High On Life

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D paired with the Intel Arc B370 produces a combination that ranks near the bottom of the database for High On Life, and the benchmark results reflect a system that is fundamentally constrained by its graphics solution. The combo sits at rank 2715 out of 2958 tested combinations, placing it in the 8th percentile of all tested pairings, which signals that this is a configuration where the GPU is the dominant bottleneck across every resolution and settings preset tested.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame places this pairing at 2715 out of 2958 tested combos, meaning roughly 92% of all tested configurations outperform it in High On Life. This is a decisive verdict: the pairing is not competitive for this title, and the data shows that the Intel Arc B370 is the limiting factor rather than the Ryzen 9 9900X3D. The CPU is a high-end desktop processor with an average benchmark score of 54762, sitting at the 91st percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU’s average benchmark score is only 1184, placing it at the 5th percentile among all GPUs. The disparity between these two components is stark, and the game’s frame rates confirm that the GPU cannot keep pace with the CPU’s capabilities.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, which scores 55093 (a delta of -0.6% relative to the 9900X3D), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K at 54053 (delta 1.3%), the Intel Xeon 6505P at 53701 (delta 2%), and the Intel Core i7-14700F at 53620 (delta 2.1%). This places the 9900X3D essentially on par with those processors, with differences of less than 2.1% in either direction. The CPU is clearly not the issue here; it is a top-tier processor that trades blows with other high-end chips.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 at 1186 (delta -0.2%), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 at 1190 (delta -0.5%), the AMD Radeon HD 7650M at 1192 (delta -0.7%), and the AMD FirePro M2000 at 1168 (delta 1.4%). The Arc B370’s score of 1184 places it in the company of legacy graphics cards from over a decade ago, which is a damning comparison for a modern integrated GPU. This is not a competitive gaming part, and the rank in High On Life reflects that reality.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel’s 3 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, and it features 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output units. The GPU includes 10 ray tracing cores, but its memory configuration is entirely system-dependent, with shared memory, shared bus width, and bandwidth that varies based on the host system. The pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 6.144 TFLOPS and FP16 performance of 12.29 TFLOPS (2:1). The TDP is 25 W, and it is classified as an IGP with no power connectors and a bus interface of IGP.

The data shows that this GPU is not designed for demanding gaming workloads. In High On Life, the measured FPS numbers are consistently low, even at 1080p with Low settings. The GPU’s percentile rank of 5 means it is in the bottom 5% of all GPUs in the database, and its benchmark score of 1184 is nearly identical to that of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186), which is a mobile GPU from an entirely different era. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 is the only GPU benchmark recorded, and it confirms that this part is not a viable option for modern games at playable frame rates.

The VRAM situation is worth highlighting: the Arc B370 has no dedicated VRAM, instead relying on system memory. This means that performance is heavily dependent on the host system’s memory bandwidth and capacity, and in a game like High On Life, the shared memory architecture likely contributes to the low frame rates observed. The lack of dedicated VRAM is a fundamental limitation that cannot be overcome by the CPU’s strength.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, but the drops are not uniform across settings. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 70, which is the highest result recorded for this combo. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 49, a reduction of 30% from 1080p. At 4K Low, the average falls to 30, which is 57% lower than 1080p Low. This scaling indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU has more than enough headroom to handle these resolutions.

For Medium settings, the pattern is similar: 1080p Medium averages 55 FPS, 1440p Medium averages 38 FPS (a 31% drop), and 4K Medium averages 23 FPS (a 58% drop from 1080p). The High settings show 1080p at 45 FPS, 1440p at 32 FPS (a 29% drop), and 4K at 19 FPS (a 58% drop from 1080p). Ultra settings follow the same trend: 1080p Ultra averages 34 FPS, 1440p Ultra averages 24 FPS (a 29% drop), and 4K Ultra averages 14 FPS (a 59% drop from 1080p).

The fact that the percentage drops from 1080p to 4K are relatively consistent across all settings (ranging from 57% to 59%) suggests that the GPU is being pushed to its limits at every resolution. The CPU is not the bottleneck because the frame rate scales with resolution in a way that points to pixel throughput limitations. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain more constant across resolutions, which is not the case here.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo achieves its best results. With Low settings, the average FPS is 70, which is the only result above 60 FPS in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce an average of 55 FPS, with a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS. High settings average 45 FPS, and Ultra settings average 34 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at 1080p, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates at higher settings, and the only playable experience is at Low settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. Low settings average 49 FPS, Medium settings average 38 FPS (with a minimum of 33 and maximum of 44), High settings average 32 FPS, and Ultra settings average 24 FPS. At this resolution, no settings preset achieves an average above 50 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls below 30 FPS, which is generally considered the minimum for playable performance in a fast-paced FPS.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unusable for gaming. Low settings average 30 FPS, Medium settings average 23 FPS (with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 27), High settings average 19 FPS, and Ultra settings average 14 FPS. Every preset at 4K falls below 30 FPS, and the Ultra preset is below 15 FPS, making the game essentially unplayable at this resolution.

The data shows that the only configuration that delivers a smooth experience is 1080p Low, and even that is borderline for a competitive FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p is close to playable at 55 FPS, but the minimum of 47 FPS indicates that there are frame drops that could affect gameplay. For any resolution above 1080p, the system is not viable for High On Life.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo in High On Life?

A: The best result is at 1920x1080 with Low settings, which achieves an average FPS of 70. This is the only configuration that exceeds 60 FPS, and it is the recommended preset for playable performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D has an average benchmark score of 54762 and ranks at the 91st percentile among CPUs, while the Intel Arc B370 has an average score of 1184 and ranks at the 5th percentile among GPUs. The frame rate scaling across resolutions confirms that the GPU is limiting performance.

Q: Can this combo run High On Life at 4K?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the highest average FPS is 30 with Low settings, and Ultra settings average only 14 FPS. All presets at 4K fall below 30 FPS, making the game unplayable at this resolution.

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

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in its benchmark, which is nearly identical to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, delta -0.2%), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, delta -0.5%), the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, delta -0.7%), and the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168, delta 1.4%). These are all legacy GPUs, indicating the Arc B370 is not competitive with modern graphics solutions.

Q: What is the difference between 1080p and 4K performance at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the average FPS is 45, while at 4K High, it drops to 19 FPS. This is a reduction of approximately 58%, which indicates that the GPU is struggling to fill pixels at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the CPU’s 12-core, 24-thread configuration help in this game?

A: The CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads are not utilized effectively because the GPU cannot deliver enough frames. The CPU has a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 47737 and a single-core score of 6739, which are strong numbers, but the frame rates in High On Life are limited by the GPU’s performance, not by the CPU’s processing power.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 9000 series, based on the Zen 5 architecture (codenamed Granite Ridge) and built on TSMC’s 4 nm process node. It has a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The CPU features 128 MB of L3 cache, along with 80 KB of L1 cache per core and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, and it includes integrated Radeon Graphics. The CPU uses AMD Socket AM5 and supports PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes.

The benchmark data shows that this is a high-performing processor. It scores 47737 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 6739 in Cinebench R23 single-core. In Geekbench, it scores 22884 multicore and 3041 single-core. The 3DMark scores include 12490 for 16 threads, 2512 for 2 threads, 4885 for 4 threads, 9002 for 8 threads, 13795 for max threads, and 1269 for single thread. PassMark results show 56154 for multithread, 4646 for single thread, 179727 for integer math, and 119622 for floating point math. The average benchmark score is 54762, placing it at the 91st percentile among all CPUs.

Despite these strong CPU numbers, the High On Life results are poor because the GPU cannot keep up. The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (avg score 55093, delta -0.6%), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K (54053, delta 1.3%), the Intel Xeon 6505P (53701, delta 2%), and the Intel Core i7-14700F (53620, delta 2.1%). These deltas are all within 2.1% of the 9900X3D, meaning that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would have virtually no impact on the game’s frame rates because the GPU is the limiting factor.

The CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads are more than sufficient for High On Life, which is a game that does not require extreme multi-threading. The high single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6739) ensures that the CPU can process game logic and draw calls without becoming a bottleneck. However, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the sole constraint, and the CPU’s capabilities are largely wasted in this configuration. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more powerful dedicated GPU would yield dramatically better results, but as tested, the Arc B370 holds the system back to the point where it ranks in the bottom 8% of all tested combos.