Overpower

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a dominant performance profile in Overpower, placing the combo in the 602nd position out of 2980 tested configurations. This combination leverages a 16-core Meteor Lake processor with a 5.10 GHz boost clock alongside a 24 GB GDDR6X GPU with a 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth, producing frame rates that consistently exceed 78 FPS even at 4K Ultra settings. The data reveals a system where the GPU is the primary driver of high-resolution performance, while the CPU's substantial multi-core capacity ensures no bottleneck at lower resolutions.

FAQ

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

A: The combination ranks 602nd out of 2980 tested combos, placing it in the top 20% of all systems. This percentile position indicates it outperforms roughly 80% of the other hardware pairings tested in this game, though it falls short of the extreme top-tier configurations.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 213 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the ceiling for this hardware in Overpower, with the same Low settings producing 190 FPS at 2560x1440 and 161 FPS at 3840x2160.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 102 at 1920x1080 to 91 at 2560x1440, and finally to 78 at 3840x2160. This represents a 23.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K, a relatively modest decline that suggests the GPU has substantial headroom even at the highest resolution.

Q: What is the frame time variance like at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: The Medium settings preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the range spans from 113 to 153 FPS (average 133); at 1440p, it spans from 101 to 136 FPS (average 118); and at 4K, it spans from 86 to 116 FPS (average 101). The consistent delta of roughly 30 FPS between minimum and maximum across all resolutions indicates stable frame pacing.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 60347, which is nearly identical to the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, 0% delta). It sits 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140) and 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58657), but trails the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61896) by 2.5%.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread performance?

A: The Core Ultra 9 185H scores 1810.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 17984.5 in multi-core, a ratio of approximately 1:10. This indicates strong scaling across its 16 cores and 22 threads, with the 5.10 GHz boost clock providing solid single-thread capability for game logic.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 serves as the undisputed performance anchor in this configuration, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 384-bit bus width delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory subsystem is critical for Overpower's high-resolution textures, as the data shows the GPU maintaining playable frame rates even at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings (78 FPS average). The GPU's 16,384 shading units and 512 tensor cores provide the raw compute necessary for the game's action sequences, while the 128 RT cores handle any ray-traced effects that may be present.

The clock behavior reveals interesting characteristics: the base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz represent a 12.7% boost headroom. This dynamic clocking allows the GPU to scale its performance based on thermal and power headroom, which is evident in the measured FPS data. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance positions it as an extreme-tier mobile solution, yet the benchmark data shows it performing within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 and 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M in synthetic tests. This suggests that while the RTX 4090 dominates in raw specifications, its actual game performance in Overpower may be influenced by driver optimizations and the game's engine characteristics.

The GPU's memory configuration deserves particular attention. With 24 GB of VRAM, the RTX 4090 never approaches capacity constraints in Overpower, even at 4K Ultra settings. This is evidenced by the relatively linear FPS scaling across settings presets at each resolution. At 4K, the jump from Low (161 FPS) to Medium (101 FPS) represents a 37.3% performance hit, while the jump from Medium to High (93 FPS) is only an 8.6% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being taxed differently by each preset, with the Medium-to-High transition requiring proportionally fewer additional resources.

The GPU's pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s provide the fill rate necessary for Overpower's visual effects. The 176 ROPs handle the final pixel output, and the 512 TMUs manage texture filtering across the game's detailed environments. The data shows that the GPU maintains a minimum of 78 FPS even in the most demanding configuration tested, indicating that the RTX 4090 has sufficient headroom to handle future content updates or additional visual features.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that highlights the GPU's dominance in this pairing. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Low settings reduces average FPS from 213 to 190, a 10.8% drop. The subsequent move from 1440p to 3840x2160 at Low settings further reduces FPS to 161, an additional 15.3% reduction. This cumulative 24.4% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings demonstrates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU has ample headroom at these lower graphics loads.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at higher quality settings. At High settings, the FPS drops from 123 at 1080p to 110 at 1440p (10.6% reduction), then to 93 at 4K (15.5% reduction). The Ultra preset shows similar proportional drops: 102 to 91 (10.8%) from 1080p to 1440p, then 91 to 78 (14.3%) from 1440p to 4K. This consistent ~10-15% reduction per resolution step indicates that the GPU is scaling predictably with pixel count, rather than hitting any unexpected memory or bandwidth walls.

The Medium settings preset provides the most detailed picture of scaling behavior, as it includes minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the range is 113-153 FPS; at 1440p, it narrows to 101-136 FPS; and at 4K, it further narrows to 86-116 FPS. The delta between minimum and maximum remains relatively constant at approximately 30 FPS across all resolutions, suggesting that the frame pacing is consistent regardless of resolution. This consistency implies that the CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at all resolutions up to 4K, with no signs of CPU-induced frame drops.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p Low settings (213 FPS), the CPU's single-thread performance of 1810.5 in Cinebench R23 becomes more relevant, as the GPU could potentially render even faster if the CPU could supply frames quicker. However, at 4K Ultra (78 FPS), the GPU's compute resources are clearly the limiting factor, with the RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS being fully utilized. This behavior is typical for high-end mobile GPUs paired with strong CPUs, where the balance point shifts from CPU-bound at low resolutions to GPU-bound at high resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination delivers its highest performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 213 FPS, which represents the absolute ceiling for this hardware in Overpower. Medium settings reduce this to 133 FPS with a range of 113-153 FPS, while High settings further reduce performance to 123 FPS. Ultra settings produce 102 FPS, which is still well above the refresh rate of most high-refresh-rate monitors. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 52.1% performance reduction, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes significant additional rendering demands.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains robust but shows expected reductions. Low settings produce 190 FPS, Medium produces 118 FPS (range 101-136), High produces 110 FPS, and Ultra produces 91 FPS. The 1440p results show a 52.1% reduction from Low to Ultra, identical to the 1080p scaling. This consistency suggests that the game's settings presets have similar relative impacts regardless of resolution, with the GPU scaling its resource allocation proportionally.

The 3840x2160 results represent the most demanding scenarios tested. Low settings produce 161 FPS, Medium produces 101 FPS (range 86-116), High produces 93 FPS, and Ultra produces 78 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra scaling at 4K shows a 51.6% reduction, nearly matching the lower resolutions. The absolute minimum FPS recorded across all tests is 86 FPS at 4K Medium settings, which is still comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The fact that even the most demanding configuration (4K Ultra) maintains an average of 78 FPS demonstrates the exceptional headroom of this hardware combination.

The Medium settings data provides the only complete picture of FPS variance. At all three resolutions, the minimum FPS sits approximately 15-20% below the average, while the maximum sits approximately 15-20% above. This symmetric distribution suggests consistent frame pacing without major spikes or drops, which is critical for action games where stuttering can be detrimental to gameplay. The narrow range at 4K (86-116 FPS versus 113-153 FPS at 1080p) indicates that higher resolutions actually smooth out some of the frame time variance, potentially due to reduced CPU overhead relative to GPU rendering time.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 602 out of 2980 tested configurations places it in the 79.8th percentile of all tested hardware combinations in Overpower. This means that approximately 80% of tested systems perform worse than this configuration, while 20% perform better. The rank reflects a balanced pairing where neither component significantly bottlenecks the other, allowing the system to deliver consistent performance across all tested scenarios.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 85th among all CPUs, combined with the GPU's 88th percentile ranking, suggests that this combo represents a near-top-tier pairing in terms of individual component performance. However, the combo's 602nd rank (79.8th percentile) is slightly lower than either component's individual percentile, indicating that the pairing may not fully utilize the potential of both components simultaneously. This could be due to thermal constraints in the mobile form factor or power delivery limitations that prevent both components from operating at their maximum potential concurrently.

The nearest rival CPUs to the Core Ultra 9 185H provide context for its role in this combo. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 has an average score of 35719, just 0.1% behind the Intel chip's 35670, while the Intel Core 7 250H trails by 0.2% with 35728. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 sits 0.4% behind, and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X trails by 0.7%. These extremely close margins indicate that the CPU is not providing any significant advantage or disadvantage relative to its direct competitors, with performance differences well within measurement noise.

The GPU's ranking context shows a more varied picture. The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 60347 places it nearly exactly at parity with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, 0% delta) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140). However, it trails the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M by 2.5% (61896) and leads the AMD Radeon PRO V710 by 2.9% (58657). These mixed results suggest that the RTX 4090's performance in Overpower is not strictly determined by its synthetic benchmark scores, and the game's engine may favor certain architectural characteristics over raw compute power.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium settings preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium produces 133 FPS with a range of 113-153 FPS, which provides a comfortable margin above 120 FPS for high-refresh-rate displays while maintaining visual quality. At 1440p, Medium produces 118 FPS with a range of 101-136 FPS, still exceeding 100 FPS for smooth gameplay. Even at 4K, Medium maintains 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 FPS, ensuring no drops below the critical 60 FPS threshold.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the Ultra preset is viable at all resolutions, though with diminishing returns at higher resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra produces 102 FPS, which is still excellent for most displays. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 91 FPS, and at 4K, it reaches 78 FPS. These figures indicate that Ultra is playable at 4K but may not fully utilize high-refresh-rate monitors, as the average FPS falls below 100.

The High preset offers a middle ground, with 123 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p, and 93 FPS at 4K. The data shows that High provides only marginal improvements over Medium (8.4% at 1080p, 7.4% at 1440p, and 8.6% at 4K) while requiring more GPU resources. For players who value consistency and frame rate stability, Medium appears to be the optimal choice, as it provides the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom.

The Low preset should be reserved for competitive play scenarios where maximum frame rates are paramount. At 1080p, Low produces 213 FPS, which is ideal for 240Hz displays. At 1440p, Low produces 190 FPS, and at 4K, it produces 161 FPS. These high frame rates come at the cost of visual fidelity, but the data shows that the GPU has substantial headroom even at Low settings, suggesting that players could potentially enable additional visual features without sacrificing competitive advantage.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H plays a supporting role in this configuration, providing the computational foundation for Overpower's game logic and physics. With 16 cores and 22 threads, the CPU offers substantial multi-threaded capacity, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5. The boost clock of 5.10 GHz provides strong single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1810.5, ensuring that game logic threads are processed efficiently.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s via dual-channel DDR5 provides sufficient data throughput for feeding the GPU's 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce latency for frequently accessed data, while the 2 MB L2 cache per core provides fast access to working sets. The 7 nm process node and 45 W TDP indicate that this is a power-efficient chip, though the GPU's 450 W TDP dominates the system's thermal budget.

The CPU's benchmark results show it performing within 0.7% of its nearest rivals, indicating that the Core Ultra 9 185H is not providing any significant advantage over competing mobile processors in this game. The passmark multi-thread score of 29376 and single-thread score of 3697 demonstrate balanced performance across both single and multi-threaded workloads. The Geekbench scores (11657 multi-core, 1794 single-core) further confirm this balanced profile.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in Overpower, as the FPS scaling across resolutions follows the expected pattern of GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p Low settings, the 213 FPS average indicates that the CPU can maintain frame delivery at high rates, but the GPU's rendering speed becomes the bottleneck as resolutions increase. The CPU's 16 cores provide ample capacity for any background processes or streaming applications that players might run alongside the game, ensuring that the system remains responsive even during intense gameplay sequences.