The MSI Claw hasn’t had the smoothest of launches. Intel’s big push to cement a place in the burgeoning handheld gaming PC market arrived too late, with too little performance, and with too high a price. However, in some regions it’s already seeing big price drops and now there’s a new MSI Claw driver update that provides some much-needed performance improvements.
The new MSI Claw driver update increases frame rates in games such as Helldivers 2, Diablo 4, and Hogwarts Leacy, as well as several other major recent titles. This doesn’t immediately send the MSI device to the top of our best handheld gaming PC guide, but it could become a contender if we see further improvements quite soon.
The new update incorporates a BIOS and driver update, with the latter including the latest Intel WHQL graphics driver, which includes performance increases for a number of Intel Arc graphics-based products. Specifically, the BIOS moves to version E1T41IMS.106, while the Intel graphics driver is updated to version 31.0.101.5382. When it comes to the Claw, MSI claims this update provides a frame rate increase of between 10.3% and 43.5%.
The full list of claimed frame rate increases is:
- Dead Space – 21.9%
- Diablo 4 – 22.6%
- F1 23 – 43.5%
- Forza Horizon 5 – 18.4%
- Helldivers 2 – 10.3%
- Hogwarts Legacy – 27.6%
The exact performance increase you experience will depend on which version of the Claw you own, the game settings, and the power settings you’ve chosen for the device, but these are still impressive numbers. For reference, club386 reports that an Intel 155H-powered Claw should deliver around 50fps in Forza Horizon 5 at 720p with low settings, and 45fps in Helldivers 2 at 1080p with low settings. As such, your frame rate could now be jumping up to around 60fps in the former and 50fps in the latter.
What’s more, Intel’s most recent 31.0.101.5382 beta driver release provides even bigger performance increases of up to 48% in some games. That release covers the full range of Arc graphics products so we’d expect at least some of that increase to be reflected in a future MSI Claw update too.
The MSI Claw is the first and currently only major Intel-powered gaming handheld, with the original Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED both powered by AMD chips. Likewise, the Deck’s main rivals, the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go, also use an AMD chip, while the Nintendo Switch uses an aging Nvidia Tegra GPU. As such, if Intel is to have any hope of finding a space in this new gaming PC arena, it needs the Claw to continue to be even more competitive when it comes to both price and performance.
We saw the first fruits of that recently with the likes of Currys in the UK implementing a major MSI Claw price drop from £799 to £599. We’ve not seen such big drops worldwide yet but they could be incoming.
For users of the MSI Claw, the update is an easy on-device download, and if you already have a gaming handheld, make sure you check out our best Steam Deck games list for some recommendations.