Undisputed

The Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 pairing delivers a distinctly CPU-favored experience in Undisputed, with the data showing a clear pattern where performance scales more readily with resolution than with graphical fidelity. This combination ranks in the 715th position out of 1580 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database, yet the benchmark results reveal a configuration that is often constrained by the 8 GB VRAM of the GPU at higher settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average frame rate is 116.8 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, though it represents a significant drop from the 186.8 FPS seen at High settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-14900KF?

A: The Core i9-14900K has an average benchmark score of 79,824, which is 0.7% lower than the 79,245 score of the i9-14900KF, making the difference functionally negligible in most workloads.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The RTX 3070 sits in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28,238, placing it ahead of the majority of cards but behind the top-tier performers.

Q: What is the best performance-to-settings ratio at 2560x1440?

A: The Medium preset provides the strongest balance, delivering 163.5 FPS, which is 33.1 FPS higher than High (130.4 FPS) and 75 FPS higher than Ultra (88.5 FPS), while maintaining visual quality.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes the primary constraint at 3840x2160, as the FPS difference between Low (141.3) and Ultra (53.7) is a drastic 87.6 FPS, indicating that graphical settings heavily impact performance at this resolution.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the Core i9-14900K?

A: The launch MSRP for the CPU is $589, and it was released on 2023-10-16.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. The data shows this is a high-end part, ranking in the 97th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 79,824. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7413, scores 80,041, which is only 0.3% higher, indicating that the i9-14900K is essentially at parity with server-class silicon in synthetic tests. The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory contribute to its strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7,040.

For Undisputed, a sports simulation, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and AI. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 307.5 FPS, which is exceptionally high and suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower graphical loads. However, the CPU's performance ceiling is only revealed when the GPU is not saturated. The delta between 1080p Low (307.5 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (116.8 FPS) is 190.7 FPS, which is a much larger drop than what is seen between 1440p Low (225.6 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (88.5 FPS). This indicates that while the CPU can push very high frame rates, the GPU's rendering load at higher settings quickly becomes the limiting factor, even at 1080p. The CPU's 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier suggest headroom for overclocking, but the data implies that in this game, additional CPU headroom would not translate to higher FPS beyond what the GPU can deliver.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture with an 8 nm process, featuring 5,888 shading units and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock is 1725 MHz, and the card has a 220 W TDP. In the database, the RTX 3070 ranks in the 72nd percentile with an average score of 28,238. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, scores 27,985, which is 0.9% lower, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti scores 27,956, a 1% difference. This places the RTX 3070 in a competitive but not dominant position relative to older and newer cards.

In Undisputed, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM is a notable constraint. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 53.7, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth play. The data shows a clear pattern: increasing settings from Low to Ultra at any resolution causes a substantial FPS penalty. At 1080p, the drop from Low to Ultra is 190.7 FPS (307.5 to 116.8), and at 4K, the drop is 87.6 FPS (141.3 to 53.7). The GPU's 8 GB memory buffer is likely the cause of the severe performance hit at 4K Ultra, as texture and shader complexity exceed the available VRAM, forcing the system to rely on slower memory paging. The RTX 3070's compute capabilities, such as 20.31 TFLOPS FP32 performance, are strong, but the memory capacity limits its effectiveness at higher resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 715th out of 1,580 tested combos in Undisputed, placing it in the 45th percentile of all configurations. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the high performance of the CPU (97th percentile) and the decent standing of the GPU (72nd percentile). The data suggests that the combo's overall ranking is dragged down by the GPU's limitations at higher settings, as the CPU is clearly capable of higher frame rates. For example, the CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF, has a similar average score (79,240, a 0.7% delta), but the GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, has a 0.9% lower score, indicating that the RTX 3070 is slightly below the curve for its class.

The rank of 715 out of 1,580 means that roughly 45% of other tested combos perform better, which is a middle-of-the-pack result. This is likely because many other combos pair the same or similar CPUs with more powerful GPUs, such as the RTX 3080 or 3090, which would not have the same VRAM constraints. The data implies that for Undisputed, the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing, and the combo's rank would improve significantly if the CPU were paired with a card that has more than 8 GB of VRAM. The FPS figures at 4K Ultra (53.7 FPS) are a clear indicator of this limitation, as they fall below the playable threshold, whereas the CPU could likely handle much higher frame rates if the GPU could keep up.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best experience for this combo across all resolutions, providing a balance between visual quality and performance. At 1080p, Medium delivers 224.1 FPS, which is 37.3 FPS higher than High (186.8 FPS) and 107.3 FPS higher than Ultra (116.8 FPS). The jump from Medium to Ultra is a 107.3 FPS loss, which is not justified by the visual improvements, especially when the Medium preset is already well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors. At 1440p, Medium provides 163.5 FPS, which is still excellent for competitive play, while High drops to 130.4 FPS and Ultra falls to 88.5 FPS. The 75 FPS difference between Medium and Ultra at 1440p is significant, and Medium remains the sweet spot.

At 4K, the choice is more complex. Medium delivers 103.8 FPS, which is playable, but High drops to 84.9 FPS and Ultra falls to 53.7 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. For a smooth 4K experience, Medium is the recommended setting, as it maintains a 103.8 FPS average. Low settings at 4K provide 141.3 FPS, but this sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a sports game where character models and arenas are important. The data clearly indicates that Medium is the optimal preset for this combo, as it avoids the VRAM-related performance collapse seen at Ultra while preserving enough graphical detail to be visually appealing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo shows a wide performance spread across settings. Low yields 307.5 FPS, Medium 224.1 FPS, High 186.8 FPS, and Ultra 116.8 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 190.7 FPS, which is a 62% reduction in frame rate. This indicates that the GPU is heavily taxed by higher settings, even at the lowest resolution. At 2560x1440, the figures are 225.6 FPS (Low), 163.5 FPS (Medium), 130.4 FPS (High), and 88.5 FPS (Ultra). The delta between Low and Ultra is 137.1 FPS, a 61% reduction, similar to the 1080p pattern. At 3840x2160, the performance drops further: 141.3 FPS (Low), 103.8 FPS (Medium), 84.9 FPS (High), and 53.7 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Ultra result is the only one below 60 FPS, highlighting the GPU's VRAM constraint.

The data shows that the RTX 3070 handles Low settings at all resolutions with ease, but the transition to Ultra causes a disproportionate penalty. For instance, at 1080p, the difference between Medium and High is 37.3 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is 70 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that Ultra settings introduce effects that the GPU cannot handle efficiently, likely due to memory bandwidth or capacity issues. The 8 GB VRAM is a critical factor, as the 4K Ultra result (53.7 FPS) is 28.8 FPS lower than the 4K High result (84.9 FPS), a 34% drop that is much steeper than the 28% drop seen between 1080p High and Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU as the primary bottleneck in this combo. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 307.5 at 1080p to 141.3 at 4K, a reduction of 166.2 FPS, or 54%. This is a substantial drop, but the absolute values are still high, indicating that the GPU can handle low-fidelity rendering at 4K. At Medium settings, the drop is from 224.1 FPS to 103.8 FPS, a 120.3 FPS reduction (54%). At High settings, the drop is from 186.8 FPS to 84.9 FPS, a 101.9 FPS reduction (55%). At Ultra settings, the drop is from 116.8 FPS to 53.7 FPS, a 63.1 FPS reduction (54%).

The consistency of the ~54% drop across all settings is noteworthy. It suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline is uniformly stressed by the increase in pixel count, regardless of the graphical complexity. However, the absolute FPS values at 4K Ultra (53.7) are below the playable threshold, while the 4K High (84.9) and Medium (103.8) are not. This indicates that the 8 GB VRAM is not the only issue; the GPU's raw compute power also limits 4K performance. The data implies that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game, as the frame rates are consistently high at lower resolutions, and the GPU's performance scales predictably with resolution. The 54% drop from 1080p to 4K is a typical pattern for a GPU-bound scenario, confirming that the RTX 3070 is the constraining component in this pairing, especially at higher settings where its VRAM capacity becomes a liability.