Intel Arc graphics driver adds Hellblade 2 support and boosts Starfield performance on Arc GPUs

Intel has released Intel Graphics Driver 31.0.101.5522 (WHQL Certified) for its Arc graphics cards for desktop and mobile Intel Core Ultra processors. It brings day one support for this week's big PC release, the highly anticipated Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, alongside optimizations for Starfield's big May 2024 update and support for Wuthering Waves and Ubisoft's XDefiant.

Starfield performance for Intel Arc GPUs has been something of a disappointment for months, so it's good to see progress being made here - with Intel noting that desktop Arc owners should see an 8% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings and a 7% average FPS uplift at 1440p with High settings. It's not a game-changer, like some previous Arc driver releases that have brought massive 100%+ improvements, but welcome nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the driver's release notes still list several outstanding Known Issues related to games like No Rest of the Wicked, DOOM Eternal, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora crashing and software like the popular video more upscale Topaz Video AI having issues exporting videos.

Intel divides the Known Issues into two categories: Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products (discrete desktop Arc GPUs) and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc. Here are the Release Notes for the latest Intel Game On Graphics Driver.

Gaming Highlights:

Intel Game On Driver support on Intel Arc™ A-series Graphics GPUs and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs for:

• Senua's Saga: Hellblade II
• Starfield May Update
• Wuthering Waves
• XDefiant

Game performance improvements on Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products versus Intel 31.0.101.5448 software driver for:

Starfield May Update (DX12)

• Up to 8% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
• Up to 7% average FPS uplift at 1440p with High settings

Known Issues:

Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:

• No Rest for the Wicked (DX11) may experience intermittent application crash during gameplay.
• Enshrouded (VK) may experience application crash during gameplay.
• Doom Eternal (VK) may exhibit intermittent flickering corruptions in game menu and during gameplay.
• PugetBench Extended Preset Benchmark may fail to complete on certain Adobe Premiere Pro* Processing Tests.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors when exporting videos after using some models for video enhancements.

Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

• Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora (DX12) may experience a crash during game loading.
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (DX12) may experience an application crash on loading to gameplay.
• PugetBench Extended Preset Benchmark may fail to complete on certain Adobe Premiere Pro* Processing Tests.
• Blender may experience an application crash while rendering some scenes on certain system memory configurations.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors on running certain benchmark tests.
• Procyon AI may experience an application crash while running benchmark with precision float32.
• Topaz Video AI may experience errors when exporting videos after using certain models for video enhancements.
• Launching a game with Endurance Gaming engaged may result in VSync persisting on after disengaging Endurance Gaming during gameplay. A workaround is to relaunch the application.

Intel Arc Control Fixed Issues:

• Arc Control may show intermittent error when trying to enable Virtual Camera and camera preview on Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs.

Intel Arc Control Known Issues:

• Arc Control Studio capture recording file may become corrupted when the mouse cursor is enabled during HDR capture.
• Schedule Updates for Drivers may not work intermittently.[