Intel is still a relative newbie when it comes to the cutthroat gaming market. That’s true both for its dedicated Arc graphics cards and its integrated graphics that also use the Arc branding. For example, consider Intel’s Lunar Lake chips that power the MSI Claw 8 AI+ handheld. According to some recent testing, a settings tweak can boost the Arc 140V Xe2 inside by a significant factor of 10 to 30 percent.
Said testing comes from TechPowerUp, which re-ran some numbers on the latest MSI Claw device at Intel’s request after a new update from the MSI Center M app. Specifically, the tweak allows one of the Core Ultra 7 258V CPU’s four performance cores to run at its maximum 37-watt power level. (Most AMD-based handhelds like the Steam Deck max out at 15 watts of TDP.) In most games, this resulted in about a 10 percent performance boost—but some were even better.
Update: An Intel representative reached out to PCWorld to point out that TechPowerUp manually set some TDP values for comparison, which resulted in lower performance. Presumably, most users who don’t tweak the default settings would see those improvements as their baseline, no changes necessary.
TechPowerUp says this makes the MSI Claw 8 AI+ the best-performing handheld they’ve tested, handily beating out the Ryzen-based competition. That doesn’t make the Claw the best handheld for everyone, though. It’s still running Windows 11, which is a deal-breaker for some, and there are now even more powerful chips on the market. But we’ve seen other updates to Intel graphics, like a fresh set of drivers, result in dramatic performance improvements before.
It’s worth considering if you’re looking for maximum possible performance, or hunting for a thin-and-light laptop that can also handle a bit of gaming on the side.
