Overpower

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 produces a distinct performance curve in Overpower, one that shifts from CPU-bound at lower resolutions to GPU-bound at 4K. The measured frames per second (FPS) across the three resolutions reveals how this specific combination allocates its workload, with the RTX 3080’s substantial compute resources increasingly dominating the equation as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and predictable pattern: average FPS decreases as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the performance envelope is remarkably tight. The system delivers 159.7 FPS at 1920x1080, 153.3 FPS at 2560x1440, and 147.5 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents only a 7.6% decline from 1080p to 4K, indicating that at Low settings, the Intel Core i5-9400 is the limiting component—its six cores and six threads without Hyper-Threading cap the frame rate well before the RTX 3080’s rendering capabilities are fully engaged.

The scaling behavior changes dramatically when moving to higher presets. At High settings, the system produces 120.9 FPS at 1080p, 107.8 FPS at 1440p, and 88.7 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K here is 26.6%, a substantial increase over the Low preset’s scaling. This widening gap suggests that as graphical complexity grows, the RTX 3080 begins to take on a more prominent role. The Ultra preset amplifies this trend further: 98.9 FPS at 1080p, 89.9 FPS at 1440p, and 71.8 FPS at 4K. The 27.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra confirms the GPU is now the primary bottleneck, with the RTX 3080’s Ampere architecture being pushed closer to its limits.

The Medium preset sits between these extremes, with 128.9 FPS at 1080p, 111.9 FPS at 1440p, and 96 FPS at 4K—a 25.5% drop across the resolution span. The data indicates that at 1080p, all presets except Ultra deliver frame rates above 120 FPS, suggesting that the i5-9400 can feed the RTX 3080 sufficiently at lower pixel counts, but the Ultra preset’s additional shading and geometry work shifts the burden toward the GPU. At 4K, the differences between presets compress somewhat, with Low (147.5 FPS) still far ahead of Medium (96 FPS) and High (88.7 FPS), but the gap between Medium and High narrows to just 8.6%, signaling that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading units are the decisive factors at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 brings formidable specifications to this pairing, and the benchmark results in Overpower reflect its architecture. With 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, the GPU has ample parallel processing capacity. Its boost clock of 1710 MHz, paired with a base clock of 1440 MHz, provides the raw frequency headroom to push through heavy workloads. The 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus delivers 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, a figure that becomes critical at 4K resolution where texture streaming and memory access patterns intensify.

The RTX 3080’s 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores are present, though Overpower’s measured results do not explicitly separate ray tracing performance. The GPU’s FP32 throughput of 29.77 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s explain why the card can maintain playable frame rates even at the demanding Ultra preset. At 4K Ultra, the system achieves 71.8 FPS, which is 27.5% lower than the 4K High result of 88.7 FPS. This delta underscores how the Ultra preset’s added effects tax the GPU’s texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s, pushing the rendering pipeline harder.

The RTX 3080’s position in the broader GPU landscape is solid, holding an 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, scores 0.2% higher on aggregate benchmarks, while the AMD Radeon 880M trails by 0.4%. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is 1% behind, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE leads by 0.9%. In Overpower specifically, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions, where its 10 GB VRAM capacity and 320-bit memory interface prevent bandwidth-related stutters that could plague lesser cards. The data suggests that the RTX 3080 is never the limiting factor at 1080p, but at 4K Ultra, its computational limits are being approached, as evidenced by the 71.8 FPS result being the lowest measured across all combinations.

Settings Recommendations

For the Intel Core i5-9400 and RTX 3080 combination, the measured data points to Medium settings as the most balanced choice for most users. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 128.9 FPS, which is 8.3% higher than High (120.9 FPS) and 30.3% higher than Ultra (98.9 FPS). The jump from Medium to High yields only a 6.2% performance penalty, but the visual fidelity gains are typically marginal in action games like Overpower. At 2560x1440, Medium produces 111.9 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 90 FPS threshold that many players consider smooth; High trails at 107.8 FPS and Ultra drops to 89.9 FPS. The 24.5% difference between Medium and Ultra at 1440p makes Ultra a poor trade-off for the incremental visual improvements.

At 3840x2160, the recommendation shifts toward High settings. Medium achieves 96 FPS, while High delivers 88.7 FPS—a 7.6% reduction—but the visual uplift from Medium to High at 4K is often substantial due to improved texture filtering and shadow detail. Ultra at 4K falls to 71.8 FPS, which is 25.2% lower than Medium and may introduce perceptible stutter on displays with higher refresh rates. For players with 60 Hz 4K displays, Ultra’s 71.8 FPS is still playable, but the data suggests High provides a safer margin. Low settings are only advisable for competitive play where maximum frame rate is paramount; at 1080p Low, the system hits 159.7 FPS, and at 4K Low, it still achieves 147.5 FPS, making it the only preset that exceeds 120 FPS at every resolution tested.

FAQ

*Q: Does the Intel Core i5-9400 bottleneck the RTX 3080 in Overpower?*

A: Yes, but only at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 159.7 FPS versus 147.5 FPS at 4K Low, a mere 7.6% difference, indicating the CPU caps performance. At Ultra settings, the gap widens to 27.4%, showing the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 100+ FPS?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings deliver 111.9 FPS and High delivers 107.8 FPS, both above 100 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low (147.5 FPS) and Medium (96 FPS) come close, with Medium narrowly missing the 100 FPS mark.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its nearest rivals in aggregate performance?

A: The RTX 3080 scores 35787 on average benchmarks, placing 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860) and 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36101). It leads the AMD Radeon 880M by 0.4% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile by 1%.

*Q: Is the 10 GB VRAM sufficient at 4K in Overpower?*

A: The measured data shows no VRAM-related performance collapse. At 4K Ultra, the system achieves 71.8 FPS, and at 4K High, it reaches 88.7 FPS, indicating the 10 GB GDDR6X memory with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth handles the game’s demands without throttling.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The gap is 60.8 FPS. Low settings hit 159.7 FPS, while Ultra drops to 98.9 FPS, a 38.1% reduction. This large delta suggests Ultra’s additional effects heavily tax the GPU even at the lowest resolution.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Overpower?*

A: The combo ranks 613th out of 1744 tested combos, placing it in the top 35.1% of all systems benchmarked for this game. This mid-tier ranking reflects the CPU’s age, as the RTX 3080’s GPU percentile (80th) is significantly higher.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 secures the 613th position out of 1744 tested combos in Overpower, placing it in the upper third of all systems. This ranking is influenced more by the CPU than the GPU. The RTX 3080 holds an 80th percentile position among all GPUs, while the i5-9400 sits at the 50th percentile among all CPUs. The disparity between these two percentiles explains why the combo does not crack the top 500—the six-core, six-thread processor from 2018 cannot consistently feed the 2020 flagship GPU.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 2305 places it in close competition with several rivals. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300, a 0.2% delta, and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 also scores 2299, another 0.2% delta. The Intel Xeon E-2134 trails by 0.4% with a score of 2295, while the Intel Core i7-8809G leads this group by 0.6% with a score of 2319. These marginal differences mean that swapping the i5-9400 for any of these chips would yield negligible changes in Overpower’s frame rates, as the CPU is not the primary constraint at higher settings.

The combo’s 613th rank reflects a system that is well-balanced for 1440p gaming but less optimized for 4K at the highest presets. At 4K Ultra, the 71.8 FPS result is 27.5% below the 4K High score of 88.7 FPS, demonstrating that the RTX 3080’s capabilities are the deciding factor at that resolution. Conversely, at 1080p Low, the 159.7 FPS result shows the CPU holding the system back, as the RTX 3080 could likely push higher if paired with a faster processor. The data suggests that users seeking higher rankings in Overpower would benefit more from a CPU upgrade than a GPU upgrade, given the RTX 3080’s strong standing relative to the processor.