The Long Drive

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G paired with the Intel Arc B570 presents a distinct performance curve in The Long Drive, one that is heavily dictated by resolution and graphics settings. The measured data shows a system that can deliver high refresh rates at 1080p but becomes increasingly GPU-bound as pixel count rises, with the 4K Ultra preset rendering the combination nearly unplayable. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, component roles, and practical settings for this specific pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and clearly illustrates where the bottleneck lies. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 146 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 96 FPS, a 34% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 53 FPS, which is a 64% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that is being pushed harder as resolution increases; the CPU has enough headroom at lower resolutions to feed the GPU, but the Arc B570's raw pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor at 4K.

The gap between High and Ultra settings widens significantly at higher resolutions, further confirming the GPU-bound nature of this workload. At 1080p, High yields 75 FPS while Ultra drops to 52 FPS, a 31% penalty. At 1440p, High produces 49 FPS and Ultra falls to 34 FPS, a 31% penalty as well. However, at 4K, High manages only 27 FPS and Ultra plummets to 19 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K on Ultra is particularly harsh, showing a 44% performance loss, while the same resolution jump on Low costs only 45% (from 96 to 53 FPS). This suggests that the game's Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU at high pixel counts.

The data indicates that this pairing is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming. At 4K, only the Low preset approaches playable territory with 53 FPS, while Medium dips to 44 FPS and High falls below 30 FPS. The 4K Ultra figure of 19 FPS is a clear outlier, and the system is not capable of delivering a smooth experience at that configuration. The scaling from Medium to High at 4K (44 to 27 FPS) is a 39% drop, which is steeper than the same transition at 1080p (120 to 75 FPS, a 38% drop), reinforcing that the Arc B570's 10 GB VRAM and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are stretched thin at 4K.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in The Long Drive?*

A: The measured FPS data shows that 1920x1080 is the sweet spot. The system achieves 146 FPS on Low, 120 FPS on Medium, and 75 FPS on High at this resolution. At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain solid for Medium (79 FPS) and Low (96 FPS), but High drops to 49 FPS, making 1080p the safest choice for consistent performance.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in this title?

A: Only with significant compromises. At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers 53 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Medium drops to 44 FPS, and High falls to 27 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 4K is not viable, producing only 19 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High across resolutions?

A: The Ultra preset consistently delivers lower frame rates. At 1080p, Ultra (52 FPS) is 23 FPS behind High (75 FPS). At 1440p, Ultra (34 FPS) is 15 FPS behind High (49 FPS). At 4K, Ultra (19 FPS) is 8 FPS behind High (27 FPS). The relative penalty is roughly 30-40% depending on resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the system reaches 146 FPS, which suggests the CPU and GPU are both capable of high throughput. However, the drop from Low to Medium (146 to 120 FPS) and then to High (120 to 75 FPS) indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint as settings increase. The Ryzen 5 4600G, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears sufficient to feed the Arc B570 at this resolution.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combination?

A: The only preset with a recorded minimum FPS is Medium. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 102 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it is 67 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it is 37 FPS. No minimums were recorded for the Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: How does the Arc B570's performance compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, which puts it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (avg score 20534) and 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750 (avg score 20582). It also sits 0.4% above the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M and 0.5% below the AMD Radeon R9 M390X.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the dominant component in determining The Long Drive's frame rates, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. Its 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but becomes a constraint at 4K. The GPU's base and boost clocks are both fixed at 2500 MHz, and its 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs handle the game's rasterization workload.

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates diminishes. At 1080p Low, the GPU delivers 146 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 53 FPS. This 64% reduction is directly attributable to the increased pixel fill rate demand. The Arc B570's pixel rate is rated at 200.0 GPixel/s, which is insufficient to maintain high FPS at 4K with demanding settings. The 4K Ultra preset's 19 FPS result illustrates the GPU's limits.

The GPU's VRAM capacity of 10 GB is likely a factor in the severe performance drop between High and Ultra at 4K. The Ultra preset may be exceeding the VRAM buffer, causing a performance cliff. The 1440p Ultra result of 34 FPS versus the 1440p High result of 49 FPS suggests that the extra visual effects in Ultra are costly, but the system remains within the GPU's capabilities at that resolution. The 4K Ultra result, however, is far below any playable threshold, indicating that the combination of high resolution and maximum settings overwhelms the B570's memory subsystem and compute units.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks support its mid-range positioning. Its passmark G3D score of 14195 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649 are consistent with a card that performs well at 1080p and 1440p but struggles at 4K. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 96844 suggests strong compute capabilities, yet the game's frame rates show that raw compute does not translate directly to 4K performance. The B570's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is the theoretical ceiling, but real-world results are bound by memory bandwidth and ROP throughput.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 120 FPS average with a minimum of 102 FPS, providing a smooth experience with headroom for dips. At 2560x1440, Medium yields 79 FPS average with a 67 FPS minimum, which is still playable for most users. The High preset is viable at 1080p (75 FPS) but becomes marginal at 1440p (49 FPS) and unplayable at 4K (27 FPS).

The Low preset is the only option for 4K gaming, delivering 53 FPS at 3840x2160. This is a playable frame rate, but it requires sacrificing most visual fidelity. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution; even at 1080p, it only achieves 52 FPS, which is lower than the High preset at 1440p (49 FPS) and only slightly above the Medium preset at 4K (44 FPS). The performance cost of Ultra over High is roughly 30-40%, and the visual benefit is typically not worth that penalty in a driving simulation where frame consistency matters.

For users prioritizing frame rate, the Low preset at 1080p (146 FPS) or 1440p (96 FPS) offers the highest refresh rates. The measured data shows that the jump from Low to Medium costs about 18% at 1080p (146 to 120 FPS) and 18% at 1440p (96 to 79 FPS), making Medium a reasonable compromise. The jump from Medium to High costs 38% at 1080p (120 to 75 FPS) and 38% at 1440p (79 to 49 FPS), which is a steep price for increased detail. Given the game's genre, a stable 60+ FPS at Medium settings is likely the most practical target.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its best results. The Low preset averages 146 FPS, Medium averages 120 FPS with a minimum of 102 FPS and maximum of 138 FPS, High averages 75 FPS, and Ultra averages 52 FPS. The gap from Medium to High is 45 FPS, while the gap from High to Ultra is 23 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance drops across the board. Low averages 96 FPS, Medium averages 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS and maximum of 91 FPS, High averages 49 FPS, and Ultra averages 34 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 67 FPS indicates that even this setting can experience noticeable dips, though the average remains solid.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles. Low averages 53 FPS, Medium averages 44 FPS with a minimum of 37 FPS and maximum of 50 FPS, High averages 27 FPS, and Ultra averages 19 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 37 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and the High and Ultra results are not viable for actual play.

The data reveals that the Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values across all three resolutions. This suggests that the game's performance is more stable at Medium, while Low, High, and Ultra may have more variable frame times that were not captured in the minimum/maximum fields.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G plays a supporting role in The Long Drive, providing enough processing power to avoid bottlenecking the Arc B570 at most settings. As a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture (Renoir), it has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its 8 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for this game's workload.

The CPU's synthetic benchmarks indicate solid multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 13593 and Passmark multithread score of 15992 show that it can handle the physics and simulation calculations required by a driving game. However, its single-thread performance is more modest, with a Geekbench single-core score of 1460 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1919. This could become a limiting factor if the game relies heavily on a single thread, but the measured FPS data does not show a clear CPU bottleneck.

At 1080p Low, the system reaches 146 FPS, which is close to the CPU's practical limit for this pairing. The fact that the 1080p Low result is only 52% higher than the 1440p Low result (146 vs 96 FPS) suggests that the CPU is not the primary constraint at these settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain constant regardless of resolution. Instead, the FPS drops as resolution increases, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component.

The Ryzen 5 4600G's position in the overall CPU landscape is mid-tier, with a percentile rank of 71 among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE, which scores 0.1% higher, and the Intel Core 7 150U, which scores 0.6% higher. The CPU's average benchmark score of 17507 places it in the same performance class as the Intel Core i3-14100T, which is 0.8% faster. This indicates that the 4600G is a capable budget-oriented processor that pairs well with a mid-range GPU like the Arc B570.

The CPU's 65W TDP and unlocked multiplier suggest that it can be overclocked to improve performance, though the measured data does not include overclocked results. The integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics are not relevant when the discrete Arc B570 is installed, but they do provide a fallback option. In The Long Drive, the CPU's 12 threads are likely sufficient for the game's simulation logic, and the data shows that the system's frame rates are primarily dictated by the GPU's resolution and settings scaling.