It seems ARC's only focus has been DX12, as DX11 runs bad, and as it turns out DX9 is not even supported.

Arc "Alchemist" graphics cards use the Xe-LP and Xe-HPG graphics architectures, which lack DirectX 9 functionality. Microsoft D3D9On12 translates D3D9 API instructions to D3D12, which the drivers can recognize. Older graphics architectures like Gen11 powering "Ice Lake" and Gen9.5 found in all "Skylake" derivatives support DirectX 9; however when combined with Arc "Alchemist" graphics cards, the drivers activate D3D9On12 to accommodate the discrete GPU, unless the dGPU is disabled. Intel Graphics won't provide support for API translation, pointing users to Microsoft and game developers.

The initial assessments revealed that certain Arc GPUs had driver issues and perform poorly. Games that use earlier graphics APIs, like as DX11 and older, are not yet effectively optimized on Arc, according to the company. It's unclear how DirectX 9 emulation would affect Arc and Xe performance. Still, considering Intel's driver troubles with earlier APIs and Microsoft's statements that D3D9On12.

12th generation Intel processor's integrated GPU and Arc discrete GPU no longer support D3D9 natively. Applications and games based on DirectX 9 can still work through Microsoft* D3D9On12 interface.

The integrated GPU on 11th generation and older Intel processors supports DX9 natively, but they can be combined with Arc graphics cards. If so, rendering is likely to be handled by the card and not the iGPU (unless the card is disabled). Thus, the system will be using DX9On12 instead of DX9.

Since DirectX is property of and is sustained by Microsoft, troubleshooting of DX9 apps and games issues require promoting any findings to Microsoft Support so they can include the proper fixes in their next update of the operating system and the DirectX APIs.

Intel Arc and Xe iGPUs Need to emulate support for DirectX 9 Through a Wrapper