Ready Or Not

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for Ready Or Not with the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and Intel Arc B390 combination reveals a clear pattern across all three resolutions: the graphical preset has a profound impact on playability, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average frame rate at 125 FPS, which is the maximum measured value across the entire dataset. However, the Medium preset at 109 FPS average represents a more balanced choice, offering a substantial 16 FPS improvement over High while still maintaining frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset at 99 FPS is also perfectly playable, and it provides the visual fidelity that most tactical shooter players would consider acceptable. Ultra at 1080p drops to 69 FPS, which is still technically smooth but represents a 44.8% reduction from Low, making it the least efficient preset at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the situation changes. Low produces 79 FPS average, Medium yields 69 FPS, and High comes in at 62 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 44 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and would likely feel sluggish in a game that requires precise aiming and rapid target acquisition. The Medium preset at 1440p is the recommended choice here, as it maintains a 69 FPS average with a minimum of 58 FPS, keeping the experience within a reasonable range for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets achieve a locked 60 FPS. Low delivers 41 FPS, Medium 36 FPS, High 33 FPS, and Ultra drops to 23 FPS. The Low preset is the only viable option for 4K, and even then, the experience will be marginal. The data indicates that this combination is not suited for 4K gaming in Ready Or Not, and users should either lower their resolution or accept reduced visual quality.

The best experience per the measured rows is achieved at 1920x1080 with the Medium preset, which balances the 109 FPS average against the visual improvements over Low. For users who prioritize maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p provides headroom well beyond what the display can likely show. The Medium preset at 1440p is the most balanced option for higher-resolution displays, but the 1080p Medium configuration remains the overall recommendation based on the data.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, fabricated on Intel's 3 nm process. Its memory configuration is system-shared, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM; instead, it utilizes a portion of the system's DDR5 memory, and the bandwidth is listed as system-dependent. This is a fundamental limitation for a game like Ready Or Not, which requires substantial texture memory and bandwidth for its detailed environments.

The GPU's clock speeds are modest, with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. The shading units number 1536, with 48 texture mapping units and 24 raster output units. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 7.680 TFLOPS, which places it in the lower tier of modern graphics solutions. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score of 1482 reflects this positioning, and the GPU's percentile ranking against all GPUs is 9, indicating it performs worse than 91% of the tested graphics processors.

The nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark data are all older NVIDIA entries: the GeForce GT 520MX with a score of 1463 (1.3% behind), the GeForce 800M at 1460 (1.5% behind), the GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1446 (2.5% behind), and the GeForce GT 710 at 1443 (2.7% behind). These comparisons underscore that the Arc B390 sits at the very bottom of the performance spectrum, alongside integrated and entry-level discrete GPUs from a decade ago.

In Ready Or Not, the GPU's limitations are immediately apparent in the measured frame rates. The game is not playable at 4K with any preset, and even at 1440p, the frame rates are barely acceptable. The shared memory architecture means that the GPU competes with the CPU for system memory bandwidth, which can exacerbate stuttering in a game with large, open environments. The 12 ray tracing cores are present but largely irrelevant in this context, as the overall compute power is insufficient to enable ray-traced effects without catastrophic frame rate drops. The data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drops precipitously from 1080p to 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and the Intel Arc B390 ranks 2611 out of 2947 tested combinations in Ready Or Not, placing it in the 11.4th percentile of all combos. This is a poor ranking, indicating that the vast majority of hardware configurations tested outperform this pairing. The rank is not surprising given the GPU's 9th percentile standing among all GPUs, which drags down the overall capability of the system despite the CPU's more respectable 89th percentile ranking among all processors.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. The Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062, which places it in the top 11% of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark data are the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% ahead), the Intel Core i9-13900HX (0.1% behind), the AMD EPYC 4364P (0.2% ahead), and the AMD EPYC 7303 (0.2% ahead). These are all high-end processors, and the Ultra 5 235 is competitive with them in synthetic benchmarks.

However, the GPU's performance is so limited that it negates the CPU's strength. In Ready Or Not, the frame rates at 1080p with the Low preset reach 125 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at that resolution. But at 4K, the frame rates fall to 41 FPS or lower, indicating that the GPU cannot maintain the throughput required for higher resolutions. The combo rank of 2611 reflects this imbalance: the system is held back by its weakest component, which is the GPU.

The ranking also means that most users with dedicated graphics cards, even older or lower-end models, will see better performance in Ready Or Not. The data does not provide direct comparisons to other combos, but the percentile positions of the individual components make it clear that the GPU is the anchor. For anyone building a system for this game, the combo rank suggests that investing in a discrete GPU would yield substantial improvements, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a comprehensive view of the system's performance envelope. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 125 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. The Medium preset produces 109 FPS average with a minimum of 92 FPS and a maximum of 125 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution. The High preset delivers 99 FPS average, and the Ultra preset drops to 69 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 56 FPS, representing a 44.8% reduction in performance.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 79 FPS, which is a 36.8% drop from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 69 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS, indicating that the frame rate can dip below the refresh rate of a 60 Hz display. The High preset delivers 62 FPS average, and the Ultra preset falls to 44 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across all presets, with the Low preset losing 46 FPS, Medium losing 40 FPS, High losing 37 FPS, and Ultra losing 25 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 41 FPS, which is a 67.2% reduction from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 36 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS and a maximum of 41 FPS, showing that the frame rate can fall below 30 FPS in demanding scenes. The High preset delivers 33 FPS average, and the Ultra preset produces 23 FPS average, which is the lowest measured value. The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the frame rate drops significantly, and the gap between the Low and Ultra presets narrows in absolute terms but widens in relative terms.

The minimum FPS data is only available for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 92 FPS, which is 84.4% of the average. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 58 FPS, which is 84.1% of the average. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 30 FPS, which is 83.3% of the average. This consistent ratio suggests that frame pacing is relatively stable, but the absolute minimums at 1440p and 4K are concerning for a game that requires responsive controls.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides insight into the system's bottleneck. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 125 at 1080p to 79 at 1440p, a 36.8% reduction, and then to 41 at 4K, a further 48.1% reduction from 1440p. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 67.2%. This scaling is more aggressive than what would be expected if the CPU were the primary bottleneck, as a CPU-limited scenario would show minimal frame rate changes across resolutions.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 109 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p (36.7% reduction), and 36 FPS at 4K (47.8% reduction from 1440p). The total reduction is 67.0%. The High preset goes from 99 to 62 to 33 FPS, with reductions of 37.4% and 46.8%, totaling 66.7%. The Ultra preset goes from 69 to 44 to 23 FPS, with reductions of 36.2% and 47.7%, totaling 66.7%.

The consistency of these percentages across all presets is notable. The fact that the frame rate drops by roughly the same proportion regardless of the graphical preset indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively constant as resolution increases, because the CPU's workload would not change significantly. Instead, the frame rate scales almost inversely with the number of pixels, which is the signature of a GPU-bound system.

The resolution scaling also shows that the Arc B390's performance is heavily dependent on pixel throughput. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with even the Low preset failing to reach 45 FPS. This suggests that the GPU's 24 ROPs and 120.0 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for the pixel and texture demands of 4K rendering. The system-shared memory bandwidth is likely another limiting factor, as 4K requires significantly more memory traffic than 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this system in Ready Or Not?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the system consistently achieves frame rates above 60 FPS across all presets. At 1440p, only the Low and Medium presets stay above 60 FPS, and at 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 69 FPS, which is a 44.8% reduction from the Low preset's 125 FPS average. The Ultra preset at 1080p performs similarly to the Low preset at 1440p, which averages 79 FPS.

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming in Ready Or Not?

A: No. The highest average FPS at 3840x2160 is 41 FPS with the Low preset, and the Ultra preset only achieves 23 FPS. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 30 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062, which is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and 0.1% behind the Intel Core i9-13900HX. It is also 0.2% ahead of both the AMD EPYC 4364P and the AMD EPYC 7303.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile?

A: The Intel Arc B390 has a percentile ranking of 9 against all GPUs, meaning it performs worse than 91% of tested graphics processors. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1482.

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much from 1080p to 4K?

A: The frame rate drops by approximately 67% from 1080p to 4K across all presets, which indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. The consistent percentage reduction regardless of preset suggests that the Arc B390's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are insufficient for higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, providing 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ultra 5 235 shows strong performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score is 14769, and the single-core score is 2085. The Cinebench R20 scores are 6202 multicore and 875 single-core, while the Cinebench R15 scores are 1488 multicore and 210 single-core. The PassMark multithread score is 37816, and the single-thread score is 4516. Other PassMark results include 390711 for data compression, 29293 for data encryption, 32752 for extended instructions, 371 for prime numbers, 117951 for floating point math, 87948 for integer math, 2570 for physics, and 48980 for random string sorting.

The CPU's percentile ranking against all CPUs is 89, placing it in the top 11% of processors. Its average benchmark score of 46062 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, with deltas of 0.1% to 0.2% in either direction. This indicates that the Ultra 5 235 is a well-rounded processor that competes with high-end mobile and desktop parts.

In Ready Or Not, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI, and physics, while the GPU handles rendering. The measured frame rates suggest that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 125 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would require a capable CPU to maintain. The fact that the frame rate drops consistently with resolution, rather than remaining flat, confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor.

The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are sufficient for modern games, and the 5.00 GHz boost clock provides strong single-threaded performance, which is important for game logic. The 24 MB of L3 cache helps with data locality, and the 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth is adequate for feeding the GPU. However, the system-shared memory for the GPU means that the CPU and GPU compete for the same memory bandwidth, which could cause performance degradation in memory-intensive scenes. The data does not show this effect explicitly, but the 4K results are low enough that memory contention could be a contributing factor.

Overall, the CPU is a strong component that is being held back by the GPU. The combo rank of 2611 out of 2947 is almost entirely due to the Arc B390's limitations. Users who pair this CPU with a more capable dedicated GPU would likely see dramatically better performance in Ready Or Not, as the CPU has proven it can deliver high frame rates when the GPU is not the constraint.