Undisputed

# Undisputed with Intel Core i5-10400F + AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT in Undisputed produces a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, yet reveals a measurable CPU ceiling at 1080p with low settings. The combo ranks 391st out of 1580 tested configurations, placing it in the upper quartile of all tested hardware combinations. The measured frame rates across all twelve resolution/settings combinations show a consistent pattern: the RX 9070 XT delivers exceptional raw throughput, while the six-core Comet Lake processor becomes the primary constraint only when the graphics workload is artificially lightened.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K demonstrates classic GPU-bound behavior, but with a notable inflection point. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 220.8 at 1920x1080 to 163.6 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 57.2 frames, then further to 102.3 at 3840x2160. This represents a 54% decline from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating that the RX 9070 XT is carrying progressively heavier rendering loads as pixel count increases.

The Low settings row tells a different story. At 1920x1080, the system produces 370.4 FPS average, but this drops to 271.7 at 2560x1440 and 172.8 at 3840x2160. The 1080p Low result is disproportionately high compared to the 1440p result, suggesting that at 1080p Low, the CPU begins to limit the frame rate. A purely GPU-bound system would show a more linear relationship between resolution and FPS; here, the 1080p Low score is only 36% higher than the 1440p Low score, whereas the pixel count difference is 78% higher at 1440p. This compression indicates the i5-10400F's single-thread performance is the bottleneck at the lowest settings.

The Medium settings curve sits between these extremes: 266.0 FPS at 1080p, 196.0 at 1440p, and 124.9 at 4K. The Ultra settings produce the steepest scaling, with 146.0 FPS at 1080p dropping to 105.8 at 1440p and 69.0 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 69.0 FPS is the only measured configuration that falls below the 100 FPS threshold, indicating that even this high-end GPU cannot fully saturate the most demanding preset at maximum resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its benchmark profile shows a single-thread score of 688 in 3DMark and 1453 in Cinebench R23, while the max-threads 3DMark score reaches 4735. These figures place the CPU in the 73rd percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 14168.

The CPU's role in Undisputed becomes apparent when examining the delta between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (370.4 FPS) and Ultra (146.0 FPS) is 224.4 frames, a 2.5x difference. At 4K, the same comparison yields a gap of 103.8 frames (172.8 vs 69.0), a 2.5x difference as well. The consistency of this ratio across resolutions suggests the GPU is the dominant scaling factor, but the absolute frame rates at 1080p Low — 370.4 FPS — approach the practical ceiling for the CPU's 12-thread throughput.

Comparing the i5-10400F to its nearest rivals in the processor benchmark database, the AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115 (0.4% lower), while the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277 (0.8% higher). The Intel Core i5-8500 and AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 post scores of 14332 and 14336 respectively, each about 1.1-1.2% above the i5-10400F. These margins are negligible for gaming performance, confirming that the i5-10400F is not a weak link in this configuration.

The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the 12 threads that Undisputed can utilize. However, the 3DMark 16-thread score of 4748 versus the 2-thread score of 1350 shows a scaling efficiency of about 71% (4748/6670 theoretical max), indicating diminishing returns beyond 4-6 threads. This aligns with the observation that the CPU becomes a limiting factor only at 1080p Low, where the GPU's workload is light enough to expose the processor's per-core limits.

FAQ

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS falls from 220.8 at 1920x1080 to 163.6 at 2560x1440, then to 102.3 at 3840x2160. This 54% reduction from 1080p to 4K reflects the RX 9070 XT's increasing pixel-processing workload, which scales directly with resolution.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-10400F holding back the RX 9070 XT?

A: Only at 1080p Low settings, where the system produces 370.4 FPS. This result is disproportionately low compared to the 271.7 FPS at 1440p Low, suggesting the CPU's single-thread performance becomes the constraint when the GPU has excess capacity.

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

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the system averages 163.6 FPS, which is above the 144 Hz refresh rate commonly found on gaming monitors. At 4K High, the 102.3 FPS average still exceeds 100 FPS, making 4K viable for standard 60 Hz displays.

Q: How does the RX 9070 XT compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 9070 XT has an average benchmark score of 39647, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 575, scores 39703 (0.1% higher), while the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile scores 39568 (0.2% lower).

Q: Does Ultra settings provide a playable experience at 4K?

A: The 4K Ultra result averages 69.0 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS minimum for smooth gameplay but below the 100 FPS threshold that high-refresh-rate displays require. At 1440p Ultra, the 105.8 FPS average is more suitable for high-refresh gaming.

Q: What does the combo rank indicate about overall performance?

A: The configuration ranks 391st out of 1580 tested combos, placing it in the top 25% of all systems tested for this game. This ranking reflects the strong combination of the RX 9070 XT's 82nd percentile GPU performance with the i5-10400F's 73rd percentile CPU performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 370.4 FPS average, Medium settings reach 266.0 FPS, High settings average 220.8 FPS, and Ultra settings dip to 146.0 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 60.6% reduction in frame rate, with each preset tier costing roughly 50-70 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show more compression between settings. Low settings average 271.7 FPS, Medium settings 196.0 FPS, High settings 163.6 FPS, and Ultra settings 105.8 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 165.9 frames, compared to 224.4 frames at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's rendering load is starting to dominate the frame time budget.

At 3840x2160, the system produces 172.8 FPS on Low settings, 124.9 FPS on Medium, 102.3 FPS on High, and 69.0 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra gap shrinks further to 103.8 frames, and the scaling between Medium and High becomes tighter (27.4 frames) compared to the 1080p Medium-to-High gap of 45.2 frames. This convergence at 4K confirms that the RX 9070 XT's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary determinants of performance at this resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip manufactured on a 4 nm process. It features 4096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units, with 64 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2970 MHz.

The memory subsystem consists of 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die produce a compute throughput of 48.66 TFLOPS FP32 and 97.32 TFLOPS FP16. The GPU's benchmark results include a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7260, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 160317, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 184026, with a Passmark G3D score of 26795.

The GPU's role in Undisputed is evident from the resolution scaling data. The 82nd percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 39647 indicate a top-tier graphics processor. The measured frame rates show that the GPU maintains playable performance even at the most demanding configuration (4K Ultra at 69.0 FPS), while delivering exceptional headroom at lower settings. The 16 GB frame buffer ensures no memory capacity limitations at 4K, and the 644.6 GB/s bandwidth supports the texture streaming demands of a sports title with high-resolution assets.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the database — the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (39703, 0.1% higher), NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568, 0.2% lower), AMD Radeon Pro 575X (39836, 0.5% higher), and AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (39879, 0.6% higher) — all score within 1% of the RX 9070 XT's average. This clustering suggests that the GPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks is well-established, but the measured FPS in Undisputed reflects its real-world capability more directly.

Settings Recommendations

The data supports a clear hierarchy of recommended configurations based on display refresh rate and resolution. For 4K displays, High settings provide the most balanced experience at 102.3 FPS average, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth motion. Ultra settings at 4K produce 69.0 FPS, which remains playable but offers diminishing returns given the 33.3 FPS cost over High settings.

For 1440p displays, Medium settings at 196.0 FPS and High settings at 163.6 FPS both exceed the 144 Hz refresh rate common on modern gaming monitors. The 32.4 FPS difference between these presets suggests that High settings are the optimal choice for visual quality without sacrificing frame rate. Ultra settings at 1440p (105.8 FPS) remain viable for 120 Hz displays but sacrifice 57.8 FPS compared to Medium.

For 1080p displays, all settings produce frame rates above 146.0 FPS, making Ultra the recommended preset for maximum visual fidelity. The 370.4 FPS Low setting result is functionally unnecessary for any current display technology, and the 224.4 FPS gap between Low and Ultra indicates that the visual quality improvements are essentially free at this resolution. The CPU becomes a limiting factor only when the GPU is underutilized, which occurs exclusively at 1080p Low settings.

The best overall experience for this hardware combination is 1440p High or 4K High, depending on display capability. Both configurations exceed 100 FPS average, providing smooth gameplay with minimal compromise on visual quality.