Intel reduces graphics driver size by a factor of two
Intel managed to significantly decrease the size of their graphics driver stack.
The company announced a massive reduction in graphics driver size. The software engineering team had a task to lower the 1.3GB driver package, which was undoubtedly a considerable size for a driver. The sudden increase in the driver’s size was a result of embedding Arc Control software and Iris GPU drivers under one package a few months back.
Thanks to’ smarter compression algorithms’, the team has now managed to reduce the size from 1.3 GB to 604 MB. Although this is no doubt an impressive size reduction, it is still a large size. However, it is now on par with what AMD team offers (599MB) and much smaller than NVIDIA’s (859 MB).
Good things come in small packages — the Intel Arc graphics driver package, specifically. This latest driver release punches above its weight, now down to 604 megabytes from nearly double that when the Intel Arc desktop GPUs launch in October. Our engineers put the old 1.3GB driver download on a diet with smarter compression algorithms. This means faster updates so you can Game On even sooner with less bandwidth consumed, all with zero compromises in performance or features made.
— Intel
What may be important to note is that Intel and AMD GPU drivers support both desktop and mobile graphics, whereas NVIDIA offers two separate packages.
Intel has been very active in the driver development ever since the Arc A7 desktop GPUs were announced. The company is now often faster than AMD and NVIDIA in offering “Game On” optimized drivers for new gaming releases. The latest ‘4255’ driver is now available for download with optimizations for Diablo 4.
Source: Intel
