SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core i5-12490F + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Get a comprehensive performance analysis of your gaming rig with detailed benchmarks, bottleneck detection, and upgrade recommendations

88 / 100
HIGH-END

Power Build

Top 12% of systems. Excellent for 1440p Ultra or 4K High gaming.

1440p Ultra4K High

System Balance Analysis

CPU vs GPU performance ratio
Well Balanced
CPU
85%
VS
GPU
91%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core i5-12490F

20,802 Benchmark Score
Top 15% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →
GRAPHICS CARD

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

19,410 Benchmark Score
Top 9% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →

Market Position

How your build compares to others
Budget
0-30
Mid-Range
30-60
High-End
60-85
Enthusiast
85-100
Your Build

Game Performance Benchmarks

Real-world 4K FPS in popular titles
View All Games →

Performance Insights

Tips to maximize your system

Strong Performance

Excellent for 1440p gaming. Most games will run at high/ultra settings smoothly.

Compatible Games See what you can play Compare CPUs Find upgrades Compare GPUs Find upgrades

Performance Tiers Explained

90-100

Ultimate

4K Ultra gaming, VR ready, ray tracing enabled, professional workloads

4K 60+ FPS VR Ready
70-89

High-End

1440p Ultra or 4K High settings, excellent for modern AAA titles

1440p Ultra 4K High
50-69

Mid-Range

1080p Ultra or 1440p Medium, great value for most gamers

1080p Ultra 1440p Med
30-49

Entry Level

1080p Medium settings, suitable for eSports and older titles

1080p Med eSports
0-29

Legacy

Basic gaming, older titles, consider upgrading for modern games

720p-1080p Low Older Games

The Intel Core i5-12490F and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX pairing represents a distinct desktop configuration where a mid-range, power-efficient six-core processor is matched with a high-end, flagship-tier graphics card. The CPU, based on the Alder Lake architecture, delivers strong single-threaded performance and adequate multi-threading for its class, while the GPU is a massive RDNA 3.0 powerhouse with 24 GB of memory and exceptionally high compute throughput. This combination creates a system heavily skewed toward GPU-bound workloads, making it a compelling option for specific use cases but one that requires careful consideration of workload balance.

Usage Scenarios

For high-refresh gaming, this pairing is excellent, though the CPU will be the limiting factor in some scenarios. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841 and PassMark G3D score of 31238 indicate substantial raw rendering power, which is essential for driving high frame rates at 1440p and 4K. The CPU’s single-thread score of 946 in 3DMark and 2440 in Cinebench R23 is sufficient for most games, but at lower resolutions or with very high frame rates, the six-core processor may cap performance.

Streaming and video encoding workloads benefit from the GPU’s immense compute resources, with the RX 7900 XTX delivering 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 122.8 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1). This allows for hardware-accelerated encoding and real-time effects without burdening the CPU. The i5-12490F’s 12 threads and PassMark multithread score of 20202 provide adequate headroom for running streaming software alongside gaming, though the CPU will be the bottleneck if encoding is done on the CPU rather than the GPU.

Video editing in applications like Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve sees strong performance from the GPU’s 24 GB VRAM and 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, which is critical for handling high-resolution timelines and effects. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 17284 and PassMark integer math score of 60548 support smooth timeline scrubbing and preview rendering, but export times will be limited by the six-core design compared to higher-core-count processors.

3D rendering and GPU-accelerated workloads are where this system shines. The RX 7900 XTX’s 96 RT cores and 6144 shading units provide massive parallel throughput, making it ideal for ray-traced renders and GPU-based render engines. The CPU’s PassMark floating-point math score of 47326 and extended instructions score of 15993 handle general scene preparation and physics calculations, but the GPU will dominate the actual render time.

Software development workloads, particularly compilation and code analysis, are a mixed bag. The CPU’s single-thread performance is strong, with a PassMark single-thread score of 3682, which helps with IDE responsiveness and incremental builds. However, large-scale parallel compilation will be limited by the 6 cores and 12 threads, as evidenced by the 3DMark max threads score of 5936, which is modest compared to higher-end workstation CPUs.

Student and office work is easily handled by this configuration, though it is overkill for most tasks. The CPU’s low 65 W TDP ensures efficient operation for everyday productivity, and the GPU, while massive, is unnecessary for word processing or spreadsheet work. The PassMark physics score of 1345 and data compression score of 237304 indicate capable performance for general computing tasks, but the system’s cost and power draw make it impractical for purely office use.

Benchmark Performance

The CPU’s aggregate benchmark picture shows a solid mid-range performer with strong single-threaded capabilities. The average benchmark score is 20802, placing it at the 74th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6325P with an average score of 20821 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U at 20826 (0.1% higher), the AMD EPYC 7J13 at 20845 (0.2% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT at 20733 (0.3% lower). These deltas are negligible, indicating the i5-12490F performs nearly identically to a broad range of enterprise and consumer processors in aggregate.

The GPU presents a more complex picture. Its average benchmark score is 19410, placing it at the 64th percentile of all GPUs. This is notably lower than what its specifications suggest, and its nearest rivals are quite revealing: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB scores 19334 (0.4% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 scores 19602 (1.0% higher), the AMD FirePro D300 scores 19637 (1.2% higher), and the NVIDIA TITAN Xp scores 19177 (1.2% lower). These rival comparisons are dominated by much older or lower-tier cards, which suggests the benchmark database may weight certain test categories heavily, potentially undervaluing the RX 7900 XTX’s modern feature set.

The combined percentile for this CPU+GPU pairing is 69, reflecting a system that is above average overall but not at the top tier. The CPU’s strong relative standing (74th percentile) is tempered by the GPU’s lower percentile (64th), creating a system where the processor is proportionally stronger than the graphics card relative to their respective markets. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841 is a modern test result, but its PassMark DirectX 12 score of 131 is anomalously low, possibly due to driver or test methodology issues.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The Intel Core i5-12490F is built on the Intel Socket 1700 platform, which supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with a dual-channel memory bus. This flexibility allows builders to choose between cost-effective DDR4 or higher-bandwidth DDR5 memory, though the CPU’s memory controller will dictate the practical benefits. The chip supports PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU, providing modern connectivity for high-speed NVMe SSDs and future GPU upgrades.

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 bus interface, which is fully compatible with the CPU’s PCIe Gen 5 slots, though the GPU will operate at PCIe 4.0 speeds. The GPU has a TDP of 355 W and requires a 750 W suggested PSU, while the CPU has a 65 W TDP. This leaves substantial PSU headroom for the rest of the system, but the GPU’s dual 8-pin power connectors and dual-slot design require a case with adequate clearance — the card is 287 mm long, 110 mm tall, and 51 mm wide.

A sensible next upgrade would be to the CPU, as the GPU is already at the high end of the market. Moving to a higher-core-count Socket 1700 processor would immediately improve multi-threaded workloads, given the current CPU’s 3DMark max threads score of 5936 is a bottleneck in heavily threaded tasks. Memory upgrades are also viable, as the platform supports both DDR4 and DDR5, allowing a shift to faster memory without a motherboard change.

For the GPU, there is no immediate upgrade path within the same generation, as the RX 7900 XTX is the top card in the Radeon RX 7000 series and has been marked end-of-life. Future upgrades would require a platform change to support newer PCIe standards, though the 960.0 GB/s bandwidth and 24 GB VRAM will remain sufficient for several years of high-end gaming.

Who Should Build It

This system targets gamers who prioritize maximum graphical fidelity at 1440p or 4K resolutions, where the GPU’s massive compute resources and 24 GB VRAM are fully utilized. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841 indicates strong DX12 performance, and the GPU’s texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s ensure high-quality textures and effects at high resolutions. However, gamers at 1080p may find the CPU becomes the bottleneck, limiting the benefit of the high-end GPU.

Content creators working with GPU-accelerated rendering engines will find this pairing ideal, as the RX 7900 XTX’s 61.39 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 96 RT cores provide exceptional compute throughput for tasks like 3D rendering and video effects. The CPU’s 12 threads and 20 MB of shared L3 cache handle scene management and asset loading, but the GPU does the heavy lifting, making this a strong choice for individual creators rather than large render farms.

Software developers who work on code that is heavily GPU-accelerated, such as graphics programming or machine learning inference, will benefit from the GPU’s raw power. The CPU’s PassMark data encryption score of 12018 and extended instructions score of 15993 support secure coding workflows, while the single-thread performance of 3682 in PassMark ensures responsive development environments. However, developers doing large-scale parallel builds will be disappointed by the 6-core CPU.

Students and small business workstations are not the target for this configuration, as the performance is vastly beyond what typical productivity tasks require. The CPU’s 74th percentile and GPU’s 64th percentile indicate a system that is more powerful than needed for document editing, spreadsheets, or web browsing, making it an inefficient choice for such environments unless the user also engages in gaming or content creation.

Balance and Bottleneck

The primary bottleneck in this system is the CPU in gaming and lightly-threaded workloads, while the GPU is the limiting factor in compute-heavy tasks. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 946 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2440 are respectable but not exceptional, and in games that rely heavily on a single core, the GPU may be left waiting for the CPU to issue draw calls.

In multi-threaded workloads, the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads, with a 3DMark max threads score of 5936, are the clear constraint. The GPU’s PassMark GPU compute score of 17689 is vastly higher relative to its market position, and in tasks that scale across both devices, the CPU will finish its portion of the work much earlier, leaving the GPU underutilized.

The FPS scaling evidence from the benchmark scores suggests that at 4K resolution, the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the pixel rate and memory bandwidth are fully taxed. At 1080p, the CPU’s single-thread performance becomes the limiter, as the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can prepare them. At 1440p, the balance is more even, with both components working near their limits.

The combined percentile of 69, compared to the CPU’s 74th percentile and GPU’s 64th percentile, indicates that the pairing is slightly worse than the sum of its parts, reflecting the inherent imbalance where the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in the aggregate benchmarks.

Gaming Performance

No measured FPS rows exist for this exact CPU+GPU combination in the FACT PACK, so all frame rate discussions are estimates based on the benchmark scores. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841 and PassMark G3D score of 31238 provide a basis for estimating strong 1440p and 4K performance, while the CPU’s single-thread scores suggest 1080p performance will be CPU-limited.

At 1440p ultra settings, this system is estimated to deliver high frame rates in most modern titles, given the GPU’s 24 GB VRAM and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU’s 3DMark 4-thread score of 3133 and 8-thread score of 4811 indicate adequate performance for physics and AI calculations, but games with very high CPU demands may see frame rates capped below the GPU’s potential.

At 4K ultra settings, the GPU is expected to be the limiting factor, and the system should deliver playable frame rates in most titles, though extremely demanding games may require settings adjustments. The GPU’s pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s are substantial, and the 96 RT cores provide reasonable ray-traced performance, but the estimated FPS will vary significantly by game.

At 1080p, the CPU is the primary bottleneck, and the system may not deliver meaningfully higher frame rates than a cheaper GPU paired with the same CPU. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 3682 is good, but not top-tier, so esports titles at very high frame rates will be limited by the processor.

GPU Analysis

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a massive GPU based on the Navi 31 chip, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die. It features 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, providing a pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s. The GPU has 96 RT cores for hardware ray tracing and delivers 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 and 122.8 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1) compute performance.

The memory subsystem is a defining feature, with 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus providing 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is critical for high-resolution textures and large datasets in rendering workloads. The GPU’s clocks are set at a base of 1929 MHz, a game clock of 2365 MHz, and a boost of 2498 MHz, with memory running at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective).

The benchmark scores show a mixed picture. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841 is a strong modern DX12 result, while the Geekbench OpenCL score of 50465 and Vulkan score of 85612 indicate excellent compute and graphics API performance. However, the PassMark DirectX 10 score of 166, DirectX 11 score of 356, and DirectX 12 score of 131 are unusually low, likely reflecting legacy test limitations rather than actual performance, and they drag down the average score to 19410, placing the GPU at the 64th percentile.

In rendering workloads, the GPU’s FP32 and FP16 performance are the key metrics, and the 24 GB VRAM allows for large scenes and high-resolution textures without swapping. The RT cores provide hardware-accelerated ray tracing, though the performance relative to the GPU’s rasterization power is modest, as indicated by the 96 RT cores against 6144 shading units.

FAQ

Q: What is the CPU’s single-threaded performance compared to its rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-12490F has a 3DMark single-thread score of 946 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2440, with a PassMark single-thread score of 3682. Its average benchmark score of 20802 places it at the 74th percentile, with its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U, scoring 20826, a delta of -0.1%.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have and what is its memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The memory runs at 2500 MHz, which translates to 20 Gbps effective.

Q: Is the CPU overclockable?

A: No, the Intel Core i5-12490F has a locked multiplier (multiplierUnlocked: false). Its base clock is 3.00 GHz and boost clock is 4.60 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W.

Q: What is the GPU’s power requirement and physical size?

A: The GPU has a TDP of 355 W and a suggested PSU of 750 W. It is a dual-slot card measuring 287 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 51 mm in width, requiring two 8-pin power connectors.

Q: What is the combined performance percentile of this CPU+GPU pairing?

A: The combined percentile is 69 out of 100. This is lower than the CPU’s individual 74th percentile and higher than the GPU’s individual 64th percentile.

Q: What memory types does the CPU support?

A: The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, using a dual-channel memory bus. ECC memory is not supported.

Q: What is the GPU’s production status and release date?

A: The GPU is marked as end-of-life, with a release date of 2022-11-02. Its successor is Navi IV, and its predecessor is Navi II.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core i5-12490F is a desktop processor from the Core 12th Gen series, based on the Alder Lake architecture with the Alder Lake-S codename. It has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, operating at a TDP of 65 W. The CPU is manufactured on Intel’s 10 nm process, with a die size of 163 mm².

The cache hierarchy consists of 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration provides strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 946 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2440. The multi-threaded performance is solid for a six-core part, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 17284 and a PassMark multithread score of 20202.

The CPU’s average benchmark score is 20802, placing it at the 74th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT, scores 20733, a delta of 0.3%, indicating the i5-12490F is slightly faster in aggregate. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory, and provides PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU, ensuring modern connectivity.

For real workloads, the CPU excels in tasks that benefit from high single-core performance, such as gaming, office applications, and light coding. The PassMark data compression score of 237304 and integer math score of 60548 indicate strong general-purpose computing, while the floating-point math score of 47326 supports moderate scientific workloads. However, the 6-core design limits heavily threaded applications, as shown by the 3DMark max threads score of 5936, which is significantly lower than higher-core-count rivals.

Build Overview

This build pairs the Intel Core i5-12490F with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX in a desktop class configuration. The CPU is a mid-range, power-efficient part at the 74th percentile, while the GPU is a high-end, flagship-tier card that, despite its massive specifications, sits at the 64th percentile in the benchmark database due to anomalous legacy test scores.

The combined percentile for this pairing is 69, indicating an above-average system overall, but one where the CPU is proportionally stronger than the GPU relative to their respective markets. This is a desktop system designed for users who prioritize GPU-bound workloads, such as 4K gaming, GPU rendering, and compute-heavy tasks, while accepting that the CPU will limit performance in less demanding scenarios.

The GPU’s 24 GB VRAM and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth make it a future-proof choice for high-resolution textures and large datasets, while the CPU’s 65 W TDP ensures efficient operation in everyday tasks. The system is best suited for a gamer or content creator who spends most time in GPU-intensive applications and less time in multi-threaded CPU workloads, where the 6-core design will be the limiting factor.