Undisputed

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 produces a wide spread of frame rates in Undisputed, ranging from a highly playable 78 FPS at 4K High to a blistering 288 FPS at 1080p Low. The data indicates a configuration that scales strongly with resolution and settings, revealing a balance where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions while the CPU's 10-core, 16-thread design keeps pace at lower settings. This analysis walks through the measured FPS rows, contextualizes the hardware’s synthetic benchmarks, and provides actionable settings guidance based strictly on the provided data.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a clear and predictable pattern of FPS reduction as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 171 at 1080p to 124 at 1440p, a 27.5% reduction, and then to 78 at 4K, which is a 37.1% further reduction from the 1440p figure. This steep decline as pixel count rises is a classic indicator that the AMD Radeon RX 7700’s rendering throughput, rather than the Intel Core i5-12600KF’s processing speed, is the limiting factor in this scenario.

Examining the Low settings row reinforces this conclusion. The average FPS at 1080p Low is 288, which drops to 208 at 1440p and then to 132 at 4K. The relative drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 54.2%, which is nearly identical to the 54.4% drop observed at High settings across the same resolution span. The consistency of these percentage drops across different quality presets strongly suggests that the workload is scaling uniformly with the number of pixels rendered, which is a hallmark of a GPU-bound situation where the CPU has ample headroom to feed the graphics card.

The pattern further clarifies the bottleneck. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 207, while at 1440p Medium it is 150, and at 4K Medium it is 95. The scaling factor from 1080p to 4K here is a 54.1% reduction in FPS. This uniformity across all three settings presets (Low, Medium, High) indicates that the system is not encountering a CPU-imposed ceiling at any of these tested configurations. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a smaller FPS delta between 1080p and 1440p as the frame rate approaches a processor-limited maximum, but the data does not show this flattening effect.

The only exception to this smooth scaling appears at the Ultra preset, where the frame rates are drastically lower. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 50, which is 35.9% lower than the 4K High result of 78. This disproportionate drop suggests that the Ultra preset introduces a rendering feature or computational load that disproportionately taxes the GPU, moving the system into a more heavily GPU-bound state. The 1080p Ultra result of 110 FPS is also notably lower than the 171 FPS at 1080p High, reinforcing that Ultra is a separate, more demanding performance tier that scales differently than the other presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its synthetic benchmark results place it in the 79th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27799. The data shows it performs nearly identically to its nearest rivals, with a deltaPct of -0.3% compared to the Intel Core i9-10900K and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and a +0.3% delta against the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE. This indicates that the 12600KF’s processing capability is on par with these established competitors, making it a robust foundation for gaming.

In the context of Undisputed, the CPU’s role appears to be one of ensuring consistent frame delivery, particularly at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 288 FPS, and at 1080p Medium it hits 207 FPS. These high frame rates, combined with the linear scaling observed in the resolution analysis, imply that the CPU is not limiting performance in these scenarios. The processor’s strong multi-threaded scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23391 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 27575, provide ample throughput for the simulation and logic tasks in a sports title like Undisputed.

However, the CPU’s single-thread performance is also relevant for gaming. The Cinebench R23 single-core score is 3302, and the 3DMark single-thread score is 1016. These figures, while not directly translating to FPS, indicate a high level of per-core efficiency. The data suggests that the 12600KF’s performance envelope is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck in the measured scenarios, as the FPS drops are consistently tied to resolution increases rather than to any CPU-related plateau. The processor’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory further ensure it can keep data flowing to the GPU without introducing stalls.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the clear performance driver in this configuration, with its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2459 MHz and game clock of 2041 MHz are backed by 2560 shading units and 96 ROPs, enabling a peak pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s. The GPU’s synthetic benchmarks show a Passmark G3D score of 20974, placing it in the 58th percentile against all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon R9 370X, with a deltaPct of -0.1%, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 1.7% faster in average benchmark score.

The GPU’s performance in Undisputed directly correlates with the measured FPS figures. As the resolution increases, the frame rate drops proportionally, which is the expected behavior for a GPU-bound workload. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for the Ultra preset at 4K, where the average FPS is 50, suggesting that memory capacity is not a limiting factor; rather, the raw compute power of the GPU is the constraint. The RX 7700’s FP32 performance of 25.18 TFLOPS provides the raw math throughput needed for the game’s rendering, but the Ultra preset’s overhead is significant.

The data shows that the RX 7700 is capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p, with 288 FPS at Low and 207 FPS at Medium. At 1440p, it still achieves 208 FPS at Low and 150 FPS at Medium, indicating solid performance for competitive play. However, at 4K, the GPU’s limits become apparent, as even the Medium preset only yields 95 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 50 FPS. The consistent scaling of FPS with resolution points to the GPU’s pixel processing throughput as the primary constraint, with the CPU providing sufficient support to allow the GPU to reach its full potential at each tested setting.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combination is comprehensive, covering three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from a maximum of 288 at Low settings to a minimum of 110 at Ultra settings. The Medium preset at 1080p yields an average of 207 FPS, with a minimum of 176 and a maximum of 238 FPS. The High preset at 1080p produces an average of 171 FPS. This shows a clear hierarchy where Low > Medium > High > Ultra in terms of performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS figures are lower across the board. The Low preset achieves 208 FPS, the Medium preset averages 150 FPS with a range of 127 to 172 FPS, the High preset averages 124 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 80 FPS. The deltas between presets are consistent, with Ultra being significantly more demanding than High, as seen by the 44 FPS gap between the two at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. The Low preset averages 132 FPS, which is a substantial drop from the 208 FPS at 1440p. The Medium preset averages 95 FPS, with a range of 80 to 109 FPS. The High preset averages 78 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 50 FPS. The data shows that 4K Ultra is the only configuration tested that dips below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while 4K High and Medium remain playable. The 4K High result of 78 FPS is notably 28 FPS lower than the 1440p High result, demonstrating the significant cost of 4K rendering.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global ranking of tested hardware combinations for Undisputed, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 achieves a rank of 1284 out of 2813 total combinations. This places it in the 54th percentile of all tested combos, indicating a performance level that is slightly above the median of the database. The rank reflects a balance between the CPU’s strong synthetic scores and the GPU’s moderate performance percentile.

The combo rank is likely influenced by the GPU’s performance ceiling at higher resolutions, as the CPU is not a limiting factor in most scenarios. The RX 7700’s 58th percentile ranking among GPUs is the primary driver of the overall combo rank, while the CPU’s 79th percentile ranking provides a solid foundation. The data suggests that this configuration is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can leverage its high frame rates, but it is less competitive at 4K Ultra settings. The rank of 1284 out of 2813 combos means there are many faster configurations, but this pairing still outperforms a majority of tested systems in Undisputed.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this hardware at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 288 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At Medium settings, the average drops to 207 FPS, and at High settings, it is 171 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The data indicates the AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the limiting component. The average FPS at 4K Ultra is 50, which is significantly lower than at other resolutions, and the system shows consistent FPS scaling with resolution, a sign of GPU-bound performance.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27799. It is 0.3% faster than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and the Intel Core i9-10900K, and 0.3% slower than the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE, indicating virtually identical performance.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 124 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 80 FPS. This represents a 44 FPS difference, showing that Ultra is considerably more demanding.

Q: Does the GPU have sufficient VRAM for 4K gaming?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. The 4K Ultra preset averages 50 FPS, suggesting that VRAM capacity is not the limiting factor; the GPU’s compute performance is the primary constraint.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded across all tested settings?

A: The lowest average FPS is 50, recorded at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the only tested configuration that falls below 60 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance for this combo depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the High preset offers an average of 171 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors. The Medium preset at 207 FPS is even smoother, but the visual upgrade to High is likely worth the 36 FPS trade-off for most users. The Ultra preset at 110 FPS is still playable, but the performance cost is significant compared to High.

At 2560x1440, the High preset is the recommended choice, delivering an average of 124 FPS. This provides a smooth experience for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 150 FPS is also viable for those prioritizing frame rate, but the drop to Ultra at 80 FPS is substantial and may not be worth the visual gains unless a 60-75 Hz monitor is in use. The Low preset at 208 FPS is unnecessary for most users at this resolution.

For 3840x2160, the High preset averages 78 FPS, which is suitable for a 60 Hz display and provides a good visual experience. The Medium preset at 95 FPS is also an excellent choice, offering a higher frame rate with a modest visual compromise. The Ultra preset at 50 FPS is not recommended for smooth gameplay, as it falls below the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset at 132 FPS is an option for competitive play, but it sacrifices significant visual fidelity. The data suggests that for 4K, the Medium or High presets provide the best experience per the measured rows.