Overpower

Overpower is a demanding action title from August 2023, and the measured results for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the Intel Arc B390 paint a clear picture: this is a configuration that struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher settings. The data shows a system where the integrated GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, forcing users to make significant compromises in visual quality to achieve smooth gameplay. This combination ranks near the bottom of the database, sitting at 2638 out of 2980 tested combos, which places it in the 11th percentile overall. The Arc B390, operating as an IGP with system-shared memory, delivers performance that is closer to entry-level discrete graphics from over a decade ago than to modern gaming hardware, based on the nearest rival scores.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across all resolutions indicates that the Low preset is the only reliable path to a consistently playable experience. At 1080p, the Low setting yields an average of 72 FPS, which is the only preset across the entire test matrix that exceeds the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 45 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced action but will feel stuttery during fast movements. High settings at 1080p produce 42 FPS, and Ultra drops to 35 FPS, both of which are marginal for a genre that typically demands responsiveness.

At 1440p, the situation worsens significantly. Low settings produce 64 FPS, which remains playable, but Medium drops to 40 FPS, High to 37 FPS, and Ultra to 31 FPS. The 4K results are largely unusable for action gameplay, with even the Low preset averaging only 54 FPS, and the Ultra preset falling to 26 FPS. The data strongly suggests that users should stick with the Low preset for any resolution above 1080p, and even at 1080p, the Medium preset represents the absolute ceiling for a stable experience. The measured minimum FPS values for the Medium preset, which are 38 FPS at 1080p, 34 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K, confirm that frame pacing will be inconsistent at higher settings. For a game that requires quick reactions, the Low preset at 1080p or 1440p is the only configuration that provides both adequate average frame rates and sufficient headroom to avoid severe dips.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the decisive limiting factor in this configuration. This integrated graphics solution, built on the Xe3-LPG architecture and codenamed Panther Lake, operates with system-shared memory rather than dedicated VRAM. The benchmark results place this GPU in the 9th percentile of all tested graphics cards, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482. The nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, which scores 1463, the GeForce 800M at 1460, the GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1446, and the GeForce GT 710 at 1443. The Arc B390 leads these competitors by margins of 1.3%, 1.5%, 2.5%, and 2.7% respectively, which situates it in the same performance class as decade-old entry-level mobile and OEM parts.

The GPU's clock behavior does not compensate for its architectural limitations. The base clock is set at 300 MHz, with a boost clock of 2500 MHz, but the lack of dedicated memory bandwidth means the system shared memory becomes a severe constraint. The memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," which in practice means the GPU is competing with the CPU for the same DDR5 memory channels. With 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units, the B390 has the compute resources of a low-end part, and the 12 ray tracing cores are largely irrelevant given the overall performance envelope. The theoretical fill rates of 60.00 GPixel/s and 120.0 GTexel/s are insufficient for modern game rendering at high resolutions. The FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS sounds respectable on paper, but the memory subsystem bottleneck prevents this compute capability from translating into real-world frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU that is heavily constrained at every resolution. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 72 FPS at 1080p to 64 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 11.1%, and then to 54 FPS at 4K, a further reduction of 15.6% from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is already near its limits even at 1080p, as the performance degradation is relatively modest when pixel count increases. A more powerful GPU would show a steeper drop-off, but the B390 is so consistently limited that the relative differences are compressed.

The Medium preset tells a similar story: 45 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 34 FPS at 4K. The High preset moves from 42 FPS at 1080p to 37 FPS at 1440p and 32 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows 35 FPS at 1080p, 31 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K. Across all presets, the drop from 1080p to 4K averages roughly 25-30%, which is far less than the typical 60-70% decline seen with dedicated graphics cards. This anomaly confirms that the system is not pixel-bound but rather bandwidth and compute-bound, meaning that increasing resolution does not proportionally stress the GPU because it is already saturated at the lowest resolution. The limiting component is clearly the integrated GPU, and the CPU has ample headroom to feed it, as indicated by the relatively stable frame rates regardless of resolution changes.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the Intel Arc B390 ranks 2638 out of 2980 tested combos in Overpower, placing it in the bottom 11.5% of all configurations in the database. This ranking reflects the severe imbalance between the CPU and GPU in this pairing. The processor is a capable modern part, while the graphics solution is an integrated unit that performs at the level of a discrete GPU from 2011-2012 era. The data shows that this combo is approximately 11.5 percentage points worse than the median tested configuration, which indicates that most other system builds, even those with older CPUs, achieve better frame rates because they pair them with more competent graphics hardware.

The rank is particularly telling because the CPU itself scores in the 90th percentile of all processors, yet the combo rank is dragged down almost entirely by the GPU's 9th percentile standing. This disparity creates a situation where the system's overall gaming performance is dictated by the weakest link, and in this case, that weak link is extraordinarily weak. The nearest rival combos in the database are not disclosed, but the GPU's nearest rivals, which all score within 2.7% of the B390, suggest that this combo is competing with systems built around NVIDIA's GT 710-class graphics, which were never intended for modern gaming. For Overpower, a 2023 action title, this combo is fundamentally underpowered for anything beyond the most basic visual settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 provides more than enough processing power for Overpower, but it is effectively wasted in this configuration. This Arrow Lake-S desktop processor, based on the Core Ultra Series 2 architecture and built on a 3 nm process by TSMC, features 14 cores and 14 threads with no hyper-threading. The base clock of 3.50 GHz can boost up to 5.10 GHz, and the 24 MB of shared L3 cache provides adequate data locality for game logic. The CPU benchmarks are robust: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924, single-core score of 4648, and a Passmark multi-thread score of 38706. The processor sits in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48995.

In comparison to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 5 245 is competitive. It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G by 0.4% and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 by 0.5%, but it leads the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 0.6% and the Intel Core i5-14600K by 0.8%. These margins are negligible, confirming that the CPU is not a performance bottleneck in any meaningful sense. The memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface is sufficient for gaming, and the 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes are plentiful, though the integrated GPU does not utilize them. The Passmark physics score of 2569 and the integer math score of 91187 indicate strong computational throughput, but none of this matters when the GPU can only render 32 FPS at 4K on High settings. In Overpower, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates, and with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, it accomplishes this with ease. The frame rates are entirely GPU-limited, as evidenced by the resolution scaling pattern discussed previously.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo in Overpower is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 72 FPS, the Medium preset averages 45 FPS with minimum and maximum values of 38 and 52 FPS respectively, the High preset averages 42 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 35 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, Low produces 64 FPS, Medium averages 40 FPS with a range of 34 to 46 FPS, High averages 37 FPS, and Ultra averages 31 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low drops to 54 FPS, Medium averages 34 FPS with a range of 29 to 39 FPS, High averages 32 FPS, and Ultra averages 26 FPS.

The only configuration that consistently delivers frame rates above 60 FPS is the 1080p Low preset at 72 FPS. The 1440p Low preset at 64 FPS is also technically above 60 FPS, but the margin is slim and any complex scene could push it below that threshold. All other presets and resolutions produce average frame rates below 60 FPS, with the Medium presets ranging from 34 to 45 FPS, High presets ranging from 32 to 42 FPS, and Ultra presets ranging from 26 to 35 FPS. The minimum FPS data for the Medium preset shows that at 1080p, frame rates can dip to 38 FPS, at 1440p to 34 FPS, and at 4K to 29 FPS, indicating noticeable stuttering during intense action sequences. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS for the Medium preset is 14 FPS at 1080p, 12 FPS at 1440p, and 10 FPS at 4K, which shows that frame pacing is inconsistent and will be perceptible to the player. For a game like Overpower, where reaction time is critical, these dips below the average can be the difference between success and failure. The data unequivocally shows that this combo is only viable at Low settings, and even then, only at 1080p or 1440p resolutions.