Intel has released a new driver update for Arc GPUs. Normally this would be nothing to shout about, but this driver reportedly delivers an average improvement of 30% on a long list of DirectX 11 titles, and is not the first driver to achieve such an improvement.

The 31.0.101.5234 (WHQL certified) driver improves average FPS by 268% on 1080p Just Cause 4 and 160% on 1080p Just Cause 3. While this distorts the overall average by 30%, several other improvements are still impressive. Notable examples include Apex Legends, which improves by an average of 26% at 1080p Ultra settings, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate, which improves by 13%.

Along with DX11 performance improvements, new drivers include "Enshrouded," "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League," "Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth," "Tekken 8," "Palworld etc.

Some love has also been given to DX12 games, with Returnal's performance improving by up to 8%; The Last Of Us Part 1 has a similar 8% increase in average FPS.

The full list of games is here:

Many of these gains are at 1080p, where the limitations of the CPU become more apparent. This points to a reduction in overhead more than anything else. Performance gains may vary when using this driver.

Along with performance gains, the driver fixes several issues with Alan Wake 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Talos Principle 2. The latter only applies to Core Ultra CPUs. However, the importance of these CPU variants is not small considering that they will be installed in gaming handhelds.

Intel's Arc GPU did not set the world on fire when it was first released, but I commend Intel for persevering with driver development. One can only imagine how differently cards like the Arc A750 and A770 would have been received if Intel had made these optimizations. That said, building drivers for gaming graphics cards is not child's play, so we are not going to judge Intel too harshly.

What really matters is whether these optimizations will be incorporated into the drivers for Intel's next generation Battlemage GPU family. We can only hope that Intel will give AMD and Nvidia a shot in the arm; healthy competition with Battlemage is what all gamers should hope for.

The 31.0.101.5234 driver supports Intel Arc A-series graphics cards, Iris Xe integrated graphics (11th generation and later), and Core Ultra processors with integrated Arc graphics.