The Tech Report discusses how Intel is getting more serious about graphics for gaming. The chip giant's new 15.31 graphics driver promises performance boosts of up to 10 percent, and the new InstantAccess and PixelSync technologies deliver features that aren't even available for discrete graphics cards. Full details over here.
Intel kicked off the event by announcing the impending release of a new graphics driver, revision 15.31, due this week. (I don't see the driver available for download as I write, but it should be online in the next few days.) The firm counts this driver as the seventh update since the release of its second-gen Core processors and part of a program of continuous improvements in power efficiency and performance. The 15.31 driver promises graphics performance gains of "up to 10%," especially in specific games, and it adds support for OpenCL version 1.2. The driver will be available for Ivy Bridge-based IGPs, although it was built primarily with Haswell—oops, fourth-gen Core—in mind.