" and "The Medium" on RX 6000 series graphics cards such as the RX 6700 XT, and when gaming+streaming on RX 500 series cards. An issue with high idle memory clocks on multi-monitor setups has been fixed. Incorrect power reporting by Radeon Software at full load, has been fixed. Foliage artifacting in "Arma 3" and "Wreckfest" have been fixed.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.1 beta

DirectX 12 Ultimate is the next generation for gaming graphics. It adds powerful new capabilities to DirectX 12, including DirectX Raytracing Tier 1.1, Mesh Shaders, Sampler Feedback, and Variable Rate Shading (VRS). These features help game developers improve visual quality, boost frame rates, reduce loading times, and create vast, detailed worlds.

3DMark already has dedicated tests for DirectX Raytracing, Mesh Shaders, and Variable Rate Shading. Today, we're adding a Sampler Feedback feature test, making 3DMark the first publicly available application to include all four major DirectX 12 Ultimate features. Experience DirectX 12 Ultimate today, only with 3DMark! Measure performance and compare image quality on your PC with our DirectX 12 Ultimate feature tests. Each test also has an interactive mode that lets you change settings and visualizations in real time.

Intel Vice President and General Manager of Client Graphics Products and Solutions Roger Chandler has recently announced that the companies upcoming Arc gaming graphics cards will include overclocking support at launch through the official driver UI. This offering may resemble that of AMD's with their Radeon Software that offers various overclocking tools including clock speeds, power settings, and fan curves. Intel has also been working on various other driver improvements in the lead-up to release including enhancing shader compiling and improving throughput. The post also confirmed the implementation of complete DirectX 12 Ultimate compliance which will enable variable-rate shading tier 2 and mesh shading. Intel is expected to release the first Arc gaming graphics cards for desktops and notebooks in Q1 2022.

IntelWe're even integrating overclocking controls into the driver UI to give enthusiasts the tools they need to push the hardware to the limit.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin. Version 21.8.1 Beta comes with support for the Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card (which we reviewed here). It also fixes an issue with "The Medium" that caused the game to crash while running FrameView. The company also identified a handful issues, some even specific to the RX 6600 XT, such as inaccurate point-lights in "Control," and driver timeouts observed in "Horizon Zero Dawn" with RX 6700 XT, and less specifically on RX 500 series products with simultaneous gaming+streaming. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 Beta

UL Benchmarks is expanding 3DMark today by adding a set of dedicated CPU benchmarks. The 3DMark CPU Profile introduces a new approach to CPU benchmarking that shows how CPU performance scales with the number of cores and threads used. The new CPU Profile benchmark tests are available now in 3DMark Advanced Edition and 3DMark Professional Edition.

The 3DMark CPU Profile introduces a new approach to CPU benchmarking. Instead of producing a single number, the 3DMark CPU Profile shows how CPU performance scales and changes with the number of cores and threads used. The CPU Profile has six tests, each of which uses a different number of threads. The benchmark starts by using all available threads. It then repeats using 16 threads, 8 threads, 4 threads, 2 threads, and ends with a single-threaded test. These six tests help you benchmark and compare CPU performance for a range of threading levels. They also provide a better way to compare different CPU models by looking at the results from thread levels they have in common.

AMD today released the Radeon RX 6000M series mobile graphics lineup, based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture. These GPUs offer full DirectX 12 Ultimate readiness, including real-time raytracing capability. The lineup is led by the Radeon RX 6800M, followed by the RX 6700M, and the RX 6600M. The RX 6800M and RX 6700M are based on the 7 nm "Navi 22" silicon, while the RX 6600M debuts the "Navi 23" silicon. The RX 6800M appears to be maxing out the "Navi 22" silicon, much like the desktop RX 6700 XT. It features 40 RDNA2 compute units, amounting to 2,560 stream processors; game clocks of up to 2.30 GHz, 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory interface, and 96 MB of Infinity Cache. The RX 6700M is slightly cut down, with 36 compute units (2,304 stream processors), the same 2.30 GHz game clocks, 10 GB of video memory possibly across a 160-bit wide memory bus, and 80 MB of Infinity Cache.

The new RX 6600M debuts the 7 nm "Navi 23" silicon, with 28 RDNA2 compute units, game clocks of 2177 MHz, 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit wide memory bus, and 32 MB of Infinity Cache. All three chips feature Smart Access Memory (resizable BAR), and support for AMD SmartShift, a feature that load-balances the discrete GPU with an AMD iGPU. AMD claims that the RX 6800M and RX 6700M are fit for 1440p gaming, with the RX 6800M beating the RTX 2070 Notebook by anywhere between 40-70%, and 120 FPS in a large selection of e-sports titles. The company also claims that the RX 6800M beats the GeForce RTX 3080 8 GB by 14-39%. The RX 6600M, meanwhile is shown matching the RTX 3060 6 GB, in AMD's tests. Notebooks powered by AMD Radeon RX 6000M discrete graphics are shipping now.The graphics press-deck follows.

A senior game developer relations engineer at Intel, Pete Brubaker, Tweeted late Wednesday that the company's DG2 discrete graphics card is "right around the corner," and that "it's about to get exciting." Brubaker's Tweet comes as the company is looking to recruit more engineers to work with its developer relations, the team that interfaces with game devs to optimize their engines and games for Intel's graphics architectures.

While the DG1, which was productized as the Iris Xe MAX graphics card, was essentially an iGPU-on-a-stick, the DG2 should spark a lot more interest. Based on a third-party foundry process, the DG2 is the first client graphics product based on the Xe HPG (high performance gaming) graphics architecture, and allegedly crams up to 512 execution units or 4,096 unified shaders—a 4.3x gain over the Iris Xe MAX. It's also rumored to ship with up to 16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit wide memory bus. Whether it features DirectX 12 Ultimate features or not, remains to be seen, but it's becoming clear that Intel wants a crack at the high-volume e-sports market, with a product that's fast enough for competitive e-sports gaming, and capable of AAA.