High On Life

# FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the Intel Core i5-14600K with the Intel Arc B570 in High On Life?

A: This combination ranks 2356 out of 2958 tested combos in the database, placing it in the lower half of all systems tested for this game.

Q: What is the difference in performance between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 119 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 58 FPS. That represents a 61 FPS gap, or roughly a 51% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: Does the Intel Arc B570 have enough VRAM for High On Life at 4K?

A: The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the average FPS is only 25, indicating that the memory capacity and bandwidth are insufficient to maintain smooth gameplay at that resolution with maximum settings.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-14600K compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The CPU scores 48,618 in average benchmark score, which is 0.2% behind the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4345P (48,470). It also trails the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 by 0.8% and leads the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX by 0.7%.

Q: What is the best preset for a balance of performance and visual quality at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 66 FPS on average with a minimum of 56 FPS, whereas the High preset drops to 54 FPS. The Medium setting provides the best compromise, staying above 60 FPS while offering better visuals than the Low preset's 84 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Arc B570 more comparable to a mobile GPU or a desktop GPU?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20,556, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534) and 0.1% lower than the Intel Arc A750 (20,582). Its closest rivals include both a mobile part and a previous-generation desktop Intel GPU.

# GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2500 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The memory subsystem consists of 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, along with 18 ray tracing cores. The compute throughput is rated at 11.52 TFLOPS for FP32 and 23.04 TFLOPS for FP16 (2:1 ratio).

In High On Life, the GPU's role is clearly the dominant factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p with the Low preset, the system achieves 119 FPS, but as resolution increases to 1440p and 2160p, the frame rate drops to 84 FPS and 51 FPS respectively at the same settings. This pattern indicates that the Arc B570's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are being taxed progressively harder as resolution scales. The GPU's pixel rate is 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s, which are modest figures for modern titles.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity becomes a constraint at 4K, particularly with the Ultra preset where the average FPS falls to 25. The 160-bit memory bus and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely insufficient for the texture and geometry data required at that resolution with high-quality settings. The GPU's performance percentile is 65, meaning it outperforms 65% of all GPUs in the database, but this places it firmly in the mid-range segment. Its average benchmark score of 20,556 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% higher) and the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% lower), suggesting that the B570 is roughly on par with those parts in synthetic tests.

The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which covers the API requirements for High On Life. The power draw is rated at 150 W TDP with a suggested power supply of 450 W, and the card uses a dual-slot design with a single 8-pin power connector. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8, which may limit bandwidth in some scenarios but is unlikely to be a bottleneck in this game given the measured results.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear picture of which preset offers the best experience at each resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 119 FPS on average, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo. However, the Medium preset achieves 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS, which remains well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 77 FPS is also playable, but the Ultra preset at 58 FPS begins to approach the edge of acceptable performance.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the strongest recommendation. It achieves 66 FPS on average with a minimum of 56 FPS, which is the only preset at this resolution that stays reasonably close to 60 FPS. The Low preset at 84 FPS is smoother but sacrifices visual quality, while the High preset at 54 FPS and Ultra at 41 FPS fall below the 60 FPS target. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot for this combination.

At 4K, none of the presets deliver a fully smooth experience. The Low preset at 51 FPS is the best option, but it still falls short of 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 40 FPS (minimum 34, maximum 46) is playable but noticeably less fluid. The High preset at 33 FPS and Ultra at 25 FPS are both below 30 FPS, which is generally considered the minimum for playable frame rates in a first-person shooter. For users who prioritize frame rate over resolution, dropping to 1440p with Medium settings is the recommended configuration.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance ranges from 119 FPS at Low settings to 58 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset produces 93 FPS on average with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS. The High preset delivers 77 FPS on average. This represents a 51% reduction in frame rate from Low to Ultra, which is a substantial penalty for the higher visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 84 FPS, while Medium drops to 66 FPS (minimum 56, maximum 75). The High preset yields 54 FPS, and Ultra falls to 41 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings shows a 35 FPS drop (from 119 to 84), which is a 29% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is 27 FPS (from 93 to 66), a 29% reduction as well.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 51 FPS, Medium drops to 40 FPS (minimum 34, maximum 46), High yields 33 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 25 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings shows a 33 FPS drop (from 84 to 51), which is a 39% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is 26 FPS (from 66 to 40), a 39% reduction. The consistent percentage drops across settings suggest that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the scaling behavior is uniform regardless of quality level.

The minimum FPS data is only available for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p, the minimum is 79 FPS, at 1440p it is 56 FPS, and at 4K it is 34 FPS. These minimums indicate that the frame pacing remains relatively stable, with the minimum staying within 15-16% of the average at each resolution.

# How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2356 out of 2958 tested combos in High On Life, placing it in the 20th percentile overall. This is a low ranking for a system with a desktop-class CPU and a discrete GPU, suggesting that the GPU is significantly underpowered for this game relative to other tested configurations.

The CPU itself performs well in synthetic benchmarks, with an average score of 48,618 and a percentile ranking of 90 among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48,698 (-0.2%), the AMD EPYC 4345P scores 48,470 (+0.3%), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX scores 48,287 (+0.7%), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 scores 48,995 (-0.8%). This places the i5-14600K in a competitive position among desktop and workstation processors.

The GPU, however, has a percentile ranking of 65 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20,556. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534, +0.1%), the Intel Arc A750 (20,582, -0.1%), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20,480, +0.4%), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20,662, -0.5%). The GPU's rank in the 65th percentile is modest, and its performance in High On Life at 1080p Ultra (58 FPS) suggests that it is not well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at maximum settings.

The large discrepancy between the CPU's high percentile (90) and the GPU's lower percentile (65) explains the combo's poor overall ranking. In a game like High On Life, which is a single-player FPS, the GPU is typically the limiting factor, and the data confirms this pattern. The combo rank of 2356 out of 2958 indicates that there are many other combinations that deliver better performance in this specific title.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, specifically the Raptor Lake Refresh generation. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-14600K delivers strong multi-threaded performance, scoring 24,491 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 13,709 in Cinebench R20 multi-core. Single-thread scores are 2,064 in Cinebench R23 and 1,935 in Cinebench R20. Geekbench results show 16,673 multi-core and 2,491 single-core. PassMark tests show 38,682 in multi-threaded performance and 4,270 in single-threaded performance.

In High On Life, the CPU's role is less critical than the GPU's, as evidenced by the performance scaling across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 119 FPS, which is close to the 120 FPS threshold that would indicate a CPU bottleneck. However, at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 58 FPS, showing that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as settings increase.

The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient for this game, which is not heavily multi-threaded. The high boost clock of 5.30 GHz provides strong single-thread performance, which is important for game logic and physics. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, and the support for DDR5 memory (though the measured data does not specify which memory type was used) allows for high bandwidth if paired with appropriate modules.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 90 indicates that it outperforms 90% of all CPUs in the database, making it a high-end processor for gaming. However, in this specific combo, the CPU's capabilities are largely untapped because the GPU cannot keep up at higher resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system approaches the CPU's limit around 119 FPS, but at all other settings and resolutions, the GPU is the bottleneck.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings, the average FPS drops from 119 to 84, a 35 FPS decrease or 29% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 93 to 66, also a 29% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 77 to 54, a 30% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 58 to 41, a 29% reduction.

Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low settings, the average FPS drops from 84 to 51, a 33 FPS decrease or 39% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 66 to 40, a 39% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 54 to 33, a 39% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 41 to 25, a 39% reduction.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings at each resolution step is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the percentage drop to be smaller at lower settings (where the CPU has more headroom) and larger at higher settings (where the GPU is more stressed). Instead, the uniform scaling suggests that the GPU is saturated at all settings, and the frame rate is directly proportional to the pixel count.

The total drop from 1080p Low (119 FPS) to 4K Low (51 FPS) is 68 FPS, a 57% reduction. The total drop from 1080p Ultra (58 FPS) to 4K Ultra (25 FPS) is 33 FPS, also a 57% reduction. The fact that the percentage reduction is identical at both ends of the quality spectrum further confirms that the GPU is the sole limiting factor.

For users of this combo, the implication is clear: if the goal is to maintain 60 FPS or higher, the resolution should be limited to 1080p with Medium or Low settings, or 1440p with Medium settings (which barely misses the 60 FPS target at 66 FPS average). At 4K, the system cannot achieve a smooth experience at any setting, with the best option being Low at 51 FPS. The scaling behavior indicates that upgrading the GPU would yield proportional improvements across all resolutions, while upgrading the CPU would have minimal impact on this game's performance.