High On Life

# High On Life with Intel Core i5-9400 + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but inconsistent experience in High On Life, with performance that scales predictably across resolution and settings presets. The combination ranks 2356th out of 2958 tested combos for this game, placing it in the lower-mid tier of the database. At 1080p the pairing manages 119 FPS on Low settings, but 4K Ultra drops to just 25 FPS, revealing a GPU that is clearly the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions while the six-core CPU keeps pace adequately at lower settings.

FAQ

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

A: 1080p is the only resolution where the combo consistently exceeds 60 FPS across most settings. At 1440p, High settings produce 54 FPS, while Medium yields 66 FPS. At 4K, even Low settings only reach 51 FPS, making 4K impractical for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 sits within 0.5% of all four nearest rivals. It is 0.1% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534), 0.1% slower than the Intel Arc A750 (20582), 0.4% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480), and 0.5% slower than the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662). This places the GPU in the 65th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 119 FPS, but dropping to 4K Low reduces performance to 51 FPS—a 57% decrease that points to GPU limits. The CPU's 47th percentile ranking and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 indicate adequate processing power for this title.

Q: What settings preset should I use at 1440p?

A: Medium settings at 1440p deliver 66 FPS average with a minimum of 56 FPS and maximum of 75 FPS. This is the only 1440p preset that maintains a minimum above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for smooth gameplay at this resolution.

Q: How much performance do you lose going from Low to Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, the drop from Low (119 FPS) to Ultra (58 FPS) represents a 51% reduction in average frame rate. At 1440p, the same settings comparison shows a decline from 84 FPS to 41 FPS, a 51% loss. At 4K, Low (51 FPS) to Ultra (25 FPS) is a 49% decrease.

Q: Does the 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. While 4K Low produces 51 FPS, the 4K Ultra preset drops to 25 FPS, indicating that memory capacity is sufficient but raw compute power at 11.52 TFLOPS limits ultra settings at this resolution.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with the BMG-G21 chip containing 19,600 million transistors across a 272 mm² die. The GPU operates at a fixed 2500 MHz base and boost clock, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). This configuration yields 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate, and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate.

In High On Life, the GPU's role shifts dramatically across resolution tiers. At 1080p, the Arc B570's 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs are sufficient to push frame rates well above 60 FPS on most presets. The 10 GB VRAM pool is never stressed at this resolution, and the 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth handles the game's texture streaming without visible stutter in the measured data.

Moving to 1440p, the GPU begins to show its mid-range positioning. The 54 FPS average on High settings suggests the card is working near its comfortable limit, while the 41 FPS on Ultra indicates that the 160-bit memory bus and 11.52 TFLOPS compute capacity struggle with the increased pixel workload. The 4K results reinforce this interpretation: 33 FPS on High and 25 FPS on Ultra demonstrate that the Arc B570 is not designed for 4K gaming in this title.

The GPU's 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 14195 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649, positions it as a solid 1080p performer that can handle 1440p with settings compromises. The 18 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are present in the hardware, though High On Life's measured results do not specifically isolate ray tracing performance.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, with the CPU maintaining sufficient headroom. From 1080p Low (119 FPS) to 1440p Low (84 FPS), the frame rate drops by 29%. Continuing to 4K Low (51 FPS) represents another 39% reduction from the 1440p figure, for a total 57% loss from 1080p.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Medium settings, the progression is 93 FPS (1080p) to 66 FPS (1440p) to 40 FPS (4K)—a 29% drop and then a 39% drop. High settings show 77 FPS to 54 FPS to 33 FPS, representing 30% and 39% declines respectively. Ultra settings follow the same trajectory: 58 FPS to 41 FPS to 25 FPS, with 29% and 39% reductions.

This consistent scaling pattern indicates that the Intel Core i5-9400 is not introducing variable bottlenecks across resolutions. The CPU's six cores and six threads, running at 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost, maintain consistent frame delivery regardless of pixel count. The GPU, however, shows the expected quadratic increase in pixel workload: 4K contains 4 times the pixels of 1080p, and the measured frame rates at 4K are roughly 43-45% of the 1080p values across all presets.

The data strongly suggests that resolution scaling in High On Life is purely GPU-limited for this combo. The 57% performance drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is consistent with the GPU's compute and bandwidth constraints rather than any CPU limitation, as the same proportional drop appears at every settings level.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core i5-9400 with Arc B570 delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 119 FPS, making this the only preset above 100 FPS. Medium settings average 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and maximum of 107 FPS, providing a smooth experience with minimal frame dips. High settings drop to 77 FPS average, still comfortably above 60 FPS. Ultra settings reduce performance to 58 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold but remains playable.

The 2560x1440 results show a clear step down. Low settings maintain 84 FPS average, which is respectable for 1440p gaming. Medium settings deliver 66 FPS average with a minimum of 56 FPS and maximum of 75 FPS—the minimum dipping just below 60 FPS suggests occasional stutter during intense scenes. High settings produce 54 FPS average, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. Ultra settings drop to 41 FPS average, indicating a compromised experience with noticeable frame pacing issues.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings yield 51 FPS average, which is technically above 30 FPS but below the 60 FPS target. Medium settings produce 40 FPS average with a minimum of 34 FPS and maximum of 46 FPS—the minimum approaching unplayable territory. High settings drop to 33 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 25 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth motion perception.

The Medium preset at each resolution provides the most complete data set, with minimum and maximum frame rates recorded. At 1080p Medium, the 79-107 FPS range shows tight frame delivery with only 28 FPS between minimum and maximum. At 1440p Medium, the 56-75 FPS range spans 19 FPS, indicating more consistent frame times but at a lower overall level. At 4K Medium, the 34-46 FPS range spans only 12 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is saturated and frame delivery becomes more uniform but at low performance.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience with this hardware combination, 1080p Medium settings offer the optimal balance of visual quality and performance. The 93 FPS average with a 79 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. The 79-107 FPS range demonstrates that the hardware maintains consistent frame delivery even during demanding scenes.

At 1440p, Medium settings are the clear recommendation. The 66 FPS average with a 56 FPS minimum provides acceptable gameplay, though the sub-60 FPS minimum indicates occasional dips. Players prioritizing frame rate consistency over visual quality could drop to Low settings for 84 FPS average, but the visual compromise may not be worth the 27% performance gain.

For 4K, no settings preset delivers a fully satisfactory experience. Low settings at 51 FPS average is the best option, but the frequent drops below 60 FPS will be noticeable. The 25-40 FPS range across Medium and Ultra settings is not recommended for action-oriented gameplay in an FPS title.

Ultra settings are difficult to justify at any resolution. At 1080p, the 58 FPS average falls below the Medium preset's minimum frame rate of 79 FPS. The visual improvements from Medium to Ultra do not compensate for the 38% performance loss. At 1440p and 4K, Ultra settings produce frame rates that are too low for responsive gameplay.

The data indicates that High settings occupy an awkward middle ground. At 1080p, 77 FPS is acceptable but not meaningfully better than Medium's 93 FPS for what is typically a small visual gain. At 1440p, 54 FPS is below the 60 FPS target, making Medium the better choice. At 4K, 33 FPS is marginally better than Ultra's 25 FPS but still not playable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides six cores and six threads based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. With a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz, the CPU offers modest single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935) and reasonable multi-thread capability (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629). The 9 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for gaming workloads.

The CPU's 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254, places it in the middle of the pack. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, scores 2259 (0.2% higher), while the Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248 (0.3% lower). This tight clustering indicates that the i5-9400's performance level is well-established and predictable.

In High On Life, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. The consistent 29-30% performance drop from 1080p to 1440p and 39% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings presets indicates that the CPU is not introducing variable frame rate penalties. If the CPU were a bottleneck, the 1080p results would show less scaling between settings, as the GPU would have headroom that the CPU could not feed.

The six-core, six-thread configuration without Hyper-Threading could theoretically limit performance in CPU-intensive scenes, but the measured data does not reveal such limitations. The 119 FPS at 1080p Low demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at high frame rates. The 4.10 GHz boost clock provides adequate single-thread performance for game logic and physics, which are typically single-threaded in FPS titles.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s and PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes provide sufficient data transfer for the Arc B570, which uses PCIe 4.0 x8. While the GPU's interface is technically newer, the CPU's Gen 3 support does not appear to create a measurable bottleneck in the frame rate data. The 65W TDP and end-of-life production status indicate that this is a mature platform with well-understood performance characteristics.