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FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 compare to its closest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Core Ultra 5 235 posts an average benchmark score of 46062. This places it within 0.1% of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030) and 0.1% behind the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098). It also edges out the AMD EPYC 4364P by 0.2% (45970) and the AMD EPYC 7303 by 0.2% (45960).

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking, and which rival is closest?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT sits in the 60th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 17083. The closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 at 17037, a 0.3% gap, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is 0.7% ahead with a score of 17208.

Q: What are the measured FPS results at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the combo delivers an average of 137 FPS, with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra experience compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 30. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the average is 88 FPS. This represents a 66% drop in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at the highest preset.

Q: What is the launch MSRP for the CPU and GPU?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has a launch MSRP of $257. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT has a launch MSRP of 329 USD.

Q: Does the CPU or the GPU appear to be the bottleneck at 4K?

A: Benchmark data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. At 3840x2160, lowering settings from High to Low increases average FPS from 40 to 62, showing that graphical load significantly impacts performance, while the CPU has ample headroom with 14 cores and a 5.00 GHz boost clock.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread desktop processor built on the Arrow Lake-S architecture using a 3 nm process from TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, providing 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Its cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache.

In synthetic workloads, the processor demonstrates strong single-thread performance with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085 and a multi-core score of 14769. PassMark results reinforce this, with a single-thread score of 4516 and a multithread score of 37816. The CPU's average benchmark score of 46062 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it ranks higher than the GPU's 60th percentile.

For a third-person shooter released in 2014, the Core Ultra 5 235 provides massive computational headroom. The game's threading demands are modest by modern standards, and the CPU's 14 cores ensure that even the most demanding physics or AI scenarios at high frame rates will not bottleneck the system. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 179 FPS on average, a rate where CPU overhead typically becomes a factor. The fact that the system still delivers such high frame rates suggests the CPU is comfortably keeping pace.

The processor's nearest rivals in average score—the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and Intel Core i9-13900HX—are within a 0.1% margin, meaning the Core Ultra 5 235 is effectively at parity with these parts in overall compute. However, those rivals are mobile or high-end laptop parts, while the Core Ultra 5 235 is a desktop chip on Socket 1851, giving it a different positioning in terms of sustained performance and platform features. The CPU's integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 24EU is present, but in this configuration with a discrete GPU, it plays no role in the game's rendering.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, manufactured on a 6 nm process by TSMC. It features a base clock of 1980 MHz, a game clock of 2470 MHz, and a boost clock of 2755 MHz. The GPU is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its compute configuration includes 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 32 ray accelerators, with a peak FP32 throughput of 22.57 TFLOPS.

In benchmark terms, the RX 7600 XT scores 17132 in PassMark G3D and 2348 in 3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12). Its average benchmark score is 17083, placing it in the 60th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, is only 0.3% behind, while the RTX 3070 is 0.7% ahead. This puts the RX 7600 XT in a competitive mid-range position, though its percentile ranking is notably lower than the CPU's 89th percentile, signaling that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing for this game.

The GPU's 16 GB VRAM capacity is substantial for a game from 2014, ensuring that texture memory is not a limiting factor even at 4K Ultra. The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s is adequate for the resolution scaling seen in the data. At 4K Ultra, the combo averages 30 FPS, which suggests the GPU's raw rasterization throughput is the constraint, not memory capacity. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring full API compatibility with modern drivers for older titles like this one.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS ranges from 179 at Low settings to 88 at Ultra. The Medium preset delivers an average of 137 FPS with a minimum of 116 and a maximum of 157. High settings produce 115 FPS on average. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 51% reduction in frame rate, from 179 down to 88 FPS, indicating that the GPU is increasingly stressed as graphical fidelity rises, but even at Ultra, the frame rate remains highly playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 115 FPS at Low, 88 FPS at Medium (with a min of 75 and max of 101), 74 FPS at High, and 56 FPS at Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra at this resolution is 51%, consistent with the 1080p scaling. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers the same average as the 1080p Medium, which is notable, but the minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 75, compared to 116 at 1080p, showing a tighter frame time distribution at the lower resolution.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 62 FPS at Low, 48 FPS at Medium (with a min of 40 and max of 55), 40 FPS at High, and 30 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is a 52% reduction, mirroring the other resolutions. However, the absolute values show the GPU struggling to maintain 60 FPS even at Low settings. The Medium preset at 4K provides an average of 48 FPS, which is the only preset at this resolution with recorded minimum and maximum values, giving a range of 40 to 55 FPS.

The data shows a clear pattern: across all resolutions, the frame rate drops by roughly half when moving from Low to Ultra. This consistency indicates that the GPU's performance scaling is predictable and that the game's settings have a linear impact on rendering load. The system's overall combo rank in this game is 1828 out of 2939 combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of tested hardware configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the system handles increasing pixel counts. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 179 at 1080p to 115 at 1440p, a 36% reduction, and further to 62 at 4K, a 65% reduction from 1080p. At Ultra settings, the averages are 88 at 1080p, 56 at 1440p, and 30 at 4K, representing a 36% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 66% drop from 1080p to 4K.

The percentage reduction from 1440p to 4K is steeper than from 1080p to 1440p. At Low settings, moving from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS from 115 to 62, a 46% drop. At Ultra, the drop is from 56 to 30, a 46% drop as well. This indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are increasingly taxed as pixel count grows, but the scaling is relatively uniform across settings.

The fact that the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K exceeds 65% at every preset suggests that the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is the primary limiter at higher resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively flat across resolutions, especially at lower settings where the GPU load is lighter. Instead, the consistent decline with resolution points directly to the GPU's rendering capabilities being maxed out. The CPU's high percentile ranking (89th) compared to the GPU's (60th) further supports this conclusion.

At 1080p, the system has enough headroom to push beyond 100 FPS at all settings except Ultra, which still achieves 88 FPS. This is the resolution where the CPU's strength can be fully utilized, as the GPU has enough bandwidth to keep up with the processor's frame generation. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear constraint, with even Low settings failing to reach 60 FPS on average.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data suggests that 1080p with Ultra settings is the most demanding preset that still clears this threshold, averaging 88 FPS. However, for those who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, 1080p with Medium settings provides a strong balance, delivering 137 FPS on average with a minimum of 116 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even in intense scenes.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the recommended choice for a 60 FPS experience, averaging 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS. The High preset at 1440p drops to 74 FPS on average, which is still above 60 but with less headroom. For players with 144Hz displays at 1440p, the Low preset at 115 FPS is the only option that approaches that refresh rate, though it sacrifices visual quality.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Medium preset averages 48 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target but provides the best balance of visual quality and performance among the measured options, with a minimum of 40 FPS. The Low preset at 4K averages 62 FPS, making it the only 4K option that exceeds 60 FPS on average, but it does so with reduced graphical fidelity. The High and Ultra presets at 4K, averaging 40 and 30 FPS respectively, are only suitable for players who prioritize image quality over smoothness.

The overall best experience per the measured rows depends on the user's resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best combination of high average FPS (137) and a tight minimum-to-maximum range (116-157 FPS), indicating stable frame pacing. At 1440p, Medium again stands out with an average of 88 FPS and a reasonable range of 75 to 101 FPS. At 4K, Low settings provide the only playable average above 60 FPS, but for a more balanced visual experience, Medium is the recommended compromise, despite its sub-60 average.

The data shows that the system performs best at 1080p, where it can leverage the CPU's strength to deliver high frame rates across all presets. As resolution increases, the GPU's limitations become more pronounced, and users will need to accept either lower settings or lower frame rates to maintain a playable experience.