The launch of Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics cards generated a lot of interest, and the truth is that in raw performance they ended up living up to expectations quite well, both in rasterization and with ray tracing turned on, but all of Intel’s new generations have serious performance issues with DirectX 9 games.

Someone may tell me that it is not important because we are talking about an outdated API that no one cares about, but the reality is completely different. This API is used by games that move millions of playersand who continue to have an important role in international championships. I could give you many examples, but without a doubt the most prominent ones are Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Lost Ark, Guild Wars 2 (also supports DirectX 11) and Half-Life 2.

Intel itself recognized the problem Arc Alchemist graphics cards had with old APIs (DirectX 11 and DirectX 9) and promised to improve this situation for future drivers. He didn’t give a specific date, but we knew he would be working at a fast pace to release new drivers that would put them in a more competitive position against their direct rivals, the GeForce RTX 3060 and Radeon RX 6600, and today we can finally bring you some good news, driver release news 4086.

These new drivers, available today, have significantly improved performance in DirectX 9-based games. As we can see in the attached graph, performance difference between 3490 and 4086 drivers It’s very large, although the jump that occurred in Half-Life 2 is particularly notable, where Intel is close to doubling the average frame rate per second.

In the second graph, we have the average normalized values ​​and find u10% to 77% performance improvement. The numbers speak for themselves. The “99% percentile” performance values ​​have also improved significantly and doubled the results obtained with 3490 drivers. All of these graphs reflect performance data at 1080p resolution.

When we look at the results in 1440p we also find important improvements performance, especially in games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Half-Life 2 and League of Legends. I was also taken aback by the 1% drop in Guild Wars 2 in the “99% percentile” chart, although it’s not a serious problem since its performance is on average 15% better at this resolution.

In the overall balance, we make it clear that new drivers mimprove performance by an average of 43% in DirectX 9 games using the Intel Arc Alchemist A750 and the “99% percentile” at 60%, which means that we will not only enjoy a higher frame rate per second, but it will also be much more stable (minimum peaks will be higher).

Intel Arc Alchemist A750 drops in price

The chip giant also confirmed other important details that took advantage of the launch of these new drivers. He was one of the most important Intel Arc Alchemist A750 price dropa very interesting graphics card because it plays in the same league as the GeForce RTX 3060 under rasterization and that it surpasses the Radeon RX 6000 in ray tracing.

Its introductory price was $289 and from now on it will be available for $249 (taxes not included). In Spain, its price is 379.99 euros including taxes. If a similar price reduction is applied, we can expect it to end up in the 330 euro range, a price that would make it a very competitive solution and highly recommended.

Finally, Intel highlighted the efforts it is making to support some of the most important games out there today, stating that Intel XeSS technology is already It is supported in more than 35 games, the number will continue to grow in 2023. This will be essential to make the value of your graphics cards even more competitive and to show the world that such intelligent upscaling technology really makes a difference.