Intel is engaged in improving drivers for its latest graphics processing technologies, more specifically those integrated with Xe technology and dedicated Arc. The chip giant has yet to improve to catch up with NVIDIA and AMD Radeon, and in addition to adding features like DirectStorage and tweaking things like using DXVK instead of D3D9on12 for Direct3D 9 instruction execution, the chip giant has unified in the same package the drivers for the integrated graphics of generations 11, 12 and 13 of its processors and the dedicated Intel Arc.
With the update of its graphics drivers to version 31.0.101.4032, “Intel Graphics Driver” has ceased to exist as such and in its place a package is now offered for the integrated Xe graphics and the dedicated Arc graphics. There is also another package, version 31.0.101.2115, for 6th through 10th generation Intel processors.
It may come as a surprise to some that, unlike NVIDIA, Intel don’t make a distinction between desktop-oriented and laptop-oriented products, which means that Intel’s driver packages support both types of computers. This approach is probably more familiar to Linux users, who are used to drivers for all brands and all devices being present in the kernel and Mesa with the exception of NVIDIA, which goes free.
Drivers 31.0.101.4032 provide various fixes when running the following software: PayDay 2 on DirectX 9 and God of War on DirectX 11 on Intel Arc on the one hand and Battlefield 2042 on DirectX 12, Watch Dogs: Legion on DirectX 12, Hitman 3 on DirectX 12 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on DirectX 12 when running on top of the integrated processor.
This move by Intel will help facilitate support for when users want to download the graphics drivers from their website. From now on all modern brand graphics processors should be supported with a single package.
