Revolution Idle

Revolution Idle, a 2023 idle game, presents an unusual stress case for the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B570 combination. The measured data indicates that the system's performance is heavily dependent on the graphics settings preset, with a clear sweet spot that balances visual fidelity and frame rate. Across all tested resolutions, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS, but the Medium preset offers a more compelling experience when considering the minimal performance cost relative to the visual uplift. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 96 FPS, while Medium delivers 72 FPS, a 25% reduction for what is typically a significant visual improvement in texture quality and effects. The High preset at 1080p yields 69 FPS, which is only 3 FPS behind Medium, suggesting that the step from Medium to High is less demanding than from Low to Medium. However, the Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 44 FPS, a 39% decrease from High, indicating a substantial performance penalty that is not justified for an idle game. Therefore, the Medium preset is recommended as the optimal choice, providing a smooth 72 FPS at 1080p and 46 FPS at 2560x1440, while maintaining playable frame rates without the steep cost of Ultra settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2373 out of 2986 tested combos in Revolution Idle, placing it in the bottom 21% of all configurations. This low ranking is notable because both components are relatively modern and capable in other contexts. The i7-12700K sits in the 84th percentile against all CPUs, while the Arc B570 is in the 65th percentile against all GPUs, yet their combined performance in this specific title is underwhelming. This suggests that Revolution Idle may not be well-optimized for this particular hardware pairing, or that the game's engine is not leveraging the strengths of either component effectively. The data shows that the combo is outperformed by a significant majority of tested systems, which is a critical consideration for users expecting high performance based on the individual component benchmarks. The ranking disparity between the CPU's strong 84th percentile and the combo's 21st percentile highlights a potential bottleneck or inefficiency in how the game utilizes the i7-12700K's 12 cores and 20 threads, or the Arc B570's architecture. In practical terms, this means that while the hardware is capable of high scores in synthetic benchmarks like Cinebench R23 (19,784 multi-core) and 3DMark Steel Nomad (2649), these strengths do not translate into a top-tier experience in Revolution Idle.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570, built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with a 5 nm process, features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, which is relatively high, and it offers 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. The GPU's 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is substantial, yet the measured FPS in Revolution Idle does not reflect this potential. The GPU's 65th percentile ranking against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20,556, places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and Intel Arc A750, with deltaPct values of 0.1% and -0.1% respectively. This indicates that the Arc B570 is a mid-range performer in general, but in Revolution Idle, its role appears to be a limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. The data shows that at 3840x2160, even the Low preset only achieves 32 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 15 FPS, which is unplayable. This suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s, while adequate for many titles, may be insufficient for the demands of Revolution Idle at 4K, or that the game's rendering path is not efficiently using the GPU's resources. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is not likely the bottleneck given the genre, but the 160-bit bus width could be limiting fill-rate-dependent operations at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 96 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this combo. The Medium preset follows at 72 FPS, with a minimum of 62 and a maximum of 83, showing a stable frame time distribution. The High preset achieves 69 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 44 FPS. This represents a 54% decrease from Low to Ultra at 1080p, highlighting the steep performance cost of the highest settings. At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 61 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset drops to 46 FPS (min 39, max 53). The High preset at 1440p provides 44 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 28 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. At 3840x2160, the performance degrades significantly: Low achieves 32 FPS, Medium 24 FPS (min 20, max 27), High 23 FPS, and Ultra only 15 FPS. These numbers indicate that 4K resolution is not viable for this combo in Revolution Idle, even at the lowest settings, as the 32 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS target most players prefer. The data shows a consistent pattern where each increase in settings level reduces the average FPS by a similar margin, but the percentage drop becomes more severe at higher resolutions, suggesting the GPU is becoming the primary constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals critical insights about the limiting component in this configuration. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 96 at 1920x1080 to 61 at 2560x1440, a 36% reduction, and then to 32 at 3840x2160, a further 48% reduction from 1440p. This scaling is not linear, with the 1080p to 1440p drop being less severe than the 1440p to 4K drop. At the Medium preset, the FPS goes from 72 at 1080p to 46 at 1440p (36% drop) to 24 at 4K (48% drop from 1440p). This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution increases, because the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the FPS drops by 67% (from 96 to 32 at Low), which is roughly proportional to the pixel increase. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain more stable across resolutions, but the data shows a clear GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. The i7-12700K, with its 12 cores and 20 threads boosting to 5.00 GHz, is certainly capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, but the Arc B570's 380.0 GB/s bandwidth and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are insufficient to maintain frame rates at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is more moderate, suggesting that at 1080p, the system may be partially CPU-bound, but beyond that, the GPU takes over as the dominant constraint.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It has 25 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. Its benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19,784 and a single-core score of 1850.5, placing it in the 84th percentile against all CPUs. The nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i5-13600T and i7-12700KF, have average scores within 0.4% of this processor, indicating that the i7-12700K is a solid mid-range performer. In Revolution Idle, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling analysis. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 96 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game, but at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 9276 and max-thread score of 9979 suggest that the processor has ample multi-threaded capability, but an idle game like Revolution Idle may not utilize all 20 threads effectively. The game's genre typically involves periodic calculations rather than continuous simulation, so the single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 score of 1850.5) may be more relevant. The data shows that the CPU is not the primary limiting factor at 1440p and 4K, as the FPS drops correlate with resolution increases rather than CPU load. However, the combo's low rank of 2373 out of 2986 suggests that the CPU may not be optimally paired with the Arc B570 for this title, potentially due to driver overhead or architectural mismatches between the Alder Lake hybrid cores and the Xe2-HPG GPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo in Revolution Idle?

A: The Medium preset is recommended. At 1920x1080, it delivers 72 FPS on average, which is only 3 FPS less than High (69 FPS), but it provides better visual quality than Low (96 FPS). At 2560x1440, Medium still achieves 46 FPS, which is playable, whereas High drops to 44 FPS and Ultra falls to 28 FPS.

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

A: This combination ranks 2373 out of 2986 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 21%. Despite the CPU being in the 84th percentile and the GPU in the 65th percentile individually, their combined performance in this game is below average.

Q: Is the Intel Arc B570 sufficient for 4K gaming in Revolution Idle?

A: No, the data shows that at 3840x2160, even the Low preset only achieves 32 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 15 FPS. The GPU's 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are insufficient for smooth 4K performance in this title.

Q: What is the CPU's impact on performance in this game?

A: The i7-12700K is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are proportional to pixel count increases, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor. However, at 1080p, the CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads may be near their limit, as the FPS does not scale linearly with settings.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20,556, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534) and -0.1% lower than the Intel Arc A750 (20,582), indicating very similar performance levels.

Q: What is the impact of the Ultra preset on frame rates?

A: The Ultra preset causes significant performance drops. At 1080p, it reduces the average FPS to 44, which is 36% lower than High (69 FPS). At 1440p, it drops to 28 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 15 FPS, making it unplayable at higher resolutions.