Intel “Fixes” its CPU overhead problems with ARC

Hardware Unboxed uncovers CPU overhead fix for Intel ARC B-series GPUs

Hardware Unboxed has confirmed that recent ARC GPU driver updates from Intel have solved the reported CPU overhead issue facing Intel’s ARC B-series graphics cards. With new driver updates, Intel has reportedly been implementing game-specific optimisations that deliver significant increases to CPU-bound performance. This significantly enhances the performance of Intel’s ARC B580 GPUs when paired with older CPUs.

Below, in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, 1% low performance is increased by 43.7% when Intel’s ARC B580 is used with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600 CPU. Average framerates are increased by 35.6%. These changes allow Intel’s ARC B580 to deliver more consistent framerates with Intel’s newest ARC GPU drivers.

Note that these performance gains are due to game-specific updates. This means that not all games will benefit from Intel’s new driver updates. However, Intel has been frequently releasing new ARC driver updates. Each of these new updates delivers game optimisations, mitigating this issue with more and more games.

(Data from Hardware Unboxed)

Clearly, Intel is taking its ARC graphics performance seriously. The ARC driver team is doing a great job. Although it may have taken some time to deliver these fixes, they have yielded strong results. Thanks to these changes, Intel’s ARC GPUs are now much easier to recommend for users of older CPUs.

You can join the discussion on Intel seemingly solving its CPU overhead issues on ARC GPUs on the OC3D Forums.