New Intel Arc driver improves frame rates by up to 174%, adds support for 'Horizon Forbidden West'

Aaron Klotz
·3 min read
Horizon Forbidden West PC.
Horizon Forbidden West PC.

Intel is back again with another massive performance-improving driver update for its Arc A-series graphics cards and Iris Xe iGPUs. Driver 31.0.101.5379 adds game support for Horizon Forbidden West, The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Diablo IV's new ray tracing update, and driver optimizations for 16 titles in total.

The majority of game optimizations apply to Arc A-series discrete graphics cards. However several games have also seen performance improvements with Arc integrated graphics currently found in Intel's Core Ultra Meteor Lake CPUs.

Games that have improved on Arc A-series graphics cards with this latest driver update are Assassin's Creed Origins (DX11), Conqueror's Blade (DX11), Detroit: Become Human (Vulkan), Dragon's Dogma 2 (DX12), Fortnite (DX12), God of War (DX11), Granblue Fantasy: Relink (DX11), Horizon Forbidden West (DX12), and Sons of the Forest (DX11).

The highest-performing games include Detroit: Become Human, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and Conqueror's Blade. In Detroit: Become Human, performance has improved by 137% at 1080p Ultra settings and 172% at 1440p Ultra settings. In Grandblue Fantasy performance has improved by 174% at 1080p Ultra settings. Performance has improved by up to 54% at 1080p on the highest settings in Conqueror's Blade.

Games that have improved on Arc integrated graphics are Assassin’s Creed Origins (DX11), Conqueror's Blade (DX11), Dragon's Dogma 2 (DX12), Fortnite (DX12), God of War (DX11), Granblue Fantasy: Relink (DX11), and Sons of the Forest (DX11).

The performance improvements on Arc iGPUs aren't as high as on their discrete graphics card counterparts, but performance improvements are still quite good. For instance, in Assassin's Creed Origins performance has improved by 117% at 1080P medium settings. In Granblue Fantasy: Relink, performance has improved by 29% at 1080P standard settings. In Conqueror's Blade performance has improved by 27% at 1080P medium settings.

Here's how Intel lists the performance improvements on Arc A-Series graphics:

  • Assassin’s Creed Origins* (DX11) 

    • Up to 35% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings

  • Conqueror’s Blade* (DX11)

    • Up to 54% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Highest settings

  • Detroit: Become Human* (VK)

    • Up to 137% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings

    • Up to 172% average FPS uplift at 1440p with Ultra settings

  • Dragon’s Dogma 2* (DX12)

    • Up to 36% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings and Progressive Rendering Mode

    • Up to 31% average FPS uplift at 1440p with High settings and Progressive Rendering Mode

  • Fortnite* (DX12) 

    • Up to 6% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Epic settings

    • Up to 6% average FPS uplift at 1440p with Epic settings

  • God of War* (DX11) 

    • Up to 36% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings

  • Granblue Fantasy: Relink* (DX11) 

    • Up to 174% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings

  • Horizon Forbidden West* (DX12) 

    • Up to 6% average FPS uplift at 1440p with High settings

  • Sons of the Forest* (DX11) 

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

    • Up to 9% average FPS uplift at 1440p with High settings

And here are improvements on Arc graphics on Intel Core Ultra mobile processors:

  • Assassin’s Creed Origins* (DX11)

    • Up to 117% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Medium settings

  • Conqueror’s Blade* (DX11)

    • Up to 27% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Medium settings

  • Dragon’s Dogma 2* (DX12)

    • Up to 18% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Low settings and Progressive Rendering Mode

  • Fortnite* (DX12)

    • Up to 6% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings

  • God of War* (DX11)

    • Up to 17% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Original settings

  • Granblue Fantasy: Relink* (DX11)

    • Up to 29% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Standard settings

  • Sons of the Forest* (DX11)

    • Up to 5% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Low settings