Overpower

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT delivers a robust 1080p and 1440p experience in Overpower, with the data showing a clear preference for High settings as the optimal balance of visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1080p, the combo achieves 108.9 FPS on High, which is a substantial 19.9 FPS advantage over the 89 FPS recorded on Ultra. The jump to Medium yields 117.9 FPS, but the difference between Medium and High is only 9 FPS, making High the more visually rewarding choice for a marginal performance cost. The pattern holds at 1440p, where High produces 96.9 FPS versus 109.1 FPS on Medium and 79.4 FPS on Ultra. Low settings push the frame rate to 160.3 FPS at 1080p and 152.5 FPS at 1440p, but these figures come at the expense of the visual quality that the GPU is clearly capable of delivering. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot, as it keeps the average frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold at both 1080p and 1440p, while Ultra only marginally improves the image at a steep performance penalty. For users with high-refresh displays, Medium offers an alternative that stays above 109 FPS at both resolutions, but the measured results indicate that High provides the most consistent experience without sacrificing the game's intended detail.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound workload at higher resolutions, but the CPU begins to show its age at lower settings. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 108.9 FPS at 1080p to 96.9 FPS at 1440p, a decline of 12 FPS, and then falls further to 85 FPS at 4K. This progression shows a 23.9 FPS total drop from 1080p to 4K, which is a 21.9% reduction in performance. The pattern is more pronounced at Low settings, where the frame rate scales from 160.3 FPS at 1080p down to 143.4 FPS at 4K, a 16.9 FPS difference. Interestingly, the gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low is only 7.8 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 9.1 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is still the limiting factor even at the lowest settings. However, the relatively small differences between resolutions at Low settings—only 10.5% from 1080p to 4K—indicate that the CPU is beginning to bottleneck the frame rate at lower settings, as the RX 7800 XT is capable of far higher output. The data shows that at Ultra settings, the frame rate drops from 89 FPS at 1080p to 72 FPS at 4K, a 17 FPS decline, which is a steeper percentage drop than at Low settings, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint when the visual load is high.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for Overpower's demands at 4K. The card's boost clock of 2430 MHz and game clock of 2124 MHz drive the high frame rates seen in the data, with the GPU's 3840 shading units and 96 ROPs handling the pixel throughput efficiently. The GPU's average benchmark score of 32619 places it in the 76th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival, the AMD FirePro S9300 X2, scoring 32540, a delta of 0.2%. This indicates that the RX 7800 XT is a top-tier performer, and the measured FPS in Overpower reflects this. At 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 72 FPS, which is playable, but the 16 GB VRAM buffer is not the limiting factor; rather, the GPU's raw compute power is being taxed. The card's FP32 performance of 37.32 TFLOPS and texture rate of 583.2 GTexel/s are the key metrics that allow it to maintain 85 FPS at 4K High, a setting that balances the load between the GPU's shading units and memory subsystem. The data confirms that the GPU is the driving force behind the frame rates, with the CPU only becoming a factor at lower resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT ranks 681st out of 1744 combos in Overpower. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all tested systems, which is a notable achievement given the CPU's age. The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, placing it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2300 with a delta of 0.2%. This means the CPU is essentially on par with its closest competitors, but the GPU's 76th percentile ranking is what boosts the combo's position. The rank of 681 out of 1744 suggests that while the GPU is strong, the CPU holds the combo back from the top tier. For comparison, if the CPU had a higher percentile ranking, the combo would likely sit much higher in the rankings. The data indicates that the combo is well-suited for 1440p gaming, as the 96.9 FPS at High settings is a strong result, but it is not among the elite performers that would rank in the top 100. The rank reflects a balance where the GPU does the heavy lifting, but the CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost of 4.10 GHz, are sufficient to avoid severe bottlenecks in most scenarios.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 plays a supporting role in this configuration, and its specifications reveal both its strengths and limitations in Overpower. With 6 cores and 6 threads, the CPU has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, which are modest figures by modern standards. The CPU's L3 cache is 9 MB shared, and it supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. In the benchmark results, the CPU scores 7969 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1125 in single-core, which are mid-pack results that align with its 50th percentile ranking. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8809G, has a score of 2319 with a delta of -0.6%, indicating that the i5-9400 is slightly behind a more capable competitor. In Overpower, the CPU's role is evident in the scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, where the frame rate only drops from 160.3 to 143.4 FPS, a 16.9 FPS difference. This relatively small drop suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is limiting the frame rate, as the GPU is capable of producing much higher numbers. The CPU's 6 threads are sufficient for the game's logic and physics, but the lack of hyper-threading means that heavily threaded scenes could cause dips. However, the data shows that at High and Ultra settings, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, as the frame rate scales more predictably with resolution. The CPU's 65 W TDP and 14 nm process node also indicate that it is an older design, but in this pairing, it provides just enough performance to keep the RX 7800 XT fed at 1440p and 4K without becoming a major liability.