Archeage

Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG, presents a demanding workload that scales dramatically with resolution and settings. The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and Intel Arc B370 delivers playable frame rates only at 1080p with Low or Medium settings, with performance collapsing as resolution increases. The data indicates a system overwhelmingly limited by the GPU, which is a low-power integrated-class part, while the CPU provides ample headroom for this title. Benchmark results show that this pairing is positioned in the bottom 8% of all tested combos, making it suitable only for low-demand scenarios or e-sports-style play at reduced graphical fidelity.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a severe and consistent performance drop as resolution scales up from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 65 FPS, which is the highest score recorded across all tests. Moving to 1440p at the same settings, the average FPS falls to 43, a reduction of approximately 34%. At 4K, the average drops further to 25 FPS, representing a 62% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This pattern strongly indicates that the Intel Arc B370 GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the pixel throughput required at higher resolutions quickly overwhelms its capabilities.

The trend is consistent across all settings presets. At Medium settings, the average frame rate declines from 57 FPS at 1080p to 39 FPS at 1440p, and then to 22 FPS at 4K. For High settings, the averages are 39 FPS, 26 FPS, and 15 FPS for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, respectively. The most demanding preset, Ultra, yields only 27 FPS at 1080p, falling to 18 FPS at 1440p and a nearly unplayable 10 FPS at 4K. The scaling factor between 1080p and 4K is roughly 2.5x to 2.7x for the lower settings, which is close to the theoretical pixel count difference, confirming that the GPU is saturated and not the CPU.

The data shows that the performance drop from 1440p to 4K is steeper than from 1080p to 1440p, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. For instance, at Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 22 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 18 FPS, but the percentage loss is greater in the latter step. This suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth, which is system-dependent and shared, becomes a critical bottleneck at 4K. The 4K results are essentially unusable for gameplay, with even Low settings failing to reach 30 FPS, and Ultra being a slideshow at 10 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a high-end desktop processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This is a 65W TDP part, indicating efficient power usage, and it supports DDR5 memory on the AMD Socket AM5 platform. The CPU's benchmark scores are strong, with a Passmark multithread score of 36470 and a single-thread score of 4691. It ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, showing that it is a top-tier performer for general processing tasks.

In the context of Archeage, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 65 FPS, which is a reasonable frame rate for an MMORPG, but the CPU is likely capable of far more. The nearest rivals for the 9700F include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, which has an average score of 69875 and is only 0.2% slower, and the Intel Core i7-14700KF, which is 0.2% faster with a score of 70163. This indicates that the 9700F is competitive with high-end laptop and desktop chips, and its processing power is not the limiting factor here.

The CPU's large L3 cache of 32 MB shared and per-core L2 cache of 1 MB are beneficial for MMO workloads, which often involve many small objects and entities. However, since the GPU is the bottleneck, the CPU's potential is not fully realized in this game. The data suggests that with a more powerful GPU, the 9700F would be able to push significantly higher frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU's single-thread performance (4691 Passmark score) would help maintain minimum frame rates. The game's release in 2014 means it is not heavily multithreaded, so the 8-core, 16-thread configuration is more than sufficient, and the high boost clock of 5.50 GHz is advantageous for the game's primary thread.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, with the chip codenamed Panther Lake. It has a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, with 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output pipelines. The GPU also includes 10 ray tracing cores. Its FP32 performance is rated at 6.144 TFLOPS, and it has a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. The TDP is just 25W, and it shares system memory, with bandwidth being system dependent.

The GPU's benchmark results are extremely weak. It scores only 1184 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, placing it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all older discrete cards, such as the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 with a score of 1186 (0.2% faster) and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 with a score of 1190 (0.5% faster). This places the B370's performance in the range of entry-level graphics solutions from over a decade ago, which explains its poor showing in Archeage at higher resolutions.

For Archeage, the GPU is the clear bottleneck. The VRAM, being system shared, is a major concern, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth. The data shows that at 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 57, with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 66, which is playable. However, at Ultra settings, the average drops to 27 FPS, indicating that the GPU cannot handle the increased shader complexity and texture loads. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with the best being 25 FPS at Low settings, which is not smooth. The GPU's low pixel rate and texture rate directly limit its ability to fill high-resolution frames, making 1440p and 4K resolutions impractical for this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system in Archeage?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings yields the highest average FPS at 65, while 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides a still-playable 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS. Higher resolutions or settings result in average FPS below 40, which is not ideal for smooth MMORPG gameplay.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the performance is consistently poor. The best average FPS is 25 at Low settings, dropping to 22 at Medium, 15 at High, and 10 at Ultra. These frame rates are not suitable for playable gameplay, indicating the GPU is insufficient for 4K.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this system?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Intel Arc B370 ranks in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The FPS drops proportionally with resolution, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad, which is nearly identical to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186) and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190). It is 1.4% slower than the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168). All of these are legacy or low-end parts.

Q: What is the performance of the CPU relative to other processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. It is 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-14700KF, showing it is competitive with high-end chips.

Q: Is the frame rate stable at 1080p Medium settings?

A: The data shows an average of 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS. This indicates a relatively stable frame rate with a variance of 17 FPS, which is acceptable for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data represents the measured average FPS for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and Intel Arc B370 combination in Archeage. Minimum and maximum FPS are only provided for Medium settings across all resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: 65 FPS average.
• Medium: 57 FPS average, with a minimum of 49 and a maximum of 66.
• High: 39 FPS average.
• Ultra: 27 FPS average.

At 2560x1440, the results show a significant drop:

• Low: 43 FPS average.
• Medium: 39 FPS average, with a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 44.
• High: 26 FPS average.
• Ultra: 18 FPS average.

At 3840x2160, the performance is minimal:

• Low: 25 FPS average.
• Medium: 22 FPS average, with a minimum of 19 and a maximum of 25.
• High: 15 FPS average.
• Ultra: 10 FPS average.

The data shows a clear step-down in performance for each resolution increase. The difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is 38 FPS, while at 4K it is only 15 FPS, highlighting that the GPU is already saturated at lower resolutions. The Medium settings data points, which include minimum and maximum, show that the frame pacing is relatively consistent, with the gap between min and max ranging from 6 to 17 FPS depending on resolution. This suggests that while the average is low, the frame rate does not have severe stutters, but rather a steady, low throughput.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall database of tested combinations for Archeage, this specific pairing of AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2546 out of 2761 combos. This places it in the bottom 7.8% of all systems tested, indicating that it is one of the weaker configurations for this game. The rank is primarily driven by the GPU's low performance, as the CPU is a high-tier component.

The CPU's percentile rank of 94% suggests that if paired with a more capable graphics card, this system could rank significantly higher. However, the GPU's 5th percentile ranking drags the entire combo down. The gap between the CPU's high potential and the GPU's low output is substantial, making this a severely unbalanced pairing for a game like Archeage, which is graphically demanding at higher settings. The data confirms that this combo is only viable for low-resolution, low-detail play, and even then, it does not provide a high refresh rate experience.