Overpower

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile delivers a high-refresh-rate experience in Overpower, but the data reveals a clear performance hierarchy. At 1080p, the combination is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower settings, while 4K Ultra remains playable but demands compromise. The benchmark results show a system that prioritizes raw frame generation over resolution fidelity, with scaling patterns that highlight the RTX 4090 Mobile’s dominance and the Core Ultra 7 165H’s adequate supporting role.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured frame rates show a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases, though the pattern is not uniform across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 213 at 1920x1080 to 190 at 2560x1440, then falls to 161 at 3840x2160. This represents a 24.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a moderate penalty. The scaling suggests that at Low settings, the GPU still has substantial headroom, and the CPU is not the primary bottleneck—the frame rate remains exceptionally high even at 4K.

Moving to Medium settings, the averages are 133 at 1080p, 118 at 1440p, and 101 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 24.1%, nearly identical to Low. This consistency indicates that the rendering pipeline is handling the increased pixel count efficiently, and the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading power are scaling predictably. The min FPS values for Medium (113 at 1080p, 101 at 1440p, 86 at 4K) show a similar proportional decline, suggesting no sudden stutters or thermal throttling in the measured data.

At High settings, the averages are 123 at 1080p, 110 at 1440p, and 93 at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop is 24.4%, matching the Low and Medium patterns. However, the absolute gap between 1080p and 1440p (13 FPS) is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K (17 FPS). This suggests that pixel fill rate becomes more demanding as resolution increases, but the effect is gradual rather than exponential.

Ultra settings show the most significant scaling penalty. The averages are 102 at 1080p, 91 at 1440p, and 78 at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop is 23.5%, slightly less than the other presets. Interestingly, the difference between 1440p and 4K is only 13 FPS, while the difference between 1080p and 1440p is 11 FPS. This near-linear scaling indicates that at Ultra, the GPU’s compute units are the limiting factor, and the frame rate is constrained by the sheer workload of the highest settings.

Across all presets, the resolution scaling reveals that the RTX 4090 Mobile is the dominant performer. The CPU’s role becomes more apparent at 1080p Low, where 213 FPS is achieved—a figure that would stress many processors. The fact that the average FPS drops by roughly 24% when moving to 4K, regardless of settings, points to a GPU that is consistently the main bottleneck. The Core Ultra 7 165H with its 16 cores and 22 threads provides enough headroom to avoid becoming a limiting factor at these resolutions, though the data does not isolate CPU-specific bottlenecks in this title.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It packs 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, with a transistor density of 121.1M per mm². The GPU’s base clock is 1335 MHz with a boost clock of 1695 MHz, and its memory runs at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). This configuration delivers a pixel rate of 189.8 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 515.3 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 32.98 TFLOPS.

The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Overpower, this bandwidth appears sufficient to maintain high frame rates even at 4K. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS is 78, which is playable, and the gap between Medium (101 FPS) and Ultra (78 FPS) suggests that memory bandwidth is not the primary constraint—the shading units and ROPs are doing the heavy lifting.

The GPU’s 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs are substantial for a mobile part. The 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are present, though their specific impact on Overpower is not measured in the provided data. The FP16 performance matches FP32 at 32.98 TFLOPS, indicating a 1:1 ratio that could benefit compute-heavy workloads, but the game’s frame rates are more likely driven by traditional rasterization.

The RTX 4090 Mobile’s TDP is 120 W, which is notable for a mobile GPU. The power envelope allows for sustained boost clocks, which is reflected in the 4K Low result of 161 FPS—a figure that would be unattainable if the GPU were power-limited. The benchmark scores corroborate this: the Passmark G3D score is 27212, and the Geekbench OpenCL score is 180831, placing the GPU in the 84th percentile of all GPUs.

In terms of rivals, the RTX 4090 Mobile sits close to the NVIDIA RTX A6000, which has an average score of 44075 versus 43667 for this mobile part (a delta of -0.9%). It also edges out the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (43301, +0.8%) and the GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (43268, +0.9%). This positioning confirms that the RTX 4090 Mobile is a top-tier mobile GPU, and its performance in Overpower reflects that status.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a Meteor Lake mobile processor with 16 cores and 22 threads. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and it carries a TDP of 28 W. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3. This configuration delivers strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14551 and a single-core score of 1759.

In Overpower, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, but the data still shows its influence. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 213, which is a demanding scenario for any processor. The fact that this frame rate is achieved suggests the Core Ultra 7 165H can feed the RTX 4090 Mobile effectively. The Passmark multi-thread score of 25933 and single-thread score of 3509 indicate strong per-core performance, which is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.

The CPU’s memory support includes DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. This bandwidth is sufficient for gaming, as the GPU has its own dedicated VRAM. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 8 lanes (CPU only) provides adequate bandwidth for the RTX 4090 Mobile, which uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

The integrated Arc Xe-LPG 128EU graphics could theoretically offload some tasks, but the discrete RTX 4090 Mobile handles all rendering in the measured results. The CPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it competitively. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (avg score 33989, delta +0.3%), the AMD EPYC 4244P (34220, delta -0.4%), and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, delta -0.4%). These margins are tiny, indicating that the Core Ultra 7 165H is well within the expected performance band for its class.

For gaming, the CPU’s boost clock of 5.00 GHz is the key metric. In Overpower, the frame rates at 1440p and 4K show less CPU sensitivity, with the GPU becoming the limiting factor. However, at 1080p Low, the 213 FPS average suggests the CPU is still capable of high-throughput scenarios, even if it is not the primary driver of the results.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured frame rates show a clear progression by settings. Low settings produce an average of 213 FPS, which is the highest figure in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 133 FPS with a minimum of 113 and maximum of 153. High settings average 123 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 102 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 80 FPS, highlighting the significant impact of the first tier of graphical improvements. The gap between Medium and High is just 10 FPS, while High to Ultra is 21 FPS, indicating diminishing returns as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute values. Low settings average 190 FPS, Medium averages 118 FPS (min 101, max 136), High averages 110 FPS, and Ultra averages 91 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 72 FPS, slightly less than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is starting to feel the resolution pressure. The Medium-to-High gap is 8 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 19 FPS, maintaining the trend of larger drops at the higher settings.

At 3840x2160, the 4K results are the most demanding. Low settings still manage 161 FPS, which is impressive for 4K. Medium settings average 101 FPS (min 86, max 116), High averages 93 FPS, and Ultra averages 78 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap is 60 FPS, the Medium-to-High gap is 8 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra gap is 15 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 78 FPS is the lowest in the dataset, but it remains above 60 FPS, indicating that the system can handle 4K gaming with some settings compromises.

The min FPS values are only provided for Medium settings across all resolutions. At 1080p, the min is 113 FPS; at 1440p, it is 101 FPS; and at 4K, it is 86 FPS. These minima are close to the averages, suggesting consistent frame pacing without major dips. The max FPS values follow a similar pattern, with 153 at 1080p, 136 at 1440p, and 116 at 4K, indicating that the frame rate variation is contained.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile ranks 815th out of 3713 tested combos in Overpower. This places it in the top 22% of all combinations, which is a solid result given the breadth of hardware tested. The rank reflects the system’s ability to deliver high frame rates across all resolutions and settings, with the RTX 4090 Mobile driving the performance.

The GPU’s individual ranking is in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, and the CPU is also in the 84th percentile. When combined, the system’s rank in the game suggests that the pairing is well-balanced, with neither component dragging the other down. The GPU’s nearest rivals—the RTX A6000, Quadro M6000, and RTX 5050 Mobile—all have similar average scores, but the RTX 4090 Mobile’s 16 GB VRAM and 120 W TDP give it an edge in this title.

The combo rank of 815 out of 3713 indicates that there are 814 combinations that perform better, likely featuring desktop-class GPUs or higher-end mobile parts. However, for a mobile platform, this is a strong showing. The data shows that the system can achieve 213 FPS at 1080p Low, which is competitive with many desktop setups. The rank also implies that the system is not at the absolute top, but it is comfortably in the upper quartile, making it a viable choice for high-refresh-rate gaming.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience in Overpower. At 1080p, Low settings deliver 213 FPS, which is ideal for esports-style play or high-refresh-rate monitors. However, Medium settings at 133 FPS (min 113, max 153) offer a better balance of visual quality and performance, and the 80 FPS drop from Low is worth the graphical improvement for most players. High settings at 123 FPS are also viable, but the 10 FPS gain over Medium does not justify the visual downgrade.

At 1440p, Medium settings at 118 FPS (min 101, max 136) are the sweet spot. The 72 FPS drop from Low to Medium is significant, but the visual fidelity gain is substantial. High settings at 110 FPS are close behind, and Ultra at 91 FPS is still playable for those who prioritize visuals. For a balanced experience, Medium is recommended, as it maintains over 100 FPS while providing a solid visual presentation.

At 4K, the recommendations shift. Low settings at 161 FPS are excessively high for most displays, and Medium at 101 FPS (min 86, max 116) is the best choice for high-refresh 4K monitors. High at 93 FPS is slightly lower but still smooth, and Ultra at 78 FPS is the most demanding option. Given that 78 FPS is above 60 FPS, Ultra is playable, but Medium offers a 23 FPS advantage with a minimal visual difference. For the best overall experience at 4K, Medium is the recommended preset, as it provides a high frame rate while retaining sufficient detail.

Across all resolutions, the data indicates that Medium settings offer the most consistent performance. The min FPS values at Medium (113 at 1080p, 101 at 1440p, 86 at 4K) are all above 60 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience without major drops. For users with high-refresh displays, 4K Medium at 101 FPS is the standout choice, while 1080p Medium at 133 FPS is ideal for competitive play. The RTX 4090 Mobile proves capable of handling 4K, but the Core Ultra 7 165H ensures that the system never feels CPU-limited at these settings.