Ready Or Not

# Ready Or Not: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers exceptional performance in Ready Or Not, placing this pairing at rank 653 out of 3,714 tested combinations. The CPU sits in the 96th percentile of all processors, while the GPU holds the 83rd percentile among all graphics cards. This system is clearly built for high-refresh-rate tactical shooting, with measured frame rates that push well beyond what most displays can even show at 1080p. The data indicates a well-balanced pairing where the CPU's massive 24-core, 24-thread configuration ensures the GPU never starves for data, even at lower resolutions where frame rates soar past 400 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Is this system capable of running Ready Or Not at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but with a caveat. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 75 FPS. This is playable and smooth for a tactical shooter, but it is the lowest measured result in the entire dataset. If you prefer maximum visual fidelity, 75 FPS is serviceable, but you may want to consider High settings at 4K, which deliver 107 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83,807). It also outperforms the AMD EPYC 4584PX by 1.1% (83,090) and the AMD EPYC 9135 by 1.2% (82,980). However, it trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3% (85,072).

Q: What is the GPU's performance standing relative to other cards?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 43,223. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB, scores 43,262, which is 0.1% higher. The RTX 5050 Mobile (43,268) and Quadro M6000 (43,301) are also 0.1% and 0.2% ahead respectively. The RTX 4090 Mobile leads by 1% with a score of 43,667.

Q: What is the best preset for competitive play at 1440p?

A: For competitive play at 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 258 FPS average, which is the highest frame rate at that resolution. Medium follows at 225 FPS, High at 204 FPS, and Ultra at 144 FPS. The Low preset provides maximum responsiveness for fast target acquisition.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and is it sufficient?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER comes with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This is ample for Ready Or Not at all tested resolutions and settings, as the data shows no sign of memory-related performance degradation even at 4K Ultra.

Q: Does the CPU's core count matter for this game?

A: The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has 24 cores and 24 threads, which is far more than most games utilize. In Ready Or Not, the high thread count ensures background tasks and game logic never interfere with rendering. However, the single-core performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7,303, is what drives the high frame rates at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary driver of visual quality in Ready Or Not. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, this GPU contains 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. Its 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation processors provide substantial raw compute power for rendering the game's detailed environments and character models.

Clock speeds are crucial here. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1,980 MHz and boosts to 2,475 MHz. This boost behavior directly translates to frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p, the GPU can render frames so quickly that the CPU becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 409 FPS average at Low settings. The memory configuration—12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus—delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for 4K textures, as the 4K Ultra preset still manages 75 FPS without stutter.

The RTX 4070 SUPER also features 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores, which are available for Ready Or Not's lighting effects, though the measured data does not isolate ray tracing performance. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 35.48 TFLOPS gives it headroom for compute-heavy tasks. In synthetic benchmarks, the card scores 29,995 in Passmark G3D and 4,627 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. These scores place it at the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, meaning it outperforms roughly 83% of graphics cards on the market.

The relationship between GPU clock speed and game performance is clear in the data. At 4K, where the GPU is heavily loaded, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 60 FPS (135 vs 75). This 44% drop from Low to Ultra at 4K demonstrates how the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth are taxed by higher quality settings. The GPU's pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are what allow it to maintain playable frame rates at 4K resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Arrow Lake Refresh generation, built on a 3 nm TSMC process. With a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, this CPU provides exceptional single-threaded performance that directly impacts frame rates in Ready Or Not. The processor's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core ensure that game data is quickly accessible.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 7,303 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 51,731 in multi-core. These scores are critical for understanding game performance. The single-core score is what drives high frame rates at 1080p, where the CPU must process game logic and issue draw calls faster than the GPU can render frames. The multi-core score of 51,731 in Cinebench R23 shows the processor's capability to handle heavily threaded workloads, which is relevant for Ready Or Not's AI-driven enemy behavior and physics calculations.

The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 4,823 and multithread score of 60,860 further confirm its dominance. The data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 409 FPS average. This extreme frame rate is only possible because the CPU can feed the GPU with data faster than the GPU can process it. The 24 cores with 24 threads (no hyperthreading) are arranged in a configuration that balances power efficiency and raw throughput, with a TDP of 125 W.

Memory bandwidth is another factor. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel configuration, providing 115.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for feeding the GPU at high frame rates. The processor's PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes ensures the GPU has a fast connection to the CPU, eliminating any potential bottleneck from data transfer.

The CPU's overall standing is strong: it ranks in the 96th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 84,003. Its nearest rival, the Core Ultra 9 285K, scores nearly identically at 83,807, a mere 0.2% difference. This suggests that the 290K Plus is essentially a slightly refined version of the 285K, with the game performance data reflecting this similarity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional frame rates across all settings. The Low preset produces an average of 409 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings drop to 356 FPS average, with a minimum of 303 FPS and maximum of 410 FPS. High settings yield 324 FPS average, while Ultra settings still manage an impressive 228 FPS average. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound, as even the most demanding preset produces frame rates far beyond what most monitors can display.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high but begin to reflect the GPU's increased workload. Low settings produce 258 FPS average, Medium drops to 225 FPS (with a minimum of 191 FPS and maximum of 258 FPS), High delivers 204 FPS, and Ultra maintains 144 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 114 FPS, which is nearly a 44% reduction. This shows that while the GPU is becoming more involved at this resolution, the system still has plenty of headroom for high-refresh-rate gaming.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. Low settings yield 135 FPS average, which is still very playable. Medium settings drop to 117 FPS (minimum 100 FPS, maximum 135 FPS), and High settings deliver 107 FPS. Ultra settings produce 75 FPS average, which is the lowest measured result. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a clear trend: the system loses roughly half its frame rate when moving from 1080p Low to 4K Low (409 to 135 FPS), and the gap narrows at higher settings due to the CPU becoming less of a limiting factor.

The data shows that this system is capable of running Ready Or Not at maximum settings at 1440p with frame rates above 144 FPS, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 4K, High settings with 107 FPS provide the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, while Ultra at 75 FPS is still viable for those who prioritize graphics over frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about which component limits performance at each resolution. At Low settings, the system drops from 409 FPS at 1080p to 258 FPS at 1440p (a 37% reduction), then to 135 FPS at 4K (a 48% reduction from 1440p). This pattern is characteristic of a system transitioning from CPU-bound to GPU-bound as resolution increases.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is more gradual. The system produces 228 FPS at 1080p, 144 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop), and 75 FPS at 4K (a 48% drop from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across settings suggest that the GPU's performance scales predictably with pixel count, while the CPU's influence diminishes at higher resolutions.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor. This is evidenced by the large gap between Low (409 FPS) and Ultra (228 FPS) settings at this resolution—a difference of 181 FPS. If the GPU were the bottleneck, this gap would be smaller because the GPU would be saturated even at Low settings. Instead, the CPU can only feed the GPU with enough data to reach 409 FPS, and the GPU can render up to that rate at Low settings.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The difference between Low (135 FPS) and Ultra (75 FPS) is 60 FPS, which is proportionally smaller than at 1080p. This indicates that the GPU is working at maximum capacity regardless of settings, and the CPU has ample headroom to keep up. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB of VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle 4K textures, but the sheer number of pixels limits the frame rate.

The resolution scaling analysis suggests that this system is best suited for 1440p gaming. At this resolution, the system delivers between 144 and 258 FPS depending on settings, which is well above the refresh rate of most gaming monitors. For 4K gaming, the system is still capable, but the frame rates at Ultra settings (75 FPS) may require a G-Sync monitor to feel smooth.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings depend on your resolution and priorities. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 409 FPS average, which is overkill for any display. However, the Ultra preset at 228 FPS still provides a significant margin above 144 Hz monitors. For 1080p, the High preset (324 FPS) offers an excellent balance, providing better visual quality than Low while still maintaining frame rates far above display refresh rates.

At 2560x1440, the choice is more nuanced. The Low preset at 258 FPS is ideal for competitive play where maximum responsiveness is critical. The Medium preset at 225 FPS (minimum 191 FPS) is similar in performance and provides slightly better visuals. The High preset at 204 FPS is the sweet spot for most players, as it offers good visual quality while keeping frame rates well above 144 Hz. The Ultra preset at 144 FPS is perfect for those with 144 Hz monitors who want the best visuals without sacrificing smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset (117 FPS average, 100 FPS minimum) is the recommended choice for a smooth experience. The High preset at 107 FPS is also viable, providing better visual quality with only a 10 FPS penalty. The Ultra preset at 75 FPS is playable but may feel less responsive in fast-paced firefights. The Low preset at 135 FPS is the best option for those who prioritize frame rate over visuals at 4K.

The data shows that the Medium preset consistently provides a good balance across all resolutions. At 1440p Medium, the system maintains 225 FPS with a minimum of 191 FPS, ensuring no noticeable drops during intense combat. At 4K Medium, the 117 FPS average and 100 FPS minimum keep the game smooth even in the most demanding scenes. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors (144 Hz or higher), the High preset at 1440p (204 FPS) or Medium at 4K (117 FPS) are the best choices. For those with standard 60 Hz displays, Ultra settings at 4K (75 FPS) provide the maximum visual fidelity without dropping below 60 FPS.