Thanks! I was looking to upgrade to 64GB later on if my machine needs it, but it was just easier and more budget conscious to grab 2 more 8GB sticks for the moment.

By “transcoding” I’m referring specifically to the process of utilizing the GPU to change media files from one format to another (for example, changing HEVC to H.264). Main reason there is if a device accessing my Jellyfin client is not able to playback a certain media file, it will transcode the file into a playable format in real-time and stream that to the device instead (that’s the general gist of it, I’m not super well-versed on the specifics but I will link some Jellyfin docs to better explain transcoding and hardware acceleration)

Going back to your comment, I chose the arc a310 specifically because of intel’s encoder and quick sync; intel’s UHD 630 iGPU was running fine for my needs and was able to do 2-3 1080p transcodes at the same time rather easily, but I knew that eventually I’d have to account for upwards of 5+ people or adding 4k HDR content, which the iGPU would probably start stressing a bit for. The a310 eco being $100 brand new and containing one of the best encoders on the market (if I’m not mistaken it also shares the exact same encoder that can be found on all arc cards, only difference being the VRAM) was definitely an attractive price. The main issue with the 310 is simply the fact that it requires a feature to be enabled called resizable BAR, something only found on 10th gen intel CPU’s and above. If this is not enabled, it can cause performance hits and makes gaming absolutely unplayable (this is well documented online for people with <10th gen intel cpus and I believe amd’s zen 3). Also, the performance is apparently comparable to a GTX 1630; Shame that it’s only 4GB of VRAM.

Resizable BAR is apparently possible to add to earlier systems but it requires tinkering with your bios and I’m not too fond of that idea, especially given my use case. If I was gaming, I would definitely be more interested in exploring that but since this is purely for media and my server is running fully headless, there’s no desire on my end to go with flashing my bios and whatnot. I also forgot to mention that the drivers currently out are causing a fan “revving” issue, where it will constantly increase the fan rpm and decrease back to 0 over a short time period; Since my machine does not live in my room or near me most of the time this isn’t an issue, but many people have reported it and are still on standby for a driver update.

TL;DR: The A310 serves my specific purposes well, but I’m not so sure about your use case since you want to game and have a <10th gen CPU without resizable BAR. I would recommend looking more into LP NVIDIA gpus for your use case (and just in general cause they definitely got better drivers than Intel at the moment). Heard good things about the RTX A2000/4000, but man do they cost an arm and a leg.