Intel Arc GPUs receive gaming performance upgrade with support for DirectX 9

Intel has released its latest drivers for Arc graphics cards that offer some massive GPU performance optimizations, especially in DirectX 9-enabled games.

In their latest blog, Intel showed us the performance comparison between their latest Arc driver set (v3959) and how it compares to October’s previous driver set (v3490).

Intel used the Arc A770, its flagship graphics card based on the GPU Alchemist architecture, for testing and the results are simply spectacular.

Today’s driver release brings a new DX9 implementation to Intel Arc graphics products, including the A770, A750, A380, and our family of mobile Arc GPUs. We use a hybrid approach, meaning a combination of API techniques, to take advantage of translation layers when a better experience can be provided using one of our more modern API implementations.

These enhancements will be delivered transparently to the end user through our normal driver distribution process. The details of this implementation may change over time as our DX9 driver evolves.

Via Intel

According to Intel, the latest drivers are specifically designed to increase performance in DX9 (DirectX 9) games. The company used several popular titles, most of which are still played by many eSports gamers.

The biggest increase in performance occurs in CSGO, with a performance jump of 80% at HD (1080p) resolution on High settings and a 77% increase at 1440P on Ultra settings. According to Intel’s Ryan Shrout, the performance gain is as high as 2.3x in CSGO when you get the 99th percentile numbers.

Very proud of the engineering teams getting some dramatic DX9 performance improvements for Intel Arc graphics in a very short timeline. 1.8x avg FPS increase and 2.3x 99th percentile FPS increase in CS:GO!!! https://t.co/oTJj31odV9

—Ryan Shrout (@ryanshrout) December 7, 2022

But that’s not all, Intel has already said that it is committed to its plans for Arc GPUs and to providing an optimized experience for gamers. In a tweet, Raja Koduri said there’s “even more to come,” so these kinds of performance improvements are just the beginning of Arc’s good wine journey. We’ll definitely keep you posted as more Arc performance improvements come our way in the coming months.