Archeage

# Archeage with Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + Intel Arc B370

How This Combo Ranks

The pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the Intel Arc B370 lands at rank 3423 out of 3708 tested combos for Archeage. That places this configuration in the bottom 8% of all tested systems, a striking result given the CPU's pedigree. The data shows a profound mismatch: the processor is a top-tier part while the graphics solution is fundamentally limited in this title.

The combo rank reflects what the measured FPS data confirms across every resolution and settings level. At 1080p Low, the system manages 65 FPS average, which is playable but far from exceptional. At 4K Ultra, it collapses to 10 FPS average. The CPU itself sits in the 96th percentile when compared against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84003. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (0.2% faster), the AMD EPYC 4584PX (1.1% faster), and the AMD EPYC 9135 (1.2% faster), while the AMD EPYC 7F72 trails by 1.3%. This is elite silicon by any measure.

The GPU tells a different story entirely. The Intel Arc B370 ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs, with its nearest rivals being the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (0.2% faster), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (0.5% faster), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (0.7% faster), while the AMD FirePro M2000 trails by 1.4%. The Arc B370's only benchmark score is 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. When a GPU's closest competitors are over a decade old, the implications for modern gaming performance are clear.

What makes this combo particularly interesting is the contrast. The CPU is designed for heavy multithreaded workloads with 24 cores and 24 threads, while the GPU is an integrated solution with a 25 W TDP. The benchmark results indicate that Archeage's performance ceiling here is dictated almost entirely by the graphics side. The CPU's potential is largely untapped, as even the most demanding settings fail to stress a processor that scores 51731 in Cinebench R23 multicore.

FAQ

Q: Why does this combo rank so low despite having a top-tier CPU?

A: The combo ranks 3423rd out of 3708 because the Intel Arc B370 GPU sits in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. The CPU is in the 96th percentile, but Archeage's frame rates are constrained by the graphics solution. At 4K Ultra, the system produces only 10 FPS average, while the CPU's capabilities are far beyond what this game requires.

Q: Is this system playable for Archeage at any settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the measured average is 65 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches smooth playability. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 57 FPS. High settings at 1080p yield 39 FPS, and Ultra at 1080p falls to 27 FPS. Higher resolutions become increasingly difficult, with 1440p Low at 43 FPS and 4K Low at 25 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370's average benchmark score of 1184 is nearly identical to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, 0.2% faster), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, 0.5% faster), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, 0.7% faster). The AMD FirePro M2000 trails at 1168 (1.4% slower). These are all legacy parts, indicating the Arc B370's performance class.

Q: What does the CPU's benchmark performance suggest about its capabilities?

A: The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus achieves 51731 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 7303 in single-core. It scores 60860 in PassMark multithread and 4823 in single-thread tests. With 24 cores and a 5.80 GHz boost clock, this processor is designed for demanding workloads, but Archeage's measured FPS shows the GPU becomes the limiting factor well before the CPU is challenged.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average score?

A: The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus averages 84003, slightly ahead of the AMD EPYC 7F72 (85072, which is 1.3% faster), and trailing the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807, 0.2% slower), AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090, 1.1% slower), and AMD EPYC 9135 (82980, 1.2% slower). The differences are minimal, all within 1.3%.

Q: What is the GPU's architecture and what does it mean for this game?

A: The Intel Arc B370 uses the Xe3-LPG architecture on a 3 nm process from Intel, with a boost clock of 2400 MHz. It has 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs. Despite the modern architecture, its performance class places it alongside much older hardware, and the measured FPS in Archeage reflects this limitation.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how dramatically performance degrades as resolution increases. At Low settings, the system delivers 65 FPS at 1080p, 43 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K. That represents a 34% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 42% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is consistent with a GPU that is heavily pixel-bound.

At High settings, the progression is 39 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 33% and 42% respectively, showing similar scaling behavior. Medium settings follow the pattern: 57 FPS at 1080p, 39 FPS at 1440p, and 22 FPS at 4K, with drops of 32% and 44%. Ultra settings yield 27 FPS at 1080p, 18 FPS at 1440p, and 10 FPS at 4K, representing 33% and 44% reductions.

The consistency of these scaling patterns across all settings levels points to a single limiting factor. The CPU is not the bottleneck here, because if it were, resolution changes would have minimal impact on frame rates. Instead, the data shows that every resolution increase results in substantial FPS losses, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The Arc B370's system-shared memory and 25 W TDP simply cannot keep up with the pixel throughput demands of higher resolutions.

The 1440p to 4K transition is particularly punishing, with FPS nearly halving at every settings level. This suggests that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are severely constrained. With a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, the Arc B370 is nominally capable, but the system-shared memory architecture likely introduces latency penalties that become more pronounced at higher resolutions. The benchmark results indicate that 1080p is the only viable resolution for this combo in Archeage.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system shows its best results. Low settings produce 65 FPS average, which is the highest measured value across the entire test matrix. Medium settings deliver 57 FPS average with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 66. High settings drop to 39 FPS average. Ultra settings fall further to 27 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 38 FPS, a 58% reduction.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are significant. Low settings yield 43 FPS average, Medium produces 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 and maximum of 44, High settings deliver 26 FPS, and Ultra falls to 18 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 25 FPS, representing a 58% reduction from the Low setting baseline.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal at best. Low settings produce 25 FPS average, Medium delivers 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 and maximum of 25, High settings yield 15 FPS, and Ultra drops to 10 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 15 FPS, again a 60% reduction. These numbers indicate that 4K is not a realistic target for this combo in Archeage.

The Medium settings across all resolutions have complete min/max data, which allows for frame time analysis. At 1080p Medium, the range from 49 to 66 FPS shows a 17 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 33-44 FPS, an 11 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range is 19-25 FPS, just a 6 FPS spread. This tightening of the frame time distribution at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is working at its limits, with less headroom for variation.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the dominant constraint in this combo. Its 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the company of legacy parts like the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 and ATI Radeon HD 5770. The only benchmark score available is 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is a modest result for a modern architecture.

The GPU's specifications reveal its integrated nature. It uses system-shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth, meaning performance is tied to the host system's memory configuration. The base clock is 300 MHz with a boost of 2400 MHz, and the TDP is just 25 W. With 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs, the compute resources are limited. The FP32 performance is 6.144 TFLOPS, and the pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s.

In Archeage, the GPU's limitations manifest clearly in the resolution scaling. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (10 FPS) is barely interactive, and even 1080p Ultra (27 FPS) falls short of smooth gameplay. The system-shared memory architecture likely means that the GPU competes with the CPU for memory bandwidth, and Archeage's open-world MMORPG environment with many players and effects on screen may exacerbate this bottleneck.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all substantially older parts, which contextualizes its performance class. The deltaPct values are tiny, ranging from -0.7% to 1.4%, indicating that the Arc B370 is essentially performance-equivalent to a group of GPUs from a much earlier era. This is not a GPU designed for demanding modern titles at high resolutions, and the benchmark results confirm that expectation.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process from TSMC. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost of 5.80 GHz, and it carries a 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 115.2 GB/s bandwidth.

The CPU's benchmark results are impressive across the board. Cinebench R15 multicore scores 5214 and single-core 736. Cinebench R20 shows 21727 multicore and 3067 single-core. Cinebench R23 delivers 51731 multicore and 7303 single-core. PassMark tests show 60860 multithread, 4823 single-thread, 698346 data compression, 52563 data encryption, 214760 floating point math, and 166194 integer math. The CPU's percentile ranking of 96 indicates it outperforms the vast majority of all CPUs.

In the context of Archeage, the CPU's role appears minimal. The measured FPS values do not vary in ways that suggest CPU limitation. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively constant across resolutions, since the CPU workload is largely resolution-independent. Instead, the data shows substantial FPS drops with each resolution increase, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average score are all within 1.3% of its 84003 average, including the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, AMD EPYC 4584PX, AMD EPYC 9135, and AMD EPYC 7F72. This indicates that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a high-performance part that would not limit most games. The 24-core configuration is more than sufficient for an MMORPG like Archeage, which typically relies more heavily on single-thread performance for game logic and network handling.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user's priorities. For playable frame rates, 1080p Low is the only configuration that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, with an average of 65 FPS. This is the recommended settings level for smooth gameplay. The 1080p Medium setting at 57 FPS average is also viable, offering better visual quality with a modest FPS reduction.

At 1080p High, the average drops to 39 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced MMORPG but falls below the threshold for fast, responsive gameplay. The 1080p Ultra setting at 27 FPS is marginal and likely to feel sluggish in crowded areas or during combat with many visual effects. The min/max data for Medium settings shows a range of 49-66 FPS at 1080p, indicating reasonable frame time consistency.

For 1440p, the Low setting at 43 FPS is the only option that approaches playability. Medium at 39 FPS with a range of 33-44 FPS may work for less demanding scenarios, but High and Ultra at 26 FPS and 18 FPS respectively are not recommended. At 4K, none of the settings produce acceptable results, with the best being Low at 25 FPS and the worst being Ultra at 10 FPS.

The data suggests a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and performance. The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial, with Ultra typically delivering less than half the frame rate of Low. Given that this combo ranks in the bottom 8% of tested configurations, users should temper their expectations. The 1080p Low or Medium settings provide the best balance of playability and visual quality, while higher resolutions require significant compromises that may not be worth the visual improvements.