The Long Drive

The Long Drive, a driving simulation that leans heavily on procedural generation and physics, presents a demanding workload that this particular hardware pairing struggles to keep up with. The data shows a system where the Intel Arc B370, an integrated GPU with only 1,280 shading units, becomes the primary performance bottleneck, while the AMD Ryzen 5 7600’s six-core processor provides a stable but underutilized foundation. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings indicate that this combo is best suited for low-fidelity, lower-resolution play, as anything beyond that pushes the GPU to its limits.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo is found at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. This is the only configuration that consistently achieves a playable frame rate, averaging 86 FPS. While the Medium preset at this resolution is also playable at an average of 71 FPS, the Low preset provides a significant performance headroom that is more forgiving for a game with unpredictable physics and rendering loads. The jump from Low to Medium results in a 15 FPS drop, but the stability gain and the fact that the average is well above 60 FPS make Low the safer choice for a consistent experience.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more strained. The Low preset here averages 56 FPS, a playable but not ideal result. The Medium preset drops to 46 FPS, which is still technically playable but will likely feel less smooth. For users seeking higher visual fidelity, the 1440p Medium setting is a viable compromise if they can tolerate occasional dips, as the data shows a minimum of 40 FPS. However, the 1080p Low setting remains the most reliable way to play. The High and Ultra presets are effectively non-viable at any resolution, as they produce average frame rates of 44 FPS or lower, with Ultra at 1080p dipping to a mere 31 FPS. Finally, 4K is not a realistic option for this hardware; even the Low preset only manages an average of 31 FPS, which is below the threshold for a playable experience. The recommendation is to prioritize frame rate and play at 1080p Low, or 1440p Low if a sharper image is desired.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Long Drive at 4K resolution?

A: No, the data indicates that 4K is not playable. The best result at 3840x2160 is with the Low preset, which yields an average of 31 FPS. The High, Medium, and Ultra presets produce even lower averages of 16, 26, and 11 FPS, respectively.

Q: What is the best graphics preset for a smooth experience at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers the highest average frame rate at 86 FPS. The Medium preset is also viable with an average of 71 FPS and a minimum of 60 FPS, but the Low preset offers more performance headroom.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in terms of raw benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Arc B370 has an average benchmark score of 1184. This places it just 0.2% behind the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186) and 0.5% behind the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190). It is 1.4% ahead of the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The benchmark results clearly indicate the GPU is the limiting factor. The Intel Arc B370 sits in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is in the 78th percentile of all CPUs. The GPU’s performance is far too low to fully utilize the CPU’s capabilities.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 56 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages only 20 FPS. This represents a significant 36 FPS drop when moving from the lowest to the highest visual quality setting.

Q: What kind of processor is the AMD Ryzen 5 7600?

A: It is a desktop processor from AMD’s 7000 series, based on the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Raphael). It features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It was released in January 2023.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and Intel Arc B370 places in the 3,438th position out of 3,725 tested combos for The Long Drive. This rank, which falls in the bottom 8% of all systems, is a direct reflection of the GPU’s severe performance limitations. The CPU, by contrast, is a much stronger component. Its average benchmark score of 26,324 places it in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, showing it is a capable processor. The pairing is therefore heavily unbalanced, with the GPU acting as a severe bottleneck that prevents the system from achieving higher frame rates. This low rank is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows the system struggling to maintain playable frame rates at higher settings and resolutions. The system’s performance is dictated almost entirely by the GPU, and its rank relative to other combos will not improve until the graphics processing bottleneck is removed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured performance data for this combo shows a clear and consistent pattern across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system is able to achieve playable frame rates only on the Low and Medium presets. The Low preset averages 86 FPS, while Medium drops to 71 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS and a maximum of 81 FPS. The High preset falls to 44 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages just 31 FPS.

Moving up to 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly. The Low preset averages 56 FPS, which is playable. The Medium preset averages 46 FPS, with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 53 FPS. The High preset drops to 29 FPS, and the Ultra preset is nearly unplayable at an average of 20 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system is unable to deliver a playable experience on any preset. The Low preset is the best option, averaging only 31 FPS. The Medium preset averages 26 FPS, with a minimum of 22 FPS and a maximum of 30 FPS. The High and Ultra presets produce averages of 16 and 11 FPS, respectively, which are well below the threshold for smooth gameplay. This data confirms that the combo is only suitable for 1080p gaming at low-to-medium settings, and that 4K is not a viable option.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the extent of the GPU’s limitations. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 86 FPS at 1080p to 56 FPS at 1440p, a 35% reduction. When moving from 1440p to 4K, the frame rate plummets another 45% to 31 FPS. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU that is completely overwhelmed by the increase in pixel count. The rendering load scales almost linearly with resolution, and the Intel Arc B370, with its low pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, simply does not have the bandwidth to process the extra pixels.

The data indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The CPU, which is far more powerful relative to its peers, is not able to compensate for the GPU’s workload at higher resolutions. This is a classic case of a system being held back by its graphics solution. The significant drop in performance between 1080p and 4K shows that the limiting component is the one responsible for pixel processing, not the central processor. Even at the lowest settings, the 4K resolution demands more from the GPU than it can deliver, resulting in a sub-30 FPS average. The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings, further confirming that the GPU is the sole factor preventing higher resolutions from being playable.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a six-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, and it is built on a 5 nm process. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 12,735 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,852 in single-core, placing it in the 78th percentile of all CPUs. These numbers indicate a very capable processor for gaming and general workloads. However, in The Long Drive, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU.

The game’s performance is clearly dictated by the graphics card, as evidenced by the dramatic frame rate drops at higher resolutions. The CPU’s high single-thread performance (a Geekbench single-core score of 2,521 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3,910) is more than sufficient to feed the GPU, but the GPU cannot process the frames fast enough to take advantage of it. The data suggests that the game is not heavily CPU-bound, as the frame rate scaling follows the GPU’s capabilities closely. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see more consistent frame rates across different resolutions, as the CPU’s workload (game logic, physics) would not change with resolution. Instead, the substantial FPS drops at 4K confirm that the GPU is the limiting component. The Ryzen 5 7600 is essentially idle, waiting for the Intel Arc B370 to catch up, making it a strong processor wasted in a lopsided pairing.