It’s been six months since Intel broke into the desktop graphics card market, dominated by Nvidia and AMD in a duopoly that’s spanned greater than twenty years. You most likely know all about the Intel Arc hardware, however PCWorld’s Keith May has been meticulously documenting the opposite aspect of the equation: Intel’s graphics driver software program. In the ultimate entry of his month-to-month sequence, we see how a lot Intel has managed to enhance within the final yr.

The verdict? In quick, Intel has noticeably improved efficiency for the Arc playing cards with software program updates, because it promised to do on the launch of the road. Across a powerful eight main updates in simply six months, efficiency has been improved persistently in all kinds of video games, and the playing cards are extra secure with a now-much-better Arc Control software program suite. “The general sentiment I’ve seen so far is that Intel is, indeed, headed in the right direction,” says Keith.

Most of the video games examined on the Arc A750 and A770 confirmed an enchancment in general FPS of 5 to 10 %, with at the least some positive factors in 1 % lows indicating an enchancment of stability. Games that weren’t obtainable six months in the past have been examined with their launch driver. These outcomes weren’t common — a couple of video games like Watch Dogs Legion have been kind of static, particularly in the event that they have been working on newer tech like DirecX12. The a lot older Counter-Strike: GO noticed the largest positive factors — as much as 30 efficiency enchancment over the launch driver.

Though normal stability stored these value-driven playing cards from being a straightforward suggestion at launch, Keith says it hasn’t been a lot of an issue since then, clearing one of many greatest consumer-facing hurdles for this new participant within the GPU market. (Just make sure you enable resizable BAR, one of many essential applied sciences making these playing cards viable.) Xe Super Sampling, Intel’s reply to Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s Fixelity FX Super Resolution, can also be exhibiting promising boosts within the video games that assist it.

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