Minimum

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti produces a performance profile in Minimum that is heavily dictated by resolution and graphics settings. The data reveals a system capable of high refresh rates at 1080p, but one that becomes firmly GPU-limited as resolution climbs to 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates, component roles, and ranking of this specific configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 clearly illustrates where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 192 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 124 FPS, and at 4K Low, the average falls to 67 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings reduces performance to roughly 35% of the original figure, indicating the GPU is being progressively saturated.

The pattern changes with higher settings. At Ultra, the frame rates are 94 FPS at 1080p, 61 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is steeper than at Low, going from 94 FPS down to 33 FPS, which is a 65% reduction. This sharper decline at higher settings confirms that the GTX 1080 Ti's rendering workload—driven by its 3584 shading units and 88 ROPs—is the limiting factor, not the CPU.

At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is significant: 192 FPS versus 94 FPS. This 98 FPS gap indicates that even at 1080p, the GPU has a substantial influence on performance. However, the CPU's 14 cores and 5.00 GHz boost clock are sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the very high frame rates at Low settings. The data suggests that a CPU-limited scenario would show a smaller FPS delta between settings at a fixed resolution, but here the delta is wide, pointing to GPU dominance across all tested points.

The transition from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 95 at 1440p to 51 at 4K, a 46% reduction. This non-linear scaling is typical of a GPU hitting memory bandwidth or pixel fill limits. The GTX 1080 Ti's 484.4 GB/s bandwidth and 139.2 GPixel/s pixel rate are being taxed heavily at 4K, whereas the CPU’s 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth is not the bottleneck in any scenario.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh rate gaming with this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 147 FPS on Medium and 124 FPS on High, making it suitable for 144Hz displays. At 2560x1440, High yields 80 FPS, which is playable but not high-refresh territory.

Q: How does the GTX 1080 Ti perform at 4K in this game?

A: The data shows 4K performance is limited. The average FPS ranges from 67 at Low settings down to 33 at Ultra. Even at Low, the frame rate is below the typical 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 holding back the GPU at 1080p?

A: The benchmark results do not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 192 FPS, and the scaling between settings is consistent with GPU limitations. The CPU's single-thread score of 2085 in Cinebench R23 suggests ample headroom for this 2014 title.

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

A: The measured data includes min and max FPS for this setting: 81 FPS minimum and 109 FPS maximum, with an average of 95 FPS. This indicates a relatively tight frame time distribution, though the variance is 28 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1615 out of 2939 tested combinations, placing it in the 55th percentile of all systems tested for Minimum.

Q: Which settings provide the largest performance jump?

A: Moving from Ultra to High at 1440p increases average FPS from 61 to 80, a 31% improvement. At 4K, dropping from High to Low raises FPS from 43 to 67, a 56% gain.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the dominant component in this configuration for Minimum. Its specifications—11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus with 484.4 GB/s bandwidth—provide ample memory capacity and throughput for this title. The GPU's 3584 shading units and 224 texture mapping units handle the game's geometry and textures efficiently at lower resolutions.

The clock speeds are notable: a base of 1481 MHz and a boost of 1582 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 16 nm Pascal architecture, yield an FP32 performance of 11.34 TFLOPS. This raw compute power is what drives the high frame rates seen at 1080p. The pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s directly correlate with the performance drops at higher resolutions.

The GPU's 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15548, places it in the mid-range of modern hardware. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (0.2% faster) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (1.7% slower), showing that the GTX 1080 Ti remains competitive in raw rasterization performance. However, the data shows that this performance is insufficient for 4K Ultra in Minimum, where the average FPS drops to 33.

The memory clock of 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective) is a critical factor at high resolutions. The 4K results show a steep decline from Medium (51 FPS) to Ultra (33 FPS), which suggests the memory bandwidth is being exhausted. The GPU's DirectX 12 support (12_1) is adequate for this game, but the lack of dedicated RT or Tensor cores means it relies purely on traditional rasterization, which is consistent with the measured results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration shows strong performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 192 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 and maximum of 169. High settings average 124 FPS, while Ultra drops to 94 FPS. The range from Low to Ultra represents a 98 FPS spread, showing that graphics settings have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease predictably. Low settings average 124 FPS, maintaining high refresh rates. Medium settings produce 95 FPS with a min of 81 and max of 109. High settings drop to 80 FPS, and Ultra falls to 61 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 63 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, indicating the GPU is becoming a more significant factor.

At 3840x2160, the performance is markedly lower. Low settings average 67 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings average 51 FPS with a min of 43 and max of 59. High settings drop to 43 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 33 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 34 FPS, showing that even the lowest settings cannot escape the GPU's resolution limits.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30 FPS at 1080p, but only 10-15 FPS at 4K. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the settings are trading off GPU compute that is plentiful, while at 4K, the GPU is already near its limits, so reducing settings yields smaller absolute gains. The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, shows 125 FPS at 1080p, 81 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K, indicating that frame drops are proportional to average performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 provides the computational foundation for this system. With 14 cores and 14 threads, it handles the game's CPU tasks without becoming a limiting factor. The base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensure that single-threaded performance is strong, which is critical for older titles like Minimum that may not fully utilize many cores.

The CPU's benchmark scores support this analysis. In Cinebench R23, it scores 14769 in multi-core and 2085 in single-core. The single-core score, in particular, is relevant for gaming, as most game logic runs on fewer threads. The PassMark single-thread score of 4516 further confirms this capability. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062, places it in the top tier of processors.

The nearest CPU rivals show a tightly clustered performance group. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 scores 46030 (0.1% slower), while the Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098 (0.1% faster). This indicates that the Ultra 5 235 is performing at the level of high-end laptop and desktop chips from recent generations. For Minimum, this means the CPU is never the bottleneck; the measured frame rates are consistently limited by the GPU.

The CPU's memory support includes DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 102.4 GB/s bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for the game's data requirements, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low where CPU and memory access are most critical. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 24EU is present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU configuration. The 65W TDP and 3 nm process node indicate efficiency, but the game's performance is entirely dictated by the GTX 1080 Ti.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance at 1920x1080, High settings provide 124 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and smooth on most displays. Medium settings at 147 FPS are preferable for competitive play, offering a 19% performance increase over High with minimal visual degradation. Ultra at 94 FPS is playable but may not be worth the frame rate sacrifice for the marginal visual gains.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings at 95 FPS offer the best experience, providing a smooth frame rate with good visual fidelity. High settings at 80 FPS are acceptable for slower-paced gameplay, but the 15 FPS drop from Medium may be noticeable. Ultra at 61 FPS is borderline for a 60Hz display, but any refresh rate above 60 FPS would benefit from dropping to High or Medium.

For 3840x2160, Low settings at 67 FPS are the only option that consistently stays above the 60 FPS mark. Medium at 51 FPS is playable but will show stutter on 60Hz displays. High at 43 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS are not recommended for a smooth experience. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo requires significant settings compromises, making 1440p the practical maximum resolution for a balanced experience.

The Medium preset stands out as the most consistent option across all resolutions. It offers the only measured minimum FPS data, showing 125 FPS at 1080p, 81 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K. These minimums are 85%, 85%, and 84% of the average respectively, indicating stable frame delivery. For users prioritizing frame rate stability, Medium is the safest choice.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ranks 1615 out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the 45th percentile from the top, meaning 55% of tested configurations perform better. Given the game's 2014 release date, this ranking reflects a system that is capable but not top-tier for this specific title.

The GPU's percentile of 58 is notably higher than the combo's overall rank, indicating that the CPU may be slightly holding back the system in the broader context of all games. However, for Minimum specifically, the CPU's 89th percentile ranking suggests it is more than adequate. The discrepancy between the GPU's 58th percentile and the combo's 55th percentile rank suggests other factors, such as memory configuration or driver overhead, play a role.

The nearest GPU rivals provide context for the GTX 1080 Ti's position. The AMD Radeon R9 M380 is 0.2% faster, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is 1.7% slower. This tight clustering means the GTX 1080 Ti is performing as expected for its hardware class. The CPU's nearest rivals are extremely close in performance, with deltas of 0.1-0.2%, confirming the Ultra 5 235 is well-matched with its peers.

The rank of 1615 out of 2939 suggests that while this combo is below the median, it is not a poor performer. The measured FPS data shows it can achieve 192 FPS at 1080p Low, which is excellent, but 33 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is poor. The average performance across all settings and resolutions is 92.5 FPS, calculated from the 12 measured data points. This average, combined with the rank, indicates a system that excels at 1080p and 1440p but struggles at 4K, making it a solid choice for high-refresh 1440p gaming rather than 4K.