MSI Claw gaming handheld gets firmware, GPU driver updates: up to 150% performance increase

MSI's Claw gaming handheld has received a new BIOS and GPU driver update, which boosts performance across the board by 5% to 40%, while 7 Ways to Die gets a huge 150% performance boost.

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MSI Claw w/Intel Arc GPU driver 101.5445 vs 101.5333 (source: MSI)

The company claims it has "smooth gameplay" across 100 of the most popular games on Steam, with MSI's new "106" BIOS also making it easier to update your Claw in the future. You will no longer need to use a USB flash drive to install a new BIOS, which is something you'd expect to be standard at this point... at least it's coming.

All of the benchmarks you can see in the image above are running on the Performance Mode on the MSI Claw at 1080p, with Low in-game graphics settings, XeSS upscaling set to Performance, V-Sync disabled, and the FPS limitation has been disabled.

• Read more: MSI Claw with Intel Meteor Lake APU loses to ASUS ROG Ally in gaming tests
• Read more: MSI Claw gaming handheld is official: features 7-inch 1080p 48-120Hz VRR display
• Read more: MSI Claw is the world's first Intel Core Ultra gaming handheld, full specs revealed
• Read more: ASUS ROG Ally: Ryzen Z1 Extreme is up to 37% faster than Z1 non-Extreme

MSI has also announced Intel's new Arc GPU driver capability, with the new 101.5445 drivers providing up to 150% more performance in 7 Ways to Die and a huge 40% more performance in the always-popular Grand Theft Auto V. Fortnite receives a decent 16% improvement, while Helldivers 2 is 7% faster with the MSI Claw updates.

You can read MSI's blog post on the Claw updates, and how to update your Claw to get those sweet performance upgrades right here.