Archeage

# Archeage with Intel Core i5-9400 + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the Intel Arc B570 produces a notably GPU-bound experience in Archeage, with the combination ranking 2222nd out of 2761 tested combos. The data reveals a system that handles 1080p playable framerates but struggles severely at higher resolutions, with the gap between Low and Ultra settings widening dramatically as pixel count increases. This 6-core, 6-thread Coffee Lake processor from 2018, combined with Intel's Battlemage architecture GPU, delivers a mixed bag that rewards settings tuning more than resolution scaling.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep and consistent decline as resolution increases across all settings presets. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 110 FPS, which drops to 74 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 32.7% reduction) and further to 42 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 61.8% reduction from 1080p). This pattern indicates the Intel Arc B570 becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count grows, with its 160-bit memory bus and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth struggling to feed the render pipeline at 4K.

The High preset tells a similar story: 66 FPS at 1080p falls to 45 FPS at 1440p (31.8% drop) and bottoms out at 26 FPS at 4K (60.6% drop). Medium settings follow the trend with 98 FPS at 1080p, 66 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling collapse, going from 45 FPS at 1080p to 31 FPS at 1440p to just 17 FPS at 4K — a 62.2% decline from 1080p to 4K.

The scaling behavior suggests that Archeage's rendering load scales super-linearly with resolution in this configuration. The 4K-to-1080p FPS ratios range from 0.38 (Ultra) to 0.42 (Low), meaning 4K performance is consistently less than half of 1080p performance. This is characteristic of a GPU that is heavily bandwidth-limited at high resolutions; the Arc B570's 10 GB GDDR6 memory capacity is sufficient, but the 160-bit bus width creates a throughput bottleneck that becomes more pronounced as frame buffer demands increase.

Interestingly, the delta between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 45 FPS versus 110 FPS on Low — a 65 FPS gap. At 1440p, that gap narrows slightly to 43 FPS (31 vs 74). At 4K, the gap shrinks to 25 FPS (17 vs 42). This compression at higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU's raw throughput, rather than CPU-side draw call processing, is the dominant constraint — when the GPU is already saturated at 4K, reducing settings yields diminishing returns.

FAQ

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

A: 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the combo consistently exceeds 60 FPS across Low, Medium, and High presets, with 110 FPS on Low, 98 FPS on Medium, and 66 FPS on High. At 2560x1440, only Low (74 FPS) and Medium (66 FPS) reach playable framerates. At 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS; the best result is 42 FPS on Low.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform compared to High?

A: The Ultra preset incurs a severe performance penalty across all resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 45 FPS versus 66 FPS on High — a 31.8% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 31 FPS from 45 FPS on High (31.1% reduction). At 4K, Ultra falls to 17 FPS from 26 FPS on High (34.6% reduction). The data suggests Ultra's additional visual features are not worth the framerate cost.

Q: Is the i5-9400 bottlenecking the Arc B570 in this game?

A: The benchmark data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor, particularly at higher resolutions. The CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads with a 4.10 GHz boost clock are sufficient to drive 110 FPS at 1080p Low, which is near the top of the measured range. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect smaller FPS differences between resolutions, but the steep scaling curve (from 110 FPS at 1080p to 42 FPS at 4K on Low) points to GPU saturation.

Q: What minimum FPS can I expect on Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum FPS values. At 1080p, the minimum is 83 FPS with a maximum of 112 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum drops to 56 FPS with a maximum of 76 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 32 FPS with a maximum of 43 FPS. These figures show that Medium maintains playable framerates at 1080p and 1440p, but falls below 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556, placing it 0.1% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% below the Intel Arc A750 (20582). It sits 0.4% above the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480) and 0.5% below the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662). This clustering suggests the B570 is competitive with these mid-range options in raw compute terms.

Q: Does this combo support high refresh rate gaming at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the combo can reach 110 FPS on Low and 98 FPS on Medium, which is sufficient for a 100 Hz display. However, High settings drop to 66 FPS and Ultra to 45 FPS. For consistent 144 Hz performance, only the Low preset comes close, and it still falls short of 144 FPS. The data suggests targeting 100-120 Hz with Medium settings is the practical ceiling.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation pipelines. Its 10 GB GDDR6 memory operates at 2375 MHz with a 19 Gbps effective rate across a 160-bit bus, yielding 380.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's 2500 MHz base and boost clocks are identical, indicating a fixed clock profile. In Archeage, this configuration produces 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which the benchmark data shows is adequate for 1080p but insufficient for smooth 4K play.

The GPU's memory subsystem appears to be the critical constraint in this title. The 380.0 GB/s bandwidth is moderate by current standards, and the measured FPS scaling suggests Archeage's asset streaming and texture fetching at higher resolutions saturate this bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 17 FPS is particularly telling — it represents a 62.2% drop from 1080p Ultra, which is steeper than what pure pixel-count scaling (4x) would suggest if the GPU had ample memory bandwidth.

The Arc B570's pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s are respectable on paper, but Archeage's draw call overhead and scene complexity at Ultra settings likely amplify the memory bandwidth limitation. The GPU's 18 ray tracing cores are present but irrelevant for this MMORPG, which does not appear to leverage ray-traced effects based on the measured data. The 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates the B570 sits in the upper-midrange tier, consistent with its synthetic benchmark performance that clusters near the RTX 3070 Mobile and Arc A750.

How This Combo Ranks

The i5-9400 + Arc B570 combination ranks 2222nd out of 2761 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the 19.5th percentile of all tested configurations. This is a below-average ranking that reflects the GPU's difficulty at higher resolutions rather than CPU deficiency. The CPU alone sits at the 47th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 2254, while the GPU sits at the 65th percentile with an average score of 20556. The combo's rank being lower than either component's individual percentile suggests that Archeage's specific workload penalizes this pairing more than synthetic benchmarks would predict.

The combo's rank of 2222 out of 2761 means roughly 80% of tested configurations outperform it in this game. This is a substantial gap that indicates Archeage favors combinations with higher memory bandwidth or different architecture characteristics. The CPU's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (0.2% higher score), Intel Core i7-10710U (0.3% lower), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (0.4% lower), and Intel Core i3-10305 (0.4% higher) — all have similar average scores, confirming that the i5-9400 is not the weak link. The GPU's nearest rivals also cluster tightly, with the RTX 3070 Mobile just 0.1% below and the Arc A750 0.1% above, suggesting the B570's individual performance is competitive but the Archeage-specific combination ranking suffers from other factors.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce 110 FPS average, Medium produces 98 FPS with a minimum of 83 and maximum of 112, High produces 66 FPS, and Ultra produces 45 FPS. The Medium preset's measured range shows relatively stable framerates, with the minimum staying above 80 FPS. This makes 1080p the only resolution where all presets except Ultra remain comfortably above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance drops across the board. Low yields 74 FPS, Medium 66 FPS with a range of 56-76, High 45 FPS, and Ultra 31 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 56 FPS indicates occasional dips below 60, which could be noticeable in crowded MMORPG scenes. Low settings remain the safest choice for consistent 1440p play, while High and Ultra require accepting sub-60 FPS performance.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles significantly. Low produces 42 FPS, Medium 38 FPS with a range of 32-43, High 26 FPS, and Ultra 17 FPS. None of these results reach 60 FPS, and even the Low preset's 42 FPS average suggests a suboptimal experience for a game where reaction time matters. The Medium preset's minimum of 32 FPS indicates severe frame drops in busy scenes, making 4K play impractical for this combination.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 98 FPS average with an 83 FPS minimum, it provides smooth gameplay while maintaining higher visual fidelity than Low. High settings at 66 FPS are playable but leave less headroom for demanding scenes, while Ultra's 45 FPS is too close to stutter territory for a fast-paced MMORPG. The data clearly favors Medium as the sweet spot at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, Medium again emerges as the recommended preset with 66 FPS average and a 56 FPS minimum. The occasional dips below 60 FPS are a concern, but the overall experience is acceptable. Low at 74 FPS provides a safer margin but sacrifices visual quality. High and Ultra at 45 and 31 FPS respectively are not recommended for consistent gameplay.

At 3840x2160, no preset delivers a satisfactory experience. Low at 42 FPS is the only option that approaches playability, but even this falls short of 60 FPS. Medium at 38 FPS with a 32 FPS minimum risks noticeable stuttering, while High and Ultra are effectively unplayable. Users seeking 4K gameplay should consider this combo unsuitable for Archeage.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides 6 cores and 6 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz, based on the Coffee Lake architecture on a 14 nm process. Its 9 MB shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth are sufficient for Archeage's CPU demands, as evidenced by the 110 FPS result at 1080p Low. The CPU's average benchmark score of 2254 places it at the 47th percentile, with nearest rivals like the Core i7-1068NG7 (2259) and Core i3-10305 (2264) showing near-identical performance.

In Archeage, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, but its 6 threads without hyper-threading could become a constraint in highly populated areas where MMO servers send large numbers of entity updates. The single-core performance, reflected in a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935, is adequate for the game's main thread, but the lack of additional threads may cause occasional frame hitches in extreme scenarios. The CPU's 47th percentile ranking indicates it is a mid-pack performer, and its 4.10 GHz boost clock helps maintain responsiveness.

The interaction between CPU and GPU in this combo is notable: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 110 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's practical limit for Archeage's simulation thread. The fact that 4K Low only drops to 42 FPS suggests the GPU is heavily bottlenecked at that resolution, while 1080p Low may be approaching the CPU's ceiling. This balanced bottleneck profile means neither component is severely underutilized, but the combo's low overall rank (2222 of 2761) indicates the pairing is not optimal for this game's specific requirements. The CPU's 65W TDP and socket 1151 platform are modest, but they do not appear to limit Archeage performance based on the measured data.