Grand Theft Auto V

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable Grand Theft Auto V experience, but the data reveals a configuration that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the combo performs admirably, yet it falls below the 60 FPS threshold at 4K on higher presets. The GPU sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU rests at the 47th percentile, and the benchmark results show that the Arc B570 is the primary bottleneck in this pairing, particularly as resolution scales.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and steep performance drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, a pattern that points directly to the GPU as the limiting component. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 84 FPS at 1080p to 57 FPS at 1440p, a 32% reduction, and then plummets to 32 FPS at 4K, a 62% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This scaling is not linear; the gap between 1440p and 4K is significantly larger than the gap between 1080p and 1440p, indicating that the Arc B570's rendering capabilities are being saturated as pixel count increases.

The same trend is visible across all presets. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 123 at 1080p to 83 at 1440p and 48 at 4K. At Medium settings, the figures are 108, 73, and 42 FPS respectively. Even at Ultra, where the game is most demanding, the pattern holds: 60 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K. The consistency of this scaling across presets confirms that the resolution increase is the dominant factor, and the arithmetic progression of the frame rate decline suggests a GPU-bound scenario where the CPU has spare capacity.

The data indicates that the Intel Core i5-9400 is not the limiting factor in this resolution scaling. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU workload would stay constant while the GPU work grows. Instead, the substantial FPS drops at 4K—often more than halving the 1080p scores—point to the Arc B570's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth being overwhelmed. The GPU's 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K data suggests the architecture struggles to maintain playable framerates when pushing 8.3 million pixels.

Furthermore, the 4K results are particularly telling for the High and Ultra presets. The 32 FPS average at High and 23 FPS at Ultra are both below the commonly accepted 30 FPS minimum for smooth gameplay, and the Medium preset at 4K (42 FPS) is the only setting that approaches playability. This implies that for a 4K display, users must significantly lower settings to achieve a fluid experience, and even then, the margin is thin. The scaling curve suggests that the GPU's 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient for the demands of Grand Theft Auto V at 4K with high fidelity, making 1440p the practical ceiling for this combination.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 60 FPS, which is exactly on the threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the High preset at 84 FPS offers a 40% performance uplift over Ultra, and the Medium preset at 108 FPS is even faster. Given that the visual difference between High and Ultra in Grand Theft Auto V is often subtle, the data strongly suggests that High is the sweet spot at 1080p, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining quality. The Low preset at 123 FPS is only for competitive play where maximum frame rate is paramount.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. The High preset averages 57 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target, while the Medium preset averages 73 FPS, providing a 28% improvement. The Ultra preset at 41 FPS is not recommended, as it falls into the unplayable range. Therefore, Medium is the best experience at 1440p, offering a stable frame rate that stays above 60 FPS based on the min FPS data of 62. The High preset is acceptable for users who prioritize visual fidelity over a perfectly smooth frame rate, but it carries the risk of occasional dips below 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the situation is challenging. The Low preset averages 48 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The Medium preset averages 42 FPS with a minimum of 35 FPS, which may cause noticeable stuttering in busy scenes. The High and Ultra presets are effectively unusable, with averages of 32 and 23 FPS respectively. For a 4K experience, the Low preset is the only option that maintains a frame rate above 40 FPS on average, and even that requires compromise on visual quality. The data indicates that this hardware combination is not suited for 4K gaming in Grand Theft Auto V, and users would be better served by lowering the resolution to 1440p and using Medium or High settings.

The min FPS data for Medium settings across all resolutions is informative. At 1080p, the Medium preset has a minimum of 91 FPS, which is exceptionally stable. At 1440p, the minimum is 62 FPS, still above the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K, the minimum drops to 35 FPS, showing a significant stability degradation. This pattern reinforces that Medium is a reliable preset at lower resolutions but becomes marginal at 4K. For the vast majority of users with a 1080p or 1440p monitor, the data recommends starting with High settings and dropping to Medium only if frame rate consistency is a concern.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Grand Theft Auto V at 60 FPS on a 4K monitor?

A: No. The measured data shows that at 3840x2160, the highest average FPS achieved is 48 on Low settings, and the Medium preset averages 42 FPS. High and Ultra presets average 32 and 23 FPS respectively, all below the 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice at 2560x1440, delivering an average of 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 FPS. The High preset averages 57 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, while Ultra averages 41 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to the Intel Arc A750 in this game?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20,556, which is 0.1% lower than the Arc A750's score of 20,582. This indicates near-identical performance levels, with the B570 being slightly slower on average.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 holding back performance in this game?

A: The data suggests no. The CPU's average benchmark score is 2,254, and its nearest rival is the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 with a score of 2,259, a delta of -0.2%. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a significant drop, indicating the GPU is the limiting component.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 84 FPS. This provides a solid margin above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for Grand Theft Auto V at high resolutions?

A: The Arc B570 has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory. The performance drop at 4K, where the average FPS falls to 32 on High settings, suggests that memory bandwidth and capacity are sufficient, but the core rendering performance is the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for Grand Theft Auto V reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves the highest average at 123 FPS, followed by Medium at 108 FPS (with a minimum of 91 and maximum of 124), High at 84 FPS, and Ultra at 60 FPS. The 1080p results show that even the most demanding preset, Ultra, manages to hit the 60 FPS average, making 1080p the most versatile resolution for this hardware.

At 2560x1440, the scores drop across the board. Low averages 83 FPS, Medium averages 73 FPS (minimum 62, maximum 83), High averages 57 FPS, and Ultra averages 41 FPS. The 1440p data shows a clear divide: Low and Medium presets remain comfortably above 60 FPS on average, while High and Ultra fall below. The minimum FPS for Medium at 1440p is 62, which means the frame rate rarely dips below the target, making it a stable choice.

At 3840x2160, the performance collapses. Low averages 48 FPS, Medium averages 42 FPS (minimum 35, maximum 48), High averages 32 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. No preset at 4K reaches 60 FPS, and only Low and Medium exceed the 30 FPS playability floor. The gap between the Medium and High presets at 4K is 10 FPS, which is a larger relative drop than at lower resolutions, indicating that the GPU's shading and texture units are overwhelmed.

The progression from Ultra at 1080p (60 FPS) to Ultra at 1440p (41 FPS) to Ultra at 4K (23 FPS) shows a halving of performance with each resolution step. At Medium settings, the progression is 108 to 73 to 42 FPS, a similar proportional decline. At Low settings, the progression is 123 to 83 to 48 FPS. This arithmetic consistency reinforces that the scaling is purely GPU-bound, and the CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads are not introducing variance in the results.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the dominant performance driver in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the measured FPS patterns. The GPU features 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, operating at a base and boost clock of 2500 MHz. This translates to 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, a figure that places it in the mid-range tier for modern GPUs. The benchmark data shows the GPU at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20,556, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534) and the Intel Arc A750 (20,582).

The memory subsystem plays a critical role in the game's performance. The 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Grand Theft Auto V, which is a 2013 title with a large open world, texture streaming and memory bandwidth are important, but the data shows that the GPU's compute throughput is the limiting factor. The 4K results, where the GPU's FP32 performance is insufficient to maintain high frame rates, confirm that the memory bandwidth is not the bottleneck; otherwise, the scaling would be less severe.

The GPU's architecture, Xe2-HPG on a 5 nm process, is designed for efficiency, but the 150 W TDP and 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die suggest a mid-range part. The 18 ray tracing cores are irrelevant for this game, as Grand Theft Auto V does not utilize ray tracing. The 80 ROPs and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K data shows that the pixel fill rate is insufficient for the higher resolution.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the Arc A750, which has a nearly identical average score, and the RTX 3070 Mobile. The delta percentages are all within 0.5%, indicating that the Arc B570 is firmly in a performance class with these cards. The measured FPS in Grand Theft Auto V aligns with this, as the card delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p but struggles at 4K, which is consistent with its mid-range positioning. The GPU's launch MSRP is 219 USD, and its production status is Active, indicating it is a current product.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides a stable foundation for this gaming configuration, but the data indicates it is not the performance limiter in Grand Theft Auto V. The CPU has 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This Coffee Lake architecture chip has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. Its average benchmark score is 2,254, placing it at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, which is slightly below the GPU's 65th percentile ranking.

The CPU's nearest rivals are all within a 0.4% delta of its average score, including the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2,259), the Intel Core i7-10710U (2,248), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2,246). This clustering indicates that the i5-9400 is in a crowded performance tier, and its 6-core/6-thread configuration is typical for this class. In Grand Theft Auto V, which is known to be more dependent on single-core performance than multi-core, the CPU's single-core benchmark scores are relevant. The Cinebench R23 single-core score is 935, and the Geekbench single-core score is 1,389, both of which are adequate for a 2013 title.

The evidence that the CPU is not the bottleneck comes from the resolution scaling. If the CPU were limiting performance, the frame rates at 1080p and 4K would be similar, since the CPU workload does not change with resolution. Instead, the measured FPS drops dramatically from 1080p to 4K across all presets, proving that the GPU is the constraining factor. For example, at High settings, the 1080p average is 84 FPS, but the 4K average is 32 FPS, a 62% reduction. This pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 14 nm process node suggest a modest power draw, which is beneficial for system thermals, but it does not contribute to raw gaming performance. The PCIe Gen 3 interface with 16 lanes is sufficient for the Arc B570, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, meaning the CPU's older PCIe standard does not bottleneck the GPU's data transfer. The CPU's memory support for DDR4 at 42.7 GB/s is also adequate, as the game's memory requirements are well within this bandwidth.

The data shows that the i5-9400 has ample headroom in this game. The minimum FPS values for Medium settings at 1080p (91 FPS) and 1440p (62 FPS) indicate that the CPU can feed the GPU without causing frame time spikes. At 4K, where the GPU is clearly overwhelmed, the CPU is likely idle waiting for the GPU to finish rendering, which further confirms its non-limiting role. Overall, the i5-9400 is a competent pairing for the Arc B570, providing sufficient processing power for Grand Theft Auto V without becoming a source of performance degradation.