Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title that leans heavily on narrative and atmosphere, but the benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the Intel Arc B370 reveals a system that struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions and settings. The measured frame rates show a dramatic decline as resolution increases, indicating that the graphics solution—which relies on system memory and a modest 25 W TDP—is the definitive bottleneck in this configuration, despite the CPU’s high-end specifications.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and tells a clear story about where the system’s limits lie. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 85 FPS, which is the only measured result that approaches a high-refresh experience. Moving to 1440p at the same Low preset drops the average to 54 FPS, a 36% reduction. At 4K, the Low preset yields just 29 FPS on average, which is a 66% decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU that is overwhelmed by pixel count, not a CPU limitation.

The trend is consistent across all quality presets. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 50 FPS at 1080p to 32 FPS at 1440p, and then to 17 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and the Ultra preset at 4K drops to an average of 13 FPS—a slideshow by any standard. The data shows that the Arc B370, with its 1280 shading units and 20 ROPs, simply does not have the raw throughput to handle the pixel workload at 4K, regardless of the preset chosen. Even the most forgiving settings at 4K (Low) only manage 29 FPS, which is still below the 30 FPS console-style target and far from ideal for a game that benefits from responsive input.

The scaling from 1440p to 1080p is more linear, suggesting that the system is not entirely memory-bandwidth starved at lower resolutions. At Medium settings, the 1080p average is 62 FPS, while 1440p drops to 40 FPS. This 35% reduction is substantial but less catastrophic than the 1440p-to-4K jump, which sees a 48% drop at Medium settings (40 to 21 FPS). The conclusion is unambiguous: this is a 1080p-oriented configuration. At 4K, the limiting component is the GPU, which is operating far beyond its designed capability.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader database of tested combinations, this pairing sits near the bottom for Road 96. The combo rank is 2680 out of 2903 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 8% of all systems. This poor standing is directly attributable to the GPU’s low percentile ranking—the Arc B370 scores in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, which is a clear indicator of its entry-level positioning. The CPU, by contrast, is a top-tier part, ranking in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

The disparity between the CPU and GPU performance is stark. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, and it sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs tested. Its average benchmark score of 70879 places it within 1% of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, which are both high-end desktop chips. In contrast, the Arc B370’s average benchmark score of 1184 is nearly identical to that of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M—both are over a decade old and were entry-level parts in their respective eras.

This combination creates a massive imbalance. The system is effectively a high-end CPU paired with a GPU that is comparable to a legacy integrated or low-end discrete solution. For Road 96, which is not a graphically demanding title by modern standards, the fact that this combo ranks 2680th out of 2903 indicates that most other systems, even those with mid-range CPUs, will outperform it due to having more capable graphics hardware. The rank is a warning sign: the CPU is not the limiting factor, and upgrading any other component would likely yield better results than trying to improve the CPU further.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the primary constraint in this system, and the benchmark data confirms that its specifications are inadequate for high-resolution gaming. The GPU is based on the Xe3-LPG architecture and is built on a 3 nm process node from Intel, but these advanced manufacturing details do not compensate for the modest hardware resources. It has 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs, along with 10 ray tracing cores. The base clock is 300 MHz, with a boost clock of 2400 MHz.

The memory configuration is the most telling limitation. The Arc B370 uses "System Shared" memory, meaning it has no dedicated VRAM and instead relies on the system’s main memory. The memory bus width and bandwidth are also listed as "System Shared" and "System Dependent," respectively, which means performance is tied to the CPU’s memory subsystem. The Core Ultra 7 265K supports dual-channel DDR5 with a maximum bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, which is shared between the CPU and the iGPU. This shared bandwidth is a critical bottleneck in Road 96, as the game’s textures and frame buffer must compete with CPU operations for the same memory resources.

The GPU’s raw compute figures are low. It achieves 6.144 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s. For context, the 4K resolution requires over 8.3 million pixels per frame, and at 48 GPixel/s, the theoretical fill rate is insufficient to maintain high frame rates. The measured results bear this out: the 4K Ultra preset averages 13 FPS, which corresponds to a pixel throughput of roughly 108 million pixels per second—the GPU is nowhere near its theoretical limit, indicating that other factors such as memory bandwidth and shader complexity are also limiting. The GPU’s 25 W TDP and lack of any power connectors classify it as an IGP, and the data shows that it performs as one.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system’s capabilities across resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the results are mixed but occasionally playable. The Low preset delivers an average of 85 FPS, which is smooth for most players. The Medium preset averages 62 FPS, with a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS, indicating that the frame time is relatively stable. The High preset drops to an average of 50 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show strain. The Ultra preset at 1080p averages 39 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target but not a complete failure.

At 1440p, the system struggles to maintain acceptable performance. The Low preset averages 54 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The Medium preset averages 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. The High preset drops to an average of 32 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 25 FPS. None of these results are ideal for a smooth gaming experience, and the frame pacing at Medium suggests that the system is hitting a hard limit.

At 4K, the results are uniformly poor. The Low preset averages 29 FPS, which is the only result above 30 FPS at this resolution. The Medium preset averages 21 FPS, with a minimum of 18 FPS and a maximum of 24 FPS, showing that the frame rate is not only low but also inconsistent. The High preset averages 17 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 13 FPS. These numbers are far below the threshold for playability and indicate that 4K is not a viable option for this configuration. The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p Low and Medium are the only settings that provide a satisfactory experience.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a powerhouse that is entirely underutilized in this configuration for Road 96. The CPU has 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. It is based on the Arrow Lake architecture and is built on a 3 nm process from TSMC, with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache, which is ample for gaming workloads.

The CPU’s benchmark scores confirm its high-end status. In Cinebench R23, it scores 35850 in multi-core and 2020 in single-core, which are strong results for a desktop processor. Its Geekbench scores are 23085 multi-core and 2713 single-core. The PassMark multi-thread score is 58594, and the single-thread score is 4928. These numbers place the CPU in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6511P, the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F. The delta percentages are all within 1.3%, indicating that the 265K is on par with these high-end parts.

In Road 96, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The game is an adventure title that does not require massive multi-threaded horsepower, and the 20-core processor is more than sufficient. The measured FPS differences between settings are almost entirely due to GPU load, not CPU limitations. For example, the 1080p Low and Ultra presets differ by 46 FPS (85 vs. 39), which is a GPU-bound scaling. The CPU’s high single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 2020 Cinebench R23 single-core score, ensures that the game logic and rendering commands are processed without delay. However, this CPU performance is wasted because the GPU cannot keep up with the frame rate demands.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings for this configuration are 1080p with the Low preset, which delivers an average of 85 FPS. This is the only combination of resolution and settings that provides a frame rate high enough for smooth, responsive gameplay. The 1080p Medium preset is a viable alternative, averaging 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS, which is acceptable for players who prioritize visual quality over raw frame rate. However, the jump from Low to Medium costs 23 FPS, which is a significant trade-off.

At 1440p, the Low preset averages 54 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Players with 1440p monitors may find this acceptable, but the frame rate is not stable enough for competitive play. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 40 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and may result in noticeable stuttering. The High and Ultra presets at 1440p should be avoided, as they drop to 32 and 25 FPS, respectively.

4K is not a viable option for this system under any settings. The highest average at 4K is 29 FPS on Low, which is below the 30 FPS minimum for playability. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 18 FPS, which is well below the threshold for smooth motion. The data suggests that the best experience is achieved by sticking to 1080p Low or Medium, and that any attempt to increase resolution or quality will result in a degraded experience. The system is effectively a 1080p machine for Road 96, and the benchmark results show that pushing beyond that resolution is futile.