Undisputed

The pairing of Intel’s flagship Core i9-14900K with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2060 presents a striking asymmetry in Undisputed. The data shows a CPU that ranks in the 97th percentile against all processors, paired with a GPU that sits in the 58th percentile. This combination yields a wide spread of frame rates depending on the settings and resolution chosen, making the choice of preset more impactful than usual. The measured results indicate that this is a system capable of high refresh rates at lower resolutions, but one that requires careful setting adjustments to maintain smoothness at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific hardware pairing, the measured data reveals a clear "sweet spot" at Medium settings across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 147.9 FPS, which is a substantial improvement over the 124.6 FPS of High settings while remaining far above the 60 FPS threshold. The gap between Medium and Low at 1080p is 60.9 FPS, but the visual fidelity loss from dropping to Low is generally not worth the extra frames when the Medium preset already provides a highly competitive experience.

The argument for Medium strengthens at higher resolutions. At 2560x1440, Medium produces 109.4 FPS, which is comfortably playable on high-refresh monitors. The High preset at 1440p drops to 90.9 FPS, still smooth but noticeably lower. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 58.5 FPS, which sits below the ideal smoothness threshold for many competitive players. The data indicates that Ultra is poorly optimized for this GPU in Undisputed, as it incurs a massive performance penalty relative to the visual uplift it might provide.

At 3840x2160, Medium remains the best balance, yielding 68.2 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS baseline, while High at 4K drops to 56.7 FPS and Ultra plummets to a stutter-prone 36.1 FPS. Low at 4K provides 94.6 FPS, but the visual degradation at that resolution is severe. Therefore, the benchmark results strongly suggest that Medium is the optimal preset for this combo in Undisputed, offering the best blend of visual quality and frame rate stability across all three resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the limiting factor in this pairing, and its specifications confirm why. The GPU features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is the likely culprit for the dramatic FPS drops when moving from Medium to Ultra settings. The data shows that at 1080p, Ultra (80.8 FPS) is 67.1 FPS slower than Medium (147.9 FPS), a 45% reduction. This suggests that Ultra settings in Undisputed likely exceed the 6 GB VRAM capacity, forcing texture streaming and causing a significant bottleneck.

The GPU's clock speeds—a base of 1365 MHz and a boost of 1680 MHz—are modest by modern standards. With 1920 shading units and 48 ROPs, the RTX 2060 delivers a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s. The benchmark results indicate that this raw throughput is sufficient for Medium settings, but the card's 6.451 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is not enough to sustain high detail levels at higher resolutions. The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 2060 performs admirably when settings are kept within its memory and compute budget, but it struggles when pushed toward the Ultra preset, where the frame rate at 4K (36.1 FPS) becomes almost unplayable.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the nature of the bottleneck in this system. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 208.8 FPS at 1080p to 151.5 FPS at 1440p, a 27% reduction, and then to 94.6 FPS at 4K, a further 38% reduction. This gradual decline indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is still the primary constraint, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed the graphics card.

At High settings, the scaling is more severe. The drop from 1080p (124.6 FPS) to 1440p (90.9 FPS) is 27%, and the drop to 4K (56.7 FPS) is another 38%. This consistent pattern suggests that the game's rendering load at higher settings scales predictably with pixel count. However, the Ultra preset shows a more erratic pattern: 80.8 FPS at 1080p, 58.5 FPS at 1440p, and 36.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is disproportionately low compared to the 1440p result, reinforcing the theory that the 6 GB VRAM buffer is being exhausted at this combination, causing a performance cliff rather than a linear scaling.

The data implies that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor in this configuration. The i9-14900K's immense processing power ensures that even at 1080p Low, where the GPU is producing 208.8 FPS, there are no apparent CPU-related frame rate caps. The bottleneck is consistently the RTX 2060, particularly its memory capacity and bandwidth.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database's tested configurations, this specific combination of Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 1309th out of 1580 combos in Undisputed. This low ranking relative to the total pool is telling. It places this system in the bottom 17% of all tested hardware pairings for this game. This is not surprising given the GPU's modest standing; the RTX 2060's average benchmark score of 16074 is only slightly above that of its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, which scores 16351 (a delta of -1.7%).

The ranking suggests that while the CPU is exceptionally powerful, it cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations in Undisputed. The data shows that this combo's performance is bounded by the RTX 2060, and the i9-14900K is essentially idling in most scenarios. This is an important insight for potential buyers: pairing a high-end CPU with a mid-range GPU yields a system that is ultimately constrained by its graphics card in this title. The combo rank of 1309/1580 reflects this reality, showing that many other pairings with more balanced components achieve superior frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its base clock of 3.20 GHz and boost clock of 6.00 GHz, combined with 36 MB of shared L3 cache, make it a formidable CPU. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 49872 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 7040 in single-core, placing it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs. The data indicates that this processor is vastly overqualified for the demands of Undisputed when paired with the RTX 2060.

The measured FPS data shows no signs of CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Low, where the GPU is pushing 208.8 FPS, the frame rate does not appear to be limited by the processor. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect to see similar frame rates across different settings at the same resolution. However, the data shows a massive spread: 208.8 FPS at Low versus 80.8 FPS at Ultra. This indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor, and the i9-14900K is merely providing a stable platform without introducing stutters or frame time inconsistencies.

The CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals further underscores its capability. It is only 0.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7413 and 0.7% behind the Intel Core i9-14900KF in average benchmark scores. This level of performance means that in Undisputed, the CPU is never the reason for low frame rates. The bottleneck lies entirely with the RTX 2060, which struggles under heavy graphical loads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of this combo's performance across all settings and resolutions.

1920x1080:

• Low: 208.8 FPS. This is an exceptional result, indicating the CPU can easily drive high refresh rates.
• Medium: 147.9 FPS. A 29% reduction from Low, but still excellent for competitive play.
• High: 124.6 FPS. A further 16% reduction, still smooth on most displays.
• Ultra: 80.8 FPS. The most demanding preset at 1080p, this drops below the 144 FPS high-refresh threshold.

2560x1440:

• Low: 151.5 FPS. Nearly as fast as Medium at 1080p, showing the GPU's scaling.
• Medium: 109.4 FPS. A very playable result for most gaming monitors.
• High: 90.9 FPS. Approaching the lower limit for smooth 144Hz gameplay.
• Ultra: 58.5 FPS. This falls below the 60 FPS target, indicating the GPU is struggling.

3840x2160:

• Low: 94.6 FPS. Surprisingly high for 4K, but visual quality is compromised.
• Medium: 68.2 FPS. The only 4K preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS.
• High: 56.7 FPS. Slightly below the 60 FPS target, leading to potential judder.
• Ultra: 36.1 FPS. Essentially unplayable, confirming the VRAM bottleneck.

The data shows that the RTX 2060 can deliver playable frame rates at 4K only on Medium settings, and it requires Low settings to achieve high refresh rates at 1440p. At 1080p, the GPU has more headroom, but the Ultra preset still proves too demanding.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo suitable for 4K gaming in Undisputed?*

A: Only at Medium settings, which produce 68.2 FPS. High settings drop to 56.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 36.1 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth 4K play at higher presets.

Q: Why is the Ultra preset so much slower than Medium?

A: The data shows a 44% FPS drop from Medium to Ultra at 1080p (147.9 to 80.8 FPS) and a 47% drop at 4K (68.2 to 36.1 FPS). This steep decline is likely due to the RTX 2060's 6 GB VRAM capacity being exceeded, causing a performance cliff.

Q: Does the Intel Core i9-14900K bottleneck the RTX 2060?

A: No. The benchmark results indicate the CPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the GPU produces 208.8 FPS, and the frame rate varies significantly with settings, proving the GPU is the bottleneck.

*Q: How does this combo rank against all tested configurations in Undisputed?*

A: It ranks 1309th out of 1580 combos, placing it in the bottom 17% of tested systems for this game. This low rank is due to the GPU's limitations, not the CPU.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve 144 FPS?

A: At 1080p with Medium settings, the combo achieves 147.9 FPS, which is above 144 FPS. At 1440p, even Low settings only reach 151.5 FPS, which is close but slightly below the 144 FPS target at Medium (109.4 FPS).

Q: Is the RTX 2060's memory bandwidth sufficient for this game?

A: The GPU has 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The data suggests it is sufficient for Medium settings, but the significant frame rate drops at Ultra indicate that the 6 GB memory capacity, rather than bandwidth, is the limiting factor.