The Long Drive

The Long Drive is an unusual title for a benchmark deep-dive, but the data for this Intel Core i7-14700K and Intel Arc B570 pairing reveals a distinct performance profile. This combination sits in the lower half of our measured results for this game, and the frame rate behavior across resolutions and settings tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. The takeaway is straightforward: this is a combo that demands specific settings adjustments to hit playable numbers, and its behavior at 4K is particularly telling.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking pattern in the measured data is how aggressively average frame rates collapse as resolution climbs. At 1080p with Low settings, this combo produces a very playable 146 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 96 FPS, a 34% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 53 FPS, which is a 64% drop from the 1080p Low figure. This scaling is not linear; the penalty for each step up in resolution is substantial, indicating that the rendering workload is growing faster than the GPU can compensate.

The pattern holds across all settings. With Medium settings, the average goes from 120 FPS at 1080p, to 79 FPS at 1440p, and then to 44 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result also shows a minimum of 37 FPS and a maximum of 50 FPS, suggesting some frame pacing instability. High settings follow suit: 75 FPS at 1080p, 49 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most punishing, with 52 FPS at 1080p, 34 FPS at 1440p, and a mere 19 FPS at 4K.

What this scaling tells us is that the Intel Arc B570 is the limiting component in this pairing. The Core i7-14700K is not holding things back; the frame rate is dropping in direct proportion to the pixel count increase. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see the 1080p and 1440p numbers to be much closer together, as the CPU workload would remain similar while the GPU load increased. Instead, the consistent and steep drops across every settings preset point to a GPU that is running out of pixel throughput and memory bandwidth as the resolution demand grows. The 4K results are largely unusable for smooth gameplay, with only the Low preset breaking past 30 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested configurations, this specific CPU and GPU combination ranks at 2342 out of 2934 combos for The Long Drive. That places it in the bottom 20% of all tested pairings, which is a sobering statistic for a modern CPU like the i7-14700K. The data indicates that the GPU is dragging the overall score down, preventing the powerful processor from demonstrating its full potential in this title.

The ranking is not a reflection of the CPU's capability. The i7-14700K sits in the 94th percentile against all CPUs in our general benchmark suite. Its average benchmark score of 69355 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (deltaPct of -0.2) and AMD EPYC 9115 (deltaPct of 0.1). In a GPU-limited scenario like The Long Drive at higher resolutions, this processor's multi-core muscle is largely irrelevant. The combo rank is a direct consequence of pairing a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU. If you were to swap in a stronger graphics card, the rank would improve dramatically, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed a more powerful GPU.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the decisive factor in this pairing's performance. Its specifications show a mid-range part that is not designed for heavy 4K gaming. The GPU has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the data suggests it struggles to keep up with the demands of 4K textures and geometry in The Long Drive.

The clock speeds are fixed at a base and boost of 2500 MHz. This is not a particularly high clock, and it is paired with 2304 shading units. The GPU's raw compute is rated at 11.52 TFLOPS for FP32. In terms of broader performance, the B570 sits in the 65th percentile against all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 20556 places it directly between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (deltaPct of 0.1) and the Intel Arc A750 (deltaPct of -0.1). This tells us that while it is a competent 1080p card, it is outclassed by dedicated high-end desktop parts.

The VRAM and bandwidth become the primary constraints at higher resolutions. The 4K Medium result shows a min FPS of 37 and a max of 50, a larger variance than the 1080p Medium result (102 to 138). This wider spread at 4K indicates that the GPU is choking on data, likely due to the memory bus width and bandwidth limitations. The card is capable of producing frames, but not fast enough to maintain a stable, high frame rate at 4K. For a game like The Long Drive, which features long draw distances and open environments, the GPU's memory subsystem is a critical weakness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data provides a complete matrix of results across three resolutions and four settings presets. Starting at 1920x1080, the combo delivers strong performance. Low settings yield an average of 146 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings drop to 120 FPS, with a minimum of 102 FPS and a maximum of 138 FPS, still very smooth. High settings produce 75 FPS, which is perfectly playable. Ultra settings bring the average down to 52 FPS, which is workable but begins to feel less fluid.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance takes a noticeable hit. Low settings average 96 FPS, still good for competitive play. Medium settings average 79 FPS, with a min of 67 FPS and a max of 91 FPS. High settings drop to 49 FPS, which is the edge of playability for many. Ultra settings are the worst at this resolution, averaging only 34 FPS. This is a significant drop from the 1080p Ultra result, confirming the resolution scaling issue.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely disappointing. Low settings average 53 FPS, which is just about acceptable if you are not sensitive to frame drops. Medium settings average 44 FPS, with a concerning minimum of 37 FPS. High settings average 27 FPS, which is not smooth. Ultra settings are a slideshow at 19 FPS. The data clearly shows that 4K is not a viable option for this combo unless you are willing to use the lowest settings and tolerate sub-60 FPS performance. The sweet spot for this pairing is 1080p, where it can handle most settings with ease.

FAQ

Q: Can this CPU and GPU combo run The Long Drive at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it averages 53 FPS. At Medium settings, the average drops to 44 FPS, and at High and Ultra settings, it falls to 27 FPS and 19 FPS respectively. The 4K experience is generally poor.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: 1920x1080 is clearly the best. At this resolution, the combo produces 146 FPS on Low, 120 FPS on Medium, and 75 FPS on High settings. Even Ultra settings manage 52 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its direct rivals?

A: The B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556. This is 0.1% higher than a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and 0.1% lower than an Intel Arc A750. It is effectively on par with those parts.

Q: Is the Core i7-14700K holding back the Arc B570 in this game?

A: No. The frame rate drops consistently with resolution, which indicates a GPU bottleneck. The i7-14700K's average benchmark score is 69355, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, and it is much more powerful than what this game requires at this GPU level.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at 1440p?

A: At Medium settings, the average is 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 91 FPS. This shows a variance of 24 FPS. At 4K Medium, the variance is 13 FPS (37 to 50), which is proportionally larger and indicates less stability.

Q: Is this combo ranked highly among all tested systems?

A: No. It ranks 2342 out of 2934 tested combos for The Long Drive. This places it in the bottom 20% of all tested pairings, primarily due to the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a powerhouse that is mostly wasted in this specific pairing. It features 20 cores and 28 threads based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz, and it can boost up to 5.60 GHz. This processor is capable of immense multi-threaded and single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5 and single-core score of 2160. In our general CPU benchmarks, it ranks in the 94th percentile of all processors.

However, in The Long Drive, this CPU power does not translate to high frame rates because the GPU is the limiting factor. The game's engine is not pushing the CPU to its limits at the resolutions and settings tested. The data shows that the frame rate is entirely dependent on the GPU's workload. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would see similar frame rates at 1080p and 4K when using the same settings, as the CPU's draw call processing would be the same. Instead, we see a massive drop from 146 FPS at 1080p Low to 53 FPS at 4K Low, confirming that the CPU has plenty of headroom.

The i7-14700K's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory make it a future-proof platform, but for this game with this GPU, those features are irrelevant. The processor's role here is simply to feed the Arc B570 with enough data to keep it busy, which it does effortlessly. The bottleneck is so heavily skewed towards the GPU that upgrading the processor would yield zero performance gains in The Long Drive. Conversely, upgrading the GPU would unlock the true potential of this CPU, and the frame rates would likely increase substantially across all resolutions.