Intel's new Arc driver is Fornite Chapter 4 ready, huge gains in CS GO, LoL, NFS Unbound

Intel has released today its new graphics driver for its Arc discrete GPUs. The new driver, version 31.0.101.3959, is WHQL certified and it brings absolutely massive gains in performance in DirectX 9 titles. For example, in CS: GO, Intel says there is close to an 80% performance uplift. In League of Legends, there is around a 50% boost. It looks like Intel has integrated DXVK into its driver which is helping alleviate a lot of the overhead.

Aside from these big gains, the new software also brings optimizations for new titles including The Callisto Protocol, Fortnite Chapter 4 with Unreal Engine 5.1, and more.

You view the release notes regarding the gaming improvements below:

GAMING HIGHLIGHTS:

• Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics for:
  • World of Warcraft: Dragonflight* • Warhammer 40K: Darktide* • Marvel's Midnight Suns*
  • The Callisto Protocol*
  • Fortnite (Chapter 4/UE5.1)
• PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS:

Game performance improvements versus the Intel® 31.0.101.3490 software driver on Intel® Arc™ A770 Graphics Products for:

• League of Legends* (DX9)
  • Up to 50% using 1080p with Very High settings
  • Up to 52% using 1440p with Very High settings
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive* (DX9)
  • Up to 77% using 1080p with Very High settings & No MSAA
  • Up to 77% using 1440p with Very High settings & No MSAA
  • Up to 73% using 1080p with Very High settings & 8x MSAA
  • Up to 46% using 1440p with Very High settings & 8x MSAA
• Payday 2* (DX9)
  • Up to 8% using 1080p with Ultra settings
  • Up to 4% using 1440p with Ultra settings
• Stellaris* (DX9)
  • Up to 53% using 1080p with Ultra settings
  • Up to 45% using 1440p with Ultra settings
• Guild Wars 2* (DX9)
  • Up to 7% using 1080p with Best Appearance settings
  • Up to 7% using 1440p with Best Appearance settings
• Starcraft 2* (DX9)
  • Up to 43% using 1080p with Ultra settings
  • Up to 30% using 1440p with Ultra settings
• DOTA 2* (DX11)
  • Up to 15% using 1080p with Maximum settings
  • Up to 14% using 1440p with Maximum settings
• Far Cry New Dawn* (DX11)
  • Up to 4% using 1080p with Ultra settings
  • Up to 5% using 1440p with Ultra settings
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider* (DX11)
  • Up to 8% using 1080p with Highest settings
  • Up to 4% using 1440p with Highest settings
• League of Legends* (DX11)
  • Up to 32% using 1080p with Very High settings
  • Up to 31% using 1440p with Very High settings
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2* (DX12)
  • Up to 4% using 1080p with Ultra settings and dynamic resolution disabled.
  • Up to 5% using 1440p with Ultra settings and dynamic resolution disabled.
• Dying Light 2* (DX12)
  • Up to 5% using 1080p with High Quality settings
  • Up to 5% using 1440p with High Quality settings
• Need for Speed Unbound* (DX12)
  • Up to 91% using 1080p with Ultra settings
  • Up to 120% using 1440p with Ultra settings

Up next, we have the fixed bugs and issues in the release, followed by those issues which remain unresolved:

FIXED ISSUES:

• Victoria 3* (DX11) may exhibit ghosting corruption when applying MSAA x16 settings.
• Hearts of Iron IV* (DX11) may exhibit texture corruption when applying MSAA x16 settings.
• Stellaris* (DX9) may exhibit texture and flickering corruption during Star previews.
• Sonic Frontiers* (DX11) may experience flickering corruption on Intel® Arc™ A380 Graphics Products when Frame Rate Limit setting is set to 60. A workaround is to set Frame Rate Limit to 30.

INTEL® ARC™ CONTROL FIXED ISSUES

• Arc Control may not scale automatically and may cause some UI toggles to become unresponsive when changing from a 1080p resolution to a 4K resolution. A workaround is to revert resolution or reboot.
• Some applications may exhibit pixel corruption when Sharpening Filter is enabled globally.
• Arc Control Studio Capture may exhibit a “Selected audio device not found” error after resuming the system from sleep.

KNOWN ISSUES:

• Diablo II: Resurrected* (DX12) may cause system instability or application crash.
• Conqueror's Blade* (DX11) may experience corruption in benchmark mode.
• Call of Duty: Vanguard* (DX12) may experience missing or corrupted shadows during the Submarine mission.
• Payday 2* (DX9) may exhibit flickering corruption on specific water surfaces.
• 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® ARC™ CONTROL KNOWN ISSUES:

• Windows UAC Admin is required to install and launch Arc Control.
• Some applications may exhibit a transparent or blank window when CMAA is set to “Force ON” globally.
• A 1440p resolution selection in Arc Control Studio Capture may be unavailable when the display native resolution is 4K.
• Arc Control Studio Camera overlay position may not retain desired position and size after a system restart.
• The Arc Control Studio Camera tab may take longer than expected responsiveness upon the first navigation.
• Arc Control may report incorrect memory bandwidth value

To download the new driver, head over to Intel's official website at this link. The new driver is compatible with all Arc cards, as well as DG1, 11th, 12th and 13th Gen Intel Xe processor graphics.