Fivem

Fivem, the multiplayer modification platform for Grand Theft Auto V, remains a demanding and notoriously inconsistent title due to its heavy reliance on server-side scripts and CPU-bound simulation. In this analysis, we examine the pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. The data shows a configuration that delivers high frame rates at mainstream resolutions but begins to show its limits when pushing 4K Ultra settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, but the rate of that scaling tells a significant story about where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 250 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 164 FPS, a reduction of 86 FPS or roughly 34%. When jumping to 4K Low, the average falls further to 91 FPS, which is another 73 FPS drop (45%) from the 1440p result. This steep decline from 1080p to 4K at Low settings suggests that while the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU high frame rates at lower resolutions, the GPU's pixel-pushing capabilities become the primary limiting factor as resolution climbs.

The scaling pattern shifts when we look at higher settings. At Ultra settings, the average FPS goes from 122 at 1080p, to 80 at 1440p, and finally to 45 at 4K. The percentage drops are more consistent here: a 34% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 44% reduction from 1440p to 4K. This uniformity indicates that at Ultra settings, the load is more balanced between the CPU and GPU, with neither component completely dominating the performance curve. However, the absolute numbers at 4K Ultra (45 FPS) demonstrate that this combination is not designed for maximum fidelity at 2160p.

The most telling data point for bottleneck analysis comes from the Medium settings row, which includes min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 197 FPS with a minimum of 167 and a maximum of 226. When moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 130 FPS. This 67 FPS gap is substantial and indicates that the GPU is heavily tasked even at Medium settings. The fact that the 1080p Medium result approaches the 250 FPS Low setting at 1080p suggests that the CPU is still capable of delivering high throughput, but the GPU's fill rate and shader processing are what ultimately cap performance at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the extensive database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and the RTX 3080 achieves a combo rank of 802 out of 3005 tested combos. This places the configuration in the top 27% of all tested systems for Fivem, which is a respectable position given the game's notorious instability and performance variability. The percentileVsAllCpus rating for the CPU is 85, indicating that the processor performs better relative to its peers than the combo does overall, which suggests the GPU is holding back the full potential of the system in this specific title.

The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus rating is 68, which is significantly lower than the CPU's 85. This discrepancy between the CPU's high percentile ranking and the GPU's more modest one explains why the combo does not rank higher. The RTX 3080 is a capable card, but in Fivem, which can be heavily CPU-bound in busy multiplayer servers, the GPU's mid-range percentile means it cannot fully leverage the CPU's strong single-threaded performance. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more powerful GPU would yield a higher combo rank, as the processor has headroom to drive faster graphics cards.

The average benchmark score for the CPU is 36938, which places it just 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and 0.5% below the Intel Core i9-12900T, according to the nearestRivals data. This indicates that the Core Ultra 5 225 is performing at a level consistent with some of the more established mid-range and upper-mid-range processors. The RTX 3080, with an average benchmark score of 23172, sits just 0.3% above the NVIDIA P106-100 and 0.4% above the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, showing that it remains competitive with newer and older mid-range GPUs in synthetic tests.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is built on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It features 10 cores and 10 threads, which is a configuration that favors single-threaded performance over multi-threaded parallelism. The base clock is 3.30 GHz, with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. This boost clock is critical for Fivem, as the game's engine and the Lua scripting used by many servers are highly sensitive to single-core speed. The CPU's strong single-thread benchmark results—a Passmark single-thread score of 4412 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3655—corroborate its suitability for this type of workload.

In terms of cache, the chip has a 192 KB L1 cache per core, a 3 MB L2 cache per core, and a 20 MB shared L3 cache. This cache hierarchy is designed to reduce latency and keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, which can help maintain stable frame times in games that have unpredictable access patterns, such as Fivem with its player-created content and mods. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, with a theoretical memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, which is sufficient for feeding the 10 cores.

The nearestRivals data for the CPU shows a tight cluster of performance. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F scores 36945, essentially identical to the Core Ultra 5 225's 36938, a delta of 0%. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is 0.2% slower, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 is 0.4% slower. This means that in synthetic multi-threaded benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 225 trades blows with these competitors. However, for Fivem specifically, the 4.90 GHz boost clock gives it an edge in the lightly-threaded game logic that often causes frame drops in populated servers.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Examining the data resolution by resolution, the 1080p results are impressive. At Low settings, the average FPS is 250, which is exceptionally high and indicates the system is rarely constrained by the CPU at this resolution. Medium settings at 1080p yield an average of 197 FPS, with a minimum of 167 and a maximum of 226 FPS. This min-max spread of 59 FPS shows that while the average is high, there are noticeable frame dips, likely caused by the game's streaming and script processing. High settings at 1080p drop the average to 157 FPS, and Ultra settings bring it down to 122 FPS.

At 1440p, the system still delivers strong performance. Low settings produce an average of 164 FPS, which is more than enough for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors. Medium settings average 130 FPS, with a minimum of 110 and a maximum of 149 FPS. This 39 FPS range between min and max is tighter than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor and smoothing out some of the CPU-induced frame spikes. High settings at 1440p average 104 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 80 FPS.

The 4K results show where this configuration struggles. Low settings at 3840x2160 average 91 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive multiplayer. Medium settings average 72 FPS, with a minimum of 61 and a maximum of 83 FPS. This 22 FPS min-max spread is the narrowest of all resolutions tested, indicating a consistent load on the GPU. High settings at 4K average 58 FPS, which is right on the edge of playability. Ultra settings at 4K produce an average of just 45 FPS, which will feel stuttery in a game that requires rapid camera movements and quick reactions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is based on the Ampere architecture, built on Samsung's 8 nm process. It has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is adequate for Fivem at 1440p and even 4K, as the game's textures and assets are not as demanding as modern AAA titles. The GPU has a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz. The 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present but largely unused in Fivem, which is not a ray-tracing-heavy title.

The GPU's 8704 shading units and 272 TMUs provide substantial raw compute power, with an FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS. This explains why the card can achieve high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, even with high settings. The texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s ensures that the card can handle high-resolution textures without becoming a bottleneck. However, the pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s becomes a limiting factor at 4K, particularly at Ultra settings where the pixel workload increases significantly, resulting in the 45 FPS average.

The GPU's nearestRivals data shows that it performs comparably to the NVIDIA P106-100, which is a mining-oriented card, and the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, a mobile GPU. This indicates that the RTX 3080's performance in the database's synthetic benchmarks is not as strong as its reputation might suggest. In Fivem specifically, the GPU's 10 GB VRAM is sufficient, but the card's overall percentile rank of 68 means it is outclassed by many newer and higher-end models. The data suggests that the RTX 3080 is the weaker link in this pairing, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops when moving from 1440p to 4K.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combo depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1080p gaming, the High settings preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with an average of 157 FPS. This is comfortably above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on 1080p monitors, and the jump to Ultra (122 FPS) does not provide enough visual improvement to justify the 35 FPS loss. If a player prioritizes maximum frame rates for competitive play, Low settings at 250 FPS are available, but the visual degradation is severe.

For 1440p, the Medium settings preset is the sweet spot. The average of 130 FPS, with a minimum of 110 FPS, ensures smooth gameplay on 120Hz or 144Hz monitors. The High preset at 104 FPS is also viable, but the Medium preset's tighter min-max range (110-149 FPS) suggests more stable frame pacing, which is preferable in a multiplayer environment where frame-time spikes can cause missed shots. Ultra at 1440p (80 FPS) is playable but sacrifices the high-refresh-rate advantage.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low settings preset at 91 FPS is the only option that provides a consistently smooth experience. Medium settings at 72 FPS are acceptable for slower-paced gameplay, but the 61 FPS minimum indicates potential stutters in busy scenes. High and Ultra settings at 4K (58 FPS and 45 FPS respectively) are not recommended for this game, as the frame rates dip too low for a title that requires quick camera panning and situational awareness. Players with 4K monitors should either lower the resolution to 1440p for better performance or accept the visual compromises of Low settings.