Intel gives its Arc GPUs a beastly update DX11 games get a massive boost in performance

Last summer, Intel introduced their first consumer graphics cards, the Arc A770 and Arc A750. The reception was a bit of a mixed bag. These Arc GPUs impressed with their outstanding performance in modern DirectX 12 games and their ray tracing capabilities right out of the box. However, they stumbled when it came to delivering strong performance in traditional DX9 and DX11 games, lagging behind the competition.

But here’s the exciting part: Over the past few months, Intel’s software engineers have been hard at work addressing the major issues. They’ve been fixing bugs, plugging the gaps, and releasing updated drivers that have significantly amped up the performance in DX9 games like Counter-Strike and League of Legends.

Now, Intel is making some significant announcements. They’re unveiling a substantial enhancement in DirectX 11 gaming performance for their Arc graphics cards. Not only that, but they’re also introducing a brand-new metric called “GPU Busy.” And that’s not all – they’re rolling out their very first tool tailored for enthusiast gamers to measure performance, called PresentMon Beta.

During a chat with the press, Intel Fellow and graphics expert Tom Petersen proudly revealed that their engineers took a complete overhaul approach to their DX11 stack. This resulted in an impressive average performance improvement of around 19 per cent compared to the launch drivers of the Arc A750. And keep in mind, this boost in performance was observed when the GPU was paired with an Intel Core i5 CPU.

DX11 games are now receiving a notable boost in performance, with frame rates getting a significant lift. In the games that Intel put to the test, this performance enhancement varied – it went from a 5 per cent speedier performance in Destiny 2, all the way up to a whopping 33 per cent increase in Overwatch 2.

Petersen broke down how Intel’s driver functioned as a translator of sorts for the DirectX API commands. These commands were communicated in a language that the Arc GPUs could comprehend. The Intel team went the extra mile to cut down on the overhead that the DX11 driver used to carry in the previous versions of the Arc drivers. However, there was still a hitch – games that were more reliant on the CPU had to hold on while the processor completed its tasks before proceeding.

Then, Petersen went on to unveil a fresh GPU metric, which Intel has dubbed “GPU busy.” In any frame that gets displayed, the GPU is actually engaged and active only for a segment of the entire action. The remaining part of the action is distributed among other elements like your CPU, driver overhead, and display processes. By gauging not just the time a frame needed to be rendered, but also the duration for which your GPU was actively engaged, you’re able to grasp the extent to which various other factors are impacting your gaming performance.

None of the traditional tools for measuring frames like Nvidia Frameview, AMD’s OCAT, or MSI Afterburner are equipped to handle GPU Busy time. That’s where Intel’s PresentMon Beta software comes into play.

here’s something you might already know: Most of the measuring tools that are commonly used, actually are already using a technology called “PresentMon” to keep track of when new frames are presented on your display. PresentMon is actually an open-source technology developed by Intel.