Ready Or Not

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers extreme performance in Ready Or Not, with benchmark results showing that the game is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-sensitive at 1080p. The measured frame rates indicate a system capable of exploiting high-refresh-rate displays, though the scaling pattern reveals where the bottleneck shifts.

Resolution Scaling

The progression from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a classic performance curve, with the RTX 5090 providing massive headroom at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 421 FPS average; moving to 2560x1440 High drops this to 266 FPS, and at 3840x2160 High it falls further to 139 FPS. This represents a 50% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and another 48% reduction from 1440p to 4K — a steep decline that highlights the GPU's workload scaling with pixel count.

The Low preset shows even more dramatic scaling: 531 FPS at 1080p, 335 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop), and 175 FPS at 4K (a 48% drop from 1440p). The fact that 1080p Low approaches 531 FPS suggests the CPU is nearing its limit, as the RTX 5090 has ample compute headroom at such low graphical loads. The gap between Low and High at 1080p is only 110 FPS (531 vs 421), whereas at 4K the gap is 36 FPS (175 vs 139) — indicating that at 4K, the GPU's rendering workload dominates, while at 1080p, the CPU's frame generation capability becomes the limiting factor.

Ultra settings compress the numbers significantly: 296 FPS at 1080p, 187 FPS at 1440p, and 98 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset's 4K result of 98 FPS is the only measured average below 100 FPS, suggesting that this combination of resolution and preset pushes the RTX 5090 to its limits in Ready Or Not. The scaling from 1080p to 4K on Ultra is a 67% reduction, which is steeper than on High (67% as well, coincidentally) — but the absolute values show that even at 4K Ultra, the system remains very playable.

The data shows that resolution scaling is not linear. The 1440p results sit roughly midway between 1080p and 4K for all presets, but the percentage drops are larger going from 1440p to 4K than from 1080p to 1440p on Low and Medium. For High, the drops are nearly identical (50% vs 48%), while Ultra shows a similar pattern with a 37% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 48% drop from 1440p to 4K. This non-linearity points to the GPU's memory bandwidth and pixel throughput becoming more critical as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 brings 10 cores and 10 threads to the pairing, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its architecture is Arrow Lake, built on a 3 nm process. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25891 and a single-core score of 3655, placing it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs. The PassMark multithread score of 30459 and single-thread score of 4412 further characterize its capabilities.

The CPU's role in Ready Or Not becomes apparent when examining the 1080p Low results. At 531 FPS average, the frame generation rate is extraordinarily high, and this is where the Ultra 5 225's single-thread performance (boost clock of 4.90 GHz) matters most. The game's tactical shooter mechanics typically require consistent frame pacing, and the data suggests the CPU can sustain high throughput at lower resolutions. However, the fact that 1080p High (421 FPS) does not scale proportionally to 1080p Low (531 FPS) — a 21% difference — indicates that even at these high frame rates, the GPU is still contributing significantly to the workload.

Comparing the Ultra 5 225 to its nearest rivals, the average benchmark score of 36938 places it within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37018), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093), and Intel Core i9-12900T (37112). These deltas are negligible, meaning the CPU's computational throughput is essentially equivalent to those processors. In Ready Or Not, this translates to similar CPU-bound performance potential, though the game's engine may favor certain architectures.

The L3 cache of 20 MB shared and L2 of 3 MB per core provide reasonable data locality for a tactical shooter, which often involves level streaming and AI calculations. The CPU's TDP of 65 W indicates it runs cool enough to sustain boost clocks without thermal throttling, which is beneficial for maintaining consistent frame rates over long play sessions. The memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5 supports the high frame rates observed, particularly at 1080p where memory latency can impact minimum frames.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 266 FPS, with no minimum or maximum recorded.

Q: How does the Ultra preset at 4K compare to Medium at the same resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, Ultra produces 98 FPS average, while Medium produces 153 FPS average with a minimum of 130 FPS and maximum of 176 FPS. This represents a 55 FPS difference, or 36% higher performance on Medium.

Q: What is the highest measured FPS across all recorded settings?

A: The highest average FPS is 531, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The highest maximum FPS recorded is 533, also at 1080p Medium, which shows a minimum of 394 FPS and maximum of 533 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 the limiting component at 1080p Low?

A: No, the data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p Low with 531 FPS. The RTX 5090's immense compute capability (104.8 TFLOPS FP32) is underutilized at such low graphical loads, and the frame rate is constrained by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU.

Q: What percentile does this CPU hold among all CPUs?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is at the 85th percentile among all CPUs based on its average benchmark score of 36938.

Q: How does the Medium preset's minimum FPS at 4K compare to its average?

A: At 3840x2160 Medium, the minimum FPS is 130, which is 15% below the average of 153 FPS. The maximum is 176 FPS, indicating a frame time variance of about 46 FPS between min and max.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 78th out of 2947 tested combos in Ready Or Not, placing it in the top 2.6% of all configurations. This high ranking is primarily driven by the RTX 5090's exceptional performance, as the GPU sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking is respectable but not top-tier, yet the pairing still achieves near-elite status in this game.

The ranking of 78 out of 2947 indicates that there are 77 combinations that outperform this setup in Ready Or Not. Given that the RTX 5090 is one of the fastest consumer GPUs available, those higher-ranked combos likely feature faster CPUs — possibly the Core Ultra 9 series or Ryzen 9 X3D parts — that can push even higher frame rates at 1080p, where the CPU bottleneck is most apparent. The data shows that at 4K, the combo's ranking would likely be higher, as the GPU becomes the dominant factor and the CPU's limitations are masked.

The delta between this combo's rank and the top spot suggests that the game can leverage additional CPU performance, particularly in the 1080p Low scenario where 531 FPS is achieved. If the CPU were upgraded to a model with higher single-thread performance, the 1080p results could potentially exceed 531 FPS, though the RTX 5090's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 18355 indicates it has headroom for even higher frame rates. The combo's overall rank of 78 is impressive, but it falls short of the absolute top because the Ultra 5 225's mid-range positioning limits extreme low-resolution performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz, combined with 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, make it a formidable renderer. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores support the game's potential use of ray tracing and DLSS, though the measured data does not specify whether these features were enabled.

The GPU's role in Ready Or Not is evident from the 4K results. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS of 98 is more than 3x lower than the 1080p Low result of 531 FPS, showing the massive workload increase at higher resolutions. The 32 GB VRAM is far more than the game requires, but the memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s ensures that texture streaming and high-resolution assets do not cause stuttering. The PassMark G3D score of 39650 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 334370 confirm the GPU's raw compute strength.

The RTX 5090's performance percentile of 92 places it among the top GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 79842 is 0.3% above the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79605) and 0.6% above the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79396). The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT is 1.1% slower (78940), while the Radeon Pro Vega 64X is 1.4% faster (80959). These rival deltas are small, indicating that the RTX 5090's gaming performance is competitive with professional-grade accelerators in synthetic tests, but in Ready Or Not, the measured FPS shows it excels.

The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate provide ample headroom for the game's rendering demands. At 4K High (139 FPS), the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the CPU is not being stressed at such high resolutions. The GPU's 575 W TDP and suggested 950 W PSU indicate high power draw, but the measured FPS justifies this for users seeking maximum refresh rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the results by preset are: Low averages 175 FPS, Medium averages 153 FPS with a minimum of 130 FPS and maximum of 176 FPS, High averages 139 FPS, and Ultra averages 98 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 44% reduction (175 to 98 FPS), with each preset step costing approximately 15-20% performance.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low averages 335 FPS, Medium averages 292 FPS with a minimum of 248 FPS and maximum of 336 FPS, High averages 266 FPS, and Ultra averages 187 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 44% (335 to 187 FPS), consistent with the 4K scaling. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a minimum of 248 FPS, which is 15% below the average — a similar variance to the 4K Medium result.

At 1920x1080, the results are: Low averages 531 FPS, Medium averages 463 FPS with a minimum of 394 FPS and maximum of 533 FPS, High averages 421 FPS, and Ultra averages 296 FPS. The Low to Ultra reduction is 44% (531 to 296 FPS), again matching the other resolutions. The Medium preset's maximum of 533 FPS is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset, barely exceeding the Low average of 531 FPS.

The frame variance, where available, shows consistent behavior. At 4K Medium, the spread between minimum (130) and maximum (176) is 46 FPS, or 30% of the average. At 1440p Medium, the spread is 88 FPS (248 to 336), or 30% of the average. At 1080p Medium, the spread is 139 FPS (394 to 533), or 30% of the average. This consistent 30% variance across resolutions suggests the game's frame pacing is stable relative to its average performance.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the data shows that Medium settings at 3840x2160 provide the best balance, with 153 FPS average and a minimum of 130 FPS ensuring smooth gameplay. High settings at 139 FPS are also viable, but the 14 FPS difference may not justify the visual quality reduction. Ultra at 98 FPS is playable but approaches the threshold where frame drops could become noticeable in fast-paced tactical scenarios.

At 1440p, High settings at 266 FPS are the recommended choice, as they offer a significant visual improvement over Medium (292 FPS) while still maintaining well above 240 FPS for high-refresh-rate monitors. The 187 FPS Ultra preset is also excellent, but the 79 FPS penalty compared to High makes it less desirable for competitive play. For users with 360 Hz displays, Medium at 292 FPS or Low at 335 FPS are better options.

At 1080p, the situation is different. The 531 FPS Low preset suggests the CPU is the limit, so users should select High at 421 FPS for the best visual quality without sacrificing frame rate. Ultra at 296 FPS is still very fast, but the 125 FPS penalty from High makes it less attractive. The Medium preset at 463 FPS is a good middle ground. The data shows that at 1080p, the game is so well-optimized for this hardware that even Ultra settings produce frame rates that would be considered excellent on most systems.

The overall recommendation across all resolutions is to start with High settings, as it provides the most consistent performance with a minimum of 130 FPS at 4K and 248 FPS at 1440p. For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, Ultra is viable at 1440p (187 FPS) but less so at 4K (98 FPS). The Medium preset offers the best worst-case performance at 4K, with a 130 FPS minimum ensuring no drops below typical 120 Hz refresh rates.