Overpower

FAQ

Q: What is the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus's standing among all tested CPUs?

A: The processor sits in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,003. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83,807, putting the 290K Plus just 0.2% ahead, while the AMD EPYC 7F72 scores 85,072, which is 1.3% higher.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to its closest GPU competitors?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 17,208 and ranks in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. It leads the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17,083) by 0.7% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17,037) by 1.0%, while trailing the NVIDIA Tesla K40c (17,468) by 1.5%.

Q: What are the measured frame rates at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo produces an average of 84 FPS. The Medium preset yields 109 FPS average (with a minimum of 92 and maximum of 125), High delivers 101 FPS, and Low reaches 174 FPS.

Q: Does the 4K Ultra preset maintain playable performance?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 63. The Medium preset at 4K provides 82 FPS average (minimum 70, maximum 95), High gives 76 FPS, and Low offers 132 FPS, showing that Ultra at 4K is the most demanding configuration tested.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in Overpower?

A: This pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1,237 out of 2,980 tested combos in the game, placing it in the upper portion of the field.

Q: What is the VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth of the GPU?

A: The RTX 3070 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA104 chip, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors across a 392 mm² die. Its shading units number 5,888, paired with 184 texture mapping units and 96 raster operation pipelines. The GPU also carries 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, which support the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 APIs.

Clock behavior matters for this game's results. The base clock runs at 1500 MHz with a boost of 1725 MHz. The pixel rate is 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate is 317.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 20.31 TFLOPS (and FP16 at 20.31 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio). These figures indicate a GPU that can push geometry and texture throughput effectively, but the 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a constraint at higher resolutions and settings.

Looking at the measured FPS data, the GPU's role shifts dramatically with settings. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 174 FPS average, but dropping to Ultra reduces that to 84 FPS — a 51.7% reduction. The same pattern appears at 1440p, where Low produces 155 FPS and Ultra drops to 75 FPS. At 4K, Low yields 132 FPS while Ultra falls to 63 FPS. This scaling suggests that the RTX 3070's compute resources are heavily taxed by the higher preset levels, particularly the ray tracing cores and tensor cores which would be engaged at Ultra.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is notable here. At 4K Ultra, the game likely approaches or exceeds this limit, which could explain why the average FPS drops to 63 — the lowest measured value across the entire dataset. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s provides substantial throughput, but the capacity ceiling may force texture streaming or compression that impacts frame pacing. The measured Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum FPS of 70 and maximum of 95, with an average of 82, indicating that even one step below Ultra yields significantly more headroom.

Comparing to rivals, the RTX 3070's average benchmark score of 17,208 places it just 0.7% above the RX 7600 XT. In Overpower specifically, this margin may translate to a few FPS at best. The GPU's percentile rank of 61 means it sits above the median but not in the upper echelon, which aligns with the observed 4K Ultra performance hovering near 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake Refresh codename. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, drawing 125 W TDP. Built on TSMC's 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die, this CPU supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 115.2 GB/s bandwidth and ECC memory capability.

The CPU's cache hierarchy is substantial: 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. This structure benefits workloads that exhibit data locality, which can include game logic and physics calculations. The processor also integrates Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units, though the discrete RTX 3070 handles rendering duties.

Benchmark results place this CPU in the 96th percentile. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 51,731, with a single-core score of 7,303. Passmark multi-thread performance hits 60,860, and single-thread scores 4,823. These numbers indicate strong sustained all-core performance and excellent single-thread responsiveness, both of which matter for game engines that may have one or two dominant threads.

In Overpower, the CPU's role is evident when examining the FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 174 FPS average, which is the highest measured value. This suggests the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower graphical loads. However, at 1080p Ultra, the FPS drops to 84, which is nearly identical to the 4K Ultra result of 63 FPS — a smaller relative drop (from 84 to 63, or 25%) compared to the Low preset's drop from 174 to 132 (24.1%). This pattern indicates that at lower settings, the CPU is more likely to be a limiting factor, while at higher settings, the GPU takes over as the primary bottleneck.

The nearest rival data shows the 290K Plus is nearly tied with the 285K (0.2% difference). The AMD EPYC 4584PX is 1.1% behind, and the EPYC 9135 is 1.2% behind. The EPYC 7F72 leads by 1.3%. These small deltas suggest that among high-end CPUs, the 290K Plus is competitive but not dominant. In a game like Overpower, where frame rates at 1080p Low reach 174 FPS, the CPU's 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock likely prevent CPU-bound stutters, though the absence of min FPS data for Low settings prevents a fuller assessment.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 109 FPS average with a minimum of 92 FPS and maximum of 125 FPS. This represents the best balance between visual fidelity and smoothness, as the minimum stays above 90 FPS, which is typically considered comfortable for action games. The High preset at 1080p yields 101 FPS average but no min/max data, suggesting slightly less stability. Low at 1080p reaches 174 FPS but sacrifices visual quality significantly.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out with 97 FPS average, minimum 82 FPS, and maximum 111 FPS. High falls to 90 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 75 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 82 FPS indicates the combo can maintain near-90 FPS even in demanding scenes, making it the recommended choice for 1440p gaming.

For 3840x2160, the situation changes. Medium produces 82 FPS average (minimum 70, maximum 95), High gives 76 FPS, and Ultra falls to 63 FPS. Low at 4K achieves 132 FPS but would look noticeably less detailed. The Medium preset at 4K offers the best compromise, with an average above 80 FPS and a minimum of 70 FPS, which remains playable for most action games. Ultra at 4K dips to 63 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced gameplay but risks noticeable drops.

The data implies that Medium is the sweet spot across all resolutions. At 1080p, it provides a 29.4% improvement over Ultra (109 vs 84 FPS). At 1440p, the gap is also notable: 97 vs 75 FPS, a 29.3% uplift. At 4K, Medium beats Ultra by 30.2% (82 vs 63 FPS). These consistent margins suggest that the Ultra preset enables costly effects that provide diminishing visual returns while substantially reducing frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1,237 out of 2,980 tested combos in Overpower. This places it in the 58.5th percentile of all combinations (calculated as 1 - 1237/2980). The rank reflects the GPU's limitations more than the CPU's strengths, given that the CPU sits in the 96th percentile while the GPU is only in the 61st percentile.

The data suggests that in Overpower, the RTX 3070 is the constraining component. The CPU's high percentile rank (96) compared to the GPU's (61) creates an imbalance where the processor has significant headroom that the GPU cannot utilize. This is visible in the FPS scaling: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 174 FPS, but the CPU could likely push higher if the GPU allowed it. The combo's rank of 1,237 implies that many other pairings in the database achieve better performance, likely those with higher-tier GPUs.

Among the GPU's nearest rivals, the RX 7600 XT has a nearly identical average score (0.7% difference). In Overpower, this could mean the 290K Plus paired with an RX 7600 XT would perform similarly, though the NVIDIA card's ray tracing capabilities might offer advantages in specific scenes. The GTX 690 and HD 7970M are also close in score, but these are older architectures that may lack features like DirectX 12 Ultimate support.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset covers three resolutions and four settings levels each.

1920x1080:

• Low: 174 FPS average
• Medium: 109 FPS average, 92 FPS minimum, 125 FPS maximum
• High: 101 FPS average
• Ultra: 84 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 155 FPS average
• Medium: 97 FPS average, 82 FPS minimum, 111 FPS maximum
• High: 90 FPS average
• Ultra: 75 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 132 FPS average
• Medium: 82 FPS average, 70 FPS minimum, 95 FPS maximum
• High: 76 FPS average
• Ultra: 63 FPS average

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data across all resolutions, providing insight into frame consistency. At 1080p, the range from minimum to maximum spans 33 FPS (92 to 125), at 1440p it spans 29 FPS (82 to 111), and at 4K it spans 25 FPS (70 to 95). This narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded, reducing variance.

The Low preset shows the largest FPS values at each resolution: 174 at 1080p, 155 at 1440p, and 132 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K for Low is 24.1% (174 to 132). For Medium, the drop is 24.8% (109 to 82). High drops by 24.8% (101 to 76). Ultra drops by 25% (84 to 63). These similar percentage drops across settings indicate that resolution scaling affects all presets nearly equally, pointing to a consistent bottleneck behavior.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS reduction from 1080p to 4K follows a clear pattern. For every preset, the average FPS at 4K is roughly 72-76% of the 1080p value. The Low preset drops from 174 to 132 (75.9% retention), Medium from 109 to 82 (75.2%), High from 101 to 76 (75.2%), and Ultra from 84 to 63 (75.0%).

This consistent retention rate suggests that the limiting factor scales with pixel count rather than with settings complexity. If the CPU were the primary bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions at lower settings, since the CPU workload doesn't increase with resolution. Instead, the data shows a uniform decrease, indicating that the RTX 3070's rendering throughput is the dominant constraint.

The GPU's pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s provide context. At 4K (3840x2160 = 8.3 million pixels), the theoretical pixel fill rate allows for approximately 19,940 FPS at full utilization, but real-world performance is far lower due to shader complexity, memory bandwidth, and other factors. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s becomes more critical at higher resolutions, as each frame requires more texture data to be fetched.

Between 1440p and 4K, the FPS drops are notable but not extreme. For Medium, the drop is from 97 to 82 FPS (a 15.5% reduction). For Ultra, it's from 75 to 63 FPS (16% reduction). These smaller percentage drops compared to the 1080p to 1440p transition suggest that the 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 4K at Medium settings, but the 4K Ultra result of 63 FPS may indicate that VRAM is being strained. The absence of min FPS data for Ultra settings leaves this question open, but the overall trend points to a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 3070's capabilities are being fully exercised at 4K.