With Windows 11 22H2 launch looming right around the corner, hardware vendors like Intel and AMD are beginning to release drivers with added support for the upcoming Windows 11 feature update. Yesterday, AMD released its Adrenalin 22.7.1 driver with support for 22H2 alongside massive OpenGL performance boost just like the leaks had confirmed earlier. Nvidia should also be releasing its own 525.14 driver soon with support for Windows 11 22H2.
The move to the 22H2 feature update also means the introduction of Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version 3.1 and there is some bad news for users running Intel's older integrated graphics. The company has stated that it is ending support for its 10th Gen (Comet Lake on desktops and Ice Lake on mobile) and older processor families all the way back to 6th Gen Skylake, moving them to legacy. This essentially means Day 0 Game support is ending.
While the 6th Gen chips came out all the way back in 2015, the newer families like the 10th Gen lineup are only just a couple of years old. However, Intel did not really update its onboard GPU architecture by much since Skylake up to Comet Lake and kept using iterations of the same 500 series and 600 graphics. Therefore, users on much more newer platforms like on the 10th Gen Comet Lake are also going to lose support.
However, the company has promised that important security patches will be released from time to time. In a blog post, Intel's Gabriela Estrada writes:
As of July 27th, 2022, Intel will be moving 6th - 10th Gen Intel Processor Graphics and related Intel Atom®, Pentium®, and Celeron® processor graphics to a legacy software support model. Intel will provide software support for affected products on critical fixes and security vulnerabilities only. Software updates for these products will move to a quarterly release cadence or with software releases as needed.
The following product families are impacted by this transition:
Codenames: Skylake, Apollo Lake, Kaby Lake, Amber Lake, Coffee Lake, Whiskey Lake, Comet Lake, Gemini Lake, Ice Lake, Lakefield, Jasper Lake, Elkhart Lake.
- 10th Generation Intel® Core® processors with Intel® Iris® Plus graphics (Codename Ice Lake)
- 10th Generation Intel® Core® processors with Intel® UHD Graphics (Codename Comet Lake)
- 9th Generation Intel® Core® processors, related Pentium®/Celeron® processors, and Intel® Xeon® processors, with Intel® UHD Graphics 630 (Codename Coffee Lake-R)
- 8th Generation Intel® Core® processors, related Pentium®/ Celeron® processors, and Intel® Xeon® processors, with Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics 655 and Intel® UHD Graphics 610, 620, 630, P630 (Codename Kaby Lake-R, Coffee Lake)
- Intel Pentium® and Celeron® processor family (Codename Gemini Lake)
- 7th Generation Intel® Core® processors, related Pentium®/Celeron® processors, and Intel® Xeon® processors, with Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics 640, 650 and Intel® HD Graphics 610, 615, 620, 630, P630 (Codename Kaby Lake)
- 6th Generation Intel® Core®, Intel® Core® M, and related Pentium® processors with Intel Iris® Graphics 540, Intel® Iris® Graphics 550, Intel® Iris® Pro Graphics 580, and Intel® HD Graphics 510, 515, 520, 530 (Codename Skylake)
- Intel® Pentium® Processor family and Intel® Celeron® Processor family (Codename Jasper Lake),
- Intel® Core® Processor with Intel® Hybrid Technology (Codename Lakefield)
- Intel® Atom®, Pentium® and Celeron® processor family (Codename Elkhart Lake)
The single driver package which Intel delivers will now have two separate drivers, one for the Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake and newer which come with the UHD 700 series graphics, and another driver with the older legacy driver for 10th Gen Comet Lake up to 6th Gen Skylake CPUs (HD/UHD 500 and 600 series).
Source: Intel
Update: The first Windows 11 22H2 drivers for Intel are now available. You can find details in this article here.
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