Undisputed

The benchmark data for Undisputed with an Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 reveals a configuration that is heavily influenced by the graphics card, but with clear CPU limitations at lower resolutions. The measured frame rates across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K show a predictable scaling curve that shifts the bottleneck from the processor to the GPU as pixel count increases. This analysis interprets those results, the hardware's specifications, and the optimal settings for this specific pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, indicating that the AMD Radeon RX 7600 is the primary performance limiter at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 140.1 at 1920x1080 to 97.6 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 42.5 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 60.9 FPS, which is a 56.5% decrease from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is typical for a GPU-bound scenario where the rendering load increases exponentially with pixel count.

The data shows that the transition from 1080p to 1440p is less punishing than from 1440p to 4K. At Low settings, the drop is from 231.5 FPS at 1080p to 166.8 FPS at 1440p, a 27.9% reduction. However, going from 1440p Low to 4K Low (166.8 to 103.9 FPS) represents a 37.7% loss. This suggests that the RX 7600's 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory become increasingly strained as the resolution climbs, with the 4K Ultra preset being particularly demanding.

At 4K, the gap between Low and Ultra settings is substantial. The average FPS at Low is 103.9, while at Ultra it plummets to 44.0. This wide spread of 59.9 FPS indicates that the GPU has enough headroom at lower presets to maintain playable rates, but the highest quality settings overwhelm its capabilities. For a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, the data suggests that High settings (60.9 FPS) are the absolute ceiling, while Medium (76.4 FPS) offers a more comfortable margin.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings shows the most dramatic drop, from 90.1 to 44.0 FPS. This 51.2% reduction underscores that the RX 7600 is not designed for maxed-out 4K gaming in this title. The benchmark results indicate that users targeting 4K should expect to compromise on visual fidelity, as the GPU's raw throughput (21.75 TFLOPS FP32) and 169.9 GPixel/s pixel rate are insufficient for the demands of Ultra settings at that resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600, based on the Navi 33 chip and RDNA 3.0 architecture, is the dominant factor in these results. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s, which is a critical specification for Undisputed's texture-heavy environments. The measured FPS at 1080p High (140.1) and Medium (163.6) shows that the GPU has ample compute resources for these settings, but the memory subsystem becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The GPU's clock speeds are substantial, with a base clock of 1720 MHz and a boost clock of 2655 MHz. The game clock of 2250 MHz represents the typical sustained frequency during gaming workloads. These high clocks, combined with 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs, allow for strong performance at 1080p, where the GPU is not constrained by memory bandwidth. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2310 and Passmark G3D score of 16634 place this card in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, which is consistent with its mid-range positioning.

The RX 7600's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, has an average score of 20146, which is only 0.6% higher. This indicates that the 7600 is performing at the top of its class, with the 0.6% delta being within the margin of error for most benchmarks. In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile has a score of 20534, which is -1.3% relative to the 7600, meaning the desktop RX 7600 slightly outperforms this mobile part despite the latter's higher tier.

The GPU's performance in Undisputed is also reflected in its DirectX benchmarks. The Passmark DirectX 11 score of 172 is notably higher than the DirectX 12 score of 58, suggesting that the game's engine may be more optimized for older API paths, or that the driver overhead is higher in DX12. This is an important consideration because Undisputed may not fully leverage the 12 Ultimate (12_2) feature set, potentially leaving performance on the table.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides a solid foundation for this GPU, but its six-core, six-thread configuration without Hyper-Threading begins to show limitations at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the average FPS reaches 231.5, which is high enough to potentially saturate the CPU's processing capacity. The processor's boost clock of 4.10 GHz and 9 MB of shared L3 cache are sufficient for most gaming workloads, but the lack of additional threads can cause occasional frame pacing issues in CPU-intensive scenes.

The Cinebench R23 scores for the i5-9400 are 7969 for multi-core and 1125 for single-core. These results place the CPU in the 50th percentile of all CPUs, which is exactly average. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, has an average score of 2300, a mere 0.2% difference, making them nearly identical in compute performance. This means that the i5-9400 is not a bottleneck in most scenarios, but it also does not provide the headroom that a higher-tier processor would offer.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s via dual-channel DDR4 is modest by modern standards. This can become a limiting factor when the GPU is waiting for data, particularly at 1080p where the CPU is more active in preparing frames. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low, the FPS of 231.5 is nearly double the 4K Low result of 103.9, which indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU cannot sustain that throughput at higher pixel counts.

The i5-9400's architecture, Coffee Lake, is from 2018 and uses a 14 nm process. While it supports PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes, the RX 7600 uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. This means the GPU runs at half the electrical lanes of a typical x16 slot, but at Gen 3 speeds, the bandwidth is effectively the same as a Gen 3 x16 connection. This is unlikely to cause a significant performance penalty in Undisputed, as the game's data transfer requirements are not extreme.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings for this configuration depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p, the High preset at 140.1 FPS provides an excellent balance of visual quality and performance, well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 90.1 FPS is also viable for users with high-refresh-rate monitors, as it remains comfortably above 60 FPS while offering the best image quality.

At 1440p, the High preset yields 97.6 FPS, which is ideal for smooth gameplay on 144Hz displays. The Medium preset at 121.7 FPS offers even higher frame rates with a minor visual trade-off, making it a strong choice for competitive play. The Ultra preset at 63.1 FPS is playable but sits close to the 60 FPS minimum, so users may experience occasional dips in crowded scenes.

For 4K, the data clearly indicates that Ultra is not recommended, as the 44.0 FPS average falls below the playable threshold. The High preset at 60.9 FPS is the minimum viable option for a console-like experience, but the Medium preset at 76.4 FPS provides a more comfortable margin and is the best overall choice for 4K. This preset maintains high frame rates while avoiding the severe performance penalty of Ultra settings.

The Low preset is only recommended for users seeking maximum frame rates at 1080p, where it achieves 231.5 FPS. At 1440p Low (166.8 FPS) and 4K Low (103.9 FPS), the visual degradation is significant, and the frame rate gains over Medium are not substantial enough to justify the loss in image quality. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this GPU across all resolutions, offering the best performance-per-visual-quality trade-off.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo in Undisputed?*

A: The 1440p High preset at 97.6 FPS offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. It provides a high frame rate that is suitable for most monitors while avoiding the significant GPU strain seen at 4K.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Undisputed?*

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which produce an average of 76.4 FPS. High settings at 4K just barely hit 60.9 FPS, while Ultra drops to an unplayable 44.0 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its closest rival?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300) and 0.4% higher than the Intel Xeon E-2134 (2295). It is also 0.6% slower than the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319).

Q: Is the AMD Radeon RX 7600 significantly outperformed by its nearest rival?

A: No. The RX 7600 has an average score of 20258, which is 0.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (20146) and 0.8% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 460 (20088). It is 1.3% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile.

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much from 1080p to 4K?

A: The drop is due to the GPU's memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s and 8 GB of VRAM. At 4K, the rendering load increases exponentially, and the RX 7600's 128-bit bus cannot keep up with the data demands, causing the average FPS to fall by more than half across presets.

Q: What is the most demanding setting in the benchmark data?

A: The 4K Ultra preset is the most demanding, with an average FPS of 44.0. This is 60.9 FPS lower than the 4K High preset, indicating that Ultra settings impose a severe performance penalty on this GPU.