In December this year, Realtek, Intel and AMD pushed new drivers for Windows 11 and Windows 10, which contain many new improvements. At the same time, there are some known issues with these new drivers, including games like "Deadby Daylight" crashing when using the latest Intel drivers.
It's worth noting that these drivers will eventually start running through Windows Update if your system requires them, so you can skip the update if you don't need these fixes.
Starting with Realtek, they have updated their PCIe network drivers for Windows 11 and 10. These updates include versions of NetAdapterCx and NDIS; notably, the power saving feature is now turned off. Realtek hasn't revealed any information about updated USB drivers, and as usual, there aren't any release notes to give us more details.
Realtek's new PCIe network driver (version 11.0.2.1) and USB Ethernet driver (version 11.0.2.1_20) are the first drivers for Windows 11. They also updated the PCIe network driver for Windows 10 (version 10.50). On the other hand, the USB driver has not seen any changes since June 2021.
Again, there's no point in downloading these drivers unless you're having problems using your existing Realtek drivers. But if you're interested, you can find the offline installer on Realtek's download page.
Intel has released versions 31.0.101.5084 (non-WHQL) and 31.0.101.5122 (WHQL) for Arc, IrisXe and CoreUltra graphics. The graphics driver for Intel ArcPro has also been updated to version 31.0.101.4955. Despite the size of the download (over 1GB), Intel's release notes are vague and don't specify new features or fixes.
The chipmaker highlighted ongoing issues with the Intel Arc series, such as game crashes in Deadby Daylight and issues with Topaz Video AI. Users of Intel Core Extreme Edition equipped with Intel Arc graphics may also experience display errors in games such as Diablo 4.
For users using Intel ArcPro, the 31.0.101.4955WHQL driver fixes an issue related to Bentley LumenRT freezing, as well as several known issues related to "TopazVideoAI" and "Blender".
In addition to the GPU drivers, Intel also released new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers that include 6E Standard Power (AFC) support. Intel also fixed an issue that caused wireless adapters to stop working when exiting sleep mode.
Likewise, an issue with some Intel products being unable to connect to WPA3-Personal (WPA3-SAE) security systems has been fixed.
To update Intel drivers on your device, you can use Intel's Support Assistant app and follow these steps:
Open the Intel website and get the Driver and Support Assistant (iDSA) application: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html
Open the Update Assistant tool from the system tray.
Now, check for updates and start installing them.
Earlier this month, AMD released a new graphics driver Adrenalin23.12.1WHQL, mainly used to support "Avatar: Pandora's Frontier".
AMD noted that the AMDLink driver will no longer be supported after January 2024, but AMDLink will still be available. The update brings a new design to the software interface, especially in the Home and Games tabs, and introduces the HYPR-RXEco energy-saving feature. Among other updates, there are improvements to DirectML for TopazAI and DaVinciResolve.
You can download the driver using AMDRadeon software. Some users can also find drivers through Windows Update's optional update feature.
These new drivers from Realtek, Intel, and AMD may or may not improve the overall performance of Windows 11, and if you don't need these fixes, you can safely ignore them.