New patches merged into Mesa 26.1 have reportedly improved performance on Intel's Alchemist graphics by up to 260% in specific gaming scenarios. Submitted by Intel engineer Francisco Jerez, these updates fix long-standing graphics corruption issues while enhancing efficiency. The changes primarily benefit Linux users with older Intel hardware.
Intel's open-source graphics efforts on Linux have seen a significant advancement with a series of patches submitted by engineer Francisco Jerez. Merged into the upcoming Mesa 26.1 driver, these 18 patches target graphics corruption problems on Intel's DG2-based Alchemist discrete GPUs and Meteor Lake integrated GPUs.
Originally aimed at improving stability and correctness, the updates unexpectedly deliver substantial performance gains. In particular, the NBA 2K23 game running in DirectX 11 mode at 4K resolution on ultra settings achieved a 260% performance uplift on Gfx12.5 hardware. As noted in the patch description: "After switching to partial resolves this series appears to improve performance of workloads that do frequent sampling from non-WT depth surfaces (e.g. MSAA surfaces). Trace Nba2K23-trace-dx11-2160p-ultra improves performance by a whopping 260% on Gfx12.5 parts."
The improvements stem from introducing partial resolves for HiZ-CCS surfaces, allowing the driver to resolve only necessary regions of the depth buffer instead of the entire surface. This keeps HiZ and CCS features active during depth sampling, eliminating corruption while reducing memory traffic. Such optimizations are most evident in workloads involving frequent sampling from MSAA surfaces.
Development on these patches began in September 2024, highlighting the complexity of the underlying issues. While the boost was observed in one game, similar benefits are expected for other graphical workloads on older Intel hardware. However, these changes are Linux-specific, leaving Windows users without equivalent updates. The patches were first reported by Phoronix, underscoring ongoing efforts to enhance Intel's Arc graphics compatibility on open-source platforms.
