Overpower

Overpower, an action title released in August 2023, presents a demanding workload that scales predictably with both resolution and graphical preset. The measured data for the combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but shows signs of CPU limitation at 1080p with lower settings. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates to determine the optimal configuration and the role each component plays.

Settings Recommendations

The data provides average FPS measurements for four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) at three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K). The goal is to select a preset that maximizes visual fidelity while maintaining a playable frame rate, with 60 FPS as a baseline for smooth action gameplay.

At 4K (3840x2160), the High preset delivers an average of 110 FPS. This is 19 FPS faster than the Ultra preset's 91 FPS average and only 8 FPS slower than the Medium preset's 118 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 19 FPS, which is a significant 17% performance penalty. Given that the High preset already provides a substantial visual upgrade over Medium and maintains a wide margin above 60 FPS, it is the recommended choice for 4K. The Ultra preset, while playable at 91 FPS, sacrifices too much performance for the incremental visual gain.

At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves an average of 129 FPS. The Medium preset is only 10 FPS faster at 139 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 107 FPS. The High preset offers a balanced experience, providing a strong frame rate that is well above the 60 FPS threshold and leaves headroom for demanding action sequences. The 129 FPS average is 21% higher than the 107 FPS of Ultra, making High the superior choice for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 1920x1080, the High preset produces an average of 145 FPS. While the Low preset pushes to 228 FPS and Medium to 156 FPS, the High setting provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium for a cost of only 11 FPS. The Ultra preset, at 120 FPS, is also viable, but the data shows that High offers a better balance. The 145 FPS average is excellent for competitive play, and the visual improvements over Medium are substantial. The High preset is recommended as the best experience, as it provides high visual quality without compromising the frame rate.

Across all resolutions, the High preset emerges as the most balanced option. It consistently delivers frame rates that are dramatically higher than the 60 FPS target and offers a better performance-per-visual-fidelity trade-off than the Ultra preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER combination ranks 491st out of 3713 tested combos in Overpower. This places the system in the top 13.2% of all tested configurations. This is a strong result, indicating that the pairing is well-suited for this particular game.

The high rank is notable because the CPU is a modest quad-core part. The data shows that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the primary driver of performance in this game, especially at higher resolutions where the GPU workload is more intensive. The rank suggests that the i3-12100F does not bottleneck the GPU enough to prevent the system from achieving a high placement relative to other, potentially more balanced, configurations.

The fact that this combo outperforms 87% of all tested systems, despite its low-core-count CPU, highlights the efficiency of the Intel Alder Lake architecture and the sheer power of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in a game like Overpower. The system's position near the top of the rankings indicates that users can expect a high-performance experience, with the primary limitation being the CPU in specific, low-resolution scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the clear performance leader in this configuration. Its specifications include 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s. This large memory pool and high bandwidth are crucial for handling high-resolution textures and complex scenes at 4K.

The GPU's clock speeds are a base of 2340 MHz and a boost of 2610 MHz. These high clocks, combined with 8448 shading units, allow for massive parallel processing power. The data shows the GPU's dominance: at 4K Ultra settings, the system still manages an average of 91 FPS, which is a demanding scenario for any hardware.

The GPU's performance is further evidenced by its benchmark scores. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 31811 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5569. In comparison, its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M5000, has a similar average benchmark score but the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's performance in real-world gaming, as shown by the measured FPS, is significantly higher. The GPU's 76th percentile ranking among all GPUs underscores its high-end positioning.

The role of the GPU becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K, the frame rate drops are relatively small when moving from High to Ultra (110 to 91 FPS), indicating the GPU is working near its limit. The 16 GB VRAM is a key asset, ensuring that the game does not run out of memory at high settings and resolutions, which would cause stutters and severe frame drops.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance scaling. Here is the complete breakdown:

1920x1080:

• Low: 228 FPS average
• Medium: 156 FPS average (min 133, max 180)
• High: 145 FPS average
• Ultra: 120 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 219 FPS average
• Medium: 139 FPS average (min 118, max 160)
• High: 129 FPS average
• Ultra: 107 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 189 FPS average
• Medium: 118 FPS average (min 101, max 136)
• High: 110 FPS average
• Ultra: 91 FPS average

At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium is a significant 72 FPS drop, but the difference between Medium and High is only 11 FPS. The Ultra preset then costs another 25 FPS. This pattern suggests that the Medium to High transition is the most efficient visual upgrade at this resolution.

At 1440p, the scaling is consistent. Low to Medium costs 80 FPS, Medium to High costs 10 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 22 FPS. The frame rates remain high throughout, with even the Ultra preset maintaining an average above 100 FPS.

At 4K, the performance is more compressed. Low to Medium is a 71 FPS drop, Medium to High is an 8 FPS drop, and High to Ultra is a 19 FPS drop. The minimum FPS recorded for Medium at 4K is 101, which is still above the 60 FPS target. The data shows that the system is capable of running the game at maximum settings at 4K with an average of 91 FPS, but the more balanced High preset offers a safer and smoother experience.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the system's bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 228 at 1080p to 189 at 4K, a decrease of 39 FPS. At High settings, the drop is from 145 to 110, a decrease of 35 FPS.

This relatively small performance penalty from 1080p to 4K—around 24% at High settings—is indicative of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rates would be much closer together across resolutions, as the CPU workload does not change significantly with resolution. Instead, we see a clear scaling with resolution, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited system.

However, the scaling is not perfectly linear, which hints at the CPU's influence. For example, at 1080p Low, the system achieves 228 FPS. This is an extremely high frame rate that puts a significant burden on the CPU to process draw calls and game logic. The fact that the 4K Low result is 189 FPS, rather than a lower value, suggests that the CPU is starting to become a limiting factor at 1080p, preventing the GPU from reaching its absolute maximum potential.

The data indicates that at 1440p and 4K, the GPU is the definitive bottleneck. The performance difference between 1440p and 4K is more pronounced, showing that the GPU is working harder as the pixel count increases. The system is well-balanced for high-resolution gaming, but at 1080p with low settings, the Intel Core i3-12100F's four cores may cap the maximum achievable frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Overpower with this hardware?

A: The data shows excellent performance at all resolutions. At 4K with High settings, the average is 110 FPS. At 1440p, the High preset averages 129 FPS. For the highest refresh rates, 1080p Low achieves 228 FPS, but the most visually balanced experience is at 1440p or 4K with the High preset.

Q: Is this CPU a bottleneck for the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in Overpower?

A: The benchmark data suggests it can be at lower resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 228 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is moderate (e.g., 145 to 110 FPS at High), indicating a GPU-bound system, but the extremely high FPS at 1080p suggests the CPU's four cores limit the absolute maximum output.

Q: Can this system run Overpower at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS for the Ultra preset at 3840x2160 is 91 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play. The High preset is recommended for a higher average of 110 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's memory affect performance?

A: The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 672.3 GB/s bandwidth. This large and fast memory pool is sufficient to handle the high-resolution textures and data demands of Overpower at 4K without causing memory-related stutters or frame drops.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 219 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 107 FPS. This is a difference of 112 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset is more than twice as demanding on the GPU.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other systems?

A: This specific combination of Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER ranks 491st out of 3713 tested combos in Overpower. This places it in the top 13.2% of all tested systems.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a quad-core processor with 8 threads, based on the Alder Lake architecture. Its base clock is 3.30 GHz and it boosts to 4.30 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores are modest, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 and a single-core score of 1674.

The CPU's role in Overpower is to feed the GPU with data. In this configuration, the data shows that the CPU is capable of delivering high frame rates, but its influence wanes as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor when settings are lowered. The 228 FPS average at Low settings is near the practical limit for what this CPU can push. The single-core performance, as indicated by the 1674 Cinebench R23 score, is strong for a quad-core part, which helps in games that rely on single-threaded performance.

However, at 4K, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The frame rate is dictated by the GPU's rendering speed. The CPU's 4 cores and 8 threads are sufficient to maintain frame rates above 90 FPS at 4K Ultra, as the GPU is the limiting factor.

The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs puts it in the mid-range. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-9500, has a similar average benchmark score with a delta of only 0.3%. This shows that while the i3-12100F is not a high-end part, its performance is adequate for pairing with a powerful GPU in a game like Overpower, especially at higher resolutions where the GPU does the heavy lifting. The system's high combo rank (491/3713) reflects the fact that in this specific game, the GPU is the dominant component, and the CPU does not hold the system back in most scenarios.