The Long Drive

# The Long Drive with Intel Core i9-14900K + Intel Arc B390

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the Intel Arc B390 produces a combination that ranks 2594th out of 2934 tested combos in The Long Drive, placing it in the bottom 12 percent of all tested configurations. This is a severely GPU-limited pairing for this driving simulation, as the Arc B390's integrated-class performance holds back what is otherwise a top-tier 24-core processor. The measured frame rates tell a consistent story: at 1080p Low the combo reaches 95 FPS, but pushing to 4K Ultra collapses to 12 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU is the decisive bottleneck across nearly every resolution and settings combination tested.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in The Long Drive?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K + Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2594th out of 2934 tested combos in this game, putting it in the bottom 11.6 percent of all configurations tested.

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

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it 1.3 percent ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (score 1463), 1.5 percent ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (score 1460), 2.5 percent ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (score 1446), and 2.7 percent ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (score 1443). Despite being ahead of these older parts, the Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs.

Q: What is the best measured performance for this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 95 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the same resolution, Medium settings deliver 78 FPS, High delivers 49 FPS, and Ultra delivers 34 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in The Long Drive?

A: Barely, and only at lower settings. At 3840x2160, Low settings produce 35 FPS average, Medium produces 29 FPS, High produces 18 FPS, and Ultra produces 12 FPS. For smooth 4K gameplay, the Medium setting at 29 FPS is marginal at best.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i9-14900K has an average benchmark score of 79097, which is 0.3 percent behind the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79371), 0.6 percent behind the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (79574), and 1.2 percent behind the AMD EPYC 7413 (80041). It is 1.7 percent ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (77740).

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The Intel Arc B390 uses System Shared memory for both size and type, with a System Shared bus width and System Dependent bandwidth. This means the GPU relies on the system's main memory rather than dedicated VRAM.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and Intel Arc B390 achieves a rank of 2594 out of 2934 tested combos in The Long Drive. This places the pairing in the 11.6th percentile of tested configurations, meaning roughly 88 percent of tested combos perform better in this game. The rank reflects a fundamental mismatch: the CPU is a 95th-percentile processor among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs.

The i9-14900K's average benchmark score of 79097 places it near the top of the CPU hierarchy, with its nearest rivals all scoring within 1.7 percent of each other. The Intel Core i9-14900KF trails by just 0.3 percent, the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus trails by 0.6 percent, and the AMD EPYC 7413 trails by 1.2 percent. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is the only nearby rival that the i9-14900K beats, and only by 1.7 percent. In contrast, the Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 is just barely above its closest rivals — the GT 520MX at 1463, the GeForce 800M at 1460, the GT 625 OEM at 1446, and the GT 710 at 1443. Those rivals are all several generations old, yet the Arc B390 only manages to edge them out by margins of 1.3 to 2.7 percent.

The combination's rank in The Long Drive is therefore driven almost entirely by the GPU's position in the performance hierarchy. This is a classic case where a high-end CPU cannot compensate for a low-end GPU in a graphics-intensive driving simulation. The measured FPS data confirms this interpretation: the system's performance scales strongly with resolution and settings changes, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios rather than CPU-bound ones.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the dominant limiting factor in this combination. Its specifications reveal an integrated-class part: the GPU uses the Panther Lake chip with Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. It features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 raster output pipelines, and 12 ray tracing cores. The base clock runs at 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2500 MHz. Pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is 7.680 TFLOPS with FP16 at 15.36 TFLOPS (2:1). The GPU's TDP is 80 W, and it is classified as an IGP with no power connectors and a Portable Device Dependent display output.

Memory is entirely system-shared, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM. The memory size, type, and bus width are all listed as System Shared, with bandwidth described as System Dependent. This architecture means the GPU competes with the CPU for memory bandwidth, which further constrains performance in a game like The Long Drive that requires consistent frame pacing.

The measured FPS data across all settings and resolutions shows the GPU's limitations clearly. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low (95 FPS) and Ultra (34 FPS) is 61 FPS, a 64 percent drop. At 2560x1440, the spread is from 63 FPS at Low down to 22 FPS at Ultra, a 65 percent drop. At 3840x2160, Low produces 35 FPS while Ultra produces 12 FPS, a 66 percent drop. This consistent performance degradation as settings increase points to the GPU's limited shading and texture throughput — the 1536 shading units and 48 TMUs are simply insufficient for high-detail rendering at higher resolutions.

The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all older NVIDIA parts, and the Arc B390 only outperforms them by single-digit percentage points. The GT 520MX is 1.3 percent behind, the GeForce 800M is 1.5 percent behind, the GT 625 OEM is 2.5 percent behind, and the GT 710 is 2.7 percent behind. These are not modern gaming GPUs by any stretch, which underscores how far the Arc B390 sits from contemporary discrete graphics solutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo in The Long Drive covers three resolutions and four settings levels each, for a total of twelve data points. At 1920x1080, the results range from 95 FPS at Low to 34 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting produces 78 FPS average with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. High settings deliver 49 FPS average. The 1080p numbers show that playable frame rates are achievable only at Low and Medium settings, with High dipping below the 60 FPS threshold and Ultra falling to roughly one-third of the Low-setting performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops across the board. Low settings produce 63 FPS average, Medium produces 51 FPS with a minimum of 44 and a maximum of 59, High produces 32 FPS, and Ultra produces 22 FPS. At this resolution, only Low settings maintain a playable average above 60 FPS, and even then the margin is slim. The 1440p results represent a 34 percent reduction from 1080p at Low settings, a 35 percent reduction at Medium, a 35 percent reduction at High, and a 35 percent reduction at Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes largely unplayable. Low settings deliver 35 FPS average, Medium delivers 29 FPS with a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 33, High delivers 18 FPS, and Ultra delivers 12 FPS. No setting at 4K reaches 60 FPS, and even the Low setting falls below 40 FPS. The Medium setting's minimum of 24 FPS indicates frame drops that would be noticeable during gameplay, particularly in a driving simulation where smooth motion is important.

The complete FPS table is as follows: 1080p Low 95, 1080p Medium 78 (min 66, max 90), 1080p High 49, 1080p Ultra 34; 1440p Low 63, 1440p Medium 51 (min 44, max 59), 1440p High 32, 1440p Ultra 22; 4K Low 35, 4K Medium 29 (min 24, max 33), 4K High 18, 4K Ultra 12. The data shows a clear pattern: the combo is viable for 1080p gaming at Medium settings or lower, marginal at 1440p Low, and not viable at 4K for any settings level.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of this combo reveals a strongly GPU-bound configuration. From 1080p Low (95 FPS) to 1440p Low (63 FPS), the frame rate drops by 34 percent. From 1440p Low to 4K Low (35 FPS), the frame rate drops by another 44 percent. Overall, from 1080p Low to 4K Low, the performance falls by 63 percent.

The pattern is consistent across all settings levels. For Medium settings, 1080p delivers 78 FPS, 1440p delivers 51 FPS (a 35 percent drop), and 4K delivers 29 FPS (a 43 percent drop from 1440p, 63 percent from 1080p). For High settings, 1080p delivers 49 FPS, 1440p delivers 32 FPS (a 35 percent drop), and 4K delivers 18 FPS (a 44 percent drop from 1440p, 63 percent from 1080p). For Ultra settings, 1080p delivers 34 FPS, 1440p delivers 22 FPS (a 35 percent drop), and 4K delivers 12 FPS (a 45 percent drop from 1440p, 65 percent from 1080p).

This nearly uniform percentage drop across all settings indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput and memory subsystem are the limiting factors. The Arc B390's pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are modest figures, and the system-shared memory bandwidth creates additional constraints. When resolution increases, the GPU must process more pixels, and the linear scaling of FPS losses reflects the GPU hitting its fill-rate limits.

The resolution scaling also demonstrates that the CPU is not the bottleneck. The i9-14900K with its 24 cores and 32 threads, boosting to 6.00 GHz, has ample headroom for this game's simulation logic. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions because the CPU workload would stay constant. Instead, the FPS drops substantially as resolution increases, confirming that the Arc B390 is the constraining component.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor from Intel's Core 14th Gen series, built on Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support includes both DDR4 and DDR5 across a dual-channel bus, with ECC memory support enabled. The CPU uses Intel Socket 1700 and supports PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes. It was released in October 2023 with a launch MSRP of $589.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i9-14900K posts strong results: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 39399.5 and singlecore scores 2262.5; Cinebench R20 multicore scores 20793 and singlecore scores 2935; Cinebench R15 multicore scores 6103 and singlecore scores 324.5. Geekbench multicore scores 21697 and singlecore scores 2655. PassMark results include multithread at 58674, singlethread at 4697, integer math at 210622, floating point math at 152975, data compression at 792694, and data encryption at 46813. The CPU's average benchmark score is 79097, placing it at the 95th percentile among all CPUs.

However, in The Long Drive, this CPU horsepower is largely underutilized. The game's measured FPS scales with resolution and settings in a way that points to GPU limitation. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 95 FPS, which is below what the CPU alone could support in a less GPU-constrained scenario. The fact that dropping resolution from 1080p to 4K reduces FPS by roughly two-thirds at every settings level indicates that the GPU's rendering capabilities, not the CPU's processing power, determine the final frame rate.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark performance are all within 1.7 percent, showing that the i9-14900K is positioned at the top of the desktop CPU hierarchy. The i9-14900KF trails by 0.3 percent, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus trails by 0.6 percent, the EPYC 7413 trails by 1.2 percent, and the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is behind by 1.7 percent. None of these differences would meaningfully change the frame rates in The Long Drive given the GPU bottleneck. The CPU's 24 cores and 32 threads provide massive parallel processing capability, and the 36 MB of L3 cache offers substantial on-die storage for game data, but these features cannot compensate for the Arc B390's integrated-class graphics throughput.

The conclusion from the data is clear: the i9-14900K is far more capable than this game demands, while the Arc B390 is far less capable than this game needs. The combination ranks poorly not because the CPU underperforms, but because the GPU cannot translate the CPU's strength into playable frame rates at higher resolutions and settings. For users of this pairing, the measured FPS data suggests that 1080p Medium is the practical ceiling for a smooth experience, and that any attempt to push to 1440p or 4K will result in sub-60 FPS performance regardless of the CPU's capabilities.