Intel promises significant performance improvement in Arc GPUs and DirectX 9 games

Intel is releasing a new driver version for its Arc Alchemist GPUs that should bring noticeable performance improvements in DirextX 9 games. It was already known that the Arc GPUs performed less well in combination with the older APIs.

Intel shows based on our own findings the performance of the Arc A770 in six popular DirextX 9 games, comparing the October release driver (v3490) and the new v3959 driver that specifically targets DirectX 9. These are Guild Wars 2, Payday 2, Stellaris, Starcraft 2, League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In terms of average frame rate, CS:GO saw an improvement of nearly 80 percent; the other games scored somewhat lower in relative terms.

According to Intel, there is a noticeable improvement in the number of frames per second, especially with League of Legends and CS:GO. At 1440p and the graphics settings on ultra, the average frame rate in CS:GO with the old driver would be 179fps, while with the new driver it is 317fps. With League of Legends that goes from 228 to 346fps. As for the 99th percentiles, the relative improvement is with CS:GO 2.15 at 1440p and ultra settings, which should mean better frame times and therefore noticeably smoother gameplay.

Intel acknowledges that the DirectX 9 experience “needed more attention.” It was already known that the video cards were not well optimized for older graphics APIs such as DirectX 11 and older. Until now, Intel has had to use API translation layers to support older DirectX 9 titles through DirectX 12. Popular games like CS:GO still use it.

These translation layers are not all deleted; Intel says it uses multiple ways to get the best results per game. In that sense, v3959 is a driver version that should also be seen as a starting point; this driver does not immediately bring native support to every DirectX 9 title. For some games that will be the case, but for others the translation layers are still used.