The Arc A380 may not be one of the best graphics cards around. However, Intel's entry-level Arc Alchemist graphics card has what it takes to run Crysis, which was the golden standard for gaming.
YouTuber PCGH Benchmarks & Analysis recently took the Gunnir Arc A380 for a spin in Crysis, which didn't faze the budget Arc graphics card. Do note that this is the original Crysis, which came out 15 years ago, and not Crysis Remastered, which debuted two years ago. Notwithstanding, the decade-old title didn't faze the Arc A380 at all.
The Arc A380 performed admirably in Crysis, delivering over 60 FPS at 1080p (1920x1080) on very high settings and anti-aliasing set to 4x MSAA. We also saw glimpses of the Arc A380 peaking over 80 FPS. Unfortunately, it's public knowledge that Arc doesn't offer outstanding performance outside DirectX12 or Vulkan titles. Nonetheless, the Arc A380 still offered great performance numbers in Crysis, a title that leverages DirectX 10. The YouTuber reported that the game ran beautifully, and we didn't see any frame stuttering.
Intel's current Arc drivers are holding the Arc A380 back, so the graphics card could still have some performance in the tank. Currently, the drivers lack optimization for legacy APIs and require more development to tackle APIs before DirectX 12. However, Intel recently admitted to reusing its integrated graphics software for Arc, which explains why the drivers gimp the performance on Arc Alchemist's discrete graphics card.
At the beginning of the year, Intel had promised to ship river four million discrete graphics cards in 2022. So far, the chipmaker has only released the Arc A380, which is only available in China. The company is still optimistic that it'll be able to get desktop Arc into gamers' hands later this year.
