Is 6GB of graphics memory enough in 2026?

At 1080p with textures at medium it holds, and the 96-bit bus giving 186GB/s tends to bite before capacity does. Games shipping optional high-resolution texture packs will exceed it, and the texture slider is the setting that fixes that rather than a general quality preset.

Can this card record and stream in AV1?

Yes. Hardware AV1 encode and decode sits in the media engine, and this was the first consumer desktop family to include it. It is the strongest remaining argument for the card, because encoder quality does not scale down with the gaming tier the way frame rates do.

Should I take an A380 or move up to Intel's current cards?

The B570 and B580 are a generation newer, carry 10GB and 12GB on wider buses, and are substantially quicker in games. The A380 earns its place only when the constraint is a tight power budget, a small chassis or a hard price ceiling. Otherwise the newer parts are a better use of the money.

Will it manage 1440p?

Not comfortably in anything demanding. Treat 1080p as the target, keep quality at medium, and switch on XeSS where a game implements it. Light competitive titles are the exception and will clear 60fps at the lower resolution without much argument.

What should the rest of the system look like?

Almost any modern processor will avoid holding this card back at 1080p, so spend the attention on the platform instead. The board must expose Resizable BAR in firmware, and a current socket leaves room to fit a stronger graphics card later without replacing the motherboard and memory at the same time.

Does ray tracing work on it in a useful way?

Eight ray-tracing units are present, so the feature is supported and the box ticks. In practice a card this size runs out of headroom almost immediately once ray tracing is enabled, so most owners leave it off and spend the frames on resolution and steadiness instead.