Intel Arc graphics drivers ready for the future: Lunar Lake “Core Ultra” with integrated next-generation Arc GPUs supported

Intel has released the first drivers for the Arc 140V and Arc 130V “Xe2” iGPUs of its upcoming Lunar Lake “Core Ultra 200V” processors. On August 23, the company released a new version of the Intel Arc & Iris Xe graphics driver (version 32.0.101.5972), which includes support for the game Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as well as optimizations for Intel-based systems. However, less attention has been paid to the fact that the driver now also supports the new Xe2-based Intel Arc 130V and Arc 140V graphics units, which are integrated in the soon-to-be-released Lunar Lake processors.

The support of these new iGPUs in the drivers means that Intel is ensuring the functionality and performance of the Arc 140V and Arc 130V iGPUs in this way. However, the Lunar Lake processors themselves, which belong to the “Core Ultra 200V” series, are not yet included in the driver product list, which indicates that these processors will be released shortly, probably in the first week of September. The Intel Arc 140V and Arc 130V iGPUs are based on the Xe2 LPG architecture and are part of the Lunar Lake processors. These processors are designed for mobile platforms and are to be offered in a total of 9 variants (SKUs), each with 8 cores and 8 threads.

The differences between the various SKUs are mainly in the specifications such as clock frequency, cache size and the characteristics of the iGPUs. The Arc 130V will be included in the cheaper and mid-range Lunar Lake processors, such as the Core Ultra 5 200V chips. The Arc 140V, on the other hand, will be found in the higher-end Core Ultra 7 and Ultra 9 200V processors. These different SKUs have different clock frequencies for their iGPUs. The Arc 140V iGPU has a maximum of 8 Xe2 cores and achieves a clock frequency of 2.05 GHz in the most powerful version. The Arc 130V iGPU has 7 Xe2 cores and operates at 1.85 GHz in the Core Ultra 5 processors. The clock frequencies of the Arc 140V vary between 1.95 GHz and 2.05 GHz depending on the SKU.

Currently there are already some leaked benchmarks for the Lunar Lake processors. Recently, a benchmark result of the Intel Arc 140V was also published on Geekbench. Further information and performance data can probably be expected before the official launch of the processors on September 3rd.

Source: @momomo_us