Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure game that is far more forgiving on hardware than most modern titles, yet the data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the Intel Arc B390 reveals a system that struggles to maintain playable framerates at higher resolutions. The measured results show a clear pattern: the integrated graphics solution is the primary bottleneck, while the capable 14-core processor sits largely underutilized. This combination ranks in the bottom 11% of all tested configurations, indicating that while the CPU is a strong modern part, the GPU's performance severely limits the overall experience.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data indicates a significant trade-off between visual fidelity and playability across the four tested presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 94 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches high-refresh-rate territory. This is a substantial 36% improvement over the High preset's 56 FPS and more than double the Ultra preset's 43 FPS. For players prioritizing smooth gameplay, Low at 1080p is the only viable choice for a consistently fluid experience.

Moving up to Medium at 1080p yields 69 FPS, which is still playable and represents a 23% drop from Low but a 23% increase over High. The High preset at 1080p, with 56 FPS, sits in an awkward middle ground—it is smooth enough for a narrative adventure game but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 1080p is the least attractive option, as it costs 54% of the performance of Low for what is likely a marginal visual upgrade in a stylized game.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more constrained. The Low preset is the only one that breaks the 60 FPS barrier, hitting 60 FPS exactly. Medium drops to 44 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 28 FPS, all of which feel sluggish for an adventure title. At 4K, no preset achieves a playable framerate, with Low hitting 32 FPS, Medium at 23 FPS, High at 19 FPS, and Ultra at a slideshow-like 15 FPS. The data suggests that the best experience is found at 1080p with Medium settings, as it balances the 69 FPS average with a more visually detailed scene than Low, without the steep performance penalty of High or Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a modern 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. In the context of Road 96, an adventure game that is not typically CPU-intensive, this processor is vastly overqualified. The benchmark results show that the CPU's role is minimal, as the framerate is consistently limited by the GPU across all settings and resolutions.

The CPU's benchmark scores reflect its high-end positioning. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, while its single-core score of 4648 is similarly strong. Compared to its nearest rivals, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 is only 0.5% faster on average, and the Intel Core i5-14600K is 0.8% slower, indicating that the Ultra 5 245 is a top-tier performer for general computing tasks. However, these strengths are irrelevant for Road 96, as the game's engine likely relies on a single primary thread for logic and rendering calls, which the 5.10 GHz boost clock handles with ease.

The fact that the game runs at 94 FPS on Low at 1080p, but only 19 FPS on High at 4K, confirms that the CPU is not the limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a consistent framerate across resolutions, as the processor's workload would remain constant. Instead, the framerate plummets as resolution increases, which is the classic signature of GPU-bound performance. The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory are also irrelevant here, as the game does not tax these resources heavily.

FAQ

Q: Why does the framerate drop so drastically when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: The measured data shows a clear correlation between resolution and performance. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 94, but at 4K Low, it falls to 32. This 65% reduction indicates that the Intel Arc B390's rendering capabilities are overwhelmed by the increased pixel count, confirming that the GPU is the primary bottleneck.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 a good match for this game?

A: The CPU is significantly more powerful than what Road 96 requires. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and 90th percentile ranking show it is a high-end processor, but the game's framerate is limited by the GPU. In this pairing, the CPU's performance is effectively wasted, as it cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations.

Q: What is the best setting for a smooth experience?

A: The data indicates that the Low preset at 1080p provides the highest average framerate at 94 FPS. If a balance between visual quality and performance is desired, the Medium preset at 1080p offers 69 FPS, which is still playable and a significant improvement over the High preset's 56 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 1440p gaming?

A: At 1440p, only the Low preset achieves a playable framerate of exactly 60 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 44 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slow-paced adventure game, but High and Ultra presets fall to 35 FPS and 28 FPS respectively, which are likely too choppy for a smooth experience.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to other GPUs?

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, scores 1463, which is 1.3% lower, indicating that the Arc B390 is a very low-performance part, roughly equivalent to entry-level graphics solutions from over a decade ago.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever usable?

A: No. The Ultra preset produces the lowest framerates at every resolution. At 1080p, it averages 43 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 28 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 15 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra is steep, and the data suggests it should be avoided entirely for this hardware combination.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2575th out of 2903 tested configurations in Road 96, placing it in the bottom 11% of all systems. This is a surprisingly low ranking given the CPU's high-end status, but it is entirely attributable to the GPU's poor performance. The CPU alone ranks in the 90th percentile, yet the system's overall capability is dragged down by the integrated graphics.

This ranking implies that the vast majority of other tested hardware combinations, including those with older or weaker CPUs, outperform this setup simply because they have a dedicated graphics card. The data suggests that this pairing is only suitable for very low-end gaming, such as e-sports titles or older games at low resolutions. For a game like Road 96, which is not graphically demanding, this combination still fails to provide a consistently smooth experience at higher settings, highlighting the severe mismatch between the CPU's capacity and the GPU's output.

The nearest GPU rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1.5% faster) and the GeForce GT 625 OEM (2.5% faster), are ancient parts, confirming that the Arc B390 is not competitive with any modern discrete GPU. This ranking serves as a cautionary tale about pairing a flagship-class CPU with a low-end integrated GPU, as the overall experience is dictated by the weakest link.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. The framerate drops are steep and consistent as resolution increases, which indicates that the rendering workload is overwhelming the Intel Arc B390. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 94 at 1080p to 60 at 1440p (a 36% drop) and then to 32 at 4K (a 66% drop from 1440p). This linear decline is typical for a GPU that is running out of pixel processing power.

At Medium settings, the framerate falls from 69 at 1080p to 44 at 1440p (a 36% drop) and then to 23 at 4K (a 48% drop from 1440p). The percentage drops between resolutions are slightly smaller at higher settings, which suggests that the GPU is also struggling with the increased shading and texture detail, not just the pixel count. The High preset shows a similar pattern: 56 FPS at 1080p, 35 at 1440p, and 19 at 4K.

The Ultra preset is the most punishing, starting at 43 FPS at 1080p and falling to 28 at 1440p and 15 at 4K. The fact that even the Low preset cannot maintain 60 FPS at 1440p confirms that the GPU is the sole limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the framerate to be relatively stable across resolutions, as the CPU's workload does not change with pixel count. Instead, the data shows a clear and direct relationship between resolution and performance, pointing to a GPU that is simply not powerful enough for modern gaming beyond 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured framerates provides a granular view of the system's performance. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 94 FPS. Medium follows at 69 FPS, with a minimum of 59 and a maximum of 79 FPS, indicating some frame time variance. High drops to 56 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 43 FPS. This shows that at 1080p, the system is capable of playable framerates on Low and Medium, but High and Ultra require too much GPU headroom.

At 2560x1440, the average framerates are significantly lower. Low still achieves exactly 60 FPS, but Medium falls to 44 FPS (min 37, max 50). High is at 35 FPS, and Ultra is at 28 FPS. The 1440p results show that the GPU is unable to handle the increased pixel count, with even the Medium preset dipping below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the performance is critically low. Low averages 32 FPS, Medium averages 23 FPS (min 20, max 27), High averages 19 FPS, and Ultra averages 15 FPS. No 4K preset is playable, and the data suggests that the system is not suitable for 4K gaming at all. The minimum FPS recorded at 4K Medium is 20, which indicates significant stuttering and frame drops, making the experience unpleasant. The maximum FPS at 4K Medium is 27, which is still below the threshold for a smooth experience.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated GPU based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. It has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. Its theoretical performance is 7.680 TFLOPS for FP32 operations, which is modest by modern standards. The GPU uses System Shared memory, meaning its bandwidth and capacity are dependent on the system's DDR5 RAM, which is a significant bottleneck for gaming workloads.

The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, making it one of the weakest parts in the benchmark database. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% slower), the GeForce 800M (1.5% slower), and the GeForce GT 625 OEM (2.5% slower). These are all entry-level parts from over a decade ago, highlighting how far behind the Arc B390 is compared to modern discrete GPUs.

In Road 96, the GPU's role is entirely dominant. The framerate is directly tied to its rendering capabilities, as evidenced by the steep drops at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU's 12 ray tracing cores are irrelevant for this game, and its support for DirectX 12 Ultimate does not help when the raw pixel throughput is so low. The data shows that the Arc B390 is the absolute limiting factor, and the powerful CPU cannot compensate for its lack of performance. The GPU's 80 W TDP and IGP form factor suggest it is designed for low-power portable devices, not desktop gaming, which explains its poor showing in this benchmark.