The Long Drive

# The Long Drive with Intel Core i5-13400F + Intel Arc B390

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the Intel Arc B390 represents a deeply unusual combination for The Long Drive, a driving simulation that appears to place extreme demands on the graphics subsystem. The data shows this combo ranking at position 2594 out of 2934 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 12th percentile of all tested hardware pairings. The Arc B390, an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, delivers performance that aligns more closely with entry-level discrete GPUs from over a decade ago than with modern gaming hardware, while the i5-13400F provides substantial CPU headroom that goes largely untapped in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall ranking of this combo in The Long Drive?

A: The combination ranks 2594th out of 2934 tested combos, placing it near the bottom of the database at roughly the 11.6th percentile of all recorded hardware pairings for this game.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's average benchmark score of 1482 places it just 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% ahead of the GT 710 (1443). These are all very old, low-end GPUs, indicating the B390's performance class.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1080p for this combination?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 95 FPS average. Medium settings deliver 78 FPS average with a minimum of 66 FPS and maximum of 90 FPS. High settings drop to 49 FPS, while Ultra falls to 34 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i5-13400F scores 25,292 in average benchmark, which is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25,284, 0% delta), 0.3% behind the Intel Core 5 120 (25,362) and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25,365), and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (25,201).

Q: What memory configuration does the GPU use?

A: The Arc B390 uses system shared memory, with memory type, bus width, and bandwidth all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent." This means the GPU relies on the CPU's DDR4 or DDR5 memory rather than having dedicated VRAM.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile among all GPUs?

A: The Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 1482 from its single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test result.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-13400F and Intel Arc B390 achieves a rank of 2594 out of 2934 tested combinations in The Long Drive. This places the pairing in the bottom 340 combos, a position that reflects severe graphics bottlenecks rather than CPU inadequacy. The i5-13400F, with its 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs, demonstrates far more capability than this game requires at the tested settings. The disparity between CPU percentile (77) and GPU percentile (9) creates a situation where the processor is effectively waiting on the integrated graphics unit at every turn.

When interpreting the rank, it's important to consider that the combo sits just 340 positions from the absolute bottom of the database. The measured frame rates confirm this low standing: at 4K Ultra, the combo produces only 12 FPS average, which is essentially unplayable by any standard. Even at 1080p Low, where the combo achieves 95 FPS, the margin over the lowest-performing combos is narrow. The rank of 2594 suggests that roughly 88% of tested hardware pairings deliver better performance in this title, and the data indicates that virtually all of those superior results come from having a dedicated graphics solution rather than an integrated one.

The i5-13400F's position relative to its nearest rivals reinforces that the CPU is not the limiting factor. With an average benchmark score of 25,292, it trades blows with the Ryzen 9 6900HS (25,284), Core 5 120 (25,362), Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25,365), and Ryzen 7 6800H (25,201) — all within a 0.7% band. In the context of The Long Drive, this CPU performance is more than sufficient; the bottleneck is overwhelmingly the Arc B390's integrated graphics architecture.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is built on the Xe3-LPG architecture using a 3nm process from Intel, with a chip codenamed Panther Lake. Its integrated nature means it has no dedicated VRAM; instead, it shares system memory, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." This architectural choice has profound implications for gaming performance, particularly at higher resolutions where memory bandwidth demands increase substantially.

The GPU's clock specifications show a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, a wide range that suggests aggressive power management. With 1,536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 raster output units, and 12 ray tracing cores, the B390's compute resources are modest by modern standards. The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are figures that would have been competitive in entry-level discrete GPUs of the early 2010s, but they fall far short of what contemporary gaming requires.

The GPU's benchmark results confirm its low standing. Its single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals being the GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% ahead), GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% ahead), GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% ahead), and GT 710 (1443, 2.7% ahead). These rivals are all legacy parts from NVIDIA's entry-level lineup, and the B390's marginal advantage over them — never exceeding 2.7% — indicates it performs in a similar class. The TDP of 80 W is low, but the integrated nature of the GPU means it shares thermal and power resources with the CPU.

In The Long Drive, the GPU's role is decisive. The frame rate collapses as resolution increases, and the gap between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution reveals a GPU that cannot handle significant graphics load. The 4K Ultra result of 12 FPS is particularly telling: this is not a playable experience by any reasonable interpretation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data spans three resolutions and four quality settings, providing a complete picture of the combo's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the results range from a playable 95 FPS at Low settings to a marginal 34 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting produces 78 FPS average with a minimum of 66 FPS and maximum of 90 FPS, while High delivers 49 FPS. These numbers suggest that 1080p Low and Medium are the only settings where this combo provides a consistently smooth experience.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly across all settings. Low yields 63 FPS, which is still playable, but Medium falls to 51 FPS with a range of 44 to 59 FPS. High produces 32 FPS, and Ultra drops to 22 FPS. The step from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 34% of the frame rate at Low settings (from 95 to 63 FPS) and 35% at Medium (from 78 to 51 FPS), indicating that the GPU is already struggling with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unplayable. Low settings yield 35 FPS, which is borderline but not smooth. Medium produces 29 FPS with a minimum of 24 and maximum of 33 FPS. High falls to 18 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 12 FPS. These 4K numbers confirm that the Arc B390 lacks the memory bandwidth and compute throughput to handle 4K rendering in this title, regardless of quality settings. The only configuration at 4K that approaches playability is Low at 35 FPS, and even that would present a stuttery experience in a driving simulation where smooth frame pacing matters.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior reveals a GPU that is severely bandwidth-limited. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings, the frame rate drops from 95 to 63 FPS, a 33.7% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at Low, the drop is from 63 to 35 FPS, a 44.4% reduction. The total scaling from 1080p Low to 4K Low is a 63.2% loss, from 95 to 35 FPS.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 78 FPS at 1080p drops to 51 FPS at 1440p (34.6% loss) and then to 29 FPS at 4K (43.1% loss from 1440p). The total Medium scaling from 1080p to 4K is 62.8%. High settings show 49 FPS at 1080p, 32 FPS at 1440p (34.7% loss), and 18 FPS at 4K (43.8% loss), totaling 63.3%. Ultra settings scale from 34 to 22 FPS at 1440p (35.3% loss) and then to 12 FPS at 4K (45.5% loss), totaling 64.7%.

The consistency of these scaling ratios — all approximately 33-35% for the 1080p to 1440p step and 43-46% for the 1440p to 4K step — points to a uniform bottleneck. The pixel count increases by 77.8% from 1080p to 1440p and by 125% from 1440p to 4K, but the frame rate losses are proportionally smaller, suggesting that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound. Instead, the system shared memory bandwidth appears to be the limiting factor, as the B390's reliance on shared system memory creates a ceiling that becomes more restrictive as resolution increases.

The CPU is not a factor in this scaling. The i5-13400F's 10 cores and 16 threads with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz provide far more compute than this game needs at these frame rates. The consistent scaling behavior across all settings confirms that the GPU is the sole constraint.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10nm process. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz, combined with a 20 MB shared L3 cache, make it a capable mid-range desktop CPU. The benchmark results reinforce this: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 22,604, single-core scores 3,191, and Geekbench multicore scores 11,068 with single-core at 1,996. The PassMark multithread score of 25,032 and single-thread score of 3,634 place it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs.

In The Long Drive, the CPU's role is largely supportive. The game's measured frame rates at 1080p Low (95 FPS) and Medium (78 FPS) are well within the i5-13400F's capability to feed the GPU. The CPU's nearest rivals — the Ryzen 9 6900HS, Core 5 120, Ryzen 5 5600X3D, and Ryzen 7 6800H — all sit within 0.7% of its average benchmark score, and none of these processors would meaningfully change the results in this game because the GPU is the bottleneck.

The CPU's 3DMark thread scaling shows strong multi-threaded performance: 7,314 with 16 threads versus 7,307 with max threads, indicating the processor scales well up to its full thread count. The single-thread score of 960 and 2-thread score of 1,880 suggest that the game's primary thread would be well-served. However, the measured FPS data shows that even at 4K Low (35 FPS), the CPU has ample headroom to produce far higher frame rates if the GPU could keep up. The 65W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 mounting make this a mainstream part, but in this pairing, its capabilities are wasted by the integrated GPU.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the recommended settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, Low settings provide 95 FPS average, which is excellent for a driving simulation where smooth motion is critical. Medium settings at 78 FPS with a minimum of 66 FPS also provide a solid experience, and the extra visual quality may be worth the 17 FPS cost. High at 49 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 34 FPS is below the threshold for comfortable play.

At 2560x1440, Low settings at 63 FPS are the only reliably smooth option. Medium at 51 FPS with a minimum of 44 FPS could be acceptable for some players, but the frame dips below 45 FPS may cause noticeable stutter in a game where constant forward motion is the norm. High at 32 FPS and Ultra at 22 FPS are not recommended for any playable experience.

At 3840x2160, no setting provides a consistently smooth experience. Low at 35 FPS is the best 4K result, but even this falls short of the 60 FPS target that driving games typically require. Medium at 29 FPS, High at 18 FPS, and Ultra at 12 FPS are all unplayable for practical purposes. The data suggests that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo in The Long Drive.

The best overall experience is 1080p Medium, which balances visual quality with performance. The 78 FPS average with a 66 FPS minimum ensures that frame times remain consistent, and the Medium preset likely includes enough visual detail to make the game's environment readable at speed. For players who prioritize frame rate above all, 1080p Low at 95 FPS is the clear choice. At 1440p, the recommendation is Low at 63 FPS, but players should be prepared for occasional dips below 60 FPS. The i5-13400F's strong single-thread performance ensures that any frame rate limitations in this configuration are entirely attributable to the Arc B390's integrated graphics.