Latest Intel Graphics drivers killed OpenGL loading performances

[GCR]

A recent Intel Graphics driver update made our apps totally unusable, increasing the loading time of textures by a factor 10-100x (app starting time taking several minutes, 1s freezes during runtime pictures loading).

The problem seems to target any Xe and Arc GPUs, they have been reported on these devices and GPUs:
- HP ProBook 460 16 inch G11 Notebook PC
- HP EliteBook 1040 14 inch G9 Notebook PC
- Lenovo X1 Carbon 11th & 12th gen
- Minix Elite EU512-AI
- Core™ Ultra 5 125H
- Core™ Ultra 5 125U
- Core™ Ultra 7 155U
- Core i5 1345U

We saw the apps working fine on 32.0.101.6129, then we know versions 32.0.101.6314 up to the most recent version are problematic.

We are using OpenGL with OpenTK 3.3.3.

Rendering framerate is OK, freezes happen on assets loading. Basic applications using this tech stack runs well, so the problem probably lies in specific API calls.

Is there somewhere we can see the changelog between the last working version and first non-working one so we can assess what could be the cause?

Also could we get access to older working drivers to detect the last working version, the download page has a drop-down only showing the last 11 versions...

Details and link to a test app are in the attached files.

Best regards

Gaetan

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi GCR,

Thank you for reaching out to the Intel Community Forum. To assist us in investigating the issue, please provide the following details:

• Is the issue reproducible in the latest driver 32.0.101.6881?
• When did the issue start? Was it after a specific update?
• What are the troubleshooting steps that you tried so far?
• Have you used DDU to completely remove all residual drivers and installed a new one?
• Have you tried adjusting the graphics settings?
• Could you provide a video of the issue?

If you have any questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi GCR,

I wanted to check if you had the chance to review the questions I posted. Please let me know at your earliest convenience so that we can determine the best course of action to resolve this matter. 

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[GCR]

• Is the issue reproducible in the latest driver 32.0.101.6881?
  • Yes
• When did the issue start? Was it after a specific update?
  • Yes, as clearly stated in the original post and the report form document, it happens between 32.0.101.6129 and 32.0.101.6314 
• What are the troubleshooting steps that you tried so far?
  • Rollbacking drivers, which works if the previous driver reinstalled is an old enough version (temporary until Windows/Intel/HP/Dell starts an update with a more recent version)
• Have you used DDU to completely remove all residual drivers and installed a new one?
  • I tried it now:
    • a complete removal and installing latest 32.0.101.6881 still cause problems. 
    • a complete removal and letting Win11 reinstall factory drivers  (32.0.101.6129) works
• Have you tried adjusting the graphics settings?
  • Yes
• Could you provide a video of the issue?
  • Yes I am attaching videos I just recorded. In this video you see:
    • 32.0.101.6129 loading time of 1 minute
    • 32.0.101.6881 problematic loading time of 7 minutes.
    • Note that the captured framerate seems to suffer due to CPU or GPU charge, in reality after the loading part it performed a lot smoother than what we see.

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi GCR,

Thank you for the update. I would like to know if you're able to install the OEM drivers of each device from their manufacturer's websites. Please let me know if the issue still happens with the OEM drivers. Please ensure that a Clean Installation of Intel® Graphics Drivers is performed.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[GCR]

Hi Archie, 

Yes on a HP laptop in my company we installed new drivers from the HP website and it did not work.

The device I am actively using for testing (the one used in the video captures) is a barebone NUC-like so no custom manufacturer drivers available.

All installations were done with Clean Installation checked.

Best,

GC

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi GCR,

Thank you for the feedback. I will investigate this and will get back to you once a resolution is available. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[GCR]

Thanks. In the meantime if you want us to work on detecting which exact driver version introduced this problem, feel free to give us access to all installers between 32.0.101.6129 and 32.0.101.6314.

Best,

GCR

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi GCR,

To help us further isolate the issue, could you please confirm if you are using your company's OS image on the affected computer? I recommend trying to reinstall the operating system on one of the affected computers by creating an installation from Microsoft and performing a fully clean installation, deleting all partitions to ensure a fresh start. Afterward, please install the latest graphics driver version 32.0.101.6881 WHQL Certified (Latest) and check for any performance improvements.

Please be aware that there is a potential risk of data loss during a system reinstallation, so it's crucial to back up your files beforehand to prevent any loss of important data.

The purpose of this step is to determine if the issue persists even with a fresh copy of the Windows OS, as we need to investigate further since I haven't encountered a similar issue before, even with the latest driver.

Additionally, could you please verify the exact number of units affected by this issue? This information will help us better understand the scope of the problem.

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[GCR]

The problem spans several companies, they proabably have companies OS images. However my company uses a fresh Windows copy, it happened on a new NUC.

You mean you have not encountered this problem on your devices by testing with the application I provided ?

We are speaking of about 50 devices.

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi GCR,

Thank you for the feedback. I will be checking this first again in my end for this issue and will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you.

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi GCR,

I'm able to replicate the issue using the graphics driver version you mentioned.

To ensure I address your concern appropriately, could you please confirm if you are an application developer for this software? This information will help me determine the best course of action, as it may be more suitable to address this matter in a different forum dedicated to development-related inquiries.

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[GCR]

Thank you very much Archie, I am indeed a developer of this application so a development-related support forum might help too. I was expecting to first get access to all the drivers versions installers between 6129-6314 to first find the exact cultprit and read its changelog to understand what had changed, then I would know what to ask in a dev forum... But maybe that's something the development-related forum can more easily provide?

Best regards,

Gaetan

[ArchieD_Intel]

Hi GCR,

Thank you for the update. I will now be transferring this to Developing Games on Intel Graphics - Intel Community.

Best regards,

Archie D.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[GCR]

Hi everyone in the new forum,

So to summarize there has been a change in Intel Graphics drivers between the versions 32.0.101.6129 and 6314 that broke our applications. If you can give me a link to all the installers from version 6129 to 6314 and their changelogs I could have a chance to find out by myself what is the cause and report back to you with better details.

[GCR]

I finally found the cause of the slowdowns, it was calls to 

GL.FenceSync(...);
GL.ClientWaitSync(...)

that are hitting wait timeouts.

Of course these callbacks have never worked with Intel cards these past 10 years so we have a bool 'isIntelGraphics' to disable the whole memory synchronisation depending on the graphics hardware. Our mistake was to detect the GPU brand by checking OpenGL extensions used by Nvidia and ATI hardware, unfortunately at the end of 2024 Intel suddenly added support for this 2009 ATI extension which broke our hacky detection.

Thanks to ChatGPT, and absolutely not your support, I found out the existence of drivers version 32.0.101.6299 containing this changelog that gave some very useful hints:

This driver exposes OpenGL 4.6 with 268 OpenGL extensions for the Arc A750 (dGPU) and for the Arc Graphics (iGPU). One OpenGL extension has been added:
– GL_ATI_meminfo

Asking Intel support for a simple link to existing older drivers resulted in one month of time wasted. It is a shame how you fail big on such a low-hanging fruit.

[Arturo_Intel]

Hi, I'm glad you were able to find the cause of the problem on your end.

Just out of curiosity, the actual problem was that the Intel driver started supporting OpenGL extensions, and that caused your code to detect Intel hardware as Nvidia/AMD. I assume it started using Nvidia/AMD-only extensions.

Unfortunately, the case came to us late, and we didn't have the opportunity to help you. This forum specializes in cases like yours (from developer to developer) to help resolve issues like this. If you encounter another similar problem in the future, don't hesitate to contact us directly through this community.

We are here to support you and all developers with issues with their software and our graphics products.

[AbdulJami]

Driver update caused big slowdowns on Xe/Arc GPUs with OpenGL. Check Intel’s driver archive for older versions and report the issue to Intel support. Hopefully fixed soon!