Overpower

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 presents a significant bottleneck scenario in Overpower. The benchmark data indicates that the 6-core, 12-thread Rocket Lake processor, despite its 75th percentile standing among all CPUs, cannot keep pace with the sheer throughput of the flagship Ada Lovelace GPU. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings reveal a system where the CPU's single-thread and multi-thread capabilities, reflected in scores like 868 in 3DMark single-thread and 5652 in max-thread tests, are the primary limiting factor, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU's workload is lighter.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic CPU-bound profile that gradually shifts towards GPU limitation. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 147.1 FPS, which only increases to 157.6 FPS at High settings, a modest 7.1% improvement. This is a critical indicator: a fully GPU-bound system would show a massive jump in FPS when lowering settings from Ultra to Low at the same resolution. Instead, the data shows only a 34.4% increase from 147.1 FPS (Ultra) to 197.8 FPS (Low) at 1080p, suggesting the CPU is throttling the RTX 4090's potential. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1691 and 4-thread score of 3171 for the i5-11400F align with this interpretation, as Overpower appears to be sensitive to the processor's limited thread count.

Moving to 1440p, the pattern persists but with a slightly larger spread. Low settings yield 193 FPS, while Ultra drops to 127.5 FPS, a 51.4% reduction. The delta between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings is only 2.4% (197.8 vs 193), which is minimal and confirms that the CPU is still the bottleneck at this setting. However, at Ultra settings, the drop from 147.1 FPS (1080p) to 127.5 FPS (1440p) represents a 13.3% decrease, indicating the GPU is beginning to take on more responsibility. The 4K results show the most significant GPU involvement, with Ultra dropping to 109.9 FPS, a 25.3% reduction from the 1440p Ultra figure.

The data suggests that the RTX 4090's immense compute resources, evidenced by its 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth, are severely underutilized at 1080p and even 1440p. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s becomes a limiting factor, as the GPU must wait for data processed by the CPU. The 4K resolution begins to align the workload with GPU capabilities, but even then, the 135 FPS at High settings versus 109.9 FPS at Ultra shows a 22.8% performance hit, which is moderate for such a demanding resolution. The overall trend demonstrates that Overpower is not a typical GPU-bound title at lower resolutions, and the i5-11400F's 65W TDP and 14nm process node are significant constraints.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's role in this configuration is largely dictated by the CPU's inability to feed it enough data. The GPU's specifications are formidable: 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, 128 RT cores, and 512 tensor cores. Its benchmark scores, such as 38194 in Passmark G3D and 26613 in GPU compute, place it in the 91st percentile of all GPUs. Yet, in Overpower, the measured FPS figures at 1080p Low (197.8 FPS) suggest the GPU is waiting on the CPU for instruction. The GPU's 2235 MHz base clock and 2520 MHz boost clock are more than adequate for the game's demands, but the processor cannot maintain a sufficient frame-pacing cadence.

The VRAM capacity of 24 GB is never a concern in this scenario, as Overpower's requirements are far below this threshold. The memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s is also more than sufficient for 4K textures, but the CPU's dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory support, operating at 51.2 GB/s, creates a data delivery bottleneck. The benchmark results show that the GPU's raw power is only fully expressed when the resolution increases, forcing more of the rendering work onto the GPU. At 4K Ultra, the 109.9 FPS figure still represents a high level of performance, but it is not the 150+ FPS that the RTX 4090 is capable of in less CPU-constrained titles.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 91 versus the CPU's 75th percentile illustrates the performance disparity. The nearest rivals to the RTX 4090, such as the Tesla T4 with a deltaPct of -0.4%, are professional compute cards, not gaming parts. This underscores the sheer performance class of the 4090, making the i5-11400F's bottleneck even more pronounced. The data indicates that the GPU is not the limiting component in almost all measured scenarios, except for the most demanding 4K Ultra settings where the GPU begins to approach its own limits, but the CPU's 3DMark 8-thread score of 4691 still suggests it is holding back potential gains.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination depend heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the High preset offers 157.6 FPS, which is a 7.1% improvement over Ultra (147.1 FPS) with presumably minimal visual impact. The Low preset at 197.8 FPS provides a 25.5% increase over High, but the visual fidelity loss may not be justified given the already high frame rates. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot for 1080p, as the jump from High to Medium (165.8 FPS) is only 5.2%, indicating diminishing returns.

For 1440p, the High preset at 157.1 FPS is nearly identical to the 1080p High result, which is an excellent outcome. The Ultra preset at 127.5 FPS is still playable, but High offers a 23.2% performance boost over Ultra while likely providing similar visual quality. The Medium preset at 157.4 FPS is statistically indistinguishable from High, making High the better choice for visual quality without sacrificing performance. The Low preset at 193 FPS is unnecessary for competitive play, as the High preset already exceeds 144Hz refresh rates.

At 4K, the High preset at 135 FPS is the recommended choice. It provides a 22.8% improvement over Ultra (109.9 FPS) and a 4.7% reduction from Medium (141.6 FPS). The Medium preset is also viable at 141.6 FPS, but High offers better image quality at only a 4.7% performance cost. The Low preset at 182.9 FPS is excessive for 4K gaming, as the visual fidelity is severely compromised for a marginal FPS gain. The measured data indicates that High is the most balanced preset across all resolutions, delivering frame rates that exceed 135 FPS even at 4K, which reflects the RTX 4090's power, though the CPU limits absolute performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for the i5-11400F + RTX 4090 combination in Overpower is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 197.8 FPS, Medium reaches 165.8 FPS, High delivers 157.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 147.1 FPS. The variance between Low and Ultra is 34.4%, with the largest incremental drop occurring between Low and Medium at 16.2%. The High to Ultra transition only costs 6.7% performance, which is surprisingly small.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 193 FPS, which is only 2.4% lower than the 1080p Low result, confirming the CPU bottleneck. Medium achieves 157.4 FPS, showing a 5.1% decrease from 1080p Medium. High reaches 157.1 FPS, a negligible 0.3% drop from 1080p High. Ultra produces 127.5 FPS, an 13.3% reduction from 1080p Ultra, indicating the GPU is more engaged at this resolution. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 51.4%, significantly larger than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset drops to 182.9 FPS, a 5.2% decrease from 1440p Low. Medium achieves 141.6 FPS, a 10.0% reduction from 1440p Medium. High falls to 135 FPS, showing a 14.1% decrease from 1440p High. Ultra drops to 109.9 FPS, a 13.8% reduction from 1440p Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is only 7.5% (197.8 to 182.9), while at Ultra settings it is 25.3% (147.1 to 109.9). This data pattern clearly demonstrates that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions and settings, while the GPU becomes more relevant at 4K Ultra.

The combination's rank in Overpower is 116 out of 1744 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.7% of all systems. This ranking is impressive, but the bottleneck analysis suggests that the RTX 4090 is not being fully utilized. If the CPU were upgraded, the frame rates would likely improve significantly, particularly at 1080p, where the CPU is clearly the constraining component.

FAQ

Q: Why does the FPS not increase much from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings?

A: The measured data shows only a 2.4% drop (197.8 to 193 FPS). This indicates a CPU bottleneck, where the Intel Core i5-11400F's 6 cores and 12 threads cannot process frames fast enough to feed the RTX 4090, regardless of the GPU's workload.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM being fully utilized in this game?

A: The benchmark results show that the GPU's memory capacity is not a limiting factor in Overpower. The performance is constrained by the CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, not the GPU's 1.01 TB/s. The VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for the game's demands.

Q: What is the best setting for a 144Hz monitor at 1440p?

A: The High preset at 157.1 FPS exceeds 144Hz and is the recommended choice. The Ultra preset at 127.5 FPS would not maintain a consistent 144Hz refresh rate, while High offers a 23.2% performance advantage without a significant visual penalty.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score relate to the in-game performance?

A: The i5-11400F's 3DMark max-thread score of 5652 and single-thread score of 868 are moderate. The in-game data shows that these scores translate to a bottleneck, as the GPU's percentile ranking of 91 is much higher than the CPU's 75th percentile, leading to the CPU limiting the GPU's potential.

Q: At 4K Ultra, is the system GPU-bound or CPU-bound?

A: The data shows a 25.3% FPS drop from 1080p Ultra (147.1) to 4K Ultra (109.9), which is the largest resolution-based decline. This suggests the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at 4K Ultra, but the CPU still holds back some performance, as the 109.9 FPS is lower than what the RTX 4090 could achieve alone.

Q: Does lowering settings from Ultra to Low at 1080p provide a worthwhile FPS gain?

A: The gain is 34.4% (147.1 to 197.8 FPS). However, the jump from High to Low is only 25.5%, while the jump from High to Ultra is only 6.7%. Given that High already provides 157.6 FPS, the Low preset's visual degradation is likely not worth the 25.5% FPS increase for most users.