Intel ‘Lunar Lake’ handhelds, laptops are getting a free gaming enhance

Who doesn’t like a free efficiency improve? And for those who personal a laptop computer or a handheld PC with an Intel Core Extremely 200V (Lunar Lake) chip inside, you’re getting one.

Intel stated Tuesday that the corporate’s newest graphics driver (32.0.101.6734) is providing a power-management replace that has the impact of boosting GPU efficiency by about 10 % by way of increased body fee. You’ll see it first in handhelds, particularly the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and MSI Claw 7 AI+, however it will likely be rolled out to different Lunar Lake / Core Extremely 200V methods quickly, Intel stated.

Primarily, the motive force permits increased efficiency on the default energy stage of 17W, Intel stated. There are two enhancements: the upper body fee, and a 25 % enchancment on what’s often known as the “99th percentile” body fee. The latter time period can also be typically known as “the lows” or “1 % lows,” and refers to uncommon moments when the body fee drops instantly. These uncommon moments nonetheless manifest themselves as a jitter or hitch, and might disrupt timing-driven video games — they usually simply look dangerous. Primarily, this new graphics replace will make video games run quicker, in addition to smoother.

And what video games? Intel supplied a pattern, under:

Intel has invested closely in software program driver improvement to keep away from the problems that plagued the first-gen Intel “Alchemist” GPUs,” Intel fellow Tom Petersen informed PCWorld’s The Full Nerd podcast in December. And Intel’s second-gen Arc B580 “Battlemage” GPU was primarily a tariff-buster, earlier than there have been tariffs.

For the reason that Lunar Lake chips embrace the Xe2 GPU that later ended up in Battlemage, it appears affordable that Intel’s driver replace may allow these good points. Will we see one thing comparable contained in the B580 playing cards, too?