Ready Or Not

Intel Core Ultra 5 225 pairs with the Intel Arc B390 in Ready Or Not, and the measured results tell a clear story about where this combination stands. The CPU is a 10-core, 10-thread Arrow Lake-S part with a 3.30 GHz base clock and a 4.90 GHz boost clock, built on a 3 nm process. The GPU is an integrated Arc Xe3-LPG solution with 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, using system-shared memory. In this tactical shooter, the data shows a combination that can handle 1080p and 1440p at playable framerates, but 4K remains a struggle. The pairing ranks 3300th out of 3714 tested combos, placing it in the lower quartile of performance, and the FPS measurements across resolutions and settings confirm that the GPU is the limiting factor almost everywhere.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 brings 10 cores and 10 threads, which is a modest configuration for a desktop CPU in 2025. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz give it strong single-thread headroom, and the 20 MB of shared L3 cache helps with latency-sensitive workloads. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 25891 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3655 in single-core, with a PassMark multithread score of 30459 and a single-thread score of 4412. These numbers place the processor at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, meaning it sits comfortably above average for general compute tasks.

For Ready Or Not, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls, handle AI for enemy and civilian behavior, and manage the physics of doors, projectiles, and destructible environments. The game is not particularly known for being CPU-bound at lower resolutions, but the data here suggests the Arc B390 is the bottleneck in most scenarios. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 125 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. That figure indicates the CPU is capable of driving the integrated GPU to its limits without holding it back. The 10-core, 10-thread layout is sufficient for this title; Ready Or Not typically uses fewer threads, so the lack of hyper-threading is unlikely to cause a major issue.

Comparing to nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 5 225 sits within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D, AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, and Intel Core i9-12900T in average benchmark score. The delta values are negligible — 0%, -0.2%, -0.4%, and -0.5% respectively — meaning any of these CPUs would deliver nearly identical performance in this game when paired with the same GPU. The takeaway is that the CPU is not the weak link here; upgrading to a faster processor would not meaningfully change FPS numbers because the GPU is already the limiting component at every resolution tested.

The integrated GPU, by contrast, is severely constrained. The Arc B390 has a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, which places it at the 9th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% faster), GeForce 800M (1.5% faster), GT 625 OEM (2.5% faster), and GT 710 (2.7% faster) — all of which are legacy entry-level parts. This puts the B390 in a performance class that is fundamentally unsuited for modern gaming at high settings, which the measured FPS data confirms.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best resolution to play Ready Or Not with this combo?

A: The data shows 1080p is the only resolution where the combo consistently exceeds 60 FPS across all settings. At 1440p, High and Medium settings stay above 60 FPS with averages of 62 and 69, but Ultra drops to 44. At 4K, no setting reaches 60 FPS, with the highest being 41 FPS at Low.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX at 1463 (1.3% slower), GeForce 800M at 1460 (1.5% slower), GT 625 OEM at 1446 (2.5% slower), and GT 710 at 1443 (2.7% slower). The B390 leads all of them, but the margin is small and all of these GPUs are in the bottom tier of performance.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this game?

A: No. The CPU sits at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals are within 0.5% of its average score. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 125 FPS average, which suggests the CPU can push the GPU to its maximum. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K follow a GPU-bound pattern, not a CPU-bound one.

Q: What is the lowest FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 23 at 4K Ultra settings. The only measured minimum FPS values are at Medium settings: 30 FPS at 4K, 58 FPS at 1440p, and 92 FPS at 1080p. No minimum FPS is listed for Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combination ranks 3300th out of 3714 tested combos in Ready Or Not. This places it in the bottom 11% of all tested systems, which is consistent with the GPU's low 9th percentile standing.

Q: Does the CPU support DDR5 memory?

A: Yes, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. It does not support ECC memory. The GPU uses system-shared memory, so the DDR5 bandwidth is also used for graphics data.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS scaling across resolutions is textbook GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 125 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 79 FPS, a 37% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 41 FPS, which is a 67% drop from 1080p. These percentage reductions are far larger than what a CPU-bound scenario would produce, where FPS would stay relatively flat as resolution increases because the CPU would still be the bottleneck. Here, the FPS falls roughly in line with the pixel count increase, indicating the Arc B390's fill rate and compute throughput are saturated.

The same pattern holds for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the average is 109 FPS with a minimum of 92. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 69 FPS with a minimum of 58. At 4K Medium, the average plunges to 36 FPS with a minimum of 30. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 37%, and the 1080p to 4K drop is 67% — nearly identical to the Low setting percentages. This consistency reinforces that resolution scaling is purely a GPU workload issue.

High settings show a slightly different curve. At 1080p High, the average is 99 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 62 FPS, a 37% reduction. At 4K High, it falls to 33 FPS, a 67% drop from 1080p. The Ultra preset is the most demanding: 69 FPS at 1080p, 44 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and 23 FPS at 4K (67% drop). In every case, the 4K average is roughly one-third of the 1080p average, which is exactly what you would expect from a GPU that is overwhelmed by pixel count.

The data also shows that the CPU's performance is not the limiting factor because the FPS at 1080p Low (125) is high enough that even a significantly faster CPU would not extract more from the integrated GPU. The Arc B390's 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply too low for 4K gaming in a modern title like Ready Or Not. The integrated nature of the GPU, which shares system memory for its frame buffer, further compounds the bandwidth limitations at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its only consistently playable results. Low settings produce the highest average at 125 FPS. Medium settings average 109 FPS, with a minimum of 92 and a maximum of 125. High settings average 99 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 69 FPS. All four presets are above 60 FPS, and even the Ultra minimum (not listed) would likely stay above 60 based on the average being 69. The gap between Low and Ultra is 56 FPS, which is a 45% performance penalty for the highest visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes. Low settings average 79 FPS, which is still playable. Medium settings average 69 FPS, with a minimum of 58 and a maximum of 79. The minimum of 58 is below the 60 FPS threshold, meaning there will be occasional stutters on Medium. High settings average 62 FPS, which is borderline. Ultra settings drop to 44 FPS, which is not smooth for a tactical shooter where precision aiming matters. The 1440p data shows a 35 FPS difference between Low and Ultra, a 44% penalty.

At 3840x2160, the combo is not viable for competitive play. Low settings average 41 FPS. Medium settings average 36 FPS, with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 41. High settings average 33 FPS. Ultra settings average 23 FPS. Every 4K preset falls below 60 FPS, and even Low settings cannot maintain 45 FPS. The 4K results are 18 FPS apart between Low and Ultra, a 44% penalty that mirrors the 1440p scaling.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all resolutions, allowing for a closer look at frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the spread from min to max is 33 FPS (92 to 125). At 1440p Medium, the spread is 21 FPS (58 to 79). At 4K Medium, the spread is 11 FPS (30 to 41). The shrinking spread at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is more consistently saturated, reducing the variance in frame times.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo ranks 3300th out of 3714 tested combinations in Ready Or Not. This places it in the bottom 11.1% of all systems tested. The rank is driven almost entirely by the GPU, which sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, is at the 85th percentile, so the pairing represents a severe mismatch in performance tiers.

To put the rank in perspective, the Arc B390's nearest GPU rivals — GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710 — are all legacy parts from over a decade ago. The B390 edges them out by 1.3% to 2.7% in 3DMark Steel Nomad, but all of these GPUs would struggle with any modern game at 1080p High. The fact that the B390 is competitive with these parts underscores how far behind the curve it is for a 2026 release.

The CPU's nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its average benchmark score, meaning any of those CPUs would produce nearly identical results in this game when paired with the same GPU. This further confirms that the rank is not a reflection of CPU choice but rather the GPU's fundamental performance ceiling. If the same CPU were paired with a mid-range discrete GPU, the combo rank would likely jump by thousands of positions, but the measured data only captures this specific pairing.

The 85th percentile CPU ranking versus the 9th percentile GPU ranking creates a 76-point gap in percentiles, which is one of the largest mismatches possible in a tested combo. This indicates that the system builder prioritized CPU performance over GPU performance, which is a valid choice for productivity workloads but not for gaming. In Ready Or Not specifically, the GPU bottleneck means the CPU is idle much of the time, waiting for the Arc B390 to finish rendering frames.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The average of 109 FPS is high enough for smooth gameplay, and the minimum of 92 FPS ensures no drops below the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at 99 FPS are also viable, but the 10 FPS difference between Medium and High is not worth the extra visual fidelity for most players. Ultra at 69 FPS is playable but leaves little headroom for intense firefights or smoke grenades, which can cause frame drops.

For 1440p, High settings at 62 FPS average is the only preset that stays above 60 FPS, but it is close to the edge. Medium at 69 FPS average is safer, with a minimum of 58 FPS that occasionally dips below 60. The data shows that Medium is the recommended preset for 1440p because it provides a 7 FPS average advantage over High, and the minimum of 58 is still close to the playable threshold. Low at 79 FPS is smoother but sacrifices significant visual detail. Ultra at 44 FPS is not recommended for a tactical shooter where target acquisition is critical.

For 4K, no preset is truly playable. Low at 41 FPS is the highest average, but that is below the 60 FPS standard. Medium at 36 FPS with a minimum of 30 will feel sluggish and unresponsive. High at 33 FPS and Ultra at 23 FPS are slideshows. The recommendation is to avoid 4K entirely with this combo. If 4K is unavoidable, Low settings provide the least bad experience, but players should expect a sub-optimal experience.

The overall recommendation across all resolutions is to use Medium settings at 1080p. This preset delivers a 109 FPS average with a 92 FPS minimum, providing a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. It also produces the most consistent frame times among all measured presets, with a min-max spread of 33 FPS, which indicates fewer spikes and dips. For players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, High at 1080p is acceptable at 99 FPS, but Medium is the sweet spot for this hardware combination.

Given the GPU's 9th percentile ranking, the data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming at medium quality settings. The 1440p results are borderline, and 4K is not viable. The CPU is more than capable of handling the game's logic, but the integrated GPU limits the experience to entry-level territory. Players who want higher resolutions or settings should consider a discrete GPU, as the current pairing ranks in the bottom 11% of all tested combos.