Ready Or Not

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS for this combo at 1080p with High settings in Ready Or Not?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers an average of 172 FPS at 1920x1080 on the High preset. This is well above the 121 FPS seen at Ultra settings, indicating the High preset offers a significant performance headroom.

Q: How does the i5-9400 compare to its nearest rival in CPU benchmarks?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, placing it nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, deltaPct -0.2%) and just 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248). It sits at the 47th percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms roughly half of tested processors.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and how does it affect 4K performance?

A: The Intel Arc B580 features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the combo averages 62 FPS, suggesting the memory subsystem is sufficient to keep frame times consistent at high resolutions.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 137 FPS, while Ultra drops to 76 FPS. That is a 61 FPS difference, or roughly a 44% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: Where does this combo rank among all tested configurations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2790 out of 3714 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This ranking reflects the CPU's modest multi-core performance (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629) relative to the GPU's capabilities.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU act as the primary bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU is more limiting at 1080p. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo averages 121 FPS, whereas at 4K Ultra it drops to 40 FPS — the scaling pattern indicates the GPU becomes the dominant constraint only at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It carries 19,600 million transistors across a 272 mm² die, with a transistor density of 72.1M per mm². The GPU operates at a fixed base and boost clock of 2670 MHz, with memory clocked at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). This configuration produces a pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute reaching 13.67 TFLOPS.

The 12 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on a 192-bit bus is a defining feature for Ready Or Not, a tactical shooter with dense indoor environments and numerous dynamic objects. The 456.0 GB/s bandwidth is directly relevant to the measured 4K results: at 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the combo averages 62 FPS, with minimums of 53 and maximums of 72. This suggests the memory bandwidth is adequate for the game's asset streaming at high resolutions, though not excessive.

The GPU's 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs are spread across 20 ray tracing cores. The benchmark results show a clear pattern: the B580 handles 1080p and 1440p with ease, but 4K Ultra (40 FPS average) pushes the graphics pipeline to its limits. The pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s, when combined with the 12 GB VRAM, means that texture-heavy scenes at 4K will consume both fill rate and memory capacity, yet the measured 57 FPS at 4K High indicates the card remains playable in most scenarios.

The GPU's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it above average, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (avg score 23172, deltaPct -0.7%) and the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (avg score 23061, deltaPct -0.2%). This positional data implies the B580 performs competitively with much older high-end cards, but its driver overhead and architecture efficiency in DirectX 12 (3DMark Steel Nomad score of 3068) are what really matter in a game like Ready Or Not.

At 4K, the GPU's FP32 throughput and memory bandwidth are the primary factors. The measured FPS at 4K Low (72) versus 4K Ultra (40) shows a 32 FPS spread, which aligns with the GPU's compute capabilities — the 13.67 TFLOPS is sufficient for low settings but becomes strained when shader complexity increases. The 5 nm process and 190 W TDP suggest thermal headroom is not a constraint in this configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 217 FPS, which drops to 137 FPS at 2560x1440 (−37%), and further to 72 FPS at 3840x2160 (−47% from 1440p). This scaling is steeper than pixel count alone would predict (1440p has 1.78x the pixels of 1080p, yet FPS drops by a factor of 1.58), indicating that the GPU is becoming progressively more constrained as resolution increases.

The Medium preset tells a similar story: 189 FPS at 1080p, 119 FPS at 1440p (−37%), and 62 FPS at 4K (−48%). The consistent percentage drop across presets suggests the limiting component is the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth, not the CPU. At 1080p, the CPU likely still provides enough headroom — the i5-9400's 6 cores and 6 threads with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz can feed the GPU adequately, but as resolution climbs, the GPU's 213.6 GPixel/s pixel rate becomes the ceiling.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 121 FPS at 1080p, 76 FPS at 1440p (−37%), and 40 FPS at 4K (−47%). The fact that the percentage drop remains nearly constant (~37-48%) across all settings indicates that the bottleneck is resolution-dependent rather than settings-dependent. This points to the GPU's memory bandwidth (456.0 GB/s) and ROP throughput as the primary constraints at higher resolutions.

At 4K, the delta between Low and Ultra is 32 FPS (72 vs 40), while at 1080p the same delta is 96 FPS (217 vs 121). This compression of the settings range at 4K suggests that the GPU is so heavily loaded at 4K that even lowering settings cannot fully recover performance — the pixel fill rate limits both presets. Conversely, at 1080p, the CPU (with its 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost) may be starting to limit the Low preset's 217 FPS, as this exceeds what the GPU's draw call processing can typically sustain.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best balance for this combo. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 119 FPS with minimums of 101 and maximums of 137 — the minimums stay well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth tactical gameplay, and the 101 FPS floor means no noticeable stutter during firefights. The 1080p Medium result (189 FPS average) is excessive for most displays and would waste GPU resources.

For 4K users, the High preset is the sweet spot. At 3840x2160, High averages 57 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target but acceptable for a slower-paced tactical shooter. The Ultra preset at 4K (40 FPS) falls below playable smoothness, while Low (72 FPS) sacrifices too much visual fidelity for only a 15 FPS gain over High. The Medium preset at 4K (62 FPS) is close to High but offers no minimum FPS data, suggesting High is the safer choice for consistent frame delivery.

At 1080p, the High preset (172 FPS) is the recommended choice over Ultra (121 FPS) because the 51 FPS difference is unlikely to be perceptible on most monitors, and High likely retains most of the visual features that matter in Ready Or Not's dimly lit environments. The Low preset at 1080p (217 FPS) is only useful for esports-style play or if the CPU becomes a bottleneck in specific scenes.

The data shows that the Medium preset at both 1440p and 4K provides the most stable frame delivery — at 1440p Medium, the min FPS (101) is within 85% of the average (119), and at 4K Medium, the min (53) is within 85% of the average (62). This consistency is crucial in a game where sudden frame drops can affect aiming precision.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest raw performance. The Low preset averages 217 FPS, Medium averages 189 FPS with minimums of 161 and maximums of 217, High averages 172 FPS, and Ultra averages 121 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 96 FPS drop, representing a 44% reduction in frame rate as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but begin to show the GPU's workload. Low averages 137 FPS, Medium averages 119 FPS (min 101, max 137), High averages 108 FPS, and Ultra averages 76 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each settings tier is consistent: Low loses 80 FPS (−37%), Medium loses 70 FPS (−37%), High loses 64 FPS (−37%), and Ultra loses 45 FPS (−37%).

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Low averages 72 FPS, Medium averages 62 FPS (min 53, max 72), High averages 57 FPS, and Ultra averages 40 FPS. The 4K results show a compressed range: the difference between Low and Ultra is only 32 FPS, compared to 96 FPS at 1080p. This compression indicates that the GPU's pixel fill rate (213.6 GPixel/s) and memory bandwidth (456.0 GB/s) become the absolute ceiling at 4K, regardless of settings.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the 56 FPS spread between min (161) and max (217) shows variability, while at 1440p the spread narrows to 36 FPS (101 to 137), and at 4K it narrows further to 19 FPS (53 to 72). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU's consistent workload reduces frame time variance, but also that the CPU is not contributing to frame pacing issues at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 brings 6 cores and 6 threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz with a boost of 4.10 GHz. It is built on the Coffee Lake architecture using a 14 nm process, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's memory support is DDR4 on a dual-channel bus, providing 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. Its benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multi-core result of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, with a Geekbench multi-core of 5141 and single-core of 1389.

The CPU's percentile rank of 47 places it just below average among all tested CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (deltaPct -0.2%), the Intel Core i7-10710U (deltaPct 0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (deltaPct 0.4%). These deltas are all under 1%, indicating the i5-9400 is essentially tied with these processors in average benchmark performance.

In Ready Or Not, the CPU's 6 threads are a potential limitation. The game's tactical AI and physics calculations can utilize multiple threads, but the lack of hyper-threading means the i5-9400 cannot handle as many concurrent tasks as a comparable i7. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (217 FPS) suggests the CPU can still drive high frame rates, but the 47th percentile ranking implies that in CPU-bound scenarios, this processor will fall behind more modern offerings.

The 4.10 GHz boost clock is the key asset here — single-threaded performance (Cinebench R15 single-core score of 94) is sufficient for the game's primary game logic thread. The 2.90 GHz base clock is low, but the boost behavior in gaming workloads typically keeps the CPU near its maximum. The 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth is modest, and in a game with large maps and many AI agents, this could cause hitches if the CPU needs to stream data faster than the memory bus allows.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and end-of-life production status indicate it is an older design. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor for the Low preset's 217 FPS — this exceeds what the GPU's driver overhead can typically sustain, but the CPU's single-thread performance caps the maximum frame rate. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU becomes less relevant as the GPU takes over as the bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2790 out of 3714 tested combinations in Ready Or Not, placing it in the 25th percentile of all tested systems. This low ranking may seem surprising given the GPU's 68th percentile standing, but it reflects the CPU's 47th percentile position — the combination of a mid-tier CPU with a slightly above-average GPU results in a system that is held back by its processor in many scenarios.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (deltaPct 0.6%) and the RTX 3080 (deltaPct -0.7%), which are both older but higher-end cards. The fact that the B580 trades blows with these GPUs in synthetic benchmarks, yet the combo ranks low in this game, suggests that Ready Or Not is particularly sensitive to CPU performance. The i5-9400's 6 threads without hyper-threading may cause frame pacing issues in the game's AI-heavy missions.

The CPU's nearest rival comparison shows a spread of only 0.4% between the best and worst performers in its group — the i5-9400 is functionally identical to the i7-1068NG7, i7-10710U, and Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 in average benchmark terms. This means the combo's ranking is not due to an unusually weak CPU sample, but rather the inherent limitations of a 6-core/6-thread design from 2018 when paired with a 2024 GPU.

The rank of 2790 out of 3714 indicates that approximately 924 other combinations perform better in this specific game. Given the data, the primary lever for improvement would be a CPU with more threads, as the GPU is clearly capable of higher frame rates — the 4K Ultra result of 40 FPS is more likely limited by the GPU's fill rate, but the 1080p Low result of 217 FPS suggests the CPU is the ceiling for high-refresh-rate play. The combo's position in the lower-middle quartile makes it a viable 1080p/1440p system, but not one that can exploit the GPU's full potential in CPU-bound titles like Ready Or Not.