Intel is currently releasing updated drivers for a number of their latest Intel HD integrated graphics processors. Driver versions 15.40.25.4463 and 15.40.25.64.4463 include numerous fixes for “hangs, crashes, and graphics corruptions across a wide spectrum of games and applications.”
Systems receiving the update
The updates are applicable to a range of devices relying on Intel HD. The range of devices spans from the most recent generation processors in the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, to 4th Generation Intel Core Processors which may still be running Windows 7. The full list of applicable CPUs with Intel HD Graphics are:
- 6th Generation Intel® Core processors, Intel Core™ M, and related Pentium® processors with Intel® HD Graphics 510, 515, 520, 530, Intel® Iris™ Graphics 540, Intel® Iris™ Graphics 550, and Intel® Iris™ Pro Graphics 580.
- Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1500M v5 family with Intel® HD Graphics P530.
- 5th Generation Intel® Core processors with Intel HD Graphics 5500, 5600, 6000, Intel Iris™ Graphics 6100, Iris Pro Graphics 6200 and select Pentium®/ Celeron® processors with Intel® HD Graphics
Intel® Core™ M with Intel HD Graphics 5300.- 4th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors with Intel HD Graphics 4200, 4400, 4600, 5000, Intel Iris™ Graphics 5100 and Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 and select Pentium®/ Celeron® Processors with Intel® HD Graphics.
- Pentium, Celeron, and Atom processors based on Braswell and CherryTrail.
The Fixes
The update includes fixes a number of errors, crashes and graphics hangups. Notably, this should make gaming a lot smoother for gamers playing recent popular titles. Some of the games which should benefit from this update are: Just Cause 3, Forza Apex, The Witness, XCOM 2, Ark Survival: Evolved, Doom (2016), Rise of the Tomb Raider, F1 2015, Witcher 3 The Wild Hunt: Hearts of Stone, Day Z, Arma III, and League of Legends.
The update also fixes graphics issues for many non-gaming features. Some of the features fixed for Windows 10 devices include:
- System may hang while resuming from Sleep/Hibernation while using WiDi
- System may crash while playing video in 3D mode on PowerDVD
- System may crash when playing back videos over WiDi or Miracast
- File explorer may hang when right-clicking on a large file and moving the mouse over the ‘Open With’ menu option
- Scaling issue, Black Borders problem in Windows 10® – Stuck at ‘Constrain proportions’
- Screen may not rotate in full-screen mode and other miscellaneous issues with screen rotation
Intel’s update is pretty extensive and reaches a wide range of devices. Hopefully, this updates also gets a great number of devices ready for the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary update, as most of the fixes were specifically for Windows 10. Though some of the fixes were still supporting Windows 8.1 and Windows 7.
The Known Issues
There are however some known issues remain. First, Intel HD writes in the notes for the update that “The DirectX 12 API is supported but some optional features may not be available,” but mostly because of specific hardware configs. Also, there are a number of games and which are still experiencing issues with Intel HD graphics. The known issues include:
- Graphics corruption may be observed in Rise of the Tomb Raider*, Fallout 4*, FIFA 16*, Act of Aggression*, Mortal Kombat X*, Far Cry Primal*, and other games.
- Crash or hang may occur in Doom (2016)*, Ashes of the Singularity*, FIFA 16*, Batman Arkham Knight*, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate*, Vendetta: Curse of Raven’s Cry*, Quantum Break*, Kishonti CompuBench* benchmark and other games or apps.
- Game may return to desktop during gameplay on H1Z1: Just Survive*, Fallout 4* and other games.
- Game gets dimmed on Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars*.
- Flickering may be seen on GFXBench 4.0*.
- Two active taskbars may appear when DisplayPort monitor attached to the system is unplugged while in extended desktop display configuration.
To read the entire list of CPUs receiving the update, issues fixed by the update, and known issues, you can read the update’s release notes here (via a PDF).
