How in the world are Intel GPUs still improving so much? The latest driver update claims up to a 31% fps improvement in Resident Evil Requiem

Intel graphics don’t get much screen time against the weight of AMD and Nvidia, but say what you want about Arc GPUs, they just keep on improving. This is clear enough from the latest driver, the release notes for which claim some significant performance improvements in certain games.

The release notes for WHQL driver 32.0.101.9150 (PDF warning) claim a whopping 31% average fps uplift in Resident Evil Requiem at 1080p on medium settings for Core Ultra 2 (Lunar Lake) integrated Arc GPUs. That drops just a couple of per cent to 29% when on high settings.

There are other big boosts too: 18% for Assassin’s Creed Shadows at 1080p, high settings, and 11% for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla at 1080p on high, plus some more smaller boosts.

Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) integrated GPUs get a more moderate boost of 5% for F1 25 at 1080p on medium settings. And Arc B-series graphics cards get a 6% boost in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Monster Hunter Rise, both at 1440p on high settings.

Nothing quite as big as the uplift Lunar Lake supposedly sees, but still enough to show that there’s a ‘fine wine’ element across the Arc stack. Although based on our experience here at PC Gamer, it’s less of a case of ‘good to great’ and more ‘temperamental to reliable’.

Lowest price per GPU

We’ve been measuring the lowest available price of each current-gen GPU since August 14, 2025.

Lowest pricing (Price, $)

Week
Lowest pricing Data
Timestamp (Week)Nvidia RTX 5080 (Price, $)Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti (Price, $)Nvidia RTX 5070 (Price, $)Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB (Price, $)Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB (Price, $)Nvidia RTX 5060 (Price, $)Nvidia RTX 5050 (Price, $)AMD RX 9070 XT (Price, $)AMD RX 9070 (Price, $)AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (Price, $)AMD RX 9060 XT 16 GB (Price, $)AMD RX 9060 XT 8 GB (Price, $)Intel Arc B580 (Price, $)Intel Arc B570 (Price, $)
11100780550430368300250700600N/A370280260230
21099750550430340300250700600N/A370270260230
31000750524430370291250700550N/A370280250230
41000750546430345296250695550N/A370280250230
51000749481430340300250670600N/A350270250230
6929749499379340289240670600N/A350270250230
7999750520430350299240650550N/A350270250230
8980749500430342299250650550N/A350270250200
9999750500430323299250650560N/A350270250220
10989730480430340299250600550N/A360270250210
11990699489400320280230600550N/A340250250200
12989730500400320279220600530N/A350275250200
131000750527420342279220600530N/A350280250200
141000750540420313279220600530N/A370280250202
151000749499430350279200600530N/A380288240202
161100750499430350270200620530N/A380288240202
171230750549430330260235660580N/A390310250200
181268829540450330290240700580N/A390310250200
191380899549450330299240720580N/A400310260200
2013501000620520330299240720600N/A440310290200
211365950620520351299260730590N/A440350290250
221365950620520360299260730630N/A400346300250
231290950630520360340260730630N/A440346300250
241290950625520360340260730620N/A440346300250
251250950630550360349260730610N/A440346300250
261260950604550360349290730610N/A440340300250
271290950640570360349290730630N/A440340300250
281250900630515390349290720620N/A440346290250
291290990636500390349290710620N/A449350290250
301290990630500390330290710620N/A440350290260
311290990599500380330290670620N/A440350290260
321290990599515380310290710620N/A430360290260
331290980599490400349290710600N/A430360290260
341270980599550380349290710620N/A440360290260
351290900599550380350290700600N/A430360304260
361250980599550370340290700600550440360300260
371250980599570370340290700600550440350304250
381250980599570370340290700600550440350304250
391250920599570330340290700600500400360298250
401250955599565330340290700600500430360291260
411250900560560330339290700600500430360290250
421250950550570380350290690635550450360290260
4312901030755650420359299720650500470370310260
4414791088763780420N/A299720650500470400310260
4515501150800773389359299730630530460360310260
4615501150759570389359299740650530470400310260
4714501150725570389359299740650520470409310260
4814501150779780389359N/A760650500470430330260
4916531150779780488380310760667570500450330260

When our Dave reviewed the Intel Arc B580, he concluded that it’s a great budget GPU when it works, but there are games where it doesn’t perform well and some where it doesn’t work at all. Things have improved since then, but Intel GPUs are still more inconsistent than Nvidia and AMD ones.

Both Intel Lunar Lake (eg, Arc 140V) and more recent Panther Lake (eg, Arc B390) are very efficient GPUs that make for some snappy laptops—especially the latter. But there’s always a risk of inconsistency in games, and giant performance improvements from driver updates testify to this.

Still, the continued improvement is great to see, even for older Arc GPUs. Especially considering Intel graphics cards are some of the cheapest modern ones and have managed to stave off a lot of the impact of the global memory shortage. As you can see from the chart above, the cheapest Arc B570 and Arc B580 cards have stayed relatively stable in price, and very cheap for the current market.

At any rate, whether you’re rocking a discrete Intel GPU or some integrated Arc graphics, you might want to check out your performance in some of those games after an update. You can download the latest driver here.

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