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, $)

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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, $)
1 1100 780 550 430 368 300 250 700 600 N/A 370 280 260 230
2 1099 750 550 430 340 300 250 700 600 N/A 370 270 260 230
3 1000 750 524 430 370 291 250 700 550 N/A 370 280 250 230
4 1000 750 546 430 345 296 250 695 550 N/A 370 280 250 230
5 1000 749 481 430 340 300 250 670 600 N/A 350 270 250 230
6 929 749 499 379 340 289 240 670 600 N/A 350 270 250 230
7 999 750 520 430 350 299 240 650 550 N/A 350 270 250 230
8 980 749 500 430 342 299 250 650 550 N/A 350 270 250 200
9 999 750 500 430 323 299 250 650 560 N/A 350 270 250 220
10 989 730 480 430 340 299 250 600 550 N/A 360 270 250 210
11 990 699 489 400 320 280 230 600 550 N/A 340 250 250 200
12 989 730 500 400 320 279 220 600 530 N/A 350 275 250 200
13 1000 750 527 420 342 279 220 600 530 N/A 350 280 250 200
14 1000 750 540 420 313 279 220 600 530 N/A 370 280 250 202
15 1000 749 499 430 350 279 200 600 530 N/A 380 288 240 202
16 1100 750 499 430 350 270 200 620 530 N/A 380 288 240 202
17 1230 750 549 430 330 260 235 660 580 N/A 390 310 250 200
18 1268 829 540 450 330 290 240 700 580 N/A 390 310 250 200
19 1380 899 549 450 330 299 240 720 580 N/A 400 310 260 200
20 1350 1000 620 520 330 299 240 720 600 N/A 440 310 290 200
21 1365 950 620 520 351 299 260 730 590 N/A 440 350 290 250
22 1365 950 620 520 360 299 260 730 630 N/A 400 346 300 250
23 1290 950 630 520 360 340 260 730 630 N/A 440 346 300 250
24 1290 950 625 520 360 340 260 730 620 N/A 440 346 300 250
25 1250 950 630 550 360 349 260 730 610 N/A 440 346 300 250
26 1260 950 604 550 360 349 290 730 610 N/A 440 340 300 250
27 1290 950 640 570 360 349 290 730 630 N/A 440 340 300 250
28 1250 900 630 515 390 349 290 720 620 N/A 440 346 290 250
29 1290 990 636 500 390 349 290 710 620 N/A 449 350 290 250
30 1290 990 630 500 390 330 290 710 620 N/A 440 350 290 260
31 1290 990 599 500 380 330 290 670 620 N/A 440 350 290 260
32 1290 990 599 515 380 310 290 710 620 N/A 430 360 290 260
33 1290 980 599 490 400 349 290 710 600 N/A 430 360 290 260
34 1270 980 599 550 380 349 290 710 620 N/A 440 360 290 260
35 1290 900 599 550 380 350 290 700 600 N/A 430 360 304 260
36 1250 980 599 550 370 340 290 700 600 550 440 360 300 260
37 1250 980 599 570 370 340 290 700 600 550 440 350 304 250
38 1250 980 599 570 370 340 290 700 600 550 440 350 304 250
39 1250 920 599 570 330 340 290 700 600 500 400 360 298 250
40 1250 955 599 565 330 340 290 700 600 500 430 360 291 260
41 1250 900 560 560 330 339 290 700 600 500 430 360 290 250
42 1250 950 550 570 380 350 290 690 635 550 450 360 290 260
43 1290 1030 755 650 420 359 299 720 650 500 470 370 310 260
44 1479 1088 763 780 420 N/A 299 720 650 500 470 400 310 260
45 1550 1150 800 773 389 359 299 730 630 530 460 360 310 260
46 1550 1150 759 570 389 359 299 740 650 530 470 400 310 260
47 1450 1150 725 570 389 359 299 740 650 520 470 409 310 260
48 1450 1150 779 780 389 359 N/A 760 650 500 470 430 330 260
49 1653 1150 779 780 488 380 310 760 667 570 500 450 330 260

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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