We all know that the only way we will be able to make some sense out of this "Game Ready Driver" phenomena, is to have someone from a reputable source provide us with hard data :) ... a l337 magician maybe that dwells in the technologically powered up equivalent of Hogwarts

ZareekI personally find these game ready drivers to be a nuisance! Every damn month, I need to update my drivers! Damn, what happened to the good ole days when you went six months or more with a driver, and it just worked?

This is not 3DFx era anymore. They were using not only the drivers but their own proprietary API, GLide, which was miles better than the crappy D3D at that time, so yeah, no need for monthly drivers.

Count von SchwalbeVery true. Intel is very much still working out the issues they are having with Arc.

I don't know what it is. Real-time 3D rendering of a dynamic scene is a very complicated process with a lot of moving parts that could be specifically tailored in the driver.

I don't develop drivers, but logic tells me the basic calls in the drivers rarely change.
Intel released new drivers the other day, boasting big performance gains...
But they just fixed the basics of the driver, something that should have worked on day one -
no matter the API - and still they have great stability problems.
I know it's hard to develop a great driver, but you'll see that theirs will be plagued by same problems for at least another generation
and the one after the next perhaps.
When they first announced their discrete GPUs I wrote I'd never buy their graphics cards
and for good reason too because I had devices with their integrated graphics
and always had trouble with those devices because of those integrated graphics...
I'll write it again - I don't develop drivers - but making drivers for integrated graphics is a lot easier than for discrete GPUs,
I know that at the least.

Well, on my old laptops I had NVIDIA's discrete GPUs
so I could just disable their garbage.

Intel started at a very low place and is gradually making it`s way to the same level of NV\AMD driver wise.
Very big improvements as a result of a very low start point but nonetheless, they are consistent and that`s what matter in this time point. Seems like a solid driver team they have.
Next gen we will see if they really able to compete in the mid range, according to 'battlemage' lunch subtilty and performance.

As of this 'Intel beats..." well, let's be more modest as they are no way near any NV\AMD drives suit yet.

I sincerely hope that this is not some kind of attempt at virtue signalling from nGreedia, the company with no morals...

Prima.VeraThis is not 3DFx era anymore. They were using not only the drivers but their own proprietary API, GLide, which was miles better than the crappy D3D at that time, so yeah, no need for monthly drivers.

Yeah, think a little more recent than that, lol. Maybe I was some sort of exception, not feeling the need to constantly update my drivers. I used to only update when there was a WHQL release, but I also rarely buy a game on launch day. In fact, I think the last time I did, AAA games were only $50 on day 1.

Lol that update #2 made my day! They act like it is some ubber important matter lol

I love how in other Intel driver release posts people complain that the drivers come later than the other companies. Now, they come out first, and people say it doesn't matter etc...
smh

I still remember the time when day-0 game ready drivers didn't exist, and very few updated whenever a new version came out, as the one on the CD that came with your graphics card was good enough.

Whats so special about game ready drivers? recently seen them been tested for various games and the difference is 1-2% max but usually nothing or a regression.

chrcolukWhats so special about game ready drivers? recently seen them been tested for various games and the difference is 1-2% max but usually nothing or a regression.

Mostly they're just used as copium to excuse terrible PC versions, so that GPU companies get praise for pretending to actually try and improve the way they run. Almost nobody actually checks the differences, people just install them (myself included) hoping they do something good. ;)

Although I almost never play games at launch anymore, so I usually update every 2-3 months. And I always check the forums for issues before updating.