The Long Drive

The Long Drive is a driving simulation that, in this configuration with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Intel Arc B570, shows a clear preference for balanced settings over maximum graphical fidelity. The measured data across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals that the Ultra preset incurs a significant performance penalty that is not justified by the playability gains, while the Medium preset provides a strong baseline for most users. This analysis walks through the measured frames per second (FPS) data to determine the optimal settings, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and how this specific combination ranks against other tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset is the optimal choice for this hardware combination, as it delivers the best balance between visual quality and playable frame rates. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset produces an average of 120 FPS, which is more than double the 52 FPS achieved on Ultra. While the Low preset pushes performance higher to 146 FPS, the jump from Low to Medium only costs 26 FPS, a relatively small price for the likely improvement in visual fidelity. The High preset, at 75 FPS, sits in a middle ground but offers no significant advantage over Medium for the added load.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out with an average of 79 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold many consider smooth for this genre. The High preset drops to 49 FPS, which starts to feel less fluid, and Ultra falls to 34 FPS, which is marginal for a driving game that requires quick reactions. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only playable option, producing 44 FPS; High drops to 27 FPS and Ultra is essentially unplayable at 19 FPS. The data strongly suggests that for 1080p and 1440p gaming, Medium is the sweet spot, while at 4K, users must accept Medium as the ceiling and even then, performance is on the lower end.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 5000 series, based on the Zen 3 architecture codenamed Vermeer. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz, and it boosts up to 4.80 GHz, which provides substantial single-thread and multi-thread headroom. In this game, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU, as the FPS scaling from Low to Ultra at any given resolution is primarily dictated by the graphics workload. At 1080p Low, the CPU is likely not the limiting factor, as the system achieves 146 FPS, a high enough number to indicate that the processor can feed frames quickly when the GPU is under light load.

However, the processor’s capabilities do set an upper bound on performance in lighter scenes. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 146 FPS, and at 1440p Low it hits 96 FPS. The drop from 146 to 96 FPS when moving from 1080p to 1440p suggests that the GPU is becoming more involved, but the CPU still has enough headroom to maintain high frame rates. The Ryzen 9 5900X’s 64 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support likely help in maintaining consistent frame pacing in a simulation game like this. The processor’s benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16262 and a single-core score of 1527, indicate it is a highly capable part, but the game’s results show that the GPU is the primary bottleneck when settings are increased.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the graphics card in this combo, featuring 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. Its base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, and it has 2304 shading units. The GPU’s performance is the dominant factor in this game’s FPS scaling, as evidenced by the steep drop-off when moving from Medium to Ultra settings. At 1080p, the GPU delivers 120 FPS on Medium, but this falls to 52 FPS on Ultra, a reduction of 56.7%, indicating that the Ultra preset is too demanding for the card’s compute resources.

The GPU’s memory configuration is also relevant. With 10 GB of VRAM, the card has enough capacity for most 1080p and 1440p textures, but at 4K Ultra, the system struggles to maintain 19 FPS, which could be due to both compute limits and memory pressure. The memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s is a strong figure, but the card’s overall throughput, measured at 11.52 TFLOPS FP32, is not sufficient for the highest settings in this simulation. The benchmark results show that the Arc B570 ranks in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with a deltaPct of 0.1%, meaning the B570 is essentially on par with that mobile part in general compute. However, in this specific game, the card’s performance is more modest, and users should not expect to run Ultra settings at any resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2342 out of 2934 tested combinations in The Long Drive, placing it in the lower-middle percentile of all systems. This ranking suggests that while the individual components are capable, the pairing does not unlock exceptional performance in this particular title. The CPU itself is a strong performer, ranking in the 87th percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rival is the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H, which has an average benchmark score that is only 0.3% higher. This indicates that the Ryzen 9 5900X is not holding the system back in a meaningful way.

The GPU, however, is a different story. The Arc B570 ranks in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, which has an average score that is 0.1% higher. This places the B570 as a mid-range card, and its performance in The Long Drive reflects that positioning. The combo’s rank of 2342 out of 2934 means that a significant majority of other tested systems achieve higher frame rates in this game. This is likely due to the game’s optimization, which may favor NVIDIA or AMD GPUs over Intel’s Arc architecture, or it could be that the B570’s driver overhead is higher in this simulation. The data shows that the combo is not among the top performers, but it is also not at the very bottom, indicating that it can provide a playable experience at medium settings, particularly at 1080p and 1440p.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K reveal a clear GPU bottleneck, as the frame rate decreases proportionally with the increase in pixel count. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 120 at 1080p, to 79 at 1440p, and finally to 44 at 4K. This represents a 63.3% drop from 1080p to 4K, which is consistent with a system where the GPU is the limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would not drop as significantly when resolution increases, because the CPU workload would remain relatively constant.

Further evidence of the GPU bottleneck is seen in the Low settings results. At Low, the FPS goes from 146 at 1080p to 96 at 1440p and 53 at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 44.8%, which is less severe than the drop from 1080p to 1440p (34.2% drop), but still substantial. This indicates that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is struggling to fill the pixels at higher resolutions. The Ultra preset shows the most extreme scaling, with 52 FPS at 1080p falling to 19 FPS at 4K, a 63.5% drop. This confirms that the Arc B570’s raw pixel throughput is insufficient for 4K gaming in this title, and users should stick to 1080p or 1440p for a smooth experience. The data suggests that the CPU has ample headroom, as the FPS scaling is almost entirely governed by the GPU’s ability to render at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best setting preset for this CPU and GPU combo in The Long Drive?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice, as it delivers 120 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 4K, which are the highest playable frame rates across all resolutions.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or the Intel Arc B570 the limiting factor in this combo?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The FPS drops significantly when resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, while the CPU’s high benchmark scores and the fact that it is not a bottleneck in lighter scenes indicate it has more than enough headroom.

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

A: The combo ranks 2342 out of 2934 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier. This is despite the CPU ranking in the 87th percentile overall, which suggests the GPU is holding back overall performance.

Q: Can this system run the game at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings with an average of 44 FPS. High and Ultra settings at 4K produce 27 FPS and 19 FPS respectively, which are not smooth enough for a driving game.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 146 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 52 FPS. This is a 64.4% reduction in frame rate, making Ultra a poor choice for competitive or smooth play.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its closest rival in general benchmarks?

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score that is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, making them essentially equivalent in general performance, but the B570 has 10 GB of VRAM and a 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table breaks down the exact measured average FPS for each resolution and settings preset. The data shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as settings increase.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|:-----------|:---------|:--------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 27 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 53 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 44 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 19 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 49 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 96 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 79 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 34 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 75 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 146 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 120 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 52 |

The Medium preset at 1440p also provides a minimum FPS of 67 and a maximum of 91, indicating some frame time variance but generally stable performance. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 102 and the maximum is 138, showing a tighter range. The 4K Medium setting has a minimum of 37 and a maximum of 50, which is a wider spread and suggests occasional stutters. These figures reinforce the recommendation to use Medium, as it provides the most consistent experience within playable ranges.