This week, the first independent benchmarks for the Intel Arc A380 GPU were published, mostly coming from Chinese media sites. With the desktop graphics card now in the hands of independent reviewers, we have gained some new insight into how the GPU performs, but it isn't entirely good news, as the card seems to lose out to the RX 6400 in a number of tests. 

Chinese reviewer Shenmedounengce (via VideoCardz) had the chance to test the Gunnir A380 Photon graphics card, the only A380 custom card we know of at this time. In addition to this card, the system was equipped with an Intel Core i5-12400 on a B660 motherboard with DDR4 memory. In the video published by the reviewer, he compares the A380 with other entry-level cards, including the RX 6400, RX 6500 XT, GTX 1650 and RTX 3050.

As per the data gathered by the reviewer, the A380 beat the GTX 1650 and the two Radeon cards in 3DMark tests (Time Spy and Port Royal), but the RTX 3050 was still considerably better than Intel's GPU. These results were more or less what we've come to expect from this card, but, to our surprise, the gaming benchmarks show a different reality.

The reviewer tested the five cards in various DX11, Vulkan and DX12 games, and there wasn't a single case where the A380 could beat the RX 6400 or the GTX 1650. Forza Horizon 5 is where we see the most significant difference in performance between Intel's new GPU and the entry-level AMD card, where the RX 6400 was 30% faster than the A380.

It is worth noting that we don't know what the driver situation is like. Intel has not shown much of its desktop GPUs in the West as the driver team is still working on the software side. This is also why the rollout of Intel Arc equipped laptops has been slow following Intel's launch earlier this year.

The Intel A380 is currently available in China with an MSRP of ¥1030 (£125). A western release date hasn't been announced yet.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: The A380 is an entry-level graphics card with limited availability at this time. Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll be able to put Intel's full Arc Alchemist desktop GPU line-up to the test. 

Become a Patron!