Intel's foray back into the discrete graphics card market last year was met with cautious optimism. So far, the company hasn't disappointed. The Arc GPU, Intel's offering in a space typically dominated by AMD and Nvidia, recently saw driver updates that have incrementally improved performance, particularly in older games. However, the latest set of beta drivers, version 31.0.101.4952, has been particularly noteworthy for its unprecedented performance gains.
The new drivers have been reported to boost performance by up to 54% in games like Returnal at 1080p with epic ray tracing enabled, and by 53% in Guild Wars 2 at Ultra settings. Yakuza Zero enthusiasts can revel in a staggering 154% performance increase at 1080p ultra graphics. These numbers are impressive, but they pale in comparison to the leap in performance in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which has seen an almost unbelievable 750% increase in frames per second at 1080p maximum quality settings. This isn't a typographical error; the figure stands at a whopping 750% uplift on average.
Prior to this update, Halo's performance on the Arc GPUs was lackluster, to say the least. Content from Abe's Mission Control, a YouTube channel, revealed that at 1440p with Enhanced graphics settings, the game ran at an average of 15 fps, and the GPU utilization was a meager 13%. However, when the settings were dialed down to Performance graphics, the frame rate jumped to an average of 50 fps, with GPU utilization rising to around 40%. This stark contrast highlights the dramatic room for improvement that existed in the drivers.