Undisputed

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the Intel Arc B570 presents a fascinating case study in modern PC gaming bottlenecks, particularly within the context of a sports title like Undisputed. The benchmark data reveals a configuration that behaves differently depending on the resolution and quality settings, shifting the performance burden between the CPU and GPU in a way that is not always intuitive. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all tested scenarios to understand what this specific hardware combination offers.

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

The most telling data in this FACT PACK is the performance delta as resolution scales, which clearly illustrates the shifting bottleneck between the processor and graphics card. At the Low settings preset, the game shows a massive drop in performance as resolution increases. Moving from 1920x1080 (195 FPS average) to 2560x1440 (141 FPS) represents a significant 27.7% reduction, and then dropping to 3840x2160 (89 FPS) marks another 36.9% decrease from the 1440p figure. This dramatic scaling pattern is classic GPU-bound behavior; when the CPU has minimal work to do at Low settings, the graphics card's rendering load becomes the sole determinant of frame rate, and increasing pixel count directly taxes the Arc B570's fillrate and shader throughput.

However, the story changes when we examine the Ultra settings preset. The FPS figures here are considerably lower across the board, but the relative drop from 1080p to 1440p is much less severe. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 75 FPS, and at 1440p Ultra, it produces 54 FPS—a 28% drop. At 4K Ultra, the average plummets to 34 FPS, a 37% reduction from the 1440p figure. The fact that the percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is nearly identical between Low and Ultra settings suggests that even at high quality, the GPU remains the primary constraint at these resolutions. The absolute numbers are lower, but the scaling pattern is consistent, indicating the rendering complexity of Ultra settings increases the GPU load proportionally.

The intermediate presets offer the most nuanced look at the bottleneck. At Medium settings, the measured FPS shows a clear progression: 141 FPS at 1080p, 102 FPS at 1440p, and 64 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 1440p here is 27.7%, which mirrors the Low preset's drop, but the step to 4K is a steeper 37.3% reduction. This suggests that as resolution climbs toward 4K, the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources become increasingly saturated, making the Arc B570 the clear limiting factor. The data implies that for this specific combo, the i5-12600KF has ample headroom to feed the GPU at 1080p and even 1440p; it is only at 4K that the graphics card's performance envelope is truly tested, regardless of the quality preset selected.

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

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. In the context of Undisputed, a sports game that typically relies on consistent frame pacing rather than massive thread counts, this processor's hybrid design is well-suited. The benchmark scores in the FACT PACK support this, with a strong 3dmark_single_thread score of 1016 and a 3dmark_4_threads score of 3806, indicating that the high-frequency performance cores are capable of handling the game's primary game logic and physics threads without issue.

The data strongly suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in any of the measured resolutions. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 195 FPS, which is an exceptionally high frame rate that would require a very capable processor to sustain. If the CPU were struggling, we would expect to see a plateau in FPS at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do. Instead, we see FPS scaling inversely with resolution, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, evidenced by a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 23391, are far beyond what a game like this would need to saturate, ensuring that the 16 threads are never a limiting factor in frame generation.

The specific architecture of the i5-12600KF, with its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache, provides a low-latency environment for game data. This is crucial for maintaining high minimum frame rates, which are not available for the Low, High, and Ultra presets in the data, but the Medium preset shows a respectable 86 FPS minimum at 1440p. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 7956 and the 3dmark_max_threads score of 7952 show that the processor scales well with multi-threaded workloads, but the single-thread performance is what matters most for this genre, and the i5-12600KF delivers there, allowing the GPU to operate at its full potential.

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

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture and features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU has a base and boost clock of 2500 MHz, with a memory clock of 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). With 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, the card is positioned as a mid-range rasterization performer. The passmark_g3d score of 14195 and the 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 2649 place it in a specific performance tier, and the measured FPS in Undisputed reflects this positioning.

The GPU's role as the primary performance gate is evident when comparing the High and Ultra presets across all resolutions. At 4K, the difference between High (53 FPS) and Ultra (34 FPS) is a substantial 35.8% reduction in performance. This indicates that the Ultra preset likely introduces effects that heavily tax the GPU's shader units and memory subsystem, such as advanced lighting or shadow techniques. The 10 GB VRAM buffer is likely sufficient for the textures used at 4K in this title, but the raw compute throughput of 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 becomes the limiting factor when pushing the highest quality settings at that resolution.

The Arc B570's 18 ray tracing cores are present, but in a sports title like Undisputed, their impact is likely minimal compared to rasterization. The data shows a clear hierarchy in performance based on the GPU's load. The jump from Low to Medium settings at 1080p yields the same FPS (141), which is curious. This suggests that at 1080p, the GPU can handle the additional graphical features of Medium settings without breaking a sweat, remaining at the same frame rate. However, at 4K, the same settings jump results in a 28.1% drop from 89 FPS to 64 FPS, showing how the GPU's compute units are saturated more easily at higher pixel counts. The GPU is the definitive bottleneck in this configuration, and the data shows its performance ceiling is reached when combining high resolutions with high-quality presets.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The specific combination of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and the Intel Arc B570 ranks 2256 out of 2813 tested combos in Undisputed. This percentile placement places it in the bottom 20% of all configurations tested, which might seem surprising given the high frame rates seen at lower settings. However, this ranking is a holistic measure that likely accounts for performance across all resolutions and settings, and the very low FPS figures at 4K Ultra (34 FPS) and the inability to maintain high frame rates at 4K High (53 FPS) likely drag the overall rank down significantly.

Looking at the individual components, the CPU's nearest rival in terms of average benchmark score is the Intel Core i9-10900K, which has a deltaPct of -0.3%, meaning the i5-12600KF is essentially tied with it. The i5-12600KF also performs within a fraction of a percent of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, a highly regarded gaming CPU. This indicates that the processor is punching above its weight and is not the cause of the low combo ranking. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 79 confirms it is in the top 21% of all processors, making it a strong performer. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU.

For the GPU, the nearest rival is the Intel Arc A750, which has a deltaPct of -0.1% from the Arc B570's average benchmark score. The Arc B570 also sits very close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, with a deltaPct of 0.1%. This places the B570 in a specific performance tier, but its percentileVsAllGpus of 65 shows it is only in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. The combo rank of 2256 is a direct result of the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions and settings. The data implies that to improve this combo's rank in Undisputed, a more powerful graphics card would be necessary, as the CPU has proven it has the headroom to support higher frame rates.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. The data shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for those seeking a smooth experience. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 141 FPS, which is more than enough for high-refresh-rate monitors. It also provides a minimum FPS of 120, ensuring minimal stutter. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset provides an average of 102 FPS with a minimum of 86 FPS, which is still excellent for competitive play and looks significantly better than Low. The only drawback is at 4K, where the Medium preset drops to 64 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for many users.

For users with 1080p displays, the High preset at 116 FPS average is also a viable option, offering improved visuals over Medium with only a 17.7% performance penalty. However, for 1440p users, the High preset at 84 FPS is still playable, but the Medium preset at 102 FPS is a safer choice to maintain a higher refresh rate. The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution except perhaps 1080p, where it achieves 75 FPS. At 1440p and 4K, Ultra settings result in 54 FPS and 34 FPS respectively, which are too low for a smooth experience in a fast-paced sports game.

The Low preset, while offering the highest frame rates (195 FPS at 1080p, 141 FPS at 1440p, 89 FPS at 4K), sacrifices too much visual fidelity. The data suggests that the Medium preset is the "sweet spot" for this combo, as it provides a substantial improvement in graphical quality over Low while maintaining frame rates that are 44.4% higher than High at 1080p, and 21.4% higher than High at 1440p. The minimum FPS data for Medium (120 at 1080p, 86 at 1440p) also provides a guarantee of smoothness that is absent from the other presets, making it the most reliable choice for a consistent experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The following is a detailed breakdown of the exact average FPS figures for each resolution and settings combination.

At 1920x1080, the performance ranges from 195 FPS on Low to 75 FPS on Ultra. The High preset averages 116 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 141 FPS, with a minimum of 120 FPS and a maximum of 162 FPS. This shows a clear scaling where the Low preset is nearly 2.6x faster than Ultra, but the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and quality.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS figures are 141 for Low, 102 for Medium (with a minimum of 86 and a maximum of 117), 84 for High, and 54 for Ultra. The performance drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across all presets, averaging around 27-28%, which reinforces the GPU-bound nature of the game at these settings.

At 3840x2160, the results are 89 FPS for Low, 64 FPS for Medium (with a minimum of 55 and a maximum of 74), 53 FPS for High, and 34 FPS for Ultra. This is the most demanding resolution, and the data shows a stark drop-off in performance. The jump from Medium to High at 4K results in an 11 FPS loss, and the jump from High to Ultra results in a 19 FPS loss, showing that the Ultra preset is disproportionately expensive at this resolution.

The only preset with complete min/max data is Medium, which provides valuable insight into frame pacing. At 1080p, the minimum of 120 FPS ensures a very stable experience. At 1440p, the minimum of 86 FPS is still acceptable, while the maximum of 117 FPS shows some variance. At 4K, the minimum of 55 FPS drops below the coveted 60 FPS mark, indicating that this resolution is not ideal for the Medium preset if you demand a solid 60 FPS floor. The data overall shows that the i5-12600KF + Arc B570 combo can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming well at Medium settings, but struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K.

FAQ

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

A: The data indicates that 4K gaming is challenging. At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 64, with a minimum of 55. At 4K High, the average drops to 53 FPS, and at Ultra, it falls to 34 FPS. While Low settings can reach 89 FPS, the experience at higher quality presets will be below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset offers the best experience at 2560x1440, delivering an average of 102 FPS with a minimum of 86 FPS. The High preset is also playable at 84 FPS, but Medium provides a higher frame rate and better frame pacing for a smoother experience.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12600KF holding back the Arc B570?

A: No. The data shows that FPS scales inversely with resolution, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. The CPU's high single-thread and multi-thread benchmark scores, such as 1016 in 3dmark_single_thread and 23391 in cinebench_r23_multicore, indicate it has sufficient headroom to feed the GPU at all tested resolutions.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its closest rivals based on benchmark scores?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750, has a deltaPct of -0.1%, meaning they perform nearly identically. It also sits close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with a deltaPct of 0.1%.

Q: Why is the combo rank in-game so low despite good 1080p performance?

A: The combo ranks 2256 out of 2813 combos. This low rank is likely due to the significant performance drop at 4K resolutions and at the Ultra preset, where the average FPS falls to 34. This poor high-resolution performance pulls the overall ranking down despite strong showings at 1080p and 1440p.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 195 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 75 FPS. This represents a 120 FPS difference, showing that the Ultra preset is significantly more demanding on the GPU than the Low preset.