High On Life

# High On Life with Intel Core i5-14400F + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in High On Life. At 1080p, the combination achieves smooth frame rates across most presets, with the Low preset hitting 119 FPS average. However, the data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs: 4K Ultra drops to 25 FPS average, making the highest settings essentially unplayable at that resolution. The Arc B570's 10 GB of VRAM and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor at 4K, where even Low settings only reach 51 FPS. This pairing is best suited for 1080p High or 1440p Medium gaming, where the measured results indicate a balanced experience.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior in High On Life exposes a GPU-bound system at higher resolutions. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 77 to 54, a 30% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings, the average falls from 54 to 33, another 39% decline. This pattern intensifies with Ultra settings: 1080p Ultra averages 58 FPS, 1440p Ultra drops to 41 FPS, and 4K Ultra plummets to 25 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra represents a 57% performance loss, indicating that the Arc B570's rendering throughput is the dominant constraint at higher pixel counts.

At Low settings, the scaling is less punishing but still significant. The 1080p Low average of 119 FPS drops to 84 FPS at 1440p and 51 FPS at 4K. This means even at the lowest visual quality, 4K resolution cuts frame rates by more than half compared to 1080p. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 93 FPS at 1080p, 66 FPS at 1440p, and 40 FPS at 4K, with the 4K Medium result including a minimum of 34 FPS and maximum of 46 FPS.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU still has headroom, as the frame rates scale nearly linearly with preset quality. However, the transition to 1440p and especially 4K shifts the bottleneck squarely to the GPU. The Arc B570's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient for 4K gaming in this title. The 4K Low result of 51 FPS, which is only 43% of the 1080p Low result, confirms that pixel throughput, not shading complexity, is the limiting factor at high resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination in High On Life?

A: The measured data shows 1080p is the sweet spot. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 77, which is comfortably above playable thresholds. At 1440p High, the average drops to 54 FPS, which is still playable but noticeably less smooth. 4K is only viable at Low settings, where the average is 51 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at different resolutions?

A: Ultra settings yield 58 FPS average at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is well below playable levels, while 1440p Ultra is borderline. Only 1080p Ultra delivers a consistently smooth experience.

Q: Is the Intel Arc B570 or the Core i5-14400F the bottleneck?

A: At 1080p, the system appears balanced, with frame rates scaling predictably with preset quality. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, as demonstrated by the steep FPS drops when resolution increases. The CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Medium settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 119 FPS while Medium averages 93 FPS, a 26 FPS difference. Medium also has a minimum FPS of 79 and maximum of 107, showing more variance than Low, which has no recorded minimum or maximum values in the data.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556, placing it 0.1% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% below the Intel Arc A750 (20582). This puts it in the same performance tier as those GPUs, though the comparison is based on synthetic benchmarks, not High On Life-specific results.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured data shows 66 FPS average at 1440p Medium, with a minimum of 56 FPS and maximum of 75 FPS. This preset provides a good balance of visual quality and smoothness at 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F brings 10 cores and 16 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This Raptor Lake Refresh processor, built on Intel's 10 nm process, delivers strong synthetic performance: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21645 and single-core score of 3055. The Geekbench results of 11268 multi-core and 2058 single-core further confirm solid processing capability. In High On Life, the CPU's role is evident in the 1080p results, where frame rates scale cleanly from 58 FPS at Ultra to 119 FPS at Low, suggesting the processor is not a limiting factor at this resolution.

The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core provide adequate data locality for game logic and physics. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, allowing flexible platform configuration. Its PassMark multi-thread score of 25470 and single-thread score of 3701 place it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32279. Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-14400F is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (0.1% higher score) and Intel Core i9-11900 (0.2% higher), while slightly trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS by 0.2%.

At 1440p and 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes as the GPU takes over as the bottleneck. The measured FPS drops from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings are consistent with GPU-bound behavior, not CPU limitations. For example, High settings drop from 77 FPS at 1080p to 54 FPS at 1440p, a ratio that aligns with the increase in pixel count. The CPU's 65 W TDP and 16 PCIe Gen 5 lanes provide ample bandwidth for the Arc B570, which uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The processor's 80 KB L1 cache per core and support for ECC memory round out a capable gaming CPU that does not hold back the Arc B570 in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear progression across presets. Low settings deliver the highest average at 119 FPS, followed by Medium at 93 FPS (minimum 79, maximum 107), High at 77 FPS, and Ultra at 58 FPS. The 1080p results demonstrate that even Ultra settings remain playable, with the average staying well above 60 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 26 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 16 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 19 FPS. This indicates diminishing returns as settings increase, but no preset is unplayable at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates drop noticeably. Low settings average 84 FPS, Medium 66 FPS (minimum 56, maximum 75), High 54 FPS, and Ultra 41 FPS. The 1440p results show that Ultra dips below the 60 FPS threshold, while High and Medium remain playable. The gap between Low and Medium is 18 FPS, Medium to High is 12 FPS, and High to Ultra is 13 FPS. The 1440p Medium result includes a minimum of 56 FPS, indicating occasional dips below 60 FPS but generally smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles significantly. Low settings average 51 FPS, Medium 40 FPS (minimum 34, maximum 46), High 33 FPS, and Ultra 25 FPS. The 4K results show that only Low approaches playability, while Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below 40 FPS average. The gap between Low and Medium is 11 FPS, Medium to High is 7 FPS, and High to Ultra is 8 FPS, showing that resolution is the dominant factor at 4K. The 4K Medium minimum of 34 FPS highlights the instability at this resolution. The combination ranks 2356 out of 2958 combinations in this game, placing it in the lower half of tested configurations.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570, built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, provides the rendering muscle for this pairing. Its 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units deliver 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 performance. The GPU's 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s bandwidth, with memory clocks at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The 18 ray tracing cores support DirectX 12 Ultimate, though High On Life's measured results primarily reflect rasterization performance.

The GPU's benchmark scores show it sits at the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 20556. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649, Geekbench OpenCL score of 83514, and Vulkan score of 96844 indicate solid compute performance. The PassMark G3D score of 14195 and GPU compute score of 7281 further characterize its capabilities. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Arc B570 is 0.1% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and 0.1% slower than the Intel Arc A750, placing it in the same performance tier.

In High On Life, the GPU's role is decisive at higher resolutions. The 4K results, where even Low settings only achieve 51 FPS, demonstrate that the Arc B570 lacks the pixel throughput for 4K gaming. The 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering in this title. At 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to deliver 119 FPS at Low, but the scaling to higher resolutions shows a consistent pattern of GPU limitation. The 150 W TDP and dual-slot design with a single 8-pin power connector make it a reasonable power draw for the performance delivered. The suggested 450 W PSU provides adequate headroom for this system configuration.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gaming, the High preset at 77 FPS average offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The Ultra preset at 58 FPS is also viable for players prioritizing visuals, though the 19 FPS drop from High may not justify the graphical improvements. The Medium preset at 93 FPS provides a smoother experience with a 16 FPS advantage over High, making it a strong alternative for competitive play. The Low preset at 119 FPS is ideal for maximum frame rates, but sacrifices visual fidelity.

For 1440p gaming, the Medium preset at 66 FPS average is the recommended choice. It maintains playable frame rates while offering better visual quality than Low (84 FPS) or High (54 FPS). The High preset at 54 FPS is acceptable for players who prefer visuals over smoothness, but the Medium preset's minimum of 56 FPS and maximum of 75 FPS indicate more consistent performance. The Ultra preset at 41 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below playable thresholds.

For 4K gaming, the Low preset at 51 FPS is the only viable option. The Medium preset at 40 FPS, High at 33 FPS, and Ultra at 25 FPS all fall below acceptable frame rates for an FPS title. Players targeting 4K should accept Low settings or consider reducing resolution to 1440p. The measured data shows that this combination is not suited for 4K gaming, with the GPU being the primary constraint. The 1080p Medium preset, with its 93 FPS average and minimum of 79 FPS, provides the most consistent experience across all tested configurations, making it the safest recommendation for this system.