Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.8629 WHQL Released

Intel has released its latest Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, version 101.8629 WHQL, introducing the gaming world to its newest Arc Pro B70 and Arc Pro B65 discrete GPUs. These new WHQL drivers primarily focus on providing gaming support for these professional-grade GPUs, which means the drivers include minimal game optimizations and retain some existing issues. Since no extensive optimization was necessary, the recently announced BMG-G31-based GPUs only required a simple driver enablement rather than the lengthy optimizations typically needed. The “Battlemage” architecture has been around for a while, so previous optimizations have already been implemented. The performance of the new GPUs is now achieved by linearly scaling the Xe2 cores within the GPU. When workstations take a break from their usual AI development or inference tasks on Arc Pro B70 GPUs, they can seamlessly transition to gaming. Interestingly, with gaming now an option, the Arc Pro B70 becomes Intel’s largest discrete GPU for gaming tasks.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc Graphics Driver 101.8629 WHQL

Highlights:

• Introducing Gaming Support for Intel Arc Pro B70, and Intel Arc Pro B65 Discrete GPUs.

Known Issues:
Intel Core Ultra Series 3 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

• The Finals (DX12) may experience an intermittent application crash.
• No Man’s Sky (VK) may exhibit corruptions on certain terrains during gameplay.
• Star Citizen (VK) may experience an application crash on game launch.
• Mafia: The Old Country (DX12) may experience an application crash during gameplay.
• Adobe Premiere Pro may experience an application crash when exporting HEVC codec based media on Microsoft Windows OS 26200.7840 or later.

Intel Arc B-Series Graphics Products:

• Call of Duty Black Ops 6 (DX12) may exhibit intermittent corruptions on certain water surfaces during gameplay.
• Dune: Awakening (DX12) may exhibit flickering corruptions during gameplay.
• Star Citizen (VK) may experience an application crash on game launch.
• PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio may experience an intermittent application crash while running the benchmark. Recommendation is to change the timeout slider to 1500 seconds or higher, to wait for each test to complete, in PugetBench benchmark settings.

Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:

• PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio may experience an intermittent application crash while running the benchmark. Recommendation is to change the timeout slider to 1500 seconds or higher, to wait for each test to complete, in PugetBench benchmark settings.

Intel Core Ultra Series 1 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

• Battlefield 6 (DX12) may exhibit intermittent corruptions on certain maps during gameplay.

Intel Core Ultra Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

• Call of Duty Black Ops 6 (DX12) may exhibit intermittent corruptions on certain water surfaces during gameplay.
• Battlefield 6 (DX12) may exhibit intermittent corruptions on certain maps during gameplay on some notebooks with Intel Core Ultra Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs.
• No Man’s Sky (VK) may exhibit corruptions on certain terrains during gameplay.

Intel Graphics Software Known Issues:

• When using the settings, preferences, reset all settings option in Windows 10 the application may experience an intermittent crash. Settings can be reset from individual pages without issue.
• Intel Graphics Software may sometimes experience a single application crash on the first re-arrange of metrics within the select metrics window. Subsequent usage will not be affected by this crash again
• Performance page in Intel Graphics Software may not hide the graphs when using the hide graphs button.
• Performance page in Intel Graphics Software may not function as expected when adding new metrics.

Intel Graphics Software Performance Tuning (BETA):

• Intel Graphics Software Performance Tuning is currently in Beta. As such, performance and features may behave unexpectedly. Intel will continue to refine the Performance Tuning software in future releases.
• In multi-GPU scenarios with two performance tuning capable devices, the performance tuning page may attempt to apply changes to one or more devices at once rather than individually based on the GPU selector.