Undisputed

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a compelling 1080p and 1440p experience in Undisputed, but the data reveals a sharp performance cliff at 4K Ultra that signals a clear hardware limitation. The measured frame rates show a system that is well-balanced for high-refresh gaming at mainstream resolutions, yet struggles to maintain playable framerates when pushed to the extreme settings that the game’s engine can demand.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a predictable and steep decline as resolution increases, but the rate of that decline is not uniform across all settings. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 138.3 at 1920x1080 to 101.3 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 37 FPS. Moving from 1440p to 3840x2160, the average falls further to 65.7 FPS, another 35.6 FPS drop. This pattern suggests that while the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, the scaling is relatively linear, indicating that the rendering load is scaling as expected with pixel count.

However, the Ultra preset tells a different story. Between 1080p and 1440p, the average FPS plummets from 87.8 to 64.0, a 23.8 FPS drop. The jump to 4K is catastrophic, with the average falling to 38.0 FPS. This is a 26 FPS drop from 1440p, and a 49.8 FPS drop from 1080p. The severity of this decline at Ultra settings points to a situation where the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being saturated, not just by resolution, but by the compounding effects of high-quality textures and post-processing effects. The 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance become the limiting factors, making 4K Ultra a mode that the hardware cannot handle smoothly.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the RTX 2060 SUPER holds the 1084th position out of 1580 tested combos for Undisputed. This places it in the lower third of all tested systems, which is a surprising result given the strong 1080p performance. This ranking suggests that while the combo can deliver high frame rates, the overall experience, likely weighted by the inability to handle 4K Ultra, drags its composite score down. The fact that the CPU’s average benchmark score is at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 63rd percentile, further indicates that the CPU is not the primary performance differentiator in this pairing.

The ranking implies that many other system configurations, likely with more powerful GPUs, can achieve higher overall scores by maintaining playable frame rates across all resolution and settings combinations. This combo excels in a specific niche—high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gaming—but its overall rank reflects its struggles at the most demanding settings. It reflects the game’s heavy requirements at the top end, rather than a failure of this hardware at its intended resolution targets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the workhorse of this combo, and its specifications directly explain the measured performance. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card has a substantial memory pool, but the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a key constraint. At 4K Ultra, the high-resolution textures and effects likely demand more memory bandwidth than the card can provide, resulting in the low 38.0 FPS average. The GPU’s 2176 shading units and 64 ROPs are tasked with pixel generation, and the 105.6 GPixel/s pixel rate is a hard limit on how many pixels can be rasterized per second.

The clock speeds are also relevant. The base clock of 1470 MHz and boost clock of 1650 MHz are moderate for the Turing architecture. While the card can boost its clocks under load, the thermal and power constraints of its 175 W TDP mean that it cannot sustain maximum clocks indefinitely when pushed hard. The data shows that the card is most comfortable at Medium and High settings, where it can maintain high frame rates. The performance difference between Low and Medium settings suggests that the GPU has headroom to handle increased visual fidelity without a massive performance hit, but the jump to Ultra introduces a level of complexity that the hardware cannot overcome.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the High preset is the clear sweet spot, delivering an average of 138.3 FPS. This is high enough for smooth gameplay on a 120Hz or 144Hz monitor, and it provides a significant visual upgrade over the Medium preset’s 165.8 FPS. Pushing to Ultra drops the average to 87.8 FPS, which is still playable but sacrifices the high-refresh advantage.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset offers the best balance, with an average of 121.3 FPS. This is a substantial improvement over High’s 101.3 FPS and is far more stable than Ultra’s 64.0 FPS. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p provides a great visual experience without forcing the GPU to work at its absolute limit. For 3840x2160, the only viable options are Low or Medium. Low averages 106.8 FPS, which is excellent for 4K, while Medium averages 74.2 FPS. High at 65.7 FPS is borderline, and Ultra’s 38.0 FPS is not recommended for a playable experience. The recommendation is to prioritize frame rate stability by using Medium at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete data set reveals the full scope of the combo’s capabilities. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from a low of 38.0 at Ultra to a high of 106.8 at Low. The Medium preset averages 74.2 FPS, while High averages 65.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, the spread is wider: Low averages 167.6 FPS, Medium averages 121.3 FPS, High averages 101.3 FPS, and Ultra averages 64.0 FPS. The 1080p results are the most impressive, with Low hitting 229.8 FPS, Medium at 165.8 FPS, High at 138.3 FPS, and Ultra at 87.8 FPS.

The data shows a clear and consistent trend: each step up in resolution or settings has a predictable cost in average FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 142 FPS, which is a massive gap. At 4K, the same settings difference is only 68.8 FPS, but the absolute values are much lower. This indicates that the GPU is not scaling efficiently at the highest resolution, as the performance penalty for using Ultra is proportionally larger at 4K than at 1080p.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the data, 2560x1440 with the Medium preset is the best balance, delivering an average of 121.3 FPS while maintaining a high level of visual quality.

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

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The 3840x2160 Low preset averages 106.8 FPS, and Medium averages 74.2 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are not recommended due to their lower frame rates.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 19774, which is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070. This indicates it is a strong performer among its peers.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for this GPU?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score is 2305, which is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i3-10305. The data does not show a CPU bottleneck, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor at higher settings.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between the High and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The High preset averages 138.3 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 87.8 FPS. This is a 50.5 FPS difference, making High the better choice for high-refresh displays.

Q: Does the game favor the GPU or CPU for this combo?

A: The data strongly indicates a GPU-bound scenario, especially at higher resolutions. The drastic FPS drops when increasing settings from High to Ultra point to the GPU’s limits, not the CPU’s.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide sufficient data throughput for gaming. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and single-core score of 1125 place it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs. This indicates that it is an average performer in synthetic tests, but for gaming, the single-core performance is more critical.

In Undisputed, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent with a GPU bottleneck, as the frame rates do not become CPU-bound at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the average FPS reaches 229.8, which is a high frame rate but not so high that the CPU’s 4.10 GHz boost clock would be a limiting factor. The data suggests that the i5-9400 has enough processing power to feed the RTX 2060 SUPER in most scenarios. However, its 6 threads and end-of-life status mean it may not be as future-proof as newer processors. The benchmark results show it is nearly identical in performance to the Intel Core i3-10305, with a delta of 0.2%, highlighting that its age is starting to show in multi-core workloads. For this game, though, the CPU is a capable partner that does not hinder the GPU’s performance.