Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 has received a new graphics driver update today

Sep 9, 2014 07:31 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 is the most powerful tablet model released by the company so far, and thanks to new drivers rolled out by Intel today, the device is now even faster and more reliable.

Intel says that the new drivers released for the HD 4400/5000 graphics used on the Core M processor range can improve performance by up to 30 percent, which means that the Surface Pro 3 can now reduce loading times and make the device faster overall.

While many might not see such a significant increase in terms of speed and performance, Intel recommends everyone to install the new updates, not only on their Surface Pro 3, but also on devices featuring one of the aforementioned processors.

Up to 10 percent improvement in gaming performance

In addition to 30 percent overall performance improvement, Intel says that users will also experience a 10 percent GPU boost after installing the new drivers.

Here’s an excerpt from the release notes (PDF viewer required) provided to us this morning:

“This driver provides significant gaming performance for 4th generation Intel Core processors with Intel HD, Iris and Iris Pro graphics provides improvements while enhancing battery life through newer power conservation techniques such as CMAA and Adaptive Rendering Control,” the documentation provided by Intel for this new release reads.

“Experience up to 30% improvement in performance in certain OpenCL workloads and up to 10% improvement certain games. The new and enhanced control panel offers additional media and display customization capabilities.”

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 CPU clock speeds

Intel claims that the new graphic drivers improve performance of the 4th-generation Intel Core processors, and one of the devices benefiting from this is the Surface Pro 3. Microsoft used three different models for the revamped Surface lineup, starting with an Intel Core i3 and ending with an i7.

The entry-level Surface Pro 3, offered with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage space, is powered by an Intel i3-4020Y processor with a clock speed of 1.5 GHz and featuring an Intel HD4200 video card.

The upgraded model, which is available with either 4GB of RAM + 128 GB of storage or 8 GB of RAM + 256 GB of storage, hides an i5-4300U processor with a clock speed of 1.9 GHz and a maximum speed in Turbo mode of 2.9 GHz, while the graphics board is an HD4400.

Last but not least, the most advanced model currently available is the Surface Pro 3 with an Intel i7-4650U CPU offering a clock speed of 1.7 GHz and Turbo speed of 3.3 GHz, coupled with an HD5000 graphics board.