The Long Drive

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the Intel Arc B370 produces a highly constrained experience in The Long Drive, with benchmark results indicating that the system is fundamentally limited by its graphics subsystem rather than the processor. The measured data shows a clear pattern where performance collapses as resolution increases, and the GPU's modest capabilities become the dominant bottleneck across nearly all tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and consistent across every settings preset, revealing a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 86 FPS at 1920x1080 to 56 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 30 FPS, and then further drops to 31 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 64% loss in average FPS when moving from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which indicates that the Arc B370 simply cannot sustain adequate throughput at higher pixel counts.

The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 71 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 25 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 20 FPS, suggesting that the scaling penalty is relatively linear rather than exponential. High settings follow the same pattern with 44 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 16 FPS at 4K, translating to a 15 FPS drop between each resolution step.

Ultra settings are the most punishing, with average FPS falling from 31 at 1080p to 20 at 1440p and finally to 11 at 4K. The data shows that 4K Ultra is effectively unplayable at 11 FPS, and even 1440p Ultra at 20 FPS falls well below acceptable thresholds for a driving simulation. The scaling behavior indicates that the limiting component is the GPU, as the CPU's performance characteristics would not produce such dramatic frame rate collapses purely from resolution changes. The Arc B370's system-shared memory and 25 W TDP point to an integrated-class solution that struggles to fill the pixel pipeline at 4K, regardless of the quality preset selected.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, but its memory configuration is system-shared, meaning bandwidth is entirely dependent on the host system's memory subsystem. This architectural choice has direct consequences for The Long Drive's results, as the game's open-world driving environments require steady texture streaming and geometry processing. The GPU's 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, yet the benchmark data shows that these specifications translate into sub-30 FPS averages at 4K across all presets except Low.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 5 out of all GPUs places it in the bottom tier of tested hardware, and its nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 with a delta of -0.2% and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M at -0.7%. This comparison is telling: the Arc B370 performs within 1% of decade-old mobile and desktop parts from ATI and AMD, which contextualizes why 4K High yields only 16 FPS and 4K Ultra drops to 11 FPS. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 reinforces this picture, as it places the GPU in a performance bracket that is simply not designed for high-resolution gaming.

The 10 RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support indicate modern feature compatibility, but raw rasterization throughput is what matters for The Long Drive's measured results. The FP32 compute of 6.144 TFLOPS is adequate for light workloads, yet the system-shared memory bandwidth creates a bottleneck that becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions where memory traffic increases. The data shows that the GPU's role in this pairing is the primary limiting factor, with the 25 W TDP and IGP slot width confirming that this is an integrated graphics solution rather than a discrete gaming card.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured FPS values, the only playable configuration at 1080p is the Low preset, which delivers 86 FPS on average. This is the sole setting that provides a smooth experience above the 60 FPS threshold, and it does so with a wide margin. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 71 FPS, which is also playable but requires accepting a 15 FPS penalty compared to Low; however, the min FPS of 60 at Medium suggests that frame pacing remains consistent enough for driving gameplay.

At 1440p, Low settings yield 56 FPS, which is borderline acceptable but risks dipping below 60 FPS during intense scenes. The Medium preset at 1440p drops to 46 FPS with a min of 40 and max of 53, making it marginal for smooth driving. High settings at 1440p fall to 29 FPS, which is too low for a game that requires constant visual feedback for navigation and obstacle avoidance)Skip.

At 4K, no preset is genuinely playable. Low settings produce 31 FPS, Medium drops to 26 FPS with a min of 22, High falls to 16 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 11 FPS. The data suggests that users should avoid 4K entirely with this combination, as even the lowest quality preset cannot maintain a minimum of 30 FPS reliably based on the Medium preset's min FPS data. The recommended path is 1080p Low for the best experience, with 1080p Medium as an alternative for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate headroom. The 1080p Low result of 86 FPS is the only configuration that provides substantial headroom above the 60 FPS target, while 1080p Medium at 71 FPS offers a reasonable compromise without falling below 60 FPS in the measured minimum.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and Intel Arc B370 ranks 3438 out of 3725 tested combos in The Long Drive, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations. This ranking is consistent with the GPU's individual percentile of 5, which suggests that the graphics card is the dominant factor dragging down the overall performance position. The CPU's percentile of 47 is middling, but it does not compensate for the GPU's severe limitations in this title.

The combo rank of 3438 out of 3725 indicates that the vast majority of tested hardware configurations outperform this pairing. The GPU's nearest rivals, which include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 and ATI Radeon HD 5770 with delta percentages of -0.2% and -0.5% respectively, are all legacy parts from the early 2010s, and their inclusion in the benchmark database underscores how far behind modern gaming requirements this GPU sits. The combo's ranking is not surprising given that the Arc B370 is an integrated part with a 25 W TDP, and the data shows that it struggles to reach 60 FPS even at 1080p Low in a driving simulation that is not considered graphically demanding.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 contributes 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, operating within a 65 W TDP on the Coffee Lake architecture. The CPU's benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 5141 and single-core score of 1389. These results place the CPU at the 47th percentile of all processors, which is a mid-pack position that indicates adequate processing power for most gaming workloads.

In The Long Drive, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, as the resolution scaling pattern points to graphics-bound performance. However, the CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads with a 4.10 GHz boost clock are sufficient to feed the GPU in most scenarios. The L3 cache of 9 MB shared and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate data throughput for the CPU's workloadsdustry. The nearest CPU rivals include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 with a delta of -0.2%, the Intel Core i7-10710U at +0.3%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 at +0.4%, all of which are within a fraction of a percent in average benchmark score.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this combination. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 86 FPS, which is a respectable result for a 6-core processor from the Coffee Lake era. The fact that performance drops to 16 FPS at 4K High while the CPU's workload remains relatively constant across resolutions indicates that the GPU is saturated long before the CPU reaches its limits. The CPU's 14 nm process node and 65 W TDP are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for this game's requirements, as evidenced by the strong 1080p Low result.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 86 at Low, 71 at Medium, 44 at High, and 31 at Ultra. The Medium preset includes a minimum FPS of 60 and a maximum of 81, indicating consistent frame delivery without major dips. The gap between Low and Medium is 15 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 27 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 13 FPS. The step from Medium to High is the most punishing, suggesting that the High preset introduces significant rendering costs that the GPU cannot absorb.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 56 at Low, 46 at Medium, 29 at High, and 20 at Ultra. The Medium preset shows a min of 40 and max of 53, which represents a narrower range than at 1080p, indicating tighter frame pacing but at lower overall performance. The drop from Low to Medium is 10 FPS, from Medium to High is 17 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 9 FPS. The proportional penalty from Low to High is 48%, which is slightly less severe than at 1080p where the drop from Low to High is 49%.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are 31 at Low, 26 at Medium, 16 at High, and 11 at Ultra. The Medium preset reports a min of 22 and max of 30, showing that even the best-case frames at 4K Medium barely reach 30 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is only 5 FPS, while Medium to High is 10 FPS, and High to Ultra is 5 FPS. The compression of FPS values at 4K across all presets indicates that the GPU is operating at its absolute limits, with quality settings having diminishing impact on performance as the pixel count overwhelms the shading units and ROPs.

The overall pattern across all resolutions shows that Low settings consistently provide roughly double the FPS of High settings, while Ultra settings deliver approximately one-third of Low's performance. The data indicates that this combination is best suited for 1080p Low or Medium gaming, with any resolution above 1440p resulting in sub-30 FPS averages that cannot maintain a playable experience in a driving simulation.