Intel's Alchemist engineering team has been working on improving its open-source Vulkan drivers for Linux—recent coverage from Phoronix shows that Team Blue's hard work is paying off, especially in the area of gaming performance. The site's founder, Michael Larabel, approves of the latest Mesa work produced by Intel engineers, and has commended them on their efforts to better the Arc Graphics family. His mid-month testings—on a Linux 6.4-based system running an Intel Arc A770 GPU—demonstrated a "~10% speed-up for the Intel Arc Graphics on Linux." He has benchmarked this system again over the past weekend, following the release of a new set of optimizations for Mesa 23.3-devel: "The latest performance boost for Intel graphics on Linux is by supporting the I915_FORMAT_MOD_4_TILED_DG2_RC_CCS modifier. Indeed it's panning out nicely for furthering the Intel Arc Graphics Vulkan performance."

He apologized for the limited selection of games, due to: "the Intel Linux graphics driver still not having sparse support in place, but at least that will hopefully be here in the coming months when the Intel Xe kernel driver is upstreamed. Another recent promising development for the Intel open-source graphics driver support is fake sparse support to at least help some games and that code will hopefully be merged soon." First up was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive—thanks to the optimized Vulkan drivers it: "enjoyed another nice boost to the performance as a result of this latest code. For CS Linux gamers, it's great seeing the 21% boost just over the past month."

Intel today released the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4576 beta. These drivers do not introduce Game On (day-zero) optimizations or improvements for any new games, but address a couple of glaring issues. "Remnant 2" exhibits texture corruption during gameplay, which has been fixed. In a similar light, "World War Z" exhibits flickering textures during gameplay, which has been fixed. Intel also identified a few more issues with this release, as detailed in the release notes, below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4576 beta

Audeze, the leading premium headphone manufacturer, today announced the release of a limited edition gaming headset developed in partnership with Microsoft, for their Designed for Xbox Summer product collection. This stylish, limited edition "Ultraviolet" version of their highly lauded Maxwell gaming headset features a new finish that adds a head-turning and unique look to one of the best gaming headsets on the market. The Ultraviolet edition of the Maxwell headphone is available on the Audeze website for pre-order in limited quantities.

The partnership between Audeze and Microsoft which began in 2021 with the Microsoft certification of Audeze's Penrose gaming headset, and continued recently with Microsoft's certification of our new Maxwell gaming headset. This partnership has expanded access to Audeze's industry-leading planar magnetic headsets to Microsoft's vast audience of console users. Epic life-like audio quality as delivered by Audeze's legendary planar magnetic drivers are a powerful tool for gamers, and now with the Ultraviolet limited edition of Maxwell, they can use their sonic advantage in style.

Intel Graphics has released Arc GPU and Iris Xe Graphics Drivers version 101.4502 WHQL. There are no gaming highlights or brand new Game On Driver support included in this release, according to the notes. An Arc-related iTunes application crash (upon launch) has been fixed, as well as blank screen and error messages encountered in Microsoft Edge's WebView2. There are plenty of "Known Issues" listed this time—Intel and EA Sports are looking into a problem where adjustments to XeSS presets cause crashes in F1 2023. Corruption in Game Capture mode for Dota 2 (via XSplit Broadcaster) has been noted. Media playback and encoding with some versions of Adobe Premiere Pro cannot utilize GPU hardware acceleration.

There are also various in-game issues - for owners of Intel Core Processors - logged for these titles: Total War: Warhammer III (DX11), Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 (DX12), Conqueror's Blade (DX12) and A Plague Tale: Requiem. The Arc Control Performance Tuning app is still in Beta, so expect to encounter some inconsistencies when using it. Intel and Cooler Master have partnered up on the continued development of Arc's RGB Controller software—it is custom designed "to allow users to harness 90 individually addressable LEDs on Intel Arc A770 Graphics Limited Edition cards."

DOWNLOAD: Intel GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4502 WHQL

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

NVIDIA has today released the latest iteration of its GeForce Game Ready drivers - Version 535.98 WHQL. This latest update provides optimizations in advance for the launch of Blizzard's long awaited and much anticipated new entry in the Diablo series - IV launches on June 6th with day one support for NVIDIA DLSS 3 and NVIDIA Reflex. Today's release of Nightdive's System Shock Remake is also catered for in the shape of DLSS 2 enhancements. Today's patch notes indicate that a general gaming bug fix addresses reports of GeForce Experience Freestyle filters causing in-game crashes. General amendments include the prevention of brief monitor flickering following waking from display sleep mode with DSR/DLDSR enabled, and visual glitches encountered in productivity software (SOLIDWORKS 2023, MAGIX Vegas Pro 7 & more). Owners of GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs will not be happy to find out that a sky flickering issue encountered in Watch Dogs 2 is not yet fixed - this remains an open issue.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 535.98 WHQL

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 532.03 WHQL Game Ready drivers. These introduce support for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB desktop graphics card the company launched earlier today. The drivers also come with optimization for "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum." The drivers come with a major update for the AI capabilities of GeForce graphics cards with Tensor cores, promising a 2x performance boost in AI inference performance. Among the handful issues fixed with this release are stability issues with "Age of Wonders 4" and broken Ansel and Freestyle with "Bus Simulator 31."

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 532.03 WHQL

Our latest GeForce Game Ready Driver gets your system ready for Redfall, which launches today with support for NVIDIA DLSS 3 and NVIDIA Reflex. Additionally, there's Game Ready support for the Diablo IV Server Slam and Showgunners, which both include DLSS. To download and install, head to the Drivers tab of GeForce Experience or GeForce.com, and read on for further details.

Game Ready For Redfall, Enhanced With NVIDIA DLSS 3 & Reflex
NVIDIA and Bethesda have partnered to bring our full slate of game-changing technologies to Redfall, an open-world, co-op FPS from Arkane Austin, the award-winning team behind Prey and Dishonored. In Redfall, the island town is under siege by a legion of vampires who have blocked out the sun and cut the citizens off from the outside world. Explore the open world, ally yourself with a handful of survivors against the creatures threatening to bleed the town dry, and immerse yourself in a deep story campaign as you unravel the mystery behind the vampires' appearance.

Intel today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4335 Beta comes with optimization for "Star Wars: Jedi Survivor," "The Swordsmen X: Survival," and "Redfall." There are no new issues fixed with this release of the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, but the company identified a number of issues spanning its Arc discrete GPUs, Iris Xe MAX discrete GPUs, and the iGPUs powering Intel Core processors (11th Gen onward). Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4335 beta

NVIDIA has released the latest iteration of its GeForce Game Ready drivers - Version 531.68 WHQL. This latest update provides optimizations for the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - an action adventure title, and Dead Island 2 (out this Friday) - a gory first person action RPG zombie shooter - ensuring the best possible in-game performance. Version 531.68 WHQL also implements a fix for Immortals Fenyx Rising, where crashes to desktop were reported following a previous driver update (531.41). A conflict between ShadowPlay and the EA Play application has been resolved, and another fix addresses a performance issue linked to the enabling of Reflex within Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test's graphics settings.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 531.68 WHQL

Intel today released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4257 beta adds Game On (day-zero) optimization for "Crime Boss." This particular release does not pack any "Fixed Issues" load, as it releases barely 5 days from the 101.4255 WHQL drivers. The company did, however, identify a dozen new issues as part of its "Known Issues" lists for Arc discrete GPUs, Iris Xe MAX GPUs, Core processor iGPUs (since 11th Gen), and its Arc Control software interface.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4257 beta

AMD has released its latest Adrenalin drivers for Radeon graphics cards. With support dating back to RX 400, the latest Adrenalin 23.3.1 WHQL drivers bring a lot of improvements to the table, as well as support for Halo Infinite Ray Tracing Update and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty game. Most importantly, the new driver has a series of fixes, including intermittent driver timeout, system freeze, or BSOD, with the latest Radeon RX 7000 series. Problems in games such as Premium Gold Packs in EA SPORTS FIFA 23 and Dying Light 2 lighting effects corruption have been fixed. As far as Radeon RX 6000 series goes, this driver release manages to fix corruption in certain scenes with ray tracing enabled observed in the Returnal game. Check the list below for the entire set of changes.Download: AMD Radeon Graphics Drivers 23.3.1 WHQL here.

Intel Graphics today released the Arc Graphics GPU drivers 31.0.101.4146 WHQL. These work with Arc A-series discrete GPUs, Iris Xe MAX discrete GPU, and the Iris iGPUs found in Intel Core processors from the 11th Gen onward. For Arc A-series GPUs, the drivers add optimization for "Destiny 2: Lightfall" and "Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty," along with several performance improvements for "Halo Infinite" (DX12). Besides performance improvements, several color-corruption bugs with the game have been fixed for Arc A-series GPUs; and an application crash noticed with "Red Dead Redemption 2" in Vulkan API mode with fullscreen. Texture corruption issues with DiRT 5, and "Total War: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide," have been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc Graphics Drivers 31.0.101.4146 WHQL

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 betaUpdate 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.

NVIDIA is using artificial intelligence to design and develop parts of its chip designs, as we have seen in the past, making optimization much more efficient. However, today we have a new rumor that NVIDIA will use AI to optimize its driver performance to reach grounds that the human workforce can not. According to CapFrameX, NVIDIA is allegedly preparing special drivers with optimizations done by AI algorithms. As the source claims, the average improvement will yield a 10% performance increase with up to 30% in best-case scenarios. Presumably, AI can do optimization on two fronts: shader compiles / game optimization side or for power management, which includes clocks, voltages, and boost frequency curves.

It still needs to be made clear which aspect will company's AI optimize and work on; however, it can be a combination of two, given the expected drastic improvement in performance. Special tuning of code for more efficient execution and a better power/frequency curve will bring the efficiency level one notch above current releases. We have already seen AI solve these problems last year with the PrefixML model that compacted circuit design by 25%. We need to find out which cards NVIDIA plans to target, and we can only assume that the latest-generation GeForce RTX 40 series will be the goal if the project is made public in Q1 of this year.

Intel Graphics, with its latest Graphics Drivers 31.0.101.3222, changed the coverage of its latest driver updates. The company would be providing game optimizations and regular driver updates only for its Gen12 (Iris Xe), and Arc "Alchemist" graphics products. Support for Gen9, Gen9.5, and Gen11 iGPUs integrated with 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th generations of Intel processors, namely "Skylake," "Kaby Lake," "Coffee Lake," "Ice Lake," and "Cascade Lake," will be relegated to a separate, quarterly driver update cycle, which only covers critical updates and security vulnerabilities, but not game optimizations.

Intel's regular Graphics Driver cycle that includes Day-0 optimizations timed with new game releases, will only cover the Gen12 Xe iGPUs found in 11th Gen "Tiger Lake," "Rocket Lake," and 12th Gen "Alder Lake" processors; besides the DG1 Iris Xe graphics card; and Arc "Alchemist" discrete GPUs. Version 31.0.101.3222 appears to be a transitioning point, and so it has drivers from both branches included within a 1.1 GB package (the main branch supporting game optimizations for new GPUs, and the legacy branch for the older iGPUs). You can grab this driver from here.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of GeForce software. Version 516.40 WHQL comes Game Ready for "Fall Guys: Free for All," NVIDIA Reflex support for "ICARUS," and RTX ray tracing support for "Jurassic Wold Evoluion 2," "Resident Evil 2," "Resident Evil 3," and "Resident Evil 7." Among the handful issues fixed with this release include shadows not rendering correctly in "Enscape," brightness settings are not getting applied correctly on certain Lenovo notebooks with Advanced Optimus enabled; and Club 3D CAC-1085 dongle being limited to 4K-60 Hz display-mode.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 516.40 WHQL

As part of their continued customer-focused approach, Westone Audio launches one of the industry's most technologically advanced universal fit earphones available on the market today. Developed by leveraging over 35 years of audio engineering and artist performance experience, the MACH Series is a one-of-a-kind product focused on delivering sound in its purest form.

"The MACH Series product combines over 35 years of engineering experience and tens of thousands of performance hours to capture this unique and true sound" said Jason Kidd, President & COO, Westone Audio "These sound signatures were previously offered exclusively in our professional custom in ear monitors, but now can be experienced by every listener." MACH is the latest in sound engineering that is bridging the gap between professional performance products and a product for the truest of music lovers. With its unique ergonomic fit, MACH is a product for everyday use and enjoyment.

Tin HiFi isn't bound to any introduction in the HiFi audio industry. Since its beginning, they have delivered high-performing In-Ear monitors in the industry. Among their successful IEMs, is their famous "P" series of Planar magnetic driver IEMs. The series has seen three models so far, the P1, the P1 Plus, and the P2. All three of these have received positive feedback from audio lovers all around the globe. Today, Tin HiFi has released another new Planar Magnetic IEM, the Tin HiFi P1 Max.

With years of experience in designing the Planar Magnetic Driver IEMs, Tin HiFi has designed the latest P1 Max with a new 14.2 mm planar magnetic driver that adopts an ultra-thin lightweight aluminium diaphragm. The P1 Max is said to be easier to drive in comparison to the P1 and P2 models that required high amounts of power to sound their best. The P1 Max features a unique acoustic structure that promises outstanding sound quality with a designer look. P1 Max is launched officially for $179, currently, it is available at a discounted pre-order price of $169, check out more details here.

NVIDIA has recently released their latest GeForce 512.15 Game Ready drivers adding optimizations for Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Shadow Warrior 3 in addition to bringing DLAA to three new titles and supporting 11 new G-SYNC Compatible Displays. This Game Ready Driver adds day-0 support for Ghostwire: Tokyo featuring ray-traced reflections and NVIDIA DLSS support for up to a 2x performance boost. The drivers also see the introduction of NVIDIA DLAA support for Chorus, Jurassic World Evolution 2, and No Man's Sky which can improve image quality at native resolution.

The list of G-SYNC Compatible Displays has been extended with the addition of 11 new models from Acer, ASUS, AOC, I-O DATA,MSI, Phillips, and ViewSonic. NVIDIA has also added GeForce Experience's Optimal Settings support to six new games including Elden Ring, Expeditions: Rome, Mortal Online 2, Shadow Warrior 3, Sifu, and Total War: Warhammer III. The complete changelog and driver download link can be found below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 512.15 WHQL

If you're one of the lucky few that managed to pre-order a Steam Deck and have had it delivered, you might be interested in knowing that Steam has now released its promised Windows drives. For now, Windows 10 is supported, but Valve is promising support for Windows 11, as soon as the company has incorporated fTPM into the device UEFI. Dual-boot isn't supported at this point in time, but this is something that Valve is also working on and is promising to deliver in SteamOS 3. In addition to the Windows drivers, Valve also added instructions on how to do a system recovery to get SteamOS back on the device, if Windows isn't for you on the Steam Deck.

The driver release includes drivers for the GPU, WiFi and Bluetooth, but audio drivers are missing for now. Valve suggests that those wanting to use Windows on their Steam Deck either use Bluetooth for audio, or rely on USB-C until the company has finished the drivers. This means that no sound will come out of the speaker or 3.5 mm audio jack for the time being. Valve will not offer any kind of Windows support, so it's up to you to get it installed and working on the Steam Deck.

A few days ago, we found out that NVIDIA corporation has been hacked and that attackers managed to steal around 1 TB of sensitive data from the company. This includes various kinds of files like GPU driver and GPU firmware source codes and something a bit more interesting. The LAPSUS$ hacking group responsible for the attack is now threatening to "help mining and gaming community" by releasing a bypass solution for the Lite Hash Rate (LHR) GPU hash rate limiter. As the group notes, the full LHR V2 workaround for anything between GA102-GA104 is on sale and is ready for further spreading.

Additionally, the hacking group is making blackmailing claims that the company should remove the LHR from its software or share details of the "hw folder," presumably a hardware folder with various confidential schematics and hardware information. NVIDIA did not respond to these claims and had no official statement regarding the situation other than acknowledging that they are investigating an incident.Update 01:01 UTC: The hackers have released part of their files to the public. It's a 18.8 GB RAR file, which uncompresses to over 400,000 (!) files occupying 75 GB, it's mostly source code.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of GeForce Game-Ready drivers. Version 511.79 WHQL comes with optimization for "Elden Ring," "Destiny 2: The Witch Queen," "GRID Legends," "Martha is Dead" and "Total War: Warhammer III." Reflex support is added to iRacing. The drivers fix a display corruption with "Call of Duty: Vanguard" and "Assassins Creed Valhalla." Color flashing in "Battlefield 2042" has been fixed. An application-launch issue with Corel Paint Shop Pro X has been fixed. A bug affecting G-SYNC re-enabling on compatible monitors once disabled, has been fixed. Digital vibrance resets when the monitor goes to sleep.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 511.79 WHQL

Mesh shader is a relatively new concept of a programmable geometric shading pipeline, which promises to simplify the whole graphics rendering pipeline organization. NVIDIA introduced this concept with Turing back in 2018, and AMD joined with RDNA2. Today, thanks to the finds of Phoronix, we have gathered information that Intel's DG2 GPU will carry support for mesh shaders and bring it under Vulkan API. For starters, the difference between mesh/task and traditional graphics rendering pipeline is that the mesh edition is much simpler and offers higher scalability, bandwidth reduction, and greater flexibility in the design of mesh topology and graphics work. In Vulkan, the current mesh shader state is NVIDIA's contribution called the VK_NV_mesh_shader extension. The below docs explain it in greater detail:

Vulkan API documentationThis extension provides a new mechanism allowing applications to generate collections of geometric primitives via programmable mesh shading. It is an alternative to the existing programmable primitive shading pipeline, which relied on generating input primitives by a fixed function assembler as well as fixed function vertex fetch.

There are new programmable shader types—the task and mesh shader—to generate these collections to be processed by fixed-function primitive assembly and rasterization logic. When task and mesh shaders are dispatched, they replace the core pre-rasterization stages, including vertex array attribute fetching, vertex shader processing, tessellation, and geometry shader processing.

BIOSTAR today, introduces the SMART UPDATE utility tool for users to update their BIOS and essential motherboard drivers hassle-free. Initially supporting the 600 series and above motherboards, BIOSTAR's new SMART UPDATE tool makes updating BIOS and system drivers a breeze for even the less tech-savvy users. One-click update has never been a more appropriate description for any utility software, with a single click of the mouse, users can download and install official drivers, BIOS, and new driver updates from BIOSTAR's official website. The BIOSTAR Smart Utility tool along with complete installation instructions can be found at the link below.