Undisputed

# Undisputed with Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The pairing of Intel's 4-core/8-thread Core i3-12100F with NVIDIA's RTX 4070 produces a striking split personality in Undisputed: at 1080p the CPU drives frame rates past 370 FPS on Low settings, yet at 4K Ultra the combo drops below 70 FPS. This 374.5-to-68.4 FPS range across the measured matrix reveals a system that is simultaneously over-provisioned and under-matched depending on resolution and preset. The data shows a 409th-place rank out of 1,580 tested combinations, placing this build in the upper quartile of overall performance while exposing where each component's ceiling actually lies.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steepest at Low settings, where average FPS falls from 374.5 to 170.9 — a 54.4% reduction. At Medium settings the decline is from 269.3 to 122.8 FPS, a 54.4% drop that mirrors the Low pattern almost exactly. High settings show a similar proportional scaling: 222.6 FPS at 1080p down to 102.4 at 4K, again a 54.0% reduction. Ultra settings, however, behave differently — the drop from 141.9 to 68.4 FPS represents a 51.8% decrease, slightly shallower than the other presets.

This consistent ~54% scaling across Low, Medium, and High suggests the GPU is the primary limiting factor as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed by the increased resolution, yet the proportional drops indicate the rendering pipeline scales predictably with pixel workload. The slightly smaller percentage drop at Ultra (51.8% versus 54.4%) hints that at the highest settings, additional shading work partially masks the pure resolution penalty — the GPU is saturated by both pixel count and per-pixel effects simultaneously.

The interesting anomaly emerges at 1440p: frame rates sit far closer to 1080p performance than to 4K. High settings at 1440p (160.5 FPS) are only 27.9% below the 1080p High result, while 4K High is 54.0% below. This nonlinear scaling indicates the RTX 4070 retains substantial headroom at 1440p, and the CPU begins to exert influence as the resolution drops. At 1080p Low, the 374.5 FPS figure suggests the Core i3-12100F's 4.30 GHz boost clock is being pushed near its limits — the 272.1 FPS at 1440p Low versus 374.5 at 1080p Low shows a 27.4% gap that cannot be purely pixel-driven.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F brings 4 cores and 8 threads based on Alder Lake architecture, with a 3.30 GHz base clock and 4.30 GHz boost. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support are modest by modern standards, yet benchmark results show this processor punching well above its core count. The 3DMark 4-thread score of 2,859 and 8-thread score of 4,026 indicate strong scaling across its physical cores, while the single-thread score of 893 reveals respectable per-core performance.

In Undisputed, the CPU's influence becomes apparent at lower resolutions where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The 1080p Low result of 374.5 FPS versus the 1440p Low result of 272.1 FPS — a 102.4 FPS difference — cannot be attributed to GPU limitations alone, as the RTX 4070 should handle 1440p Low with ease given its 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs. This gap points to the i3-12100F's 4-core/8-thread configuration creating a bottleneck at high frame rates, where the CPU's per-thread throughput becomes the limiting factor.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 13,516 places it in the 72nd percentile of all processors, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core i7-7700K (1.8% higher average score) and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (0.1% lower). This positioning suggests the i3-12100F provides adequate compute for most gaming scenarios, but its 4-core design means games that leverage more than 8 threads will see diminishing returns. Undisputed appears to scale reasonably with the available threads — the 3DMark max-thread score of 4,023 nearly matches the 8-thread score of 4,026, indicating the CPU's additional threads beyond 8 provide negligible gains.

FAQ

Q: Does the Core i3-12100F bottleneck the RTX 4070 in Undisputed?

A: Yes, particularly at 1080p Low where the combo reaches 374.5 FPS. The 102.4 FPS gap between 1080p Low and 1440p Low suggests CPU limitations, as the GPU should handle both resolutions similarly at Low settings.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Undisputed?

A: The data shows 1440p High at 160.5 FPS as the sweet spot — it maintains high frame rates while keeping the GPU substantially loaded. 4K is playable at High (102.4 FPS) but drops to 68.4 FPS at Ultra.

Q: How does the RTX 4070's VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: With 12 GB of GDDR6X and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, the GPU delivers 102.4 FPS at 4K High but only 68.4 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating the increased memory pressure and shading demands at Ultra settings.

Q: Is the i3-12100F's 4-core design sufficient for modern sports games?

A: The 3DMark 8-thread score of 4,026 versus max-thread score of 4,023 shows the CPU's 8 threads are fully utilized, and the 72nd percentile ranking suggests adequate performance for Undisputed's CPU demands.

Q: What frame rate can players expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 222.6 FPS, which is 57.8% higher than the 4K High result of 102.4 FPS, demonstrating how resolution scaling affects this particular combo.

Q: How does this combo compare to similar CPU-GPU pairings?

A: The combo ranks 409th out of 1,580 tested combinations, placing it in the top 26% overall. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-7700K, scores 1.8% higher on average, while the GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, scores 0.6% lower.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 374.5 FPS, Medium reaches 269.3 FPS, High drops to 222.6 FPS, and Ultra settles at 141.9 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 62.1% reduction in frame rate, reflecting the increasing GPU workload at higher presets.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers scale down but remain highly playable. Low averages 272.1 FPS, Medium hits 196.1 FPS, High achieves 160.5 FPS, and Ultra maintains 104.1 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p narrows at higher settings — Ultra sees a 26.6% reduction versus Low's 27.4% reduction, suggesting the GPU becomes more dominant as settings increase.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4070's limits become evident. Low produces 170.9 FPS, Medium drops to 122.8 FPS, High reaches 102.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to 68.4 FPS. The Ultra setting at 4K is the only measured configuration below 100 FPS, and at 68.4 FPS it sits 51.8% below the 1080p Ultra result. This 4K Ultra figure represents the weakest performance in the entire matrix, yet it remains playable for most gaming scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination ranks 409th out of 1,580 tested combos in Undisputed, placing it in the 74th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong GPU performance — the RTX 4070 sits in the 81st percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 37,283 — partially offset by the CPU's more modest 72nd percentile position.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX at 0.1% lower average score, the Intel Core i7-1250U at 0.4% higher, and the Intel Core i3-10105 at 0.6% higher. These tight margins (all within 0.6%) indicate the i3-12100F's synthetic performance is well-established, yet its real-world gaming performance in Undisputed may be constrained by its 4-core design.

The GPU's nearest rivals show a similar clustering: the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 at 0.6% lower average score, NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A at 1.9% higher, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile at 2.2% higher. This places the RTX 4070 in a competitive position for its performance class, though the 81st percentile ranking confirms it is not an elite-tier GPU.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 uses the AD104 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process with 35,800 million transistors across a 294 mm² die. Its 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs provide substantial compute throughput, with FP32 performance rated at 29.15 TFLOPS. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, which proves adequate for 4K gaming but not unlimited.

In Undisputed, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution and settings rise. At 4K Ultra, the 68.4 FPS result likely reflects the 12 GB VRAM capacity being taxed by high-resolution textures and effects. The pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s provide theoretical ceilings that the measured results approach at 4K — the 102.4 FPS at 4K High suggests the GPU is nearly saturated, while the 68.4 FPS at 4K Ultra indicates full utilization.

The RTX 4070's 2,475 MHz boost clock and 1,920 MHz base clock provide strong per-clock performance, as evidenced by its Passmark G3D score of 26,927 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 3,854. The GPU's 200 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensure it can sustain high frame rates without thermal throttling, yet the measured data shows the GPU's limits are reached at 4K Ultra where frame rates fall below the 100 FPS threshold.

Settings Recommendations

For players prioritizing maximum frame rates, 1080p Low delivers 374.5 FPS — a figure that exceeds most displays' refresh rates and leaves headroom for competitive play. However, this setting likely sacrifices visual fidelity for performance that many users cannot perceive. The 1440p Medium setting at 196.1 FPS offers a balanced approach, providing smooth gameplay while maintaining reasonable visual quality.

For the best experience per the measured rows, 1440p High at 160.5 FPS emerges as the optimal choice. This configuration maintains frame rates well above 144 Hz refresh displays while keeping the GPU substantially loaded — the 1440p High result is only 27.9% below the 1080p High figure, indicating efficient scaling. At 4K, High settings at 102.4 FPS provide the best balance, as Ultra drops to 68.4 FPS, a 33.2% reduction that may cause noticeable stuttering on high-refresh displays.

Players with 4K displays should avoid Ultra settings, as the 68.4 FPS result falls below the 70 FPS threshold that most gamers consider smooth. The 4K Medium setting at 122.8 FPS offers a better trade-off, providing 55.6% higher frame rates than Ultra while likely maintaining acceptable visual quality. The data ultimately suggests this combo performs best at 1440p, where it delivers high frame rates across all settings without exposing the CPU's 4-core limitations.