Undisputed

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 delivers a peculiar performance profile in Undisputed, one that hinges almost entirely on how much resolution stresses the GPU. The measured data reveals a system that can obliterate 1080p workloads yet struggles to maintain smooth 4K visuals at higher presets, suggesting an imbalance that favors esports-style play over cinematic fidelity.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The scaling pattern across resolutions tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lives. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 290 FPS at 1080p to 209 FPS at 1440p, then to 132 FPS at 4K. That represents a 28% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 37% drop to 4K. This steep, accelerating decline is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario — the RTX 5060's rendering pipeline simply cannot keep pace with the pixel count as resolution climbs.

The Medium preset shows the same pattern with slightly different magnitudes: 208 FPS at 1080p, 151 FPS at 1440p (27% lower), and 95 FPS at 4K (37% lower than 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings strongly implies the limiting factor is fixed — it is the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth, not the CPU or game logic.

At High settings, the story tightens. The 1080p result of 172 FPS drops to 125 FPS at 1440p (27% decline) and then to 79 FPS at 4K (37% decline). The near-identical percentage reductions across Low, Medium, and High indicate that resolution scaling is remarkably uniform in this title — the RTX 5060 loses roughly a quarter of its performance moving from 1080p to 1440p, and another third moving to 4K, regardless of visual complexity.

The Ultra preset behaves differently. Here, 1080p yields 111 FPS, 1440p drops to 80 FPS (28% decline), and 4K collapses to 51 FPS (36% decline from 1440p). While the percentage deltas are similar, the absolute numbers are far lower, suggesting that Ultra's additional effects (likely shadows, reflections, and post-processing) compound the resolution burden. The 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS sits uncomfortably close to the threshold where gameplay feels unresponsive for a sports title.

What does this scaling imply? At 1080p, the CPU's enormous L3 cache and high boost clocks keep frame generation ahead of the GPU's output, allowing frame rates to soar past 200 FPS. By 4K, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus become the arbiters of performance. The measured data shows the RTX 5060 is not a 4K card for this game at higher presets — it is a 1080p and 1440p powerhouse that surrenders gracefully to resolution demands.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D brings 8 cores and 16 threads to the fight, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. This is a Zen 5 part built on TSMC's 4 nm process, and its 3D V-Cache configuration provides 96 MB of shared L3 cache — a figure that proves decisive in gaming workloads that thrash through memory hierarchies.

Benchmark data underscores the CPU's raw capability. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23230 and single-core score of 2080 place it firmly in high-end desktop territory. More telling for gaming, the 3DMark single-thread score of 1212 and 2-thread score of 2394 show excellent per-core performance, which Undisputed — a sports sim that likely relies on a main simulation thread — would exploit directly. The 4-thread score of 4669 and 8-thread score of 8252 indicate that scaling to multiple cores is efficient, though the game may not fully utilize all 16 threads.

The CPU's percentile rank of 87 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39768, places it near the top of the pack. Its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks — the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840HS at 39603 (0.4% lower), AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 at 40048 (0.7% higher), and AMD Ryzen 7 7700 at 40081 (0.8% higher) — are all within a single percentage point. This clustering suggests that for pure compute, the 9800X3D is not dramatically ahead of these parts, yet its gaming-specific advantage likely comes from the L3 cache, which these rivals lack.

How does this translate to Undisputed? The 1080p Low result of 290 FPS is a direct testament to the CPU's ability to feed frames faster than the GPU can render them. Even at 1080p Ultra (111 FPS), the CPU is not the constraint — the GPU is. The CPU's role becomes evident in the consistency of frame pacing: the Medium preset shows minimums of 177 FPS at 1080p, 128 FPS at 1440p, and 81 FPS at 4K, with maximums of 240, 173, and 110 respectively. These ranges suggest the CPU is delivering stable frame generation without hitches, allowing the GPU to be the sole variable.

The CPU's 120 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth) provide ample headroom for the game's physics and AI calculations. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 24 lanes ensures the GPU has a high-bandwidth path to system memory, though the RTX 5060's PCIe 5.0 x8 connection would not saturate this link in practice.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is respectable for the class, but the capacity and bus width become the defining factors at higher resolutions.

Core clock speeds of 2280 MHz base and 2497 MHz boost drive 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 19.18 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s are solid for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s — while respectable — can become strained when 4K resolution demands four times the texture fetches of 1080p.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a percentile rank of 72 against all GPUs, with an average score of 26331. Its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks are the AMD Radeon 860M at 26401 (0.3% higher), NVIDIA GeForce MX550 at 26421 (0.3% higher), and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary at 26553 (0.8% higher). These are not direct performance peers in gaming — the MX550 is a laptop-class part — but the clustering suggests the RTX 5060's compute potential is moderate for its generation.

In Undisputed, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient at 1080p and 1440p across all presets, as evidenced by the playable frame rates. At 4K, however, the memory capacity and 128-bit bus likely contribute to the sharp performance decline. The 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS (vs. 79 FPS at High) indicates that Ultra settings may exceed the VRAM budget, forcing texture streaming or memory compression that costs frames.

The GPU's ray tracing cores (30) and tensor cores (120) are present but largely irrelevant for this sports title, which does not appear to leverage these features based on the measured data. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure the GPU can handle modern APIs, but the game's engine seems to favor raw rasterization throughput.

The 145 W TDP and single 8-pin power connector suggest the RTX 5060 is not a power-hungry part, yet the 4K results indicate it is not a high-resolution specialist. The GPU's 1750 MHz memory clock (28 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth headroom for 1440p Medium to hit 151 FPS, but 4K demands more than the bus can deliver.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Undisputed?

A: Only at Low settings, where it averages 132 FPS. At Medium, it manages 95 FPS; at High, 79 FPS; and at Ultra, just 51 FPS. The 4K Ultra result falls below the smoothness threshold many players expect.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 1440p offers the best balance. At Medium, it delivers 151 FPS (minimum 128 FPS), and at High, 125 FPS. Both exceed the refresh rates of most monitors, and the quality jump over 1080p is substantial.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The 9800X3D's average benchmark score of 39768 is within 0.8% of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 (40081) and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (40048). Its gaming edge likely comes from the 96 MB L3 cache rather than raw compute.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: Yes, at 1080p and 1440p across all presets. The 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS suggests memory pressure at the highest settings, but the frame rate drop is more attributable to the 128-bit bus than capacity alone.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p?

A: From 290 FPS at Low to 172 FPS at High and 111 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset averages 208 FPS with a minimum of 177 FPS, making it ideal for high-refresh displays.

Q: Does this combo rank well among tested systems?

A: It ranks 1641st out of 3718 combos (top 44%). This is mid-pack, reflecting the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions despite the CPU's strength.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame places this pairing at 1641 out of 3718 tested combinations, which is roughly the 44th percentile. This is a surprisingly low position for a system featuring a top-tier CPU, but the ranking makes sense when considering the RTX 5060's moderate standing among GPUs.

The CPU's percentile of 87 against all CPUs places it in the top 13%, while the GPU's percentile of 72 places it in the top 28%. The gap between these two percentiles explains the combo's middling rank: the CPU is elite, but the GPU is merely average-to-good. In Undisputed, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 1440p and 4K, the combo's overall performance is dragged down by the graphics card.

This rank implies that many other combos — likely those pairing mid-range CPUs with higher-tier GPUs — achieve better overall frame rates in this title, especially at higher resolutions. The 9800X3D's advantages (large L3 cache, high boost clocks) are only fully realized when the GPU can keep up, which happens primarily at 1080p.

The data suggests this combo is optimized for competitive play at 1080p or high-refresh 1440p, not for 4K enthusiasts. Players seeking 4K performance would need a more powerful GPU to complement the CPU's strengths.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates, organized by resolution and settings, reveal a consistent hierarchy:

1920x1080:

• Low: 290 FPS average
• Medium: 208 FPS average, 177 FPS minimum, 240 FPS maximum
• High: 172 FPS average
• Ultra: 111 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 209 FPS average
• Medium: 151 FPS average, 128 FPS minimum, 173 FPS maximum
• High: 125 FPS average
• Ultra: 80 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 132 FPS average
• Medium: 95 FPS average, 81 FPS minimum, 110 FPS maximum
• High: 79 FPS average
• Ultra: 51 FPS average

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, providing insights into frame pacing. At 1080p, the gap between minimum (177 FPS) and maximum (240 FPS) is 63 FPS, indicating some variance but nothing that would cause perceptible stutter. At 1440p, the range narrows to 45 FPS (128 to 173), and at 4K, it tightens further to 29 FPS (81 to 110).

This narrowing range at higher resolutions is counterintuitive — one might expect more variance when the GPU is struggling. Instead, the data suggests that at 4K, the GPU is consistently at its limit, producing a steady but lower frame output. At 1080p, the CPU's ability to generate frames faster than the GPU can render them creates more variable output as the GPU catches up in bursts.

The percentage drops between settings at each resolution are also telling. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 28% of performance (290 to 208 FPS), Medium to High costs 17% (208 to 172), and High to Ultra costs 35% (172 to 111). The High-to-Ultra jump is the most expensive at every resolution, suggesting Ultra enables computationally heavy effects that disproportionately impact the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the optimal preset for this combo. At 1080p, it delivers 208 FPS average with a 177 FPS minimum — well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors. At 1440p, it maintains 151 FPS average with a 128 FPS minimum, still comfortably above 120 Hz displays. Even at 4K, Medium produces 95 FPS average with an 81 FPS minimum, which is playable for a sports title.

High settings are viable for players prioritizing visual quality over raw frame rates. At 1080p, 172 FPS is ample; at 1440p, 125 FPS remains smooth. The 4K High result of 79 FPS dips below the 90 FPS threshold some players consider essential for fast-paced action, but it is not unplayable.

Ultra is only recommended for 1080p, where 111 FPS is still respectable. At 1440p, 80 FPS is borderline; at 4K, 51 FPS is likely to feel sluggish for a game requiring precise timing in combat or movement.

Low settings are unnecessary for this combo at any resolution below 4K. The 290 FPS at 1080p Low and 209 FPS at 1440p Low exceed the refresh rates of virtually all consumer displays, making the visual sacrifices pointless. At 4K, Low (132 FPS) is the only way to achieve high-refresh rates, but players choosing 4K typically accept lower frame rates for fidelity.

The recommendation is clear: run Medium at 1440p for the best balance of visual quality and performance, or Medium at 1080p for maximum smoothness. The combo's strengths are best leveraged by avoiding Ultra settings, which tax the GPU disproportionately without commensurate visual gains.