On March 19, Intel updated its “Game On” driver for Arc & Iris Xe graphics hardware, moving to version 32.0.101.6651 non-WHQL (not tested by Windows Hardware Quality Labs but still signed by Microsoft) — now available for download directly from Intel.com.
The new driver supports Intel’s latest Arc B-Series “Battlemage” graphics cards, like the ultra-affordable B570 and B580 that target 1440p gaming alongside previous-generation Arc A-Series “Alchemist” cards and integrated GPUs found in Core Ultra Series 1 and recent Core Ultra Series 2 mobile processors.
Game-specific benefits include launch support for the refined appeals of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, meaning Intel Arc owners can jump right into the game today. Still, the most significant perk comes to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 fans who upgrade from driver version 32.0.101.6647.
FPS boosts for Black Ops 6 on Intel Arc B-Series
If you’re running an Intel Arc B570 or B580 GPU in your gaming desktop PC, whether a first-party card or from an OEM like Sparkle or ASRock, Intel boasts “up to 15% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Extreme settings” in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 or “up to 12%” if you bump the resolution to 1440p.
Unfortunately, it does come with a caveat for those using Intel Arc A-Series GPUs like the RTX 3060-rivaling A750, in that Black Ops 6 can render “darker than expected” shadows in various areas of the campaign when using DirectX 12.
Fans of Warzone 2.0 might run into similar problems with DX12 on Intel Arc B-Series desktop cards and integrated Core Ultra Series 2 chips as “corruptions on water areas in certain scenarios” are reported under a list of known issues.
As far as driver bugs go, these are relatively minor and shouldn’t be too distracting to most players, at least if the water corruption bug doesn’t appear in multiplayer maps — something we’ll try and check first-hand.
Patch notes
Gaming highlights
Intel Game On Driver support on Intel Arc B-series, A-series Graphics GPUs and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs for:
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Game performance improvements on Intel Arc B-series Graphics GPUs versus Intel 32.0.101.6647 software driver for:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12)
- Up to 15% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Extreme settings
- Up to 12% average FPS uplift at 1440p with Extreme settings
Fixed issues
Intel Arc B-Series Graphics Products:
- Black Myth: Wukong (DX12) may experience application crash while running benchmark with Full Ray Tracing turned on.
Known issues
Intel Arc B-Series Graphics Products:
- Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 (DX12) may exhibit corruptions on water areas in certain scenarios.
- MLPerf may exhibit intermittent errors when running on multi-GPU system configurations. It is recommended to disable integrated
- GPU as a workaround.
- Topaz Labs Photo AI may exhibit corruptions with certain image enhancement operations.
- SPECapc for Maya 2024 may experience intermittent application freeze during benchmark.
- PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience an application crash while running the benchmark.
- Adobe Lightroom Classic may experience lower than expected performance. Workaround is to set recommended preferences in the application
- Under Edit, Preferences, Performance options, choose Graphics Processor as “Custom”
- Select “Use GPU for Display”, “Use GPU for Image Processing” and “Use GPU for Export” options.
Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12) may exhibit darker than expected shadows in certain campaign scenarios.
- Topaz Gigapixel AI may experience intermittent crash while exporting images.
- PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience an application crash while running the benchmark
Intel Core Ultra Series 1 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:
- PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience errors intermittently with benchmark preset set to Extended
Intel Core Ultra Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc™ GPUs:
- Adobe Premiere Pro may exhibit corruption in the output video after performing 8K AV1 Encode.
- PugetBench for Davinci Resolve Studio V19 may experience errors intermittently with benchmark preset set to Extended.
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered(DX11) may experience intermittent crash during gameplay.
- Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 (DX12) may exhibit corruptions on water areas in certain scenarios.
- GFXBench benchmark may experience application crash in certain scenarios.
