Undisputed

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

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor built on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. The 125W TDP and 36 MB of shared L3 cache position this as a desktop flagship, but its role in Undisputed is surprisingly muted: the measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings suggest the Intel Arc B570 GPU, rather than the CPU, is the primary bottleneck in most scenarios.

At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 195 FPS average, which is a very high ceiling that any modern CPU could feed. The fact that the 290K Plus posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and a single-core score of 7,303 (placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs) means it has ample headroom to drive even the most demanding physics and AI calculations in a boxing sim. However, Undisputed is a sports title with a limited number of on-screen characters, so the CPU's 24 threads are rarely saturated. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,823 reinforces that the 290K Plus excels at the kind of lightweight, per-thread work that game logic typically requires.

The real story emerges when looking at the CPU's nearest rivals. The Core Ultra 9 285K scores 83,807 average (0.2% behind the 290K Plus), while the AMD EPYC 4584PX and EPYC 9135 are 1.1% and 1.2% behind, respectively. The AMD EPYC 7F72 actually leads the 290K Plus by 1.3%. These margins are trivial for gaming. What matters more is that the 290K Plus has 24 threads, all of which are physical cores with no hyperthreading, meaning the OS scheduler has a straightforward mapping of workloads to cores. This can reduce latency in frame pacing, though the measured FPS data does not include frame time variance.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s (dual-channel DDR5) is adequate for feeding the Arc B570's 380.0 GB/s of video memory bandwidth. In practice, this means the CPU is not starving the GPU at any resolution. The 1080p Ultra result of 75 FPS versus the 1080p Low result of 195 FPS is a 61.5% drop purely from settings, which is a GPU-side effect. The CPU's role is to maintain a stable frame delivery pipeline, and given that the 290K Plus sits in the 96th percentile for all CPUs, it is not the limiting factor even in the most CPU-sensitive scenarios.

Benchmark results indicate that the 290K Plus's 24 cores are overkill for Undisputed. The PassMark multithread score of 60,860 is nearly 13 times the single-thread score, but the game does not scale with core count in a meaningful way. A hypothetical 8-core CPU would likely produce identical FPS numbers in this title. The 290K Plus's advantage lies in its high boost clock: at 5.80 GHz, it can execute single-threaded game logic faster than most rivals, which matters for the simulation of punch physics and referee AI. However, the measured FPS deltas between resolutions (e.g., 195 FPS at 1080p Low versus 89 FPS at 4K Low) are far larger than any CPU-to-CPU variance seen in the nearest rivals.

FAQ

Q: Does the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus bottleneck the Intel Arc B570 in Undisputed?

A: No. The data shows that the FPS drops from 1080p Low (195 FPS) to 4K Low (89 FPS) are consistent with GPU-bound behavior. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking and 5.80 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom; the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 1440p, all settings except Ultra (54 FPS) maintain 60+ FPS, with Low at 141 FPS, Medium at 102 FPS, and High at 84 FPS. At 4K, only Low (89 FPS) and Medium (64 FPS) exceed 60 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750?

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20,556, which is 0.1% lower than the Arc A750's 20,582. In practice, this means they perform nearly identically, with the B570 being essentially tied with the A750.

Q: Is the 290K Plus meaningfully faster than the Core Ultra 9 285K?

A: The 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84,003 versus the 285K's 83,807, a 0.2% advantage. For Undisputed, this difference is negligible; both CPUs will deliver the same FPS.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1080p Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 141 FPS, with a minimum of 120 FPS and a maximum of 162 FPS. This is the most consistent frame delivery in the dataset, with only a 42 FPS spread between min and max.

Q: Does the 290K Plus's 24 cores help in Undisputed?

A: Not measurably. The game's FPS scales with GPU settings, not core count. The CPU's single-thread performance (7,303 in Cinebench R23) is what matters, and it is more than sufficient for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the combo delivers 195 FPS at 1080p, 141 FPS at 1440p, and 89 FPS at 4K. That is a 54 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p (27.7% decrease) and a 52 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K (36.9% decrease). The scaling is roughly linear with pixel count, which is exactly what you expect when the GPU is the limiting component.

At Medium settings, the pattern shifts slightly. The 1080p result is 141 FPS, 1440p is 102 FPS, and 4K is 64 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 39 FPS (27.7%), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 38 FPS (37.3%). These percentages are nearly identical to the Low settings, confirming that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth (380.0 GB/s) are the deciding factors.

High settings show a steeper decline. 1080p High runs at 116 FPS, 1440p High at 84 FPS, and 4K High at 53 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 32 FPS (27.6%), but from 1440p to 4K is 31 FPS (36.9%). The 4K High result of 53 FPS is just below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that the Arc B570's 10 GB of GDDR6 memory is being pushed hard at this resolution. The 4K Ultra result of 34 FPS confirms that the GPU has no headroom for extreme settings at 4K.

The most telling data point is the Ultra settings row. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 75 FPS; at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 54 FPS; and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 34 FPS. The percentage drops are 28% and 37%, respectively, which mirrors the other settings. This consistency across all settings levels indicates that the limiting component is the GPU's raw rasterization throughput (11.52 TFLOPS FP32) rather than any memory or CPU constraint. The Arc B570's 160-bit memory bus and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but become a bottleneck at 4K with higher quality presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data supports a clear recommendation: Medium settings at 1440p provide the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. At 1440p Medium, the combo averages 102 FPS with a minimum of 86 FPS and a maximum of 117 FPS. This is a playable range for a sports title, with the minimum comfortably above 60 FPS. The 86 FPS minimum is the highest minimum among all 1440p settings, indicating consistent frame delivery.

For players prioritizing smoothness above all, 1080p Medium is the standout choice. It delivers 141 FPS average with a 120 FPS minimum and 162 FPS maximum. The 42 FPS spread between minimum and maximum is the tightest in the entire dataset, suggesting that this setting avoids the frame-time spikes that can occur at higher resolutions. This is the only configuration where the minimum FPS never drops below 120.

At 4K, the recommendation is Low settings. The 89 FPS average at 4K Low is the only 4K setting that clears 60 FPS with a comfortable margin (29 FPS above the threshold). The 4K Medium result of 64 FPS is technically playable, but the 55 FPS minimum is dangerously close to the 60 FPS target and could cause visible stutter in fast-paced boxing exchanges. The 4K High (53 FPS) and 4K Ultra (34 FPS) results are not recommended for competitive play.

The Ultra preset is problematic across all resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 75 FPS, which is playable, but the 1440p Ultra (54 FPS) and 4K Ultra (34 FPS) results fall below the 60 FPS and 30 FPS thresholds, respectively. The step from High to Ultra costs 41 FPS at 1080p (116 to 75), which is a 35% performance penalty for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in a sports title. Benchmark results indicate that the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely shadows and reflections) are disproportionately expensive on the Arc B570's architecture.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2,256 out of 2,813 tested combos in Undisputed. This places it in the bottom 20% of all configurations, which is a notable finding given the CPU's high percentile ranking. The 290K Plus is in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, but the Arc B570 is only in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. The combo's low rank is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's mid-range positioning.

The rank of 2,256 out of 2,813 means that 557 combos perform worse, but the vast majority (2,256) perform better. This is not a flattering result for a system built around a flagship CPU. The data suggests that pairing a 96th-percentile CPU with a 65th-percentile GPU creates a significant imbalance for this game. The CPU's compute potential (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731) is far in excess of what Undisputed requires, while the GPU's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is the binding constraint.

The combo's ranking becomes more understandable when you consider the GPU's nearest rivals. The Arc B570 is essentially tied with the Arc A750 (0.1% difference in average benchmark score) and the RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% difference). These are all mid-range GPUs that would rank similarly in this game. The CPU's contribution to the ranking is minimal; the 290K Plus could be swapped for a much cheaper CPU and the combo's rank would likely remain similar, as long as the GPU stays the same.

This ranking indicates that the combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the GPU can maintain high frame rates. At 4K, the combo falls behind more expensive GPU pairings, as evidenced by the 34 FPS result at 4K Ultra. For a game like Undisputed, which is a sports title with fast-moving characters, the 1440p Medium configuration (102 FPS average) is the sweet spot that maximizes the combo's competitive positioning.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for Undisputed with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and Intel Arc B570 is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 195 FPS average
• Medium: 141 FPS average, 120 FPS minimum, 162 FPS maximum
• High: 116 FPS average
• Ultra: 75 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 141 FPS average
• Medium: 102 FPS average, 86 FPS minimum, 117 FPS maximum
• High: 84 FPS average
• Ultra: 54 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 89 FPS average
• Medium: 64 FPS average, 55 FPS minimum, 74 FPS maximum
• High: 53 FPS average
• Ultra: 34 FPS average

The 1080p Low result of 195 FPS is the highest in the dataset and represents the combo's absolute performance ceiling. The 4K Ultra result of 34 FPS is the lowest, which is 82.6% below the 1080p Low figure. The Medium settings are the only rows with both minimum and maximum FPS values, allowing for an analysis of frame consistency. At 1080p Medium, the spread is 42 FPS (120-162); at 1440p Medium, it is 31 FPS (86-117); and at 4K Medium, it is 19 FPS (55-74). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions is counterintuitive but suggests that the GPU's frame pacing becomes more consistent when it is fully saturated.

The step from Low to Medium at each resolution costs 54 FPS at 1080p (195 to 141), 39 FPS at 1440p (141 to 102), and 25 FPS at 4K (89 to 64). The step from Medium to High costs 25 FPS at 1080p (141 to 116), 18 FPS at 1440p (102 to 84), and 11 FPS at 4K (64 to 53). The step from High to Ultra costs 41 FPS at 1080p (116 to 75), 30 FPS at 1440p (84 to 54), and 19 FPS at 4K (53 to 34). The diminishing absolute cost of each settings step at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck; as resolution increases, the relative impact of quality settings decreases because the GPU is already spending most of its time on pixel fill.