Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is a demanding Action RPG that scales heavily with both GPU and CPU resources, and the combination of an Intel Core i5-11400F with an Intel Arc B390 produces a specific performance profile that is heavily weighted toward the graphics side of the equation. The measured data shows a system that delivers playable frame rates only at lower resolutions and settings, with a steep performance cliff as resolution increases. This analysis examines the measured FPS across three resolutions and four quality presets, the role of the GPU and CPU in those results, and how this particular pairing ranks among other tested combinations in the database.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear and dramatic drop as resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with Low settings, the average frame rate is 49 FPS, which is the highest number recorded for this combo in the entire dataset. Moving to 1440p at the same Low preset, the average drops to 37 FPS, a reduction of 12 FPS or roughly 24% from the 1080p figure. At 4K with Low settings, the average falls further to 24 FPS, which is less than half of the 1080p Low result. This pattern is consistent across all settings. For High settings, the averages are 27 FPS at 1080p, 20 FPS at 1440p, and 13 FPS at 4K. Medium settings yield 36 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce 25 FPS at 1080p, 19 FPS at 1440p, and 13 FPS at 4K.

The scaling behavior indicates that the Intel Arc B390 is the primary limiting component in this configuration. When resolution increases, the pixel count grows exponentially, placing a much larger load on the GPU's shading units, texture units, and memory subsystem. The CPU, an Intel Core i5-11400F with 6 cores and 12 threads, has enough processing power to keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU's rendering capabilities are so constrained that even at 1080p the frame rates are modest. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is large, and the gap between 1440p and 4K is similarly significant, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see much smaller differences between resolutions, because the CPU's workload does not change as dramatically with pixel count. Instead, the data shows a linear degradation that tracks directly with the GPU's fill-rate and memory bandwidth limitations.

Another way to interpret the resolution scaling is to look at the percentage drop at each step. From 1080p Low to 1440p Low, the performance loss is about 24%. From 1440p Low to 4K Low, the loss is about 35%. This accelerating decline suggests that the GPU is not just underpowered but also that its memory architecture, which relies on "System Shared" memory rather than dedicated VRAM, becomes a severe liability at higher resolutions. The bus width and bandwidth are both listed as "System Shared" and "System Dependent," meaning the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory access. At 4K, the sheer volume of texture data and frame buffer information required likely exceeds what the shared memory interface can efficiently deliver, causing the frame rate to crater to 13 FPS on both High and Ultra presets.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture and built on a 3 nm process node. It features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units, along with 12 ray tracing cores. Its base clock is 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2500 MHz, and its peak FP32 performance is rated at 7.680 TFLOPS. The GPU's TDP is 80 W, and it uses no power connectors, which confirms its integrated nature. The memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with no dedicated VRAM, no fixed bus width, and no fixed bandwidth; all memory metrics are "System Shared" or "System Dependent."

These specifications explain the measured FPS results. With only 24 ROPs and a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s, the GPU is fundamentally limited in how fast it can fill the screen with pixels. At 4K, which has roughly 8.3 million pixels, the pixel rate becomes a hard ceiling, and the measured 13 FPS at High and Ultra settings aligns with that limitation. The texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s is also modest, and with 48 TMUs, the GPU struggles to apply detailed textures at high resolutions. The FP32 throughput of 7.680 TFLOPS is low for a modern gaming GPU, especially one that is expected to handle a game as graphically intensive as Cyberpunk 2077.

The GPU's percentile ranking is telling: it sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs in the database, and its nearest rivals are all older, low-end NVIDIA parts. The Intel Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, which is only 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M, 2.5% higher than the GeForce GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% higher than the GeForce GT 710. These are not competitors that any gamer would consider capable of running a modern AAA title at high settings. The fact that this GPU is in the same performance class as those parts underscores why the measured FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 is so low.

The GPU's memory situation is another critical factor. Because it uses "System Shared" memory, the effective bandwidth is dependent on the rest of the system, and the CPU's memory support is DDR4 with a dual-channel bus and a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. That bandwidth is shared between the CPU and GPU, and in a game like Cyberpunk 2077, which features dense open-world environments with heavy texture streaming, the shared memory interface becomes a bottleneck. At higher resolutions, the GPU needs more memory bandwidth to fetch textures and geometry data, but it cannot get it because the system memory is already being used by the CPU. This is reflected in the fact that the 4K Medium preset has a measured min FPS of 15 and max FPS of 21, indicating inconsistent frame delivery, which is often a symptom of memory bandwidth starvation.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process node. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a shared 12 MB L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 dual-channel memory with a theoretical bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it uses the Intel Socket 1200 interface with PCIe Gen 4 support providing 20 lanes. The CPU has a launch MSRP of $157 and was released on 2021-03-15.

In terms of raw compute, the Core i5-11400F is a capable mid-range processor. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 14340, and its single-core score is 2024. In Geekbench, it scores 7737 multi-core and 1777 single-core. The PassMark multithread score is 16908, and the single-thread score is 2981. The CPU's percentile ranking among all CPUs is the 71st percentile, meaning it outperforms the majority of processors in the database. Its nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark rankings include the AMD EPYC 7H12 (deltaPct 0.3%), the Intel Core i5-12450H (deltaPct -0.4%), the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (deltaPct -0.6%), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (deltaPct 0.6%). These are all within a fraction of a percent of the Core i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17177, which indicates that the CPU is not a weak link in this pairing.

Given the CPU's relatively strong benchmark scores, the data suggests that the Core i5-11400F is not the primary bottleneck in Cyberpunk 2077 at most settings. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5619 and max-thread score of 5652 show that the CPU can handle multi-threaded workloads well. In Cyberpunk 2077, which is known to scale with multiple CPU cores, a 6-core/12-thread processor is generally sufficient to maintain high frame rates when paired with a more powerful GPU. The fact that the measured FPS drops so sharply with resolution increases points to the GPU as the limiting factor. However, at 1080p Low, where the GPU has less work to do, the CPU's performance becomes more relevant. The 49 FPS average at 1080p Low is the highest in the dataset, and it is likely that the CPU is able to feed the GPU just enough data to achieve that result, but the GPU still cannot push much higher.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s is another consideration. With the GPU relying on system-shared memory, the CPU and GPU are both competing for the same DDR4 bandwidth. This can reduce the CPU's effective performance in games, as it has to wait for memory access while the GPU is also accessing the same memory pool. The dual-channel memory bus is a standard configuration, but for a game that requires high throughput, this shared arrangement is a disadvantage. Still, the CPU's benchmark scores suggest that it is doing its job; the problem is that the GPU is so far below the performance level needed for a smooth experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Looking at the exact measured numbers, the data provides a comprehensive picture of this combo's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 49 FPS, which is the only result above 40 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 36 FPS, with a min of 31 FPS and a max of 42 FPS, indicating some frame pacing variability. High settings at 1080p average 27 FPS, and Ultra settings average 25 FPS. None of these 1080p results meet the commonly accepted 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and even the 49 FPS Low result has no min or max data provided, suggesting it may be a borderline case.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset drops to an average of 37 FPS. Medium at 1440p averages 27 FPS, with a min of 23 FPS and a max of 31 FPS. High at 1440p averages 20 FPS, and Ultra averages 19 FPS. The 1440p results are consistently lower than 1080p by roughly 30-40%, which is expected given the higher pixel count. The 1440p Medium result of 27 FPS is the same as the 1080p High result, showing that the GPU has to make a significant compromise in settings to maintain a playable frame rate at a higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are mostly below playability thresholds. Low settings average 24 FPS, Medium averages 18 FPS with a min of 15 and max of 21, High averages 13 FPS, and Ultra averages 13 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with no preset exceeding an average of 24 FPS. The fact that High and Ultra both produce 13 FPS suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard limit, likely due to pixel fill rate or memory bandwidth constraints. The 4K Medium preset's min FPS of 15 and max FPS of 21 also indicates that the frame rate can fluctuate significantly, which would be noticeable as stuttering during gameplay.

The data also shows that the difference between Low and Ultra settings is relatively small at 4K, with only an 11 FPS gap (24 vs 13). At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 24 FPS (49 vs 25). This compression at higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck; when the GPU is already saturated at 4K, changing settings from Low to Ultra has less impact because the GPU cannot render faster regardless of the reduced workload.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU+GPU combinations for Cyberpunk 2077, this specific pairing ranks 2576 out of 2920 total combos. That places it in the bottom 12% of all tested configurations. The rank is a reflection of the GPU's severe performance limitations, as the CPU is ranked in the 71st percentile overall, but the GPU sits at the 9th percentile. This is a classic case of a mismatched pairing, where a reasonably capable mid-range CPU is paired with an extremely weak integrated GPU, resulting in overall performance that is far below what the CPU alone would suggest.

The combo rank of 2576 out of 2920 means that 344 other tested combinations performed worse, but the vast majority of systems (2575) outperformed this one. Given the GPU's nearest rivals are all NVIDIA parts from the early 2010s, it is unsurprising that this combo ranks so low. The Intel Arc B390's average benchmark score of 1482 is only marginally better than those ancient GPUs, and in a game as demanding as Cyberpunk 2077, that translates directly to the low FPS numbers measured.

The data indicates that this combo is not suitable for playing Cyberpunk 2077 at any resolution above 1080p Low with acceptable frame rates, and even at 1080p Low, the 49 FPS average is below the 60 FPS target most gamers prefer. For anyone using this hardware, the realistic takeaway is that Cyberpunk 2077 will require significant compromises in visual quality and resolution, and the experience will still be marred by low frame rates and potential stuttering. The combo rank makes it clear that this is one of the least capable configurations in the database for this particular game.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Cyberpunk 2077?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 49, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only result above 40 FPS in the entire dataset.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482, which is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M, 2.5% higher than the GeForce GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% higher than the GeForce GT 710. All of these are low-end GPUs from years ago.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The GPU is the main bottleneck. The Intel Core i5-11400F is ranked in the 71st percentile among CPUs, while the Intel Arc B390 is in the 9th percentile among GPUs. The FPS drops significantly as resolution increases, which is a sign of GPU limitation.

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 27, with a minimum of 23 and a maximum of 31.

Q: Does the 4K Ultra preset perform differently from 4K High?

A: No, both 4K High and 4K Ultra produce an average of 13 FPS. This suggests the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling at that resolution.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations for Cyberpunk 2077?

A: This combo ranks 2576 out of 2920 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 12% of all systems in the database for this game.