Overpower

# Overpower — Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

The measured frame rates for this configuration place it in the 94th percentile of all tested combos (rank 178 out of 2980), indicating a high-performance pairing that excels across all resolution tiers. The data shows a system that maintains playable framerates even at 4K Ultra, with the scaling pattern between settings and resolutions revealing a balanced but GPU-dominated workload.

Resolution Scaling

The framerate progression from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling, with the CPU headroom becoming more apparent at lower resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 156 at 1920x1080 to 139 at 2560x1440, then further to 118 at 3840x2160. This represents an 11% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 24% reduction from 1440p to 4K — a relatively gentle scaling curve that suggests the RTX 4080 SUPER maintains strong performance even as pixel count quadruples.

The Low settings row reveals the CPU's capability ceiling more clearly. At 1920x1080 Low, the system hits 269 FPS, which drops to 240 at 2560x1440 and 204 at 3840x2160. The 1080p-to-1440p delta of 29 FPS (11%) is nearly identical to the High settings drop, but the 1440p-to-4K reduction of 36 FPS (15%) is smaller than the High settings drop of 21 FPS (15% — actually 15% in both cases). This consistency suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU remains the primary limiter across all resolutions, though the CPU's 20-core configuration clearly has sufficient throughput to feed the GPU at even the highest frame rates.

The Medium settings row, which is the only one with min/max FPS data, shows a 1080p average of 168 FPS with a minimum of 143 and maximum of 193. At 1440p, this shifts to 150 average (127 min, 172 max), and at 4K, 127 average (108 min, 147 max). The minimum-to-maximum spread of 50 FPS at 1080p narrows to 39 FPS at 4K, indicating that higher resolutions compress the framerate variance — a typical sign that the GPU's consistent throughput at lower resolutions is replaced by more uniform work distribution at higher pixel counts.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling: 130 FPS at 1080p, 115 at 1440p, and 98 at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop of 32 FPS (25%) is the largest percentage reduction across all settings, confirming that the Ultra preset's increased shading and post-processing demands scale more aggressively with resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 269 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest is 98 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

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

A: It ranks 178th out of 2980 tested combos, placing it in the top 6% of all configurations for this game.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU remains the limiting factor even at 1080p Low, where the 269 FPS average still represents a significant workload for the RTX 4080 SUPER. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265's 20-core configuration provides sufficient headroom.

Q: What is the difference between High and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers 118 FPS average while Ultra delivers 98 FPS — a 20 FPS (17%) reduction for the higher quality tier.

Q: Which resolution provides the smoothest experience relative to visual quality?

A: The 2560x1440 High preset at 139 FPS offers a strong balance, being only 17 FPS below the 1080p High number while providing substantially more detail than 1080p.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: The measured results show no performance degradation at 4K Ultra, indicating the 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 736.3 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for the game's demands at all tested settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 brings 20 cores and 20 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This Arrow Lake-S architecture processor, built on TSMC's 3 nm process, demonstrates strong synthetic performance with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42,216 and a single-core score of 5,960. The PassMark multi-thread score of 49,682 and single-thread score of 4,689 further corroborate a balanced design capable of both high-frequency single-threaded workloads and substantial multi-threaded throughput.

In the context of Overpower, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the relatively small framerate differences between Low and Medium settings. At 1080p, the jump from Low (269 FPS) to Medium (168 FPS) represents a 37% reduction, while the jump from Medium to High (156 FPS) is only 7%. This pattern suggests that the game's engine becomes GPU-limited early, and the CPU's 20-thread configuration is more than adequate to avoid becoming a constraint even at the highest refresh rates.

The processor's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample on-die storage for game data, while the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth ensures the GPU receives a steady stream of frame data. The 65 W TDP indicates an efficient design that should not thermally throttle in sustained gaming sessions, though the unlocked multiplier is absent, meaning overclocking is not available to extract additional performance.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 178 out of 2,980 tested combinations, this pairing sits comfortably in the top 6% of all systems evaluated for Overpower. This placement reflects the synergy between the Intel Core Ultra 7 265's strong multi-core capabilities and the RTX 4080 SUPER's high-end rasterization performance. The combo's position suggests it outperforms the vast majority of configurations, including many with higher-end CPUs or GPUs that may have mismatched pairings.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 93 versus all processors indicates it is near the top of the CPU hierarchy, while the GPU's 86th percentile shows slightly lower relative standing. The combination of a top-decile CPU with a near-top-decile GPU produces a system that ranks in the 94th percentile overall, demonstrating that the pairing is well-balanced for this title. The GPU's average benchmark score of 54,209 is within 0.1% of the RTX 4080 non-SUPER (54,247), with a deltaPct of -0.1%, suggesting that the SUPER variant's additional performance is marginal in synthetic tests but may still provide benefits in real-world gaming scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration delivers its highest framerates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 269 FPS, Medium 168 FPS (with a minimum of 143 and maximum of 193), High 156 FPS, and Ultra 130 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 139 FPS, representing a 48% reduction when moving from the lowest to highest quality preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 240 FPS at Low, 150 FPS at Medium (127 min, 172 max), 139 FPS at High, and 115 FPS at Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 125 FPS (48% reduction), maintaining the same percentage scaling as 1080p. The Medium setting's minimum of 127 FPS ensures that even in demanding scenes, the framerate remains well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 204 FPS at Low, 127 FPS at Medium (108 min, 147 max), 118 FPS at High, and 98 FPS at Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread compresses to 106 FPS (48% reduction), continuing the consistent scaling pattern. The 4K Medium minimum of 108 FPS indicates that even under load, the system maintains a framerate high enough for high-refresh-rate displays, though the Ultra preset's 98 FPS average sits just below the 100 FPS mark.

The data reveals that the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance scales almost linearly with resolution when settings are held constant. For High settings, the framerate ratios between 1080p, 1440p, and 4K are 1.00 : 0.89 : 0.76, closely matching the expected GPU workload increase from pixel count alone.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data supports different optimal presets depending on the target display and framerate preference. For 1080p displays with high refresh rates (144Hz or above), the High preset at 156 FPS provides a smooth experience while maintaining visual quality, but players seeking maximum framerates for competitive play can utilize Low settings at 269 FPS, which exceeds even 240Hz display capabilities.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 139 FPS is the recommended choice for most users, as it delivers 60% more framerate than Ultra while providing most of the visual benefits. The Medium preset at 150 FPS offers a slight framerate advantage with a minimum of 127 FPS, which may be preferable for those sensitive to frame dips. Ultra at 115 FPS remains viable for users prioritizing image quality over raw performance.

The 4K resolution presents a trade-off: Ultra at 98 FPS is playable but approaches the 90 FPS threshold where some users perceive smoothness degradation, while High at 118 FPS provides a more comfortable margin. Medium at 127 FPS with a 108 FPS minimum offers the best combination of visual fidelity and framerate stability for 4K displays. For users with 120Hz or 144Hz 4K panels, the High preset's 118 FPS average is the most balanced choice, as it stays within the display's refresh window while maintaining substantial graphical detail.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, serves as the primary performance driver in this configuration. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which the measured results show is sufficient for even the most demanding 4K Ultra scenarios. The GPU's boost clock of 2550 MHz and 10,240 shading units deliver 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, translating to the high framerates observed across all tested configurations.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores corroborate its strong gaming performance: a PassMark G3D score of 34,245 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,600 indicate solid rasterization capabilities. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 260,075 and OpenCL score of 219,065 suggest the GPU handles compute-heavy workloads effectively, which may benefit Overpower's physics and particle effects. The 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing and DLSS features, though the measured FPS data does not include these specific scenarios.

The GPU's 86th percentile ranking places it slightly below the CPU's 93rd percentile, yet the combo's overall ranking (94th percentile) exceeds both individual components' percentiles. This suggests the pairing extracts more performance than the sum of its parts, likely due to the CPU's robust multi-threaded capabilities preventing any frame-pacing issues. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 320 W TDP and triple-slot design indicate a power-hungry but well-cooled solution, and the 16 GB VRAM capacity ensures that texture-heavy scenes at 4K Ultra do not cause memory-related stutters — a common issue with lower-capacity cards.