It's unusual to see a hardware maker recommend older, slower hardware, but ASRock justifies it by noting that the Arc A380 now supports the latest XeSS 3.
ASRock Says DeskMeet Series + Intel Arc A380 Will Deliver "Strong Performance" While Providing an "Outstanding Value"
The sky-high prices of memory and SSDs have made it extremely difficult for gamers to build a budget gaming PC. Previously, it was easy to build a powerful gaming PC for 1080p gaming for a sub-$1000 gaming PC. It's still possible, assuming you can manage both memory and a storage drive at good prices or by settling with a slower GPU like RTX 5060. However, those who have a budget of $500-$600 won't be left with enough cash after spending on a 16 GB and a 1 TB SSD.
To combat this situation, ASRock is now recommending gamers to get its DeskMeet series desktop PCs and pair them with the previous-gen Intel Arc A380 GPU. The Arc A380 belongs to the Alchemist family, featuring just 1,024 cores and 6 GB GDDR6 VRAM. While it's quite slow compared to the current-gen budget GPUs, it's still decent for casual gaming. However, ASRock says that the Intel Arc A380 will deliver "strong performance."
With Intel's latest graphics driver optimized for XeSS 3 technology, the gaming performance of the Intel® Arc™ A380 has been significantly enhanced. With XeSS 3 enabled, it can deliver a 1080p gaming experience comparable to the RX 6600, offering higher frame rates and clearer image quality. Powered by AI-based algorithms, XeSS 3 generates images close to native resolution while significantly boosting FPS, resulting in smoother gameplay.
- ASRock
This isn't possible natively, but since XeSS 3 has been rolled out for the Alchemist GPUs, ASRock argues that with the XeSS 3 technology, the Arc A380 can now compete with the Radeon RX 6600 at 1080p. We haven't checked and seen anyone comparing those two, but now we are interested to see how the Arc A380 performs with the latest XeSS 3, particularly when the Multi-Frame Generation is turned on. The Intel MFG integrates three additional fake frames between two rendered frames to improve smoothness.
No doubt that it's a good feature for slower GPUs, but it will introduce significant latency in modern games where the A380 will hardly manage to achieve 30-40 FPS. For older and less-intensive titles, XeSS 3 may do a good job, but how many titles support XeSS 3? Nonetheless, the Arc A380 looks suitable for mini desktop systems like the DeskMeet series, which offer support for small discrete GPUs and are available in various configurations.
The DeskMeet X600 series is currently the fastest, offering up to Ryzen 9000 65W CPUs, and then we have the DeskMeet B760 series with Intel's 12th/13th/14th gen CPUs.The DeskMeet X300 series is an entry-level system with up to Ryzen 5000 series, but it will be ideal for entry-level GPUs like the Arc A380. Keep in mind that despite ASRock highlighting the benefits of using Arc A380, it's not going to deliver "strong performance" as claimed.
News Source: ASRock
About the author: Sarfraz Khan is a hardware reporter with a focus on PC components and the builder community. With years of experience writing about PC hardware and laptops, his work has been featured on several reputable technology publications. Sarfraz's hands-on experience is demonstrated through his first-person accounts of using and comparing different hardware configurations, providing practical and relatable insights for everyday users. His technical analysis is respected by peers in the enthusiast community and has been cited by specialized hardware sites such as Germany's Igor's Lab.
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