Overpower

Overpower, the 2023 action title, presents a clear performance hierarchy for the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination. The measured data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the CPU becoming more relevant only at 1080p. The 4K Ultra preset delivers exactly 60 FPS on average, which is the baseline for smooth gameplay, while lower settings at that resolution provide significant headroom. At 1440p, the combo sits comfortably in high-refresh territory, and at 1080p, it exceeds 160 FPS on Low settings, indicating a strong pairing for competitive play.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-limited scenario. At 1080p High, the average is 95 FPS; moving to 1440p High drops this to 85 FPS, a reduction of roughly 10.5%. The jump to 4K High yields 72 FPS, which is a further 15.3% decline from 1440p. This pattern is consistent across all settings presets, with the most pronounced drop occurring between 1440p and 4K. For instance, on Medium settings, the transition from 2560x1440 (91 FPS) to 3840x2160 (77 FPS) represents a 15.4% loss, while the step from 1080p (102 FPS) to 1440p (91 FPS) is only a 10.8% loss.

This scaling behavior indicates that the RTX 5060’s 8 GB of GDDR7 memory and 128-bit bus are the limiting factors at 4K. The pixel throughput required at 3840x2160 is substantial, and the data shows that the GPU’s rendering capabilities scale predictably with resolution. The Low preset at 4K achieves 124 FPS, which is surprisingly high, showing that when texture and shading complexity are reduced, the GPU has ample headroom. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is notable: 124 FPS versus 77 FPS, a 47 FPS difference, suggesting that the Medium preset introduces a significant increase in shading load that the GPU cannot fully sustain at this resolution.

The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal. The Intel Core i5-11400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, maintains sufficient performance to feed the GPU even at 1080p Low, where the system reaches 164 FPS. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau or even decrease at lower resolutions as the GPU becomes less stressed. The data shows no such plateau; instead, FPS increases monotonically as resolution decreases, which is the signature of a GPU-bound configuration. The 12 MB of L3 cache and 4.40 GHz boost clock are evidently adequate for this game’s CPU demands.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest recorded average is 164 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K with maximum visual quality?

A: At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the average frame rate is exactly 60 FPS, meeting the standard for console-like smoothness but with no headroom for dips.

Q: Is the system more limited by the CPU or GPU in this game?

A: The data indicates a GPU limitation. Frame rates scale consistently with resolution, and even at 1080p Low (164 FPS), the CPU does not appear to bottleneck, as the 6-core/12-thread configuration with a 4.40 GHz boost provides sufficient throughput.

Q: What is the difference in performance between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 91 FPS, while Ultra averages 70 FPS. This represents a 30% reduction in frame rate for the highest quality settings.

Q: Does the combo rank in the top half of tested configurations?

A: Yes, the combination ranks 1643 out of 3713 tested combos, placing it in the 55.7th percentile of all tested systems.

Q: Are there any settings where the frame rate exceeds 120 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, the Low preset at 2560x1440 achieves an average of 146 FPS, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate displays.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake generation, built on Intel’s 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, combined with 12 MB of shared L3 cache, provide the foundation for this gaming performance. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14340 and a single-core score of 2024, demonstrating balanced multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities. Its PassMark multithread score of 16908 and single-thread score of 2981 place it in the 71st percentile of all CPUs.

In Overpower, the CPU’s role appears supportive rather than dominant. The data shows that even at the lowest resolution and settings (1080p Low, 164 FPS), the processor does not create a bottleneck. This is consistent with its 3DMark scores: 5652 for max threads and 868 for single thread, which indicate adequate headroom for a 6-core part in a modern action game. The processor’s 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are sufficient for feeding the RTX 5060.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-11400F is closely matched in average benchmark score. It sits 0.3% above the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120 vs 17177) and 0.6% above the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074). It is 0.4% behind the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239) and 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278). These small deltas suggest that in CPU-bound scenarios, this processor would perform nearly identically to these alternatives. However, in this game, the measured FPS data indicates that such CPU-bound scenarios are rare, as the GPU is the primary limiter across all tested resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination ranks 1643 out of 3713 tested combos in Overpower. This places the system in the upper half of all configurations tested, specifically in the 55.7th percentile. While this is not a top-tier ranking, it reflects a balanced mid-range setup that can handle the game well at most settings.

The ranking is more impressive when considering the individual components’ percentiles. The CPU sits in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. The combo’s ranking is slightly lower than either component’s individual percentile, which suggests that the pairing is not perfectly optimized for this specific title. This could be due to the game’s particular engine characteristics or the 8 GB VRAM limit of the GPU becoming a factor at higher resolutions and settings.

In terms of the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RTX 5060’s average benchmark score of 26331 is very close to several other cards. It is 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon 860M (26401) and 0.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (26421). It is 0.8% behind the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26553) but 1.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT (26011). These small differences in synthetic scores suggest that real-world gaming performance could go either way depending on driver optimization and game-specific factors. The measured FPS in Overpower indicates that the RTX 5060 performs well within this competitive group.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is the primary driver of frame rates in Overpower. Its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical factor at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 3840 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs handle the rasterization workload, while 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores provide ray tracing and AI acceleration capabilities.

The GPU’s clock speeds are 2280 MHz base and 2497 MHz boost, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 19.18 TFLOPS, which is a measure of the GPU’s raw compute power. In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5060 achieves a PassMark G3D score of 20891 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3628, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs.

In Overpower, the GPU’s VRAM capacity appears to be a limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The 60 FPS average at this setting is exactly at the threshold for smooth gameplay, but with no margin for error. The step down to High at 4K yields 72 FPS, a 20% improvement, which suggests that the Ultra preset may be exceeding the 8 GB VRAM budget, causing texture swapping or reduced caching. The Medium preset at 4K (77 FPS) shows only a marginal improvement over High (72 FPS), indicating that the GPU’s compute resources are also nearing saturation at this resolution.

At 1440p, the GPU shows more breathing room. The Medium preset achieves 91 FPS, and Low achieves 146 FPS, indicating that the GPU is not VRAM-limited at this resolution. The 1080p results are even more telling: 164 FPS on Low and 102 FPS on Medium. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 62 FPS, which is a significant jump that suggests the Medium preset introduces effects that are computationally expensive but not VRAM-intensive.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 164 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium averages 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS and maximum of 118 FPS, providing a solid balance. High averages 95 FPS, and Ultra averages 79 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline: 164, 102, 95, 79. This indicates that each preset step adds a similar computational load, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (62 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the performance scales as expected. Low averages 146 FPS, still very high. Medium averages 91 FPS with a range of 77 to 105 FPS. High averages 85 FPS, and Ultra averages 70 FPS. The differences between presets are smaller than at 1080p, with the gap between Low and Medium being 55 FPS and between Medium and High being only 6 FPS. This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor for the higher presets, compressing the performance differences.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly. Low averages 124 FPS, which is still playable. Medium averages 77 FPS with a range of 66 to 89 FPS. High averages 72 FPS, and Ultra averages exactly 60 FPS. The most notable observation is that Medium and High are very close (77 vs 72 FPS), while Low is significantly higher. This suggests that the Medium preset is where the GPU starts to hit a performance wall at 4K, and the additional effects in High and Ultra provide diminishing returns relative to their cost.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the optimal choice. It delivers an average of 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay on most displays. The 1440p Medium setting provides a 21 FPS advantage over High (85 FPS) while maintaining a visual quality that is substantially better than Low (146 FPS). This represents the sweet spot for this combo, as it avoids the VRAM pressure seen at 4K and the CPU overhead that could become a factor at 1080p.

For users with 4K displays, the High preset at 3840x2160 is recommended over Ultra. The High setting averages 72 FPS, which is 20% faster than Ultra’s 60 FPS, with only a minor visual fidelity reduction. The Medium preset at 4K (77 FPS) offers only a 5 FPS improvement over High, making High the better choice for the visual upgrade it provides. The Low preset at 4K (124 FPS) is viable for competitive play, but the visual quality loss is substantial.

For competitive gamers prioritizing frame rate, the Low preset at 1920x1080 is the clear winner, delivering 164 FPS. This is ideal for 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 1080p (102 FPS) is a good fallback if visual quality is desired, providing a 62 FPS reduction from Low but a 7 FPS improvement over High (95 FPS). The Ultra preset at 1080p (79 FPS) is not recommended, as it sacrifices 25 FPS compared to High for marginal visual gains that are difficult to perceive at this resolution. The data consistently shows that Medium and High presets offer the best performance-to-quality ratios across all resolutions, with High being the preferred choice at 4K and Medium being the optimal choice at 1440p and 1080p.