Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is a demanding Action RPG that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily, and this particular pairing of an Intel Core i5-9400 with an Intel Arc B370 produces a very constrained experience. The measured data across three resolutions and four quality presets shows a system that is consistently struggling to maintain playable frame rates, with the graphics card acting as the primary bottleneck in nearly every scenario. The following analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to explain precisely how this combination behaves, where its limits are, and what users can expect from different settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and reveals a system that is almost entirely GPU-limited. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 45 FPS at 1920x1080 to 33 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 12 FPS, and then further down to 22 FPS at 3840x2160. This means that stepping from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 27% of the performance, while going from 1440p to 4K costs another 33%. The scaling is steep and linear, which is a classic sign that the graphics processor is saturated and cannot keep up with the increasing pixel count.

At higher presets, the resolution scaling becomes even more punishing. On High settings, the average FPS drops from 24 at 1080p, to 18 at 1440p, and finally to 12 at 4K. This represents a 50% reduction moving from 1080p to 4K. The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 33 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 16 FPS at 4K. The consistency of these drops—roughly 6 to 8 FPS lost per resolution step—indicates that the GPU's rendering throughput is the limiting factor. The CPU, which has 6 cores and 6 threads, is not the primary constraint here, because if it were, we would expect to see a much smaller performance gap between 1440p and 4K.

Ultra settings are essentially unplayable at any resolution. The average FPS at 1080p is 23, dropping to 17 at 1440p and 11 at 4K. The data shows that the Arc B370, which ranks in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, simply does not have the raw pixel-pushing power to handle this game at high resolutions. The only scenario where the frame rate approaches a playable threshold is at 1080p with Low settings, where 45 FPS is achieved. Every other configuration falls below 30 FPS, which is typically considered the minimum for a smooth experience in a fast-paced action game.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the dominant bottleneck in this system. Its specifications reveal why: it has 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 render output units. The boost clock is rated at 2400 MHz, with a base clock of 300 MHz, and it features 10 ray tracing cores. However, the memory configuration is the most telling detail—it uses "System Shared" memory, meaning it relies on the system's DDR4 RAM rather than dedicated VRAM. The memory bus width and bandwidth are also listed as "System Shared" and "System Dependent," respectively, which means the GPU's performance is heavily influenced by the CPU's memory support.

The i5-9400 supports dual-channel DDR4 with a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. This shared memory architecture is a severe disadvantage for a game like Cyberpunk 2077, which is known for its dense environments and high-resolution textures. The GPU's compute capabilities are also limited: its FP32 performance is 6.144 TFLOPS, and its pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s, with a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. These figures put it in the same league as much older discrete GPUs, as shown by its nearest rivals in the benchmark database: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, ATI Radeon HD 5770, and AMD Radeon HD 7650M.

The benchmark results confirm this. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1184, which places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the ATI Radeon HD 5770, scores 1190, with a deltaPct of -0.5%. This means the Arc B370 is essentially performing at the level of a graphics card from over a decade ago. In practical terms, this GPU is designed for light, integrated-graphics-level workloads—its TDP is only 25 W—and it is completely out of its depth in a modern, graphically intensive title like Cyberpunk 2077. The low FPS numbers across all settings are a direct result of this hardware limitation.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the only viable configuration for this combo is 1920x1080 with the Low preset. At this setting, the average FPS is 45, which is the only measured result that reaches a generally acceptable playable level. Every other preset at 1080p falls below 35 FPS: Medium averages 33 FPS, High averages 24 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. While 33 FPS at Medium is technically playable on some displays, the data suggests that the experience would be inconsistent, with minimum FPS dipping to 28 at that setting.

Stepping up to 2560x1440 is not recommended. Even at Low settings, the average FPS drops to 33, which is a significant decrease from the 45 FPS seen at 1080p. At Medium, the average is 24 FPS, with a minimum of 21 FPS, which would result in noticeable stuttering during intense combat or driving sequences. High and Ultra presets at 1440p are effectively unplayable, with averages of 18 and 17 FPS, respectively.

At 3840x2160, the data is uniformly poor. The best-case scenario is Low settings at 22 FPS average, and the worst is Ultra at 11 FPS. There is no configuration at 4K that approaches a playable frame rate. Therefore, the data strongly suggests that users of this combination should stick to 1080p and accept the Low preset as the only way to get a reasonably fluid experience. If visual fidelity is a priority, the user might consider Medium at 1080p, accepting the lower 33 FPS average and the risk of drops to 28 FPS, but the measured data does not support any higher resolution.

FAQ

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

A: The measured data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings is the only configuration that achieves an average FPS above 40, specifically 45 FPS. All other settings at this resolution and all settings at higher resolutions fall below 35 FPS average.

Q: How does this GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Arc B370 has an average benchmark score of 1184, which is nearly identical to the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190) and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186). The deltaPct values are -0.5% and -0.2%, respectively, indicating performance is within 1% of these older cards.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the opposite. The FPS drops heavily as resolution increases (e.g., from 45 FPS at 1080p Low to 22 FPS at 4K Low), which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. The CPU, with 6 cores and 6 threads, is not the limiting factor here.

Q: Can this system run the game at 4K?

A: No. The maximum average FPS at 3840x2160 is 22 on Low settings, and it drops to 11 on Ultra. All 4K results are far below playable thresholds.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 45 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields an average of 23 FPS. This is a 22 FPS difference, representing a roughly 49% performance reduction from the highest to the lowest quality setting.

Q: Does the GPU have dedicated video memory?

A: No. The memory configuration is listed as "System Shared," meaning it uses the system's main memory rather than dedicated VRAM. The memory bus width and bandwidth are also listed as "System Dependent."

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, released in late 2018. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. Its L3 cache is 9 MB shared, and it supports dual-channel DDR4 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 6629 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 935 in single-core, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 5141. These numbers place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, which is a mid-range result.

In this specific game, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that performance degrades significantly with increasing resolution and quality settings, which is a GPU-bound characteristic. For example, at 1080p Low, the system achieves 45 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 22 FPS. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively constant across resolutions, as the CPU work per frame is largely independent of resolution. The fact that FPS scales so steeply with pixel count proves that the Arc B370 is the limiting component.

That said, the CPU is not without its limitations. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avg score 2259, deltaPct -0.2%), the Intel Core i3-10305 (avg score 2264, deltaPct -0.4%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (avg score 2246, deltaPct 0.4%). These scores are all within 0.4% of each other, indicating that the i5-9400 is a solid, if unremarkable, performer for its era. Its 6 threads mean it lacks the multi-threading capabilities of newer processors, but in a game where the GPU is so heavily constrained, the CPU is unlikely to be the source of any additional performance loss. The data shows that the CPU is simply waiting on the GPU to render frames.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a complete breakdown of the measured average FPS data for this combination, presented by resolution and settings.

1920x1080:

• Low: 45 FPS average
• Medium: 33 FPS average (minimum 28, maximum 38)
• High: 24 FPS average
• Ultra: 23 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 33 FPS average
• Medium: 24 FPS average (minimum 21, maximum 28)
• High: 18 FPS average
• Ultra: 17 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 22 FPS average
• Medium: 16 FPS average (minimum 14, maximum 19)
• High: 12 FPS average
• Ultra: 11 FPS average

The data shows a clear and consistent pattern. For every resolution step up (1080p to 1440p to 4K), the average FPS drops by roughly 10 to 12 FPS at Low settings, and by 6 to 8 FPS at higher settings. The Medium preset is the only one with min and max FPS data for all three resolutions, showing that the frame time variance is relatively tight—for example, at 1080p Medium, the range is 28 to 38 FPS, but at 4K Medium, it narrows to 14 to 19 FPS. This suggests that as the GPU becomes more saturated, the frame pacing becomes more consistent, though at a very low overall level.

The difference between Low and Ultra at each resolution is significant. At 1080p, the gap is 22 FPS (45 vs 23). At 1440p, the gap is 16 FPS (33 vs 17). At 4K, the gap is 11 FPS (22 vs 11). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is running out of headroom regardless of the settings, and the Ultra preset's additional effects (like ray tracing, which the GPU only has 10 cores for) cannot be processed without a massive hit to frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos for Cyberpunk 2077, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2685 out of 2920 total combinations. This places it in the bottom 8% of all tested systems, which aligns with the measured FPS data. The rank is a composite measure that considers the overall performance across all tested resolutions and settings, and given that this system fails to hit 30 FPS average in 11 out of 12 tested configurations, a low ranking is expected.

The GPU's 5th percentile ranking is the primary driver of this poor result. The CPU, ranking in the 47th percentile, is a relatively competent component, but it is paired with a GPU that is fundamentally unsuited for this game. The nearest rival GPUs, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, are both over a decade old, and their performance levels are nearly identical to the Arc B370. This positions the GPU as a legacy-level part that is only capable of running older or less demanding titles.

The combo rank of 2685 out of 2920 also means that there are only 235 combinations that perform worse than this one. These would likely involve even older or more integrated graphics solutions. For a user with this setup, the measured data is clear: this is a system for 1080p gaming at the lowest settings, and even then, the average FPS of 45 is not particularly high for a game like Cyberpunk 2077. The combination rank accurately reflects the severely limited playability of this title on this hardware.