Undisputed

The Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 pairing delivers an exceptional experience in Undisputed, ranking in the top 3% of all tested system combinations for this title. The data indicates that this combo is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while the processor's immense headroom becomes apparent only at 1080p. With frame rates ranging from a demanding 92.4 FPS at 4K Ultra to a blistering 534.2 FPS at 1080p Low, this system offers performance for virtually any display setup, though the choice of settings will significantly dictate the visual-to-performance trade-off.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling, with the most dramatic drop occurring at the highest settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 534.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 385.9 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 27.8%, before settling at 246.7 FPS at 3840x2160, which is 53.8% lower than the 1080p baseline. This scaling is characteristic of a system where the RTX 4090 is the primary limiting factor, as the workload increases with pixel count.

The scaling curve steepens significantly at Ultra settings. The system produces 203.6 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 147.3 FPS at 1440p (a 27.7% decrease) and then to 92.4 FPS at 4K (a 54.6% decrease from 1080p). This pattern suggests that the higher preset's additional visual effects, such as enhanced shadows and reflections, place a proportionally larger load on the GPU, making the 4K Ultra target the most demanding scenario in the measured data. The 1440p to 4K transition shows a 37.3% drop in performance at Ultra, highlighting the exponential cost of pushing four times the pixels.

At Medium and High settings, the same trend holds, but with a notable convergence. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 54.3% for Medium (from 384 to 175.5 FPS) and 54.1% for High (from 313.8 to 144.2 FPS). This consistency across presets indicates that the resolution is the dominant variable, not the specific quality level. The data strongly suggests that the Core i9-14900K is not the bottleneck at any resolution; even the lowest 4K result (92.4 FPS at Ultra) is far above the refresh rates of most monitors, and the processor's high core count and clock speeds are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at these frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Ultra as the most demanding but still playable option, while Medium offers a superior balance of visual fidelity and performance for high-refresh-rate displays. At 4K, Ultra yields 92.4 FPS, which is just above the threshold for smooth 90Hz gaming, but the jump to High provides a substantial 56.1% performance increase to 144.2 FPS. For a 144Hz 4K panel, High is the recommended setting, as it nearly saturates the refresh rate while maintaining a high level of visual quality.

For 1440p users, the choice is between High and Ultra. The Ultra preset delivers 147.3 FPS, which is excellent for most high-refresh monitors, but High reaches 230.7 FPS, making it the better choice for 240Hz displays. The data shows that Medium at 1440p (274.7 FPS) is also viable for esports-style play, but the visual compromise may not be worth the extra frames when High is only 16% slower. At 1080p, the system is so powerful that even Ultra runs at 203.6 FPS, meaning users can enable the highest settings without sacrificing high refresh rates. The Low preset, while achieving 534.2 FPS, is only recommended for competitive play at extremely high refresh rates, as the visual downgrade is significant.

The most efficient option for a balance of quality and speed is High across all resolutions. It provides a 35.2% improvement over Ultra at 4K, a 56.6% improvement at 1440p, and a 54.1% improvement at 1080p, while still offering a robust visual experience. Medium is a fallback for those seeking maximum frame rates, but the data suggests that the performance gap between Medium and High is smaller than the gap between High and Ultra, making High the sweet spot.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the clear performance driver in this configuration, and its specifications align with the measured results. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for the texture and geometry data required at 4K Ultra. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, and the boost clock of 2520 MHz ensures high sustained throughput. These figures explain why the card can maintain 92.4 FPS at the most demanding setting, a feat that would be impossible with a smaller memory bus or lower bandwidth.

The GPU's compute resources are also substantial, with 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are present but not directly stressed by a sports title like Undisputed, which focuses on rasterized character models and arena environments. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are the key metrics for this game, and they directly support the high fill rates needed for 1440p and 4K rendering. The card's FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS is more than adequate for the physics calculations in a boxing simulation.

The data shows that the RTX 4090 is the bottleneck in almost all scenarios. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 534.2 FPS is likely near the game engine's upper limit, but the GPU is still the primary limiter. The card's 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66,473, confirms its top-tier status. Its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, are workstation cards that are not comparable in gaming performance, underscoring the RTX 4090's dominance in this consumer title.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 35th out of 1,580 tested combos in Undisputed. This top 2.2% placement is a direct reflection of the hardware's collective strength, but it is not the absolute best, indicating that there are a few system configurations that yield slightly higher average frame rates. The ranking is likely influenced by the CPU's ability to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at lower resolutions, as well as the GPU's raw power.

The CPU's own benchmark data supports its role in this high ranking. The Core i9-14900K has a 97th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,824. Its nearest rivals, including the AMD EPYC 7413 and Intel Core i9-14900KF, show negligible delta percentages (within 0.9%), meaning that swapping to a similarly powerful processor would have minimal impact on the game's performance. This suggests that the combo rank is primarily determined by the GPU, with the CPU providing a stable and capable foundation. The fact that this combo is not number one, despite the hardware's individual strengths, implies that other combinations with faster memory or slightly higher GPU clocks can edge it out, but the margin is likely small given the high overall placement.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K serves as a high-performance foundation that ensures the RTX 4090 is never starved for data. With 24 cores and 32 threads, the processor offers immense parallel processing power, but Undisputed is not a title that utilizes all of them. The game's physics and AI routines are typically single-threaded or lightly threaded, meaning the CPU's boost clock of 6.00 GHz is more critical than its core count. The base clock of 3.20 GHz is low, but the processor's ability to boost to 6.00 GHz on a few cores is what drives the high frame rates at 1080p.

The CPU's cache hierarchy, including an 80 KB L1 cache per core, 2 MB L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache, helps reduce memory latency, which is essential for maintaining consistent frame pacing in a fast-action sports game. The processor's architecture, Raptor Lake-R, built on a 10 nm process, is designed for high clock speeds, and its performance in synthetic benchmarks confirms its capability. For example, the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7,040 is among the highest, which correlates with the ability to process game logic quickly. The multi-core score of 49,872 is less relevant for this game but demonstrates that the CPU has headroom for background tasks.

The data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 534.2 FPS is likely limited by the game engine or the GPU, not the CPU. The processor's PassMark single-thread score of 4,697 and multithread score of 58,674 indicate that it can handle the game's demands with ease. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU setup. The CPU's 125W TDP is a power draw figure, but the performance is what matters here, and it is clearly sufficient to keep the RTX 4090 fully utilized across all tested settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo are consistently high, with the lowest result being 92.4 FPS at 4K Ultra and the highest being 534.2 FPS at 1080p Low. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 203.6 (Ultra) to 534.2 (Low), with Medium and High landing at 384 and 313.8, respectively. This shows a clear hierarchy where the Low preset offers a 162.7% performance increase over Ultra, proof of the GPU's headroom and the CPU's ability to feed it.

At 2560x1440, the results are 147.3 FPS (Ultra), 230.7 FPS (High), 274.7 FPS (Medium), and 385.9 FPS (Low). The jump from Ultra to High is 56.6%, which is a significant gain for a single preset step. The Medium preset at 1440p is faster than the High preset at 4K (274.7 vs. 144.2 FPS), illustrating the impact of resolution on performance. At 3840x2160, the average FPS is 92.4 (Ultra), 144.2 (High), 175.5 (Medium), and 246.7 (Low). The 4K Low result is still higher than many systems achieve at 1080p Ultra, showcasing the sheer power of this combination.

The data also reveals that the performance delta between Low and Ultra grows with resolution. At 1080p, the gap is 330.6 FPS; at 1440p, it is 238.6 FPS; and at 4K, it is 154.3 FPS. This indicates that the GPU becomes more stressed at higher resolutions, compressing the range of achievable frame rates. Regardless, every measured configuration exceeds 90 FPS, meaning this combo provides a smooth and responsive experience in all scenarios, from competitive 1080p play to visually demanding 4K Ultra.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Undisputed?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 534.2, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the combo produces 92.4 FPS. The CPU's high single-core performance, evidenced by its boost clock of 6.00 GHz, is more than capable of supporting this frame rate, indicating the RTX 4090 is the primary constraint.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems in this game?

A: It ranks 35th out of 1,580 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.2% of all configurations for Undisputed.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings achieve 230.7 FPS, while Ultra settings achieve 147.3 FPS. This represents a 56.6% increase in average frame rate when dropping from Ultra to High.

Q: Does the CPU's core count impact the frame rates in this game?

A: The Core i9-14900K has 24 cores and 32 threads, but the game's performance is more reliant on clock speed. The processor's high boost clock of 6.00 GHz allows it to keep up with the GPU, and the measured data shows no CPU bottleneck at any resolution or setting.

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K with Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the measured average FPS is 175.5. This provides a good balance for 4K gaming, offering significantly higher frame rates than the 92.4 FPS seen at Ultra.