Intel Graphics Driver Adds Game Optimization Control For Intel Integrated And AMD Vega GPUs

by Brandon Hill — Wednesday, February 14, 2018, 02:39 PM EDT

Intel has released a new graphics driver for the integrated GPUs included with its vast family of consumers "Core" processors. In addition to the usual performance tweaks and bug fixes, Intel announced that in this release, it's introducing a feature that automatically configures game settings based on which integrated Intel (or AMD) GPU that you have in your system.

Although Intel doesn't really go into detail about what is actually being optimized on a per-GPU basis, the feature can be found in the Game Settings menu of the latest driver. Currently supported titles aren't exactly plentiful, with the initial release covering Battlefield 1, Battlefield 4, American Truck Simulator, Call of Duty WWII, Destiny 2, DOTA 2, Grand Theft Auto V, League of Legends, Overwatch, and World of Tanks. Overwatch is a big one in that particular list, so this driver should be welcome news to eSports gaming fanatics.

We should note that Intel says that this feature is currently in beta, so functionality may be limited in some games. However, the driver does support the on-package Radeon RX Vega M GPU found in Intel's latest 8^th generation G-Series Core i5 and Core i7 processors. As we mentioned in our platform preview of Intel's new 8^th generation Core processors with Vega M graphics, performance should absolutely blow away anything that's currently available from Intel's solutions, and is on par with entry-level Pascal-based GPUs from NVIDIA.

Besides the addition of the automatic game optimization panel, the new drivers also add:

Enhanced performance of graphics workloads for 6^th Gen Core processors or higher with intelligent power management under maximum load.
Improved performance in video encoding for all codecs.
Power saving optimizations during video playback and UHD gaming is now available on all 7^th Gen Core processors and higher.

You can download the new Intel Graphics Driver for Windows (version 15.65.3.4944) right here for the 64-bit version of Windows 10.

Tags: AMD, Intel, (NASDAQ:INTC), vega m

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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