Minimum

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a performance profile in Minimum that is heavily dictated by resolution, with the GPU becoming the primary constraint as pixel count climbs. The data shows a clear scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K that highlights the balance between these two components.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS values across resolutions reveal a consistent and predictable decline as pixel workload increases. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo produces an average of 174 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops the average to 112 FPS, a reduction of 62 FPS or roughly 36%. Stepping up to 3840x2160 at Ultra yields 61 FPS, which is 51 FPS lower than the 1440p result and 113 FPS lower than the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4080 is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drops in near-proportion to the increase in pixel count.

At Low settings, the trend is even more pronounced. The 1080p Low average is 356 FPS, which falls to 230 FPS at 1440p and then to 124 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K here is 232 FPS, a 65% reduction. This steep decline at lower settings suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at 1080p, but the GPU’s rendering workload becomes the bottleneck as resolution rises. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 63 FPS (124 vs 61), while at 1080p that gap is 182 FPS (356 vs 174). This compression of the settings spread at higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU is saturated at 4K, leaving less headroom for settings adjustments to impact frame rates.

The Medium preset provides the only rows with min and max FPS data, offering insight into frame pacing. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average is 95 FPS with a min of 80 and max of 109. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average is 176 FPS with a min of 149 and max of 202. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 273 FPS with a min of 232 and max of 313. The spread between min and max widens as resolution decreases, from 29 FPS at 4K to 53 FPS at 1440p and 81 FPS at 1080p. This indicates that at lower resolutions, frame times are more variable, likely due to CPU-side fluctuations becoming more visible when the GPU is not the primary constraint.

Settings Recommendations

For a balance of visual quality and performance, the High preset at 2560x1440 stands out as the optimal choice in the measured data. It delivers an average of 148 FPS, which is comfortably above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors. The 4K High row, at 79 FPS, is playable but leaves less margin for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 1440p, at 112 FPS, is also viable but offers diminishing returns over High given the 36 FPS gap between them.

At 1920x1080, the High preset achieves 229 FPS, which is more than sufficient for competitive play. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 356 FPS, but this comes with a substantial visual quality penalty for a gain of 127 FPS over High. The data suggests that High at 1080p is the sensible ceiling, as the jump to Medium (273 FPS) or Low (356 FPS) primarily serves extremely high refresh rate displays. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 174 FPS, is still smooth but is outclassed by High in terms of efficiency.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset provides the best experience per the measured rows. It averages 95 FPS, which is 16 FPS higher than High and 34 FPS higher than Ultra. The min FPS of 80 at 4K Medium also indicates that the frame rate stays within a reasonable range. The Low preset at 4K, at 124 FPS, is the only way to exceed 120 FPS at this resolution, but it sacrifices the visual fidelity that makes 4K worthwhile. For a consistent 60+ FPS experience at 4K, Medium is the clear recommendation from the data.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its benchmark scores indicate strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35850 and a single-core score of 2020. In Minimum, the CPU’s role is evident in the 1080p results, where the GPU is less constrained. The 356 FPS average at Low settings suggests that the CPU can drive frame rates well beyond typical display capabilities.

The data shows that the 265K maintains high frame rates even at lower settings, which implies that it is not a bottleneck at 1080p. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 182 FPS, indicating that the GPU is still the primary limiter even at this resolution. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU’s influence diminishes further, as the frame rate is increasingly tied to the GPU’s rendering throughput. The 20 threads and high boost clock provide ample headroom for the game’s logic and draw call processing, but the measured results do not show any CPU-induced frame rate ceilings.

The processor’s cache configuration, with 30 MB of shared L3 cache, and memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, are sufficient for this title. The benchmark results place the 265K in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70879. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6511P, scores 71051, a delta of -0.2%, indicating near-parity. The Intel Core i7-14700KF is 1% behind, and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is 1.3% behind. These comparisons show that the 265K is competitive with other high-end CPUs, and its performance in Minimum reflects this capability.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 246th out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the top 6.6% of all configurations, which is a strong result for a game released in 2014. The rank reflects the aggregate performance across all measured settings and resolutions. Given that the GPU is from the GeForce 40-series and the CPU is a recent Arrow Lake part, this ranking is consistent with the hardware’s capabilities.

The combo’s rank is more impressive when considering that the RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247 and sits in the 86th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54209, a delta of 0.1%, meaning the 4080 is essentially tied with its SUPER variant in synthetic benchmarks. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% ahead, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB is 2.6% behind. These GPU-level comparisons do not directly translate to game performance, but they provide context for the 4080’s standing. In Minimum, the 246th rank out of 3712 combos indicates that the pairing is well above average, with about 93.4% of tested configurations performing worse.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 229 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings.

Q: How does the 4K Medium preset compare to 4K High in terms of average FPS?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset averages 95 FPS, while High averages 79 FPS, a difference of 16 FPS in favor of Medium.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the 1440p Medium preset?

A: The minimum FPS for 2560x1440 Medium is 149 FPS, with an average of 176 FPS and a maximum of 202 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 4K Low settings?

A: At 3840x2160 Low, the average is 124 FPS, which is significantly lower than the 356 FPS at 1080p Low. This 232 FPS drop indicates the GPU is the limiting component at 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER at 54209.

Q: What is the rank of this CPU and GPU combo among all tested configurations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 246th out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.6% of configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full set of measured frame rates for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 in Minimum is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 356 FPS average
• Medium: 273 FPS average, 232 FPS min, 313 FPS max
• High: 229 FPS average
• Ultra: 174 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 230 FPS average
• Medium: 176 FPS average, 149 FPS min, 202 FPS max
• High: 148 FPS average
• Ultra: 112 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 124 FPS average
• Medium: 95 FPS average, 80 FPS min, 109 FPS max
• High: 79 FPS average
• Ultra: 61 FPS average

These numbers show a consistent hierarchy, with Low producing the highest frame rates and Ultra the lowest at every resolution. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded min and max values, providing a window into frame time variability. At 1080p, the range from min to max is 81 FPS, which narrows to 53 FPS at 1440p and 29 FPS at 4K. This reduction in variability at higher resolutions aligns with the GPU becoming the dominant constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with an AD103 chip, featuring 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. It has 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores, with a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz. The GPU’s memory subsystem consists of 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, providing 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1400 MHz, with an effective data rate of 22.4 Gbps.

In Minimum, the GPU’s role is clearly demonstrated by the resolution scaling. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully taxed, as evidenced by the 356 FPS Low result. However, as resolution increases, the frame rate drops sharply, indicating that the GPU’s pixel throughput is the limiting factor. The 61 FPS Ultra result at 4K is a direct consequence of the GPU’s rendering load. The 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, as the memory bus and bandwidth are not reported as bottlenecks in the data. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS provides ample compute power, but the measured FPS values show that the game’s workload is not purely compute-bound.

The RTX 4080’s benchmark scores place it in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 54247. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% ahead, while the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X leads by 1.1%. These synthetic results do not directly map to game performance, but they establish the 4080 as a high-end part. In Minimum, the GPU’s role is to deliver frame rates that are limited by resolution, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a constraint until very high frame rates are reached.