Ready Or Not

# Ready Or Not with Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + Intel Arc B370

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the Intel Arc B370 integrated graphics produces a highly constrained gaming experience in Ready Or Not, a tactical shooter where precision and frame stability matter more than raw spectacle. The measured data shows this combo ranks 2710th out of 2947 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 8% of all systems tested. This is a configuration where the graphics solution — an integrated GPU with a 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs — becomes the dominant bottleneck at every resolution tested. The CPU, by contrast, sits at the 89th percentile among all processors, making the pairing fundamentally lopsided: a strong processor tethered to a weak graphics subsystem.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is entirely GPU-limited across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 113 at 1920x1080 to 71 at 2560x1440, then to 37 at 3840x2160. That is a 36% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 48% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is steep and consistent, indicating that the integrated Arc B370 is saturated well before the CPU becomes a factor.

At Medium settings, the pattern holds: 98 FPS at 1080p drops to 62 at 1440p and 32 at 4K. The percentage drops are 37% and 48% respectively, nearly identical to the Low settings scaling. This consistency suggests that resolution, not quality preset, is the primary driver of performance loss. The GPU's fill rate and shading capacity are being exhausted by the increasing pixel count, and no amount of CPU headroom can compensate.

High settings show a slightly different scaling curve. The 1080p result is 89 FPS, falling to 56 at 1440p (37% drop) and 29 at 4K (48% drop). The absolute numbers are lower than Medium, but the relative scaling remains in the same 36-48% band. Ultra settings follow the same trajectory: 63 FPS at 1080p, 40 at 1440p, and 21 at 4K — drops of 37% and 48% respectively.

The uniformity of these scaling percentages across all four presets is telling. When a system is CPU-limited, resolution scaling tends to flatten out because the CPU work per frame stays similar while GPU load increases. Here, the GPU load dominates fully; every doubling of pixel count roughly halves performance. The 4K results, ranging from 21 to 37 FPS depending on settings, are all below playable thresholds for a tactical shooter. Even the best 4K result — 37 FPS at Low — would be marginal for gameplay that requires quick target acquisition.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of playable configurations. At 1920x1080, all four presets produce average FPS above 60: Low at 113, Medium at 98, High at 89, and Ultra at 63. The jump from Medium to High costs 9 FPS while the jump from High to Ultra costs 26 FPS, making Ultra the least efficient choice. The data suggests Medium is the sweet spot at 1080p, offering 98 FPS with a 15-FPS cushion over High and a 35-FPS advantage over Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the picture tightens considerably. Low produces 71 FPS, Medium 62, High 56, and Ultra 40. The Medium preset remains above 60 FPS, which is the conventional floor for smooth tactical gameplay, but the margin is slim. High drops below 60, and Ultra falls to 40 — a level where the game's deliberate pacing might still be tolerable but where firefights could suffer from frame hitches. The recommendation from the measured data is Medium at 1440p if visual fidelity is desired, or Low if frame rate headroom is the priority.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS. Low reaches 37, Medium 32, High 29, and Ultra 21. All of these are below the threshold for responsive gameplay in a shooter. The data indicates that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo, regardless of settings. If 4K output is required, the only option is to accept a slideshow-like experience; the 21 FPS at Ultra is barely interactive.

The min FPS data, where available, reinforces these recommendations. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 83 FPS, which is still well above playable. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 53 FPS, just below the 60 FPS target. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 28 FPS, which would cause noticeable stuttering. The 1080p Medium configuration offers the best balance of quality and frame stability, with a minimum that never threatens gameplay smoothness.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, fabricated on Intel's 3 nm process. It carries 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output pipelines, with 10 ray tracing cores. The base clock is 300 MHz, boosting to 2400 MHz. Its pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 6.144 TFLOPS. The memory subsystem is entirely system shared, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent."

This GPU's benchmark presence is minimal: a single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184, which places it at the 5th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are legacy parts: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (score 1186, delta -0.2%), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (score 1190, delta -0.5%), the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (score 1192, delta -0.7%), and the AMD FirePro M2000 (score 1168, delta 1.4%). The Arc B370 is essentially trading blows with graphics hardware from over a decade ago, which explains why Ready Or Not's frame rates collapse at higher resolutions.

The boost clock of 2400 MHz is respectable for an integrated part, but the system shared memory bandwidth becomes the critical limitation. With no dedicated VRAM, the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory access, and this contention likely explains the steep resolution scaling observed. At 4K, the memory bandwidth requirement increases dramatically, and the shared subsystem cannot keep up. The 25 W TDP also caps sustained performance, preventing the GPU from maintaining boost clocks under heavy load.

The 3DMark score of 1184 is a useful anchor: it predicts the kind of performance seen in the measured FPS data. A GPU scoring this low in a modern DX12 benchmark will struggle with any contemporary game at high resolution. The fact that Ready Or Not still manages 113 FPS at 1080p Low suggests the game is relatively well-optimized, but the hardware ceiling is inescapable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 113 FPS, Medium averages 98 FPS with a minimum of 83 and maximum of 113, High averages 89 FPS, and Ultra averages 63 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 50 FPS, which is a substantial range for a single resolution. The Medium preset's maximum of 113 FPS matches the Low average, indicating that the GPU is hitting a ceiling around 113 FPS regardless of settings — this is likely the memory bandwidth or fill rate limit of the integrated solution.

At 2560x1440, the numbers drop sharply: Low averages 71 FPS, Medium 62 FPS (minimum 53, maximum 71), High 56 FPS, and Ultra 40 FPS. The Medium maximum of 71 FPS exactly matches the Low average, again showing a hard ceiling. The minimum of 53 FPS at Medium suggests occasional dips below the 60 FPS threshold, which could be noticeable in intense firefights.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low averages 37 FPS, Medium 32 FPS (minimum 28, maximum 37), High 29 FPS, and Ultra 21 FPS. The Medium maximum of 37 FPS matches the Low average, continuing the pattern. The minimum of 28 FPS indicates that even the best case at 4K is barely interactive, and the Ultra preset's 21 FPS average is essentially unplayable for a tactical shooter where split-second reactions matter.

The pattern across all resolutions is consistent: the Low preset average becomes the Medium preset maximum, suggesting that the GPU's peak throughput is fixed by the resolution, and higher settings simply reduce the efficiency of achieving that peak. This is characteristic of a fill-rate or bandwidth-limited part rather than a shader-limited one.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2710 out of 2947 tested combinations places this system in the bottom 8% of all tested hardware pairings for Ready Or Not. This is a poor ranking, but it is not surprising given the GPU's 5th percentile standing among all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, ranks at the 89th percentile, so the combo's poor position is almost entirely attributable to the graphics side.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are: the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (score 46030, delta 0.1%), the Intel Core i9-13900HX (score 46098, delta -0.1%), the AMD EPYC 4364P (score 45970, delta 0.2%), and the AMD EPYC 7303 (score 45960, delta 0.2%). The Core Ultra 5 235's average benchmark score of 46062 places it in a tight cluster with these parts, all within 0.2% of each other. This is a competent mid-range processor that would pair well with a discrete GPU, but the Arc B370 cannot leverage its capabilities.

The GPU's ranking is far more concerning. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 puts it in the company of ATI parts from the early 2010s. The nearest rival, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, scores 1186 — a 0.2% difference. This is not a competitive position for a modern game, and the combo rank of 2710 reflects that reality. Out of 2947 tested combos, only 237 perform worse, and those are likely systems with even older or more constrained hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake-S architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 3 MB L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3. Memory support is dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. The CPU also integrates Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 24 execution units, though the system under test uses the separate Arc B370 GPU.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU shows solid performance: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and single-core of 2085, PassMark multi-thread of 37816 and single-thread of 4516. These numbers place it at the 89th percentile among all CPUs, which is a strong result. The nearest rival comparisons show it is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (delta 0.1%) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (delta -0.1%), indicating that the Core Ultra 5 235 is a competitive mid-range part.

However, in Ready Or Not, the CPU's role is minimal. The measured frame rates do not suggest any CPU limitation: at 1080p Low, the system hits 113 FPS, which is likely a GPU ceiling rather than a CPU ceiling. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to stay similar across resolution changes, but they drop by nearly half from 1080p to 4K. This is the signature of a GPU-bound system.

The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads — with no hyperthreading — are more than sufficient for a game like Ready Or Not, which typically uses a handful of threads for gameplay logic and rendering setup. The 5.00 GHz boost clock provides strong single-thread performance, which matters for game physics and AI. But none of this helps when the GPU cannot render frames fast enough.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Ready Or Not at 1080p smoothly?

A: Yes, at 1080p all presets average above 60 FPS. Low averages 113 FPS, Medium 98 FPS, High 89 FPS, and Ultra 63 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum is 83 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is 1440p playable with this hardware?

A: Only at Low or Medium settings. Low averages 71 FPS and Medium 62 FPS, but Medium's minimum drops to 53 FPS. High and Ultra average 56 and 40 FPS respectively, which are below the 60 FPS target.

Q: What about 4K gaming with this combo?

A: 4K is not viable. Even at Low settings, the average is 37 FPS, and Ultra drops to 21 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum is 28 FPS, which would cause noticeable stuttering in a tactical shooter.

Q: Which preset gives the best experience at 1080p?

A: Medium provides the best balance, averaging 98 FPS with a minimum of 83 FPS. It offers a 15 FPS advantage over High and a 35 FPS advantage over Ultra, while maintaining a minimum well above playable thresholds.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 2710th out of 2947 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 8% of all systems tested for Ready Or Not. This is primarily due to the GPU's low performance, as the CPU ranks at the 89th percentile.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. Frame rates drop by roughly 36-48% when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and again from 1440p to 4K, which is characteristic of GPU limitation. The CPU, with its 89th percentile ranking, has ample headroom that the Arc B370 cannot utilize.