Overpower

The data for Overpower, captured with an Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, reveals a configuration that is heavily influenced by resolution and graphical settings. The measured frame rates indicate a system where the GPU is the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s capabilities become more apparent at lower settings. This analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, ranking, and component-specific roles.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 demonstrates a significant performance drop that is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 99.4 FPS at 1080p to 88.1 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 74.7 FPS at 4K. This represents a 24.9% reduction in performance when moving from 1080p to 4K, a scaling pattern that points directly to the graphics card’s rendering limits rather than any CPU bottleneck.

The trend is more pronounced when examining the Ultra preset. At 1080p, the combo achieves 85.5 FPS, which drops to 73.9 FPS at 1440p and 60.7 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 4K here is 29.0%, showing that as the pixel count increases, the RTX 3070’s workload becomes the limiting factor. The data shows a clear linear progression of performance loss with resolution, which is the expected behavior for a mid-range GPU paired with a capable processor.

What is particularly telling is the performance at Low settings. At 1080p Low, the system outputs 176.1 FPS, which is remarkably high and suggests the CPU is still feeding the GPU effectively. However, at 4K Low, the frame rate drops to 131.3 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is a 25.4% reduction, which is similar to the High preset. This indicates that even when graphical load is minimized, the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources at 4K are still the primary constraint.

The Medium settings tell a similar story, with 108.2 FPS at 1080p, 95.4 FPS at 1440p, and 85.7 FPS at 4K. The performance gap between 1080p and 4K is 20.8%, which is slightly smaller than High and Ultra. This suggests that at Medium, the balance between CPU and GPU load is closer, but the GPU still holds the reins. Overall, the resolution scaling data strongly indicates that the RTX 3070 is the limiting component, as the frame rate drops are consistent across all settings when pixel count increases.

How This Combo Ranks

In the Overpower benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 holds a combo rank of 815 out of 1744 tested combinations. This places the system in the upper-middle tier of all tested hardware pairings. The rank is a composite measure of the system’s ability to handle the game’s demands across various configurations.

The CPU itself sits in the 88th percentile when compared to all other processors, indicating that the i5-14400F is a strong performer. Its average benchmark score of 32508 places it in close competition with the Intel Core i7-12800H, which scores 32513, representing a delta of 0%. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 is slightly behind at 32446, with a 0.2% delta, and the AMD Ryzen 7 250 is ahead at 32584, with a -0.2% delta. These near-identical scores suggest that the i5-14400F is performing exactly at the expected level for its class.

The GPU’s percentile rank is 72, which is lower than the CPU’s 88. The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 28238, and its nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro S7150 at 28409 (-0.6% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT at 27985 (0.9% delta). The fact that the GPU is ranked lower than the CPU suggests that in Overpower, the graphics card is the component that holds the combo back from achieving a higher overall rank. The combo rank of 815 out of 1744 is a direct reflection of this imbalance, where the CPU has headroom but the GPU is working near its limits at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This configuration is well-suited for gaming, as the high boost clock ensures strong single-threaded performance, which is often critical for game logic and physics. The processor’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache also helps reduce memory latency, which can be beneficial in action-oriented titles like Overpower.

Benchmark results show the CPU’s strengths. In Cinebench R23, it scores 21914 in multi-core and 3093 in single-core tests. The single-core score is particularly relevant for gaming, as it indicates the processor can handle the main game thread efficiently. The Geekbench scores of 11209 multi-core and 2333 single-core reinforce this, showing a balanced chip that can handle both heavily threaded workloads and single-threaded tasks.

In the context of Overpower’s measured FPS, the CPU’s role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 176.1 FPS, which is a high frame rate that suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at this level. The fact that the frame rate only drops to 153.9 FPS at 1440p Low shows that the CPU maintains its performance as resolution increases, but the GPU starts to take over as the limiting factor. The i5-14400F’s boost clock of 4.70 GHz is likely what enables these high frame rates, as it provides the necessary single-threaded speed.

The processor’s 65 W TDP and 10 nm process node indicate an efficient design, but the data shows that in Overpower, the CPU is rarely the limiting component. The fact that the CPU’s percentile rank (88) is higher than the GPU’s (72) confirms that the processor has more headroom than the graphics card. This means that if a user were to upgrade the GPU, they would likely see a significant improvement in frame rates, especially at 4K, without needing to change the CPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p High settings?

A: The system achieves an average of 88.1 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, which is a playable frame rate for most action games.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in terms of benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F has an average benchmark score of 32508, which is virtually identical to the Intel Core i7-12800H’s 32513, representing a 0% delta.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 60.7 FPS, while at 4K Low it is 131.3 FPS, showing that the RTX 3070’s workload is the primary constraint.

Q: What is the combo’s rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 815 out of 1744 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all hardware pairings for Overpower.

Q: What is the performance delta between the CPU and its closest rival?

A: The i5-14400F is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 and 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-13705H, showing it is tightly grouped with its competition.

Q: How does the frame rate scale from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average frame rate drops from 99.4 FPS at 1080p to 74.7 FPS at 4K, a 24.9% reduction that highlights the GPU’s scaling limitations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is the dominant force in this configuration, and its specifications explain the measured frame rates. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the data shows it struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K, particularly at Ultra settings where it drops to 60.7 FPS.

The GPU’s boost clock of 1725 MHz and 5888 shading units are key to its performance. The 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power allows for heavy graphical calculations, but the 8 GB VRAM capacity can become a limitation at 4K with high-detail textures. The benchmark scores reflect this, with a Passmark G3D score of 22214 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3162. These numbers place the GPU in the 72nd percentile, which is respectable but not top-tier.

The GPU’s role as the bottleneck is most clearly seen in the resolution scaling data. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 85.5 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 60.7 FPS. This 29.0% reduction is a direct result of the GPU’s rendering capabilities. Even at Low settings, the 4K frame rate of 131.3 FPS is significantly lower than the 176.1 FPS at 1080p, showing that the GPU’s pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors.

The RTX 3070’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, which has a 0.9% higher avg score, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which has a 1% higher score. This places the RTX 3070 in a competitive but not dominant position. The GPU’s 220 W TDP and 8 nm process node from Samsung indicate it is a power-hungry but capable card. In Overpower, the data clearly shows that the GPU is the component that determines the system’s overall performance, especially as resolution increases.