Intel drops day zero game driver support for chips released last year — last-gen iGPUs on 14th-gen Core and older CPUs already put on the backburner of legacy software support

Intel announced that it will transition the integrated graphics on 11th- to 14th-generation processors to a legacy software support model, relegating its last-generation chips to the back burner. The company says that it will no longer release new features for these chips and will only provide software support for critical fixes and security vulnerabilities. It also reduces the update release cadence for the iGPUs from monthly to quarterly, and they will also lose Day 0 Game support.

This announcement affects both desktops and laptop chips. The 11th to 14th-generation Intel CPUs are still relatively new — the 14th-generation Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs first arrived in 2023, with new models released just last year, while the 11th-generation Tiger Lake processors launched in 2020. In effect, Intel is saying that your one-year-old Intel Core i5-14400 is already on the back burner.

While an unwelcome move, the company is likely making this change to conserve resources and focus on its newer Arc graphics architecture. After all, Intel has cut 4,000 positions in the U.S. alone so far this year, with thousands of technicians and engineers being let go as the company fights hard for its survival.

Still, many customers might feel betrayed; after all, if you bought a new processor, you expect it to be supported for at least five to seven years. This announcement will not brick your PC, and you still get critical and security updates quarterly. But you’re also not getting new features, and you might have issues with (or possibly not even be able to play) the latest games at launch.

Nevertheless, many users will likely not feel this. After all, gamers who typically download, install, and play a AAA game at launch most often have a discrete GPU installed on their system. In fact, even the most hardware-friendly titles, such as the upcoming Battlefield 6, require a modest graphics card like the Nvidia RTX 2060, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, or Intel Arc A380.

Even though it makes sense for Intel to focus on its newer Core and Core Ultra chips, the fact that Intel is moving such a relatively new CPU line-up to legacy support could leave a bad taste in the mouths of some users.

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