Crimson Desert finally supports Intel Arc GPUs after backlash albeit with some visual bugs

Following major backlash from the gaming community and Intel Arc users, including public comments from Intel, Pearl Abyss has finally implemented driver support for Intel Arc GPUs in Crimson Desert. This means that players can now run Crimson Desert on Arc graphics cards after installing Intel’s latest driver update. Players finally won’t see an error message on their startup screen and can now experience the world of Pywel, even if there are a few bugs and glitches to fix.

For context, things were pretty unfortunate for Intel Arc GPU owners when Crimson Desert launched in March 2026. The game simply refused to load for Arc graphics card owners, displaying a “Graphics device is not currently supported” prompt.

What further intensified the backlash was Pearl Abyss’s blunt response on Crimson Desert’s FAQ page, which stated that the game doesn’t support Intel GPUs and directed Intel Arc users to request a refund on their respective platforms.

This led many to speculate whether Pearl Abyss was at fault or whether Intel had refused to provide GPU driver support. When the outrage went viral online, Intel issued a response and stated, “We’re aware that Crimson Desert currently doesn’t launch on systems with Intel GPUs, and we’re hugely disappointed that players using Intel graphics hardware can’t jump into the world of Pywel at launch.”

The chipmaker further said it had reached out to Pearl Abyss on numerous occasions to offer driver support but had received no response from the studio. After further backlash and review bombing, partly owing to the clunky PC control scheme, Pearl Abyss finally caved and, within days, backtracked on its initial stance. The company apologized for its response and wording. Furthermore, the studio stated that it would support Intel Arc GPUs in a later update. Pearl Abyss said:

“We are currently working on compatibility and optimization support so that Crimson Desert can also be enjoyed on Intel Arc GPU systems.”

On April 7, Intel’s Game On driver version 32.0.101.8629 finally allowed gamers to launch Crimson Desert on Arc GPUs. Players have reported running the game on Intel B580 and B570 cards. However, there are a few hiccups with faces and textures. Still, Crimson Desert now runs properly on Intel graphics cards.

The glitches mostly consist of visual artifacts, such as black smears across the protagonist’s or other characters’ faces, and odd corruption of the terrain, with grass shimmering and flashing. Turning on AMD FSR 4 crashes Crimson Desert on Intel graphics cards. Furthermore, Intel’s own XeSS upscaling tech isn’t available in the game yet.