Intel has released a new version of its Intel Graphics DCH drivers, bringing the version number up to 26.20.100.8141, up from the previous 26.20.100.7985 release. As usual, the drivers bring a few improvements for certain games, but there's a bit of news that might be much more interesting - the driver is now unlocked, according to Intel.
If you've ever downloaded graphics drivers from Intel or other companies, you'll notice that they usually warn users that the drivers they provide are generic and may not support certain custom features implemented by the manufacturer of your computer. Because of that, especially on laptops, it's often recommended that you use the OEM-provided drivers instead. With this release, Intel wants to make it easy to update your drivers between the OEM-provided drivers and its generic ones, without losing the custom features the OEM driver provides. This lets users enjoy the enhancements and new features added in each new Intel driver without losing their hardware-specific customizations. Likewise, OEMs can continue to maintain their driver customizations through Windows Update. However, this does require that your device shipped with DCH drivers and you're installing new DCH drivers. If you have pre-DCH drivers, the behavior won't change.
That's not all that's new, of course, and gamers can look forward to playing the much-praised Gears Tactics and XCOM: Chimera Squad on Intel Iris Plus GPUs. For developers, Intel is also adding initial support for the oneAPI Level Zero Specification.
The driver also comes with the usual array of bug fixes, including some crashes that may have been seen in DOOM: Eternal:
- Intermittent crashes may be seen in DOOM: Eternal* (Vulkan), The Surge 2* (Vulkan), Spark AR Studio* on 6th Generation Intel Core processors and higher.
- Black Desert Online* may exit upon loading the game on10th Generation Intel Core processors with Intel Iris® Plus graphics.
- Minor graphics anomalies may be observed in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege* (Vulkan) on 10th Generation Intel Core processors with Intel Iris® Plus graphics.
- Display Color may be observed when changing Saturation in Intel Graphics Command Center on 10th Generation Intel Core processors with Intel Iris® Plus graphics.
- Corruption observed followed by TDR while trying to maximize and minimize the content in Power DVD application.
Additionally, there are some known issues in this release, but the list is relatively short:
- Intermittent crashes may be seen in Red Dead Redemption 2* (Vulkan), BeamNG.drive*, One Piece Pirate Warriors 4*, Star Control: Origins, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan), Metro Exodus (DX12) and while launching Sony Catalyst Production Suite.
- Minor graphics anomalies may be observed in Battlefield V* (DX12), and Zombie Army 4: Dead War* (Vulkan).
As usual, this driver is available for 6th-generation Intel Core processors or newer, as well as Intel Celeron and Pentium processors with Intel HD Graphics 500, 505, 510, or 610 and Intel UHD Graphics 600 and 605. Intel Xeon E3-1500M processors with Intel HD Graphics P530, P580, and P630 are also supported. As for software, you'll need to be running Windows 10 version 1709 or newer.
You can download the latest driver from here.
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