Overpower

# Overpower: Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 580 — Benchmark Analysis

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 delivers a distinctly mixed set of results in Overpower, landing at rank 1613 out of 1744 tested combos. This places the pairing in the lower percentile of all system configurations, a position that aligns with the RX 580's 53rd percentile standing among all GPUs and the i5-12400's 77th percentile among all CPUs. The measured frame rates reveal a system where the graphics card consistently limits performance, while the processor's capabilities remain largely untapped across most settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about which component is the bottleneck. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 sees average frame rates fall from 67.5 FPS to 52.2 FPS — a reduction of roughly 23%. This relatively modest decline at the lowest preset suggests that even at 1080p Low, the RX 580 is already approaching its ceiling, and the additional pixel load at 4K does not proportionally punish the GPU because it was never fully saturated to begin with.

The scaling becomes more dramatic at higher settings. At High, the drop from 1080p (38.8 FPS) to 1440p (35.8 FPS) is only 7.7%, but the further step to 4K (33.1 FPS) represents a steeper decline. At Ultra, the pattern reverses slightly: 1080p produces 33.8 FPS, 1440p drops to 30.3 FPS, and 4K falls to 27.9 FPS. The Ultra preset's 4K result is just 17.5% below the 1080p figure, which indicates that the game's Ultra settings impose such a heavy load that the GPU is uniformly saturated regardless of resolution — the pixel count matters less when the shading and texture work dominates.

Medium settings show the most erratic scaling: 1080p delivers 44 FPS, 1440p drops to 41.7 FPS, and 4K falls to 32.4 FPS. The 21.5% drop from 1440p to 4K at Medium, versus the 7.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p, suggests that Medium settings at 4K push the RX 580's 8 GB frame buffer and 256-bit memory interface toward their limits. The data implies that resolution scaling in Overpower is not linear — the GPU's memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s) and pixel rate (42.88 GPixel/s) both play gatekeeper roles at higher pixel counts.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 operates with a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a defining characteristic for how this card handles Overpower's demands. The GPU's 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs deliver a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s — figures that explain the measured performance ceiling.

The benchmark scores for this GPU position it in a tight competitive cluster. Its average benchmark score of 13559 sits within 1.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (13549), and the AMD Radeon Pro 455 (13416). The RX 580's 53rd percentile among all GPUs reflects this middling standing. In Overpower specifically, the card's 4K Ultra result of 27.9 FPS shows that the GPU's raw compute power (6.175 TFLOPS FP32) is insufficient for the game's highest visual fidelity at that resolution.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB proves adequate for the measured scenarios, but the 256-bit bus and GDDR5 memory speed (2000 MHz, 8 Gbps effective) appear to be limiting factors at 4K. The difference between 4K Low (52.2 FPS) and 4K Medium (32.4 FPS) — a 37.9% drop — indicates that Medium settings introduce memory bandwidth pressure that Low avoids. The GPU's DirectX 12 support (12_0) aligns with Overpower's requirements, but the passmark DirectX 12 score of 43 suggests this card does not excel in modern API workloads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 brings 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 position it as a capable mid-range processor. The CPU's average benchmark score of 19850 places it within 0.4% of the Intel Core i5-11600K (19771), 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-9700 (19831), and 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-8700 (19894) — a remarkably tight cluster.

In Overpower, the CPU's influence on frame rates appears minimal, as the GPU bottleneck dominates every measured configuration. The i5-12400's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and single-core score of 2249 indicate strong processing capability, yet the game's frame rates at 1080p Low (67.5 FPS) suggest the CPU is far from saturated. The 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and 2-thread score of 1692 show that even with just one or two active threads, the processor has ample headroom for this game's logic and physics workloads.

The CPU's 77th percentile among all CPUs, contrasted with the GPU's 53rd percentile, reinforces the imbalance: the i5-12400 is the stronger component in this pairing. The processor's PCIe Gen 5 interface (16 lanes CPU only) provides more than enough bandwidth for the RX 580's PCIe 3.0 x16 bus interface, so no interconnect bottleneck exists. The 65 W TDP and Alder Lake architecture with 10 nm process node (die size 163 mm²) contribute to a processor that is not the limiting factor in any of the 12 measured configurations.

FAQ

Q: Why does 4K Ultra (27.9 FPS) perform so close to 1080p Ultra (33.8 FPS)?

A: The 17.5% difference between these two settings suggests that the RX 580 is uniformly saturated at Ultra quality regardless of resolution. The GPU's compute throughput and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, making the additional pixel load at 4K less impactful than the heavy shading and texture work imposed by Ultra settings.

Q: Is the RX 580's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for Overpower?

A: The measured data shows no configuration exceeding 67.5 FPS, and the 4K results remain playable at Low (52.2 FPS) and near-playable at High (33.1 FPS). This indicates that 8 GB is not the primary constraint; rather, the GPU's compute power and memory bandwidth determine performance.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 1613 out of 1744 tested combos in Overpower, placing it in the bottom 8% of all system configurations. This low ranking aligns with the GPU's 53rd percentile standing, confirming the graphics card as the primary performance limiter.

Q: What CPU benchmark scores indicate about its headroom?

A: The i5-12400's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and single-core score of 2249 show substantial processing power. The 3DMark max threads score of 5890 and single-thread score of 910 suggest the CPU can handle game workloads far beyond what the RX 580 allows in practice.

Q: Does the GPU's performance align with its benchmark scores?

A: Yes. The RX 580's average benchmark score of 13559 puts it in a statistical tie with the GTX 570 (13564) and GTX 950 (13549), with deltas of 0% and 0.1% respectively. The measured Overpower frame rates are consistent with this mid-range positioning.

Q: Which settings provide the most consistent experience across resolutions?

A: Low settings deliver the most stable scaling, with 67.5 FPS at 1080p, 61.2 FPS at 1440p, and 52.2 FPS at 4K. This preset maintains over 50 FPS even at 4K, while all other settings fall below 45 FPS at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1613 out of 1744 places this system in the bottom 7.5% of all configurations tested in Overpower. This ranking is heavily influenced by the RX 580's performance ceiling, as the GPU's 53rd percentile among all GPUs is the dominant factor. The i5-12400's 77th percentile standing shows that the processor is capable of supporting far more powerful graphics cards, but in this pairing, it cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations.

The gap between component percentiles — 77th for CPU versus 53rd for GPU — is a clear indicator of system imbalance. The measured frame rates confirm this: even at 1080p Low, the maximum average FPS of 67.5 suggests the GPU is the limiting component in every scenario. The CPU's nearest rivals all score within 0.4% of its average benchmark score, with the i7-9700 (19831) essentially matching the i5-12400's 19850. This tight clustering means the CPU is not a differentiator in Overpower, but its headroom would benefit a stronger GPU pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Low settings as the only preset that delivers consistently smooth gameplay across all resolutions. At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 67.5 exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for fluid action gameplay, while 1440p Low (61.2 FPS) also crosses that line. 4K Low (52.2 FPS) remains playable, though not at 60 FPS.

Medium settings offer a compromise for users prioritizing visual quality over frame rate, with 1080p Medium delivering 44 FPS and 1440p Medium reaching 41.7 FPS. However, 4K Medium drops to 32.4 FPS, which may feel sluggish for action-oriented gameplay. High settings provide marginal visual improvements at the cost of significant performance: 1080p High (38.8 FPS) and 1440p High (35.8 FPS) both fall below 40 FPS, while 4K High (33.1 FPS) approaches playability but does not reach it.

Ultra settings are not recommended for any resolution, as the maximum achieved frame rate is 33.8 FPS at 1080p, with 4K Ultra falling to 27.9 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra over High is steep — 12.9% at 1080p, 15.4% at 1440p, and 15.7% at 4K — without a proportional visual payoff. For the best balance of frame rate and visual fidelity, Low at 1080p or 1440p is the optimal choice, with Medium at 1080p as an alternative for users who prioritize image quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RX 580 delivers its strongest results. Low settings achieve an average of 67.5 FPS, the highest measured value for this combo. Medium settings drop to 44 FPS, a 34.8% reduction from Low. High settings produce 38.8 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 33.8 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a total performance loss of 50.1%, indicating that each settings tier imposes substantial GPU load.

At 2560x1440, performance decreases across all presets. Low settings maintain 61.2 FPS, still above 60 FPS. Medium settings drop to 41.7 FPS, High to 35.8 FPS, and Ultra to 30.3 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 50.5%, nearly identical to the 1080p scaling. The step from 1080p to 1440p at Low costs only 9.3% performance, suggesting the GPU handles the extra pixels efficiently at the lowest preset.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become pronounced. Low settings still deliver 52.2 FPS, a playable frame rate. Medium settings fall to 32.4 FPS, High to 33.1 FPS, and Ultra to 27.9 FPS. Notably, High performs slightly better than Medium at 4K (33.1 vs 32.4 FPS), a statistical anomaly that suggests the Medium preset may trigger specific rendering paths that are less efficient than High. The 4K Low result of 52.2 FPS remains the only 4K preset above 40 FPS, confirming that this resolution requires minimal settings for acceptable performance with this hardware combination.