Undisputed

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread desktop processor built on the Arrow Lake-S architecture and TSMC's 3 nm process node. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and it carries 24 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 3 MB of L2 per core. This is a mainstream Ultra 5 part, not a flagship, yet its benchmark profile shows it operates in a competitive band: its average benchmark score of 46062 places it at the 89th percentile of all CPUs.

In the context of Undisputed, the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are more than sufficient. The game is a sports title, and the data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 578 FPS average. That figure is so high that it suggests the CPU is not a limiting factor at lower resolutions. The processor's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and single-core score of 2085 indicate strong per-thread performance, which is relevant for a game that likely relies on a primary simulation thread for boxing AI and physics. The single-core score sits in a range that allows the CPU to feed the GPU without bottlenecking, especially when paired with a top-tier graphics card.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 5 235 sits within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (deltaPct 0.1) and the AMD EPYC 4364P (deltaPct 0.2), while being 0.1% behind the Intel Core i9-13900HX. Those are minuscule differences, essentially noise in synthetic benchmarks. What matters for Undisputed is that this CPU's 14 threads are enough to handle the game's logic, and its high boost clock of 5.00 GHz helps keep frame pacing consistent. The data shows no evidence of CPU-bound stutter; even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 101 is well above playable thresholds, and the CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 37816 suggests there is headroom for background tasks without impacting frame delivery.

One investigative note: the CPU has no unlocked multiplier, so overclocking is not an option. That is fine here, because the stock clock behavior already delivers the headroom needed for 4K Ultra at over 100 FPS. The processor's 65 W TDP also means it runs within a modest power envelope, which could help with sustained performance in longer sessions. The L3 cache of 24 MB is shared across all cores, and while a larger cache might help in some simulation-heavy titles, the measured results show that this configuration is not holding back the RTX 5090 D.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing. It uses the GB202 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost of 2407 MHz, and the memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The GPU has 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 170 RT cores and 680 Tensor cores. Its FP32 throughput is 104.8 TFLOPS, and its texture rate is 1,636.8 GTexel/s.

In Undisputed, the GPU's role becomes apparent when looking at the scaling across settings at a fixed resolution. At 4K, the average FPS drops from 264 at Low to 101 at Ultra — a 61.8% reduction. That is a clear sign that the game's higher presets are heavily GPU-bound, likely due to increased shading complexity and possibly higher-resolution textures that require more memory bandwidth. The 32 GB VRAM is far beyond what this game needs; even at 4K Ultra, the memory footprint is unlikely to approach 16 GB, let alone 32 GB. This means the RTX 5090 D is never VRAM-limited, and the measured FPS deltas are purely a function of compute load and memory bandwidth utilization.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its positioning. It sits at the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (deltaPct -1.6) and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (deltaPct -2.4), but those are mobile or datacenter parts, not direct desktop competitors. The RTX 5090 D is in a class of its own for this game, and the data shows it. At 1440p High, the combo hits 249 FPS average; at 1080p High, it reaches 344 FPS. Those numbers are so high that the GPU is clearly not the bottleneck until you push to 4K Ultra, where the average FPS of 101 still represents a fluid experience for a sports game.

The GPU's memory clock of 1750 MHz and 512-bit bus are worth noting because Undisputed appears to be bandwidth-sensitive at higher presets. The drop from 264 FPS at 4K Low to 190 FPS at 4K Medium (a 28% reduction) is larger than the drop from 190 FPS at Medium to 157 FPS at High (a 17.4% reduction). This suggests that the initial leap from Low to Medium introduces significant texture and shading work that taxes the memory subsystem, but the RTX 5090 D's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth absorbs it well. The GPU is the star here, and its role is to ensure that even at maximum settings, the frame rate never dips below 100 FPS at 4K.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, average FPS decreases, but the rate of decrease depends heavily on the settings preset. At Low settings, the combo delivers 578 FPS at 1080p, 418 FPS at 1440p, and 264 FPS at 4K. That is a 54.3% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 222 FPS at 1080p to 160 FPS at 1440p to 101 FPS at 4K — a 54.5% reduction. The consistency of these percentages suggests that resolution scaling is uniform across presets, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario where the CPU is not intervening.

However, the absolute numbers tell a more nuanced story. At 1080p Low, 578 FPS is so high that it is likely near the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability. The CPU's single-thread score of 2085 in Cinebench R23 and its PassMark single-thread score of 4516 indicate strong performance, but even the best CPUs have a ceiling. The fact that 1080p Low (578 FPS) is only 38.3% higher than 1440p Low (418 FPS), while 1440p Low is 58.3% higher than 4K Low (264 FPS), suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is starting to become a mild limiter. If the GPU were fully in charge, you might expect a more linear scaling with pixel count (1080p to 1440p is 1.78x pixels, 1440p to 4K is 2.25x pixels), but the actual FPS ratios are 1.38x and 1.58x, respectively. This indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU's frame generation rate caps the output, and the GPU has spare capacity.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is more in line with a GPU-bound scenario. The pixel count from 1080p to 1440p increases 1.78x, and the FPS drops from 222 to 160, a 1.39x ratio. From 1440p to 4K, the pixel count increases 2.25x, and the FPS drops from 160 to 101, a 1.58x ratio. The fact that the FPS drop is less than the pixel count increase suggests that the RTX 5090 D's massive bandwidth and compute resources are not fully saturated at lower resolutions, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU is doing heavy lifting. The data implies that for Undisputed, the RTX 5090 D is the primary driver of performance at 4K, while the Core Ultra 5 235 becomes a more significant factor at 1080p with lower settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 222 at Ultra to 578 at Low. The Medium preset delivers 416 FPS with a minimum of 354 and a maximum of 478. High settings at 1080p produce 344 FPS average. At 1440p, the range tightens: Low hits 418 FPS, Medium delivers 301 FPS (min 256, max 346), High is at 249 FPS, and Ultra falls to 160 FPS. At 4K, the numbers are more modest but still impressive: Low achieves 264 FPS, Medium 190 FPS (min 162, max 219), High 157 FPS, and Ultra 101 FPS.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data, which allows for a deeper look. At 1080p Medium, the min FPS of 354 is 85.1% of the average, indicating some frame dips but no catastrophic stutter. At 1440p Medium, the min FPS of 256 is 85.0% of the average, maintaining a similar consistency. At 4K Medium, the min FPS of 162 is 85.3% of the average. This consistency across resolutions suggests that the frame pacing is stable, which is crucial for a sports game where timing matters. The max FPS values show headroom: at 4K Medium, the max of 219 is 15.3% above the average, meaning there are moments where the hardware can push further, but it settles into a steady range.

The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is notable. At 1080p, Low is 160.4% faster than Ultra (578 vs 222 FPS). At 1440p, Low is 161.3% faster than Ultra (418 vs 160 FPS). At 4K, Low is 161.4% faster than Ultra (264 vs 101 FPS). This near-constant ratio across resolutions indicates that the settings presets impose a consistent computational load on the GPU, regardless of resolution. It also shows that the RTX 5090 D has enough headroom to handle even the heaviest preset at 4K, with 101 FPS average remaining well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks first in Undisputed out of 2813 tested combos. That top ranking is not surprising given the GPU's position in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs and the CPU's 89th percentile standing. The data shows that no other combination in the database achieves higher average FPS across the measured settings. This is a definitive statement: for this game, this hardware combo is the best performer in the database.

The ranking is driven primarily by the GPU. The RTX 5090 D's nearest rivals in the GPU benchmarks are the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (deltaPct -1.6) and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (deltaPct -2.4), but those are not desktop gaming cards. The CPU's rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (deltaPct 0.1) and Intel Core i9-13900HX (deltaPct -0.1), are within a hair of the Ultra 5 235's average score, meaning the CPU is not the differentiator. Instead, it is the combination of a very fast CPU and an extraordinarily fast GPU that yields the top rank.

What does the #1 rank imply? It means that if you are looking at the database for the best possible Undisputed experience, this is the hardware to match. The measured FPS data confirms it: at 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 101 FPS, which is higher than what many other combos would manage at 1440p. The rank of 1 out of 2813 is a strong statement, but it comes with a caveat: the CPU is not a top-tier flagship, yet it is fast enough to not hold back the GPU. This suggests that for Undisputed, the GPU is the dominant factor in achieving high FPS, and the CPU just needs to be "good enough" — which the Ultra 5 235 clearly is.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to play Undisputed at Ultra settings?*

A: The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo achieves an average of 101 FPS, which is smooth for a sports game. At 1440p Ultra, the average rises to 160 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it hits 222 FPS. All are playable, but 4K Ultra provides the visual fidelity with a triple-digit frame rate.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: Yes, there are signs of a CPU limit at 1080p with Low settings, where the average FPS of 578 is likely near the CPU's maximum. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low (578 to 418, a 1.38x ratio) is less than the pixel count increase (1.78x), suggesting the CPU caps output at lower resolutions. At higher settings, the GPU becomes the primary limiter.

Q: How much faster is the Ultra preset compared to High at 4K?

A: At 4K, the High preset delivers an average of 157 FPS, while Ultra drops to 101 FPS. This means Ultra is 35.7% slower than High, which is a significant trade-off for the visual improvements at maximum settings.

Q: Is the 32 GB VRAM necessary for this game?

A: No. The data does not indicate VRAM usage, but given that the game runs at 101 FPS at 4K Ultra, it is unlikely to exceed 16 GB VRAM. The 32 GB capacity on the RTX 5090 D is far more than needed, meaning VRAM is never a limiting factor in Undisputed.

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

A: This combo ranks 1st out of 2813 tested combos for Undisputed. Its average FPS across all measured settings is the highest in the database, making it the top performer for this game.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 4K Medium, and is it stable?

A: At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 162, with an average of 190 and a maximum of 219. The min is 85.3% of the average, indicating stable frame pacing with no severe drops.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality. At 4K Medium, the combo achieves an average of 190 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the minimum of 162 FPS ensures no dips below playable levels. The High preset at 4K drops to 157 FPS average, which is still excellent, but the 17.4% reduction from Medium to High (190 to 157 FPS) is not worth the marginal visual gains for a sports game where frame rate consistency matters. Medium provides a 84.2% higher average FPS than Ultra (190 vs 101 FPS) while likely offering most of the visual fidelity.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 301 FPS average with a minimum of 256 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p still hits 160 FPS average, so if you prefer maximum visual quality, it remains a viable option. At 1080p, the Medium preset hits 416 FPS average, which is beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, so the choice of preset has little practical impact. For the best experience, the data suggests using Medium at 4K or High at 1440p, depending on your display's native resolution. The Low preset, while delivering 264 FPS at 4K, sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that is not competitively demanding. The Ultra preset is only recommended for players with a 120 Hz display at 4K who want the absolute best visuals, as the 101 FPS average is still smooth.