Overpower

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the Intel Arc B570 occupies a mid-pack position in the Overpower benchmark hierarchy. Out of 2,980 tested combinations, this setup ranks 2,373rd, placing it in the lower third of the field. The data indicates that while this combo can deliver playable frame rates at several settings, it is not positioned to compete with top-tier configurations, and its ranking reflects a system that is more aligned with high-refresh 1080p gaming than with 4K dominance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 2,373 out of 2,980 tested combinations puts it at roughly the 20th percentile of all tested systems. This is a significant finding: despite pairing a high-end 24-core CPU with a discrete GPU, the overall gaming result is dragged down by the graphics card’s performance class. The CPU alone sits in the 96th percentile among all processors, while the GPU is in the 65th percentile among all graphics cards. The discrepancy between these two percentiles is the core story of this combo’s ranking.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this pairing. The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus achieves an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which scores 83,807. The delta between them is just 0.2%, meaning the 290K Plus is essentially tied with the 285K in synthetic workloads. It also leads the AMD EPYC 4584PX by 1.1% and the AMD EPYC 9135 by 1.2%, while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%. These are marginal differences, confirming that the CPU is performing at the expected level for its class.

On the GPU side, the Arc B570’s average benchmark score is 20,556. This is within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534) and within 0.1% of the Intel Arc A750 (20,582). The delta to the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M is 0.4% and to the AMD Radeon R9 M390X is -0.5%. These rival deltas are all under a single percentage point, which shows that the B570 is neither a standout nor a laggard in its segment; it is firmly in the middle of a cluster of similar-performing GPUs. The combination’s low rank is therefore a direct consequence of the GPU’s mid-tier standing, not a failure of the CPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across the four settings presets, with the most balanced experience found at Medium settings. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS. This is the only setting at this resolution that provides a frame rate comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining a minimum above 58 FPS. The Low preset reaches 110 FPS average, but it does so by sacrificing visual fidelity. High settings drop the average to 64 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra settings bring the average down to 53 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again offers the best compromise, with an average of 62 FPS, a minimum of 52 FPS, and a maximum of 71 FPS. The minimum frame time is slightly lower than at 1080p, but the average remains above 60 FPS. Low settings produce 98 FPS average, while High drops to 57 FPS and Ultra falls to 47 FPS. For 1440p gaming, Medium is the recommended preset because it is the only one that maintains an average above 60 FPS without resorting to the lowest quality tier.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes. The Medium preset yields an average of 52 FPS with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS. This is the only 4K setting with a measured minimum and maximum range, and it sits below the 60 FPS target. Low settings at 4K produce 84 FPS average, which is the only 4K preset to break 60 FPS. However, Low settings at 4K are visually unappealing for an action game. The data suggests that for a consistent 60 FPS experience, users should stick to 1080p or 1440p with Medium settings. At 4K, the choice is between the playable but sub-60 Medium preset or the higher-frame-rate Low preset.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a pattern consistent with a GPU-bound scenario. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS at Medium settings drops from 69 to 62, a reduction of 7 FPS. From 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the average drops further from 62 to 52, another 10 FPS reduction. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings is 17 FPS, which represents a 24.6% decrease in performance. This is a moderate scaling curve, indicating that the GPU is handling the increased pixel count with diminishing returns but not collapsing entirely.

At Low settings, the scaling is more dramatic. The average FPS goes from 110 at 1080p to 98 at 1440p, and then to 84 at 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 26 FPS, a 23.6% decrease. This suggests that even at the lowest quality settings, the GPU is the limiting factor when the resolution increases. At High settings, the averages are 64, 57, and 49 for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively, a total drop of 15 FPS (23.4%). At Ultra settings, the averages are 53, 47, and 40, a drop of 13 FPS (24.5%).

The consistent percentage drop across all settings indicates that the performance ceiling is tied to the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth. The Arc B570 has a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s, along with a memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. These figures are modest for 4K workloads. The data shows that the CPU, with its 5.80 GHz boost clock and 24 cores, is not the limiting component here. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain more constant as resolution increased. Instead, the steady decline in FPS with rising resolution points squarely at the GPU as the primary constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces the following average frame rates: Low delivers 110 FPS, Medium delivers 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS, High delivers 64 FPS, and Ultra delivers 53 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 57 FPS, which is the largest gap across all resolutions. This wide spread indicates that the game is highly sensitive to settings changes at this resolution, and the GPU has enough headroom to show clear differentiation between presets. The Medium preset’s minimum of 59 FPS is notably close to the 60 FPS target, making it the most stable choice in terms of frame pacing.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 98 FPS, Medium at 62 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 71 FPS, High at 57 FPS, and Ultra at 47 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 51 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 52 FPS is 10 FPS lower than its 1080p counterpart, showing that the increased resolution stresses the GPU more during demanding scenes. The maximum of 71 FPS indicates that less complex scenes can still reach high frame rates, but the average is pulled down by heavier moments.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 84 FPS, Medium at 52 FPS with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS, High at 49 FPS, and Ultra at 40 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 44 FPS, the smallest of all resolutions. This compression of the frame rate range suggests that the GPU is nearing its absolute limits at 4K, and even dropping to Low settings cannot fully compensate for the pixel count. The Medium preset’s maximum of 60 FPS is the only instance across all resolutions where a non-Low setting reaches the 60 FPS mark at 4K, but the average of 52 FPS and minimum of 44 FPS show that this is not a sustained experience.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the decisive component in this combo’s gaming performance. Its 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but strained at 4K. The GPU’s boost clock is fixed at 2500 MHz, with the base clock also at 2500 MHz, meaning there is no dynamic clock variation under load. This flat clock profile contributes to consistent performance but also means there is no headroom for burst speeds during intensive scenes.

The GPU’s 2,304 shading units and 144 TMUs produce a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s, while the 80 ROPs yield a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s. These figures place the B570 in the same performance band as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and the Intel Arc A750, as shown by the rival deltas of 0.1% and -0.1% respectively. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 11.52 TFLOPS is modest for an action game like Overpower, which relies heavily on pixel shading and post-processing effects.

The GPU’s 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms that it is a mid-range part. In Overpower, this translates to the measured frame rates: the GPU is capable of 60 FPS at 1080p Medium, but it cannot sustain that at 4K. The 4K Medium average of 52 FPS and the 4K Ultra average of 40 FPS are direct consequences of the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute throughput. The 380.0 GB/s bandwidth is simply not enough to feed the 160-bit bus at 4K resolutions, leading to the frame rate drops observed in the data.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a high-end processor that is severely underutilized in this gaming combination. With 24 cores and 24 threads, it offers substantial multi-threaded capability, which is reflected in its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and its Passmark multi-thread score of 60,860. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.80 GHz and base clock of 3.70 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7,303 and the Passmark single-thread score of 4,823.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 84,003 places it in the 96th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83,807, a delta of just 0.2%. This indicates that the 290K Plus is performing exactly as expected for its architecture and clock speeds. The CPU’s L3 cache of 36 MB and 3 MB L2 cache per core provide ample cache for gaming workloads, and its DDR5 memory support with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s ensures that memory is not a bottleneck.

In Overpower, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The data shows that the CPU is not limiting frame rates at any resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would plateau or drop more sharply at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work. Instead, the frame rates scale consistently with resolution, which is a hallmark of a GPU-bound system. The CPU’s 24 cores are more than sufficient for this action game, and its high single-thread performance ensures that it can handle the game’s main thread without becoming a constraint. The combo’s ranking is therefore not a reflection of CPU weakness but rather a consequence of pairing a top-tier CPU with a mid-tier GPU.