Overpower

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use with this combo at 1080p?

A: The data shows the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 1920x1080 with 129.3 FPS, followed by Medium at 80.8 FPS, High at 77.7 FPS, and Ultra at 61.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is substantial, but the jump from High to Ultra is comparatively smaller.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, which places it 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534), 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462), 0.6% ahead of the Intel Core i3-10105 (13430), and 1.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-7700K (13280). This indicates the quad-core chip trades blows with much more expensive and higher-core-count parts.

Q: What is the GPU's standing compared to its nearest rivals?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 25120, putting it 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180), 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (25235), 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon 890M (25246), and 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (25287). The differences are remarkably small, showing these GPUs are nearly interchangeable in synthetic workloads.

Q: Is this combo ranked in the top half of tested configurations?

A: Yes. The combo ranks 1195 out of 1744 tested combos in Overpower, which places it in roughly the 68th percentile of all tested combinations. This suggests it is a mid-to-upper-tier pairing for this particular game.

Q: What memory configuration does the CPU support?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. It does not support ECC memory, and the memory bus is dual-channel with no specified memory bandwidth in the data.

Q: Does the GPU leverage ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti includes 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores, built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, making it feature-complete for modern titles.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across presets at every resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 129.3 FPS, while Medium drops to 80.8 FPS — a 48.5 FPS penalty for the upgrade in visual quality. High sits at 77.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 61.9 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is by far the most punishing, suggesting the Medium preset introduces heavy effects like shadows and reflections that tax the GPU significantly.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds: Low hits 116.4 FPS, Medium drops to 72.9 FPS, High reaches 67.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 58 FPS. The delta between Medium and High is only 5.8 FPS, which is negligible compared to the 43.5 FPS gap between Low and Medium. This suggests that for 1440p gaming, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and smoothness, as it remains above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained. Low still delivers 101.2 FPS, but Medium drops to 60.5 FPS, High falls to 55.5 FPS, and Ultra dips to 50.2 FPS. The Medium preset sits just barely above 60 FPS, making it the highest quality setting that maintains a playable frame rate at 4K. Ultra at 50.2 FPS may be acceptable for slower-paced action, but the data shows a noticeable degradation.

The optimal recommendation depends on the display. For 1080p, the High preset at 77.7 FPS provides a solid experience without sacrificing too much visual quality, while Medium at 80.8 FPS is nearly identical in performance. For 1440p, Medium at 72.9 FPS is the sweet spot, offering a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. For 4K, Low at 101.2 FPS is the only preset with headroom, though Medium at 60.5 FPS is viable for players prioritizing visuals over raw smoothness.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1195 out of 1744 tested combinations in Overpower. This places it in the upper-middle tier of the database, indicating that while it is not a top-tier pairing, it is far from the bottom. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's modest 4-core count and the GPU's robust 4864 shading units.

Given that the CPU sits in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs and the GPU in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, the combo rank of 1195 out of 1744 suggests the pairing is well-matched, with neither component drastically bottlenecking the other. The CPU's 3dmark scores show strong scaling from 2 threads (1659) to 4 threads (2859) but plateau at 8 threads (4026) and max threads (4023), indicating that the quad-core design is the limiting factor in heavily threaded workloads.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks, such as the 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2626 and Passmark G3D score of 20349, indicate solid DirectX 12 performance. The fact that this combo lands in the 1195th position suggests that other pairings with higher-core CPUs or faster GPUs outperform it, but the delta is not enormous given the close rivalry margins on both components.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low delivers 129.3 FPS, Medium delivers 80.8 FPS, High delivers 77.7 FPS, and Ultra delivers 61.9 FPS. The progression shows a steep drop from Low to Medium (48.5 FPS), a modest dip from Medium to High (3.1 FPS), and a further drop to Ultra (15.9 FPS below High). This resolution shows the GPU has ample headroom at Low, but the Ultra preset struggles to maintain a 60 FPS baseline.

At 2560x1440, the numbers shift: Low hits 116.4 FPS, Medium reaches 72.9 FPS, High achieves 67.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 58 FPS. The Low preset remains far above 60 FPS, but the Ultra preset now dips below the 60 FPS threshold. The gap between Low and Medium is 43.5 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 9.1 FPS, showing a more gradual degradation at higher settings.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals: Low reaches 101.2 FPS, Medium manages 60.5 FPS, High drops to 55.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 50.2 FPS. This resolution places the most strain on the GPU, with only Low and Medium remaining above 60 FPS. The difference between Medium and High is 5 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is 5.3 FPS, indicating a consistent but not catastrophic decline.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset is the only one that maintains over 100 FPS at every resolution, demonstrating the GPU's raw compute capability. The Ultra preset, conversely, never exceeds 61.9 FPS at any resolution, making it the least viable option for competitive play.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory operates at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed. The GPU has a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, with 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's performance scales strongly with resolution. At 1080p Low, the GPU delivers 129.3 FPS, but at 4K Low, it still manages 101.2 FPS — a 28.1 FPS drop that indicates the GPU is not fully saturated at 1080p. The 4K Ultra result of 50.2 FPS versus 1080p Ultra at 61.9 FPS shows an 11.7 FPS penalty, which is less than the Low preset's drop, suggesting the Ultra settings impose a more uniform load.

The GPU's transistor count of 17,400 million on a 392 mm² die with an 8 nm process from Samsung gives it a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². The 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores are present but their impact on this game is not directly measured; the Passmark DirectX 12 score of 78 and DirectX 11 score of 163 indicate varying API efficiency. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 16.20 TFLOPS and texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s suggest it can handle complex shading workloads, which aligns with the 50.2 FPS floor at 4K Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 58 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU shows strong single-thread performance: the 3dmark single-thread score is 893, while the 2-thread score is 1659, indicating efficient scaling. The 4-thread score of 2859 and 8-thread score of 4026 show that the 4-core design reaches near-saturation at 8 threads, with max threads at 4023 barely differing. This suggests that in Overpower, the CPU is likely not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, where the GPU takes over.

The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912 and single-core score of 1681 highlight the CPU's balanced capability. The Passmark multithread score of 14015 and single-thread score of 3444 further confirm this. Given that the CPU ranks in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, it provides adequate compute for gaming, but its 4-core limit means it may struggle in CPU-bound scenarios like 1080p Low, where the GPU is underutilized.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K varies by preset, revealing the system's limiting component. At Low settings, the FPS declines from 129.3 at 1080p to 116.4 at 1440p (a 12.9 FPS drop) and then to 101.2 at 4K (a 15.2 FPS drop from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 28.1 FPS, or roughly 21.7% of the 1080p value. This relatively modest decline suggests the CPU is partially limiting performance at 1080p Low, as the GPU is not fully stressed.

At Ultra settings, the FPS goes from 61.9 at 1080p to 58 at 1440p (a 3.9 FPS drop) and then to 50.2 at 4K (a 7.8 FPS drop from 1440p). The total drop is 11.7 FPS, or 18.9% of the 1080p value. This smaller percentage drop indicates that at Ultra, the GPU is the dominant bottleneck, as the higher settings increase GPU load more than resolution alone.

The Medium preset follows a similar pattern to Low: 80.8 at 1080p, 72.9 at 1440p (a 7.9 FPS drop), and 60.5 at 4K (a 12.4 FPS drop from 1440p), for a total drop of 20.3 FPS (25.1%). The High preset shows 77.7 at 1080p, 67.1 at 1440p (a 10.6 FPS drop), and 55.5 at 4K (an 11.6 FPS drop), totaling a 22.2 FPS drop (28.6%).

The data indicates that at Low and Medium settings, the resolution scaling is steeper, suggesting the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p but the GPU becomes more stressed as resolution increases. At High and Ultra, the scaling is more gradual, confirming that the GPU is consistently the primary bottleneck. The 4K Ultra result of 50.2 FPS versus 1080p Ultra at 61.9 FPS shows that the GPU cannot maintain a 60 FPS floor at 4K, making 1440p the practical ceiling for Ultra settings.