Compatibility is just as crucial to the finest graphics cards as performance. While AMD and Nvidia don’t have many problems with it, Intel’s Arc Alchemist still needs some development because the company’s graphics cards have issues with old APIs.
German news site PC Games Hardware tested the Arc A380’s graphics card via 50 games that were out between 1999 and 2022, as opposed to other media that just focused on the performance of the device. One of three available bespoke Arc A380 models that Gunnir makes, the Arc A380 Photon 6GB OC, was employed by the website for testing.
Considering the condition of Intel’s Arc drivers, the Arc A380’s overall compatibility with the 50 games was rather good. Only nine titles out of the 50 that PC Games Hardware reviewed experienced issues with the graphics hardware. Arc A380 would have troubles with 1 out of 5 games, to simplify the findings. Although it’s not a terrible ratio, Intel’s drivers ultimately have a lot of potential for improvement.
Given that these games use the Vulkan or DirectX 12 APIs, it did surprise us that the Arc A380 didn’t get along with Doom Eternal, Quake 2 RTX, Halo Infinite, or Spider-Man Remastered. Arc should, of course, perform well with games using contemporary APIs. However, let’s not conflate compatibility and performance.
