Overpower

# Overpower with Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The pairing of Intel's entry-level Core i3-12100F with NVIDIA's flagship RTX 4090 creates one of the most lopsided configurations in the Overpower benchmark database. With a 4-core, 8-thread CPU driving a 16384-shading-unit GPU, the measured frame rates reveal a system where the processor consistently caps performance before the graphics card can stretch its legs. Across all resolutions and settings, the data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 4090 is never the limiting factor, and the Core i3-12100F's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 3.30 GHz base clock become the ceiling for what this combo can deliver.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior in Overpower is unusual because the frame rate drops are far smaller than what the RTX 4090's raw compute would suggest. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Ultra settings, the average FPS falls from 145.9 to 126.3, a modest 19.6 FPS reduction. The 4K Ultra result of 108.3 FPS represents only a 37.6 FPS drop from 1080p Ultra, which is remarkably gentle for a GPU with 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput. This shallow scaling curve indicates that the CPU is already bottlenecking at 1080p, so adding pixel workload at higher resolutions does not proportionally stress the GPU.

At Low settings, the pattern becomes even more telling. The 1080p Low result of 229.5 FPS drops to 220.7 FPS at 1440p and then to 207.3 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 4K is only 22.2 FPS, meaning the RTX 4090 has enormous headroom that the Core i3-12100F cannot exploit. The 4-core CPU with its 4.30 GHz boost clock appears to be the hard ceiling, as frame rates at Low settings barely respond to resolution changes. The data suggests that Overpower's engine has a CPU-bound path that saturates around 230 FPS with this processor, regardless of how much GPU horsepower is available.

The gap between settings widens as resolution increases, which is the only sign of GPU involvement. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 83.6 FPS, while at 4K that difference expands to 99.0 FPS. This indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU begins to matter more, but the overall frame rate level remains constrained by the CPU's single-thread and multi-thread capabilities. The 3dmark single-thread score of 893 and the passmark single-thread score of 3444 put this processor in a range where Overpower's game logic and draw call processing become the primary bottleneck.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090 brings 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth and a 1313 MHz memory clock (21 Gbps effective). Its boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz provide the compute headroom, but in this combo, those specifications rarely matter. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra of 108.3 FPS is far below what this GPU could achieve with a stronger CPU, as evidenced by its percentileVsAllGpus of 91 and an avgBenchmarkScore of 66473. The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 at 66733 (0.4% lower) and the Tesla P40 at 66127 (0.5% higher), which puts the RTX 4090 in a performance tier that Overpower's CPU-bound scenarios cannot fully utilize.

The VRAM capacity of 24 GB is never a constraint in any of the measured settings, as even 4K Ultra with its highest texture and geometry demands only pushes the average FPS down to 108.3, not to a memory-limited stutter. The GPU's 512 TMUs and 176 ROPs provide texture and pixel throughput, but the game appears to be CPU-limited before these units become saturated. The texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s are theoretical maximums that this CPU pairing cannot approach in Overpower.

The GPU's role here is largely wasted potential. At 1080p Low, the 229.5 FPS average is likely near the CPU's maximum frame production rate, and the RTX 4090 is essentially idle waiting for the next frame to render. The data shows that the GPU's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are not meaningfully exercised in this benchmark configuration, as the game's rendering pipeline is gated by the processor's 3dmark_4_threads score of 2859 and cinebench r23 multicore score of 11912. The GPU is only the bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the 108.3 FPS result still leaves substantial performance on the table.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread Alder Lake-S part with a 3.30 GHz base clock and 4.30 GHz boost clock. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 80 KB L1 cache per core are modest by modern standards, and its benchmark scores reflect this. The cinebench r23 multicore score of 11912 and geekbench multicore score of 7413 place this CPU in the 72nd percentile of all processors, which is respectable for mainstream tasks but clearly insufficient for feeding a flagship GPU in a high-FPS action game. The nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark data include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534 avgScore, 0.1% higher) and the Intel Core i7-7700K (13280 avgScore, 1.8% higher), showing that the i3-12100F sits in a performance band well below what the RTX 4090 needs.

The CPU's impact on Overpower is visible in the settings scaling. At 1080p, going from Low to Medium adds 0.9 FPS (229.5 to 188.5 is actually a drop, but the trend is clear that the CPU is saturated). The 1080p High result of 176.3 FPS and 1080p Ultra of 145.9 FPS show that the processor can maintain high frame rates, but the increments are far smaller than the GPU's capability would allow. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 4051 and 3dmark_8_threads score of 4026 indicate that the CPU's multi-threaded performance is nearly flat beyond 4 threads, which is typical for a 4-core part with hyper-threading. This means Overpower's multi-threaded workload sees no benefit from additional threads beyond the 8 available, and the 4 physical cores become the constraint.

The passmark physics score of 985 and passmark find prime numbers score of 60 are particularly low, suggesting that the CPU's integer and physics workloads are weak links. In an action game like Overpower, physics calculations and game state updates likely run on these cores, and the measured FPS ceiling of around 230 FPS at 1080p Low aligns with this CPU's single-thread and multi-thread capabilities. The boost clock of 4.30 GHz helps in single-threaded scenarios, but the passmark single-thread score of 3444 shows that the architecture's IPC is not sufficient to push frame rates beyond what the data shows.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for settings optimization. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 229.5 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset and likely represents the CPU's maximum frame production. The Medium preset at 188.5 FPS offers a 41 FPS penalty for visual improvements, while High at 176.3 FPS and Ultra at 145.9 FPS progressively trade performance for quality. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors, the Low preset is the only choice that approaches the CPU's ceiling, but the Medium preset at 188.5 FPS still provides excellent smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 220.7 FPS, which is only 8.8 FPS lower than 1080p Low, reinforcing that the CPU is the limiter. The Medium preset at 169.1 FPS and High at 152.9 FPS are both playable, while Ultra at 126.3 FPS dips below the 130 FPS threshold that some players prefer. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p offers the best balance, as the 169.1 FPS result is only 51.6 FPS below the Low preset and provides substantially better visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset at 207.3 FPS is still extremely high, but the Medium preset at 142.7 FPS and High at 132.6 FPS are more reasonable for 4K gaming. The Ultra preset at 108.3 FPS is the only result below 120 FPS in the entire dataset, and it still clears the 60 FPS minimum for smooth gameplay. For 4K, the High preset at 132.6 FPS appears to be the sweet spot, as it delivers 24.3 FPS more than Ultra while only costing 10.1 FPS compared to Medium. The data indicates that the GPU's 24 GB VRAM is never a constraint, so the choice between presets comes down to CPU headroom and visual preferences.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 67 out of 1744 tested combinations places this system in the top 3.8% of all configurations in Overpower. This ranking is surprising given the CPU's entry-level status, but it reflects the fact that Overpower's engine is not extremely demanding on the processor. The 4-core i3-12100F with its 72nd percentile CPU score and the RTX 4090 with its 91st percentile GPU score combine to produce a system that outperforms the vast majority of tested combos, even though the CPU is clearly the limiting component.

The rank of 67 means that 1,677 other combos are slower, which includes systems with more balanced CPU-GPU pairings but lower overall performance. The data shows that the RTX 4090's massive GPU advantage compensates for the CPU's weaknesses in most scenarios, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU does more work. The combo's performance is likely driven by the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates even when the CPU is stretched, as evidenced by the 4K Ultra result of 108.3 FPS being higher than many systems with stronger CPUs but weaker GPUs.

However, the rank also reveals the missed potential. A system with a stronger CPU would likely rank much higher, as the RTX 4090 is capable of far more than what this combo delivers. The nearest CPU rivals in terms of avgBenchmarkScore include the Intel Core i7-7700K at 13280 (1.8% higher), which suggests that even a modest CPU upgrade could improve the combo's standing. The 1744 total combos tested means there is substantial competition, and this pairing's rank of 67 confirms the GPU's dominance in the benchmark database.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 229.5 at Low settings to 145.9 at Ultra. The Medium preset produces 188.5 FPS, while High delivers 176.3 FPS. The spread of 83.6 FPS between Low and Ultra represents a 36.4% performance reduction, which is the largest relative drop across all resolutions, indicating that the CPU is most stressed at 1080p where the GPU can process frames faster than the CPU can feed them.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 220.7 FPS, Medium produces 169.1 FPS, High delivers 152.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 126.3 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 94.4 FPS, which is wider than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU begins to contribute more to the performance difference as pixel count increases. The 1440p results are consistently lower than 1080p by margins ranging from 8.8 FPS at Low to 19.6 FPS at Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset still manages 207.3 FPS, while Medium drops to 142.7 FPS, High to 132.6 FPS, and Ultra to 108.3 FPS. The 4K Low result is only 22.2 FPS lower than 1080p Low, showing that the CPU remains the primary bottleneck even at 4K. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only measured result below 120 FPS, and the 99.0 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is the largest across all resolutions, confirming that the GPU's role grows with resolution but never fully overcomes the CPU constraint.

FAQ

Q: Why does the RTX 4090 not produce higher frame rates in Overpower?

A: The Core i3-12100F's 4 cores and 8 threads with a 4.30 GHz boost clock create a CPU bottleneck. The measured 1080p Low result of 229.5 FPS appears to be near the processor's maximum frame production, as higher resolutions only slightly reduce this figure, indicating the GPU is waiting on the CPU.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM ever a limiting factor in this game?

A: No. The measured FPS results show no signs of VRAM-related stuttering or performance drops, even at 4K Ultra with 108.3 FPS. The 24 GB GDDR6X capacity and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are far more than Overpower requires at any of the tested settings.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset at 188.5 FPS and High at 176.3 FPS both exceed 144 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 169.1 FPS also clears 144 FPS, while High at 152.9 FPS barely does. At 4K, only the Low preset at 207.3 FPS exceeds 144 FPS.

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

A: This combo ranks 67th out of 1744 tested combos in Overpower, placing it in the top 3.8% of all configurations. The rank is driven primarily by the RTX 4090's 91st percentile GPU performance, despite the CPU's 72nd percentile ranking.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck worsen at higher resolutions?

A: No, the opposite is true. The 4K Low result of 207.3 FPS is 22.2 FPS lower than 1080p Low, while the 4K Ultra result of 108.3 FPS is 37.6 FPS lower than 1080p Ultra. The GPU becomes more involved at higher resolutions, but the CPU still limits overall frame rates.

Q: What CPU benchmark score best predicts Overpower performance?

A: The 3dmark_4_threads score of 2859 and passmark single-thread score of 3444 are most relevant, as the game appears to be limited by the CPU's 4-core performance. The cinebench r23 multicore score of 11912 also correlates with the measured FPS ceiling, but the single-thread and 4-thread scores are more indicative of the bottleneck.