More on the tableĭX9 was the killer for Intel’s GPUs at launch, but there are still performance optimizations on the table. Similarly, Payday 2 saw around a 45% boost going from the launch driver to the latest version with the Arc A750 based on my testing. In Counter-Strike Global Offensive, I measured around 190 frames per second (fps) with the launch driver and 395 fps with the latest driver a 108% increase. Intel essentially started from scratch, implementing native DX9 support and leverage translation tools like DXVK - a Vulkan-based translation layer for DX9. Performance was left on the table, with less powerful GPUs sometimes offering twice the performance of Intel’s graphics cards in DX9 games. Petersen said he believes Intel “did the right thing at the time,” but D3D9on12 proved to be too inefficient. Originally, Intel used D3D9on12 for DX9, which is a translation layer that uses DirectX 12 to understand DirectX 9 instructions. Petersen explained that with DX12, “it’s less likely that our driver is doing anything suboptimal because there’s a more direct connection between the game developer and our platform.” DX12 and Vulkan are low-level APIs, giving more clear access to the hardware while a developer is creating a game and taking some pressure off the driver. That means it’s more generalized than a modern API, placing more strain on the driver to squeeze out performance optimizations.

The problem with DX9 compared to modern APIs like DX12 and Vulkan is that it’s a high-level API. It’s considered a legacy API at this point, but a large swath of games are still designed to run on DX9, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, League of Legends, and Guild Wars 2. Intel’s problems mainly focused around DirectX 9.

That’s why an AMD driver won’t work for an Nvidia graphics card, or an Intel driver won’t work for an AMD one.

The driver comes after, taking those standardized instructions and optimizing them for a particular hardware architecture. We’re not in a GPU shortage, but it sure feels like oneĪn API like DirectX takes instructions from the game and translates them into a standardized set of commands that any graphics card can understand. I built a couch gaming PC that puts the PS5 to shame - and you can too Fitbit Versa 3ĪI is coming for your PC games, but you should be excited, not worried

Intel gpu driver update