SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL + NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation

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Build Configuration

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PROCESSOR (CPU)

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GRAPHICS CARD (GPU)

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70 Score

Top 30% Ranking

70 / 100

HIGH-END

Power Build

Top 30% of systems. Excellent for 1440p Ultra or 4K High gaming.

1440p Ultra4K High

System Balance Analysis

CPU vs GPU performance ratio

CPU Bottleneck

CPU

41%

GPU

99%

Your CPU is limiting system performance. Consider upgrading to a faster processor to better utilize your GPU.

PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL

0 Benchmark Score

Top 59% Market Ranking

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GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation

184,664 Benchmark Score

Top 1% Market Ranking

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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

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Performance Insights

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Strong Performance

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

Bottleneck Detected

CPU Bottleneck - Upgrading the weaker component will improve overall performance.

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

# Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL + NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation

This pairing combines Intel's 15-watt Meteor Lake-PS desktop processor with NVIDIA's flagship workstation-class Ada Lovelace GPU, creating a desktop build that sits at the 74th percentile overall among all CPU-GPU combinations tracked in the database. The CPU is a modest 12-core part with a 50th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the GPU is an absolute powerhouse at the 98th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 184,664 points. This is a system with a dramatic performance disparity between its two main components, and the data reveals a build where the GPU dominates nearly every conceivable workload while the CPU provides adequate, though not exceptional, support.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL uses the Intel Socket 1851 platform, which represents the current generation of Intel desktop sockets. This is a 15-watt part by TDP specification, which is extraordinarily low for a desktop processor and indicates a design focused on efficiency rather than raw throughput. The motherboard compatibility for memory is listed as DDR5 with the note "Depends on motherboard," meaning the specific memory speed and capacity support will vary based on the chosen board. Memory bandwidth is rated at 89.6 GB/s over a dual-channel memory bus, which is a moderate figure for a modern platform.

PCIe connectivity comes from the CPU itself with Gen 4 support and 8 lanes, which is a relatively limited allocation for a desktop part. This means the primary PCIe x16 slot for the GPU must come from the chipset or the CPU's limited lane budget, and the RTX 5000 Ada Generation GPU uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The CPU's 8 PCIe Gen 4 lanes would be insufficient to run the GPU at full x16 bandwidth if routed directly through the CPU, so motherboard chipset routing becomes critical for this build. For storage and additional expansion cards, users will need to rely heavily on chipset-provided lanes.

The power supply requirement is dictated by the GPU, which has a 250-watt TDP and a suggested PSU rating of 600 watts. The CPU's 15-watt TDP is negligible in the overall power budget, so the 600-watt suggestion effectively covers the entire system with headroom. The GPU requires a single 16-pin power connector, which is the modern ATX 12VHPWR standard, so the chosen power supply must include this connector or come with an adapter. The CPU has a launch MSRP of $309, and it is not multiplier-unlocked, meaning overclocking headroom is limited to BCLK adjustments on supported motherboards.

A sensible next upgrade for this platform would be a higher-core-count Intel Socket 1851 processor, as the motherboard and memory infrastructure would carry over. The GPU is already near the top of the performance hierarchy, so upgrading the CPU would be the logical step to better balance the system. The 15-watt CPU TDP means that even modest coolers will suffice, and the thermal headroom available in the chassis could support a much more powerful processor if the user chooses to upgrade later.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark data for this combination is one-sided. The GPU has two recorded benchmark scores: 175,286 in Geekbench OpenCL and 194,041 in Geekbench Vulkan, with an average score of 184,664 across all GPU benchmarks. This places the RTX 5000 Ada Generation at the 98th percentile among all GPUs in the database. The CPU, however, has an average benchmark score of 0 and no individual benchmark entries, which means the database contains no measured CPU performance data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL. The CPU's percentile ranking of 50th among all CPUs is therefore based on its specifications relative to other parts, not on measured performance.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the database provide context for its performance level. The NVIDIA A100 SXM4 80 GB scores 183,725, which is 0.5% lower than the RTX 5000 Ada Generation, putting the two essentially at parity. The NVIDIA A100 SXM4 40 GB scores 187,147, which is 1.3% higher than the RTX 5000 Ada. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell scores 182,109, which is 1.4% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 D scores 178,050, which is 3.7% lower. These deltas show that the RTX 5000 Ada Generation sits in a tight cluster with enterprise and workstation-class GPUs, all within a few percentage points of each other.

The combined picture is a system where the GPU delivers top-tier compute performance, but the CPU's lack of measured benchmarks makes it impossible to quantify its contribution to overall system performance. The combined percentile of 74 for this CPU-GPU pair reflects the GPU's strength pulling the overall score upward, while the CPU's 50th percentile ranking drags it down from what the GPU alone would achieve.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL is a 12-core, 14-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, specifically the Meteor Lake-PS variant. This is part of the Core Ultra Series 1, built on Intel's 7 nm process node. The base clock is 1.30 GHz, which is quite low, but the boost clock reaches 4.30 GHz, providing a significant frequency range for burst workloads. The 15-watt TDP is the defining characteristic of this chip — it is designed for efficiency-constrained environments, likely targeting embedded or small-form-factor desktop use cases.

The cache hierarchy consists of 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a modest L3 allocation for a modern desktop processor, and the low base clock suggests that sustained all-core workloads will run at relatively modest frequencies. The integrated graphics are Arc Xe-LPG with 64 execution units, which provides a basic display output capability but is not intended for gaming or compute-heavy visual workloads. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, and it does not support ECC memory.

For real workloads, the 12 cores and 14 threads (a configuration that implies 2 of the cores do not have Hyper-Threading, likely efficiency cores) provide decent multi-threaded capability on paper, but the 15-watt power envelope will limit sustained performance. The 4.30 GHz boost clock can deliver strong single-threaded performance for short bursts, which benefits tasks like application launching and light productivity work. However, for extended all-core workloads like video encoding or 3D rendering, the processor will likely throttle to maintain its power budget. The absence of any measured CPU benchmarks in the database means that the 50th percentile ranking is speculative, based on the chip's specifications rather than observed performance.

Balance and Bottleneck

The performance disparity between the CPU and GPU in this build is stark. The GPU sits at the 98th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 50th percentile among all CPUs. This creates a situation where the GPU will almost certainly be the dominant component in most workloads, but the CPU may struggle to feed it in CPU-bound scenarios. The combined percentile of 74 is lower than the GPU's percentile alone, which indicates that the CPU is a limiting factor in the overall system rating.

In gaming workloads, the GPU's raw compute power is more than sufficient for any modern game at any resolution, but the CPU's low base clock and 15-watt TDP could create bottlenecks in CPU-intensive scenes, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor. The GPU's 98th percentile ranking suggests it can handle even the most demanding rendering tasks, but the CPU's 50th percentile means it will be the component that determines frame rates in scenarios with heavy physics, AI, or simulation workloads.

For compute workloads like 3D rendering or machine learning, the GPU's 65.28 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 400 tensor cores will dominate, and the CPU's role is primarily to feed data to the GPU. In these scenarios, the CPU's modest performance may reduce overall system throughput if the workload involves significant CPU-side preprocessing or data loading. The 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth on the CPU side could also become a bottleneck when transferring large datasets to the GPU's 576.0 GB/s memory bandwidth.

The FPS scaling evidence is absent from the database since there are no measured FPS rows for this exact combination. The data indicates that the GPU is the clear performance leader, and any workload that is primarily GPU-bound will see exceptional performance, while CPU-bound workloads will be constrained by the processor's modest capabilities.

Who Should Build It

This build targets users who need extreme GPU compute performance but do not require high-end CPU throughput. The RTX 5000 Ada Generation is a workstation-class GPU with 32 GB of VRAM, making it suitable for professionals in fields like 3D rendering, scientific computing, and AI research where large models and datasets are common. The GPU's 98th percentile ranking and 32 GB memory capacity position it well for these workloads, and the 65.28 TFLOPS FP32 performance is competitive with enterprise accelerators.

Content creators working with video editing or 3D rendering will benefit from the GPU's massive compute resources, though the CPU's 15-watt TDP may limit timeline responsiveness in software that relies heavily on CPU encoding or decoding. Software developers working on GPU-accelerated applications or machine learning models will find the GPU's 400 tensor cores and 100 RT cores valuable, but the CPU's modest performance may slow compilation times and other CPU-bound development tasks.

Students and small business workstations would generally be over-served by this GPU, as the 32 GB of VRAM and 65.28 TFLOPS are far beyond what typical productivity applications require. However, for researchers or engineers in academic settings who need GPU compute for simulations or data analysis, this build provides enterprise-level GPU performance in a desktop form factor. The CPU's low power draw makes this a relatively quiet and cool-running system, which could be advantageous in office or lab environments where noise is a concern.

Usage Scenarios

High-refresh gaming: The GPU is more than capable of driving high-refresh displays at any resolution, but the CPU's 50th percentile ranking suggests it may struggle to maintain high frame rates in CPU-bound titles. The GPU's 98th percentile performance means that frame rates will be limited by the CPU in most scenarios, and users should expect GPU utilization to be lower than optimal in games with heavy single-threaded CPU demands.

Streaming: The GPU's NVENC encoder (implied by the Ada Lovelace architecture) would handle video encoding with minimal CPU overhead, but the CPU's modest performance may limit the ability to run a game and streaming software simultaneously. The 12 cores and 14 threads provide some multi-tasking headroom, but the 15-watt TDP will constrain sustained performance during extended streaming sessions.

Video editing: The GPU's 32 GB of VRAM and 65.28 TFLOPS FP32 performance will accelerate effects, color grading, and GPU-accelerated exports dramatically. However, the CPU's low base clock may slow timeline scrubbing, proxy generation, and other CPU-bound editing tasks. This is a scenario where the GPU excels at the heavy lifting, but the CPU becomes the limiting factor for interactive responsiveness.

3D rendering: The GPU's 100 RT cores and 400 tensor cores provide exceptional ray tracing and AI-accelerated rendering performance. The 32 GB VRAM allows for large scenes and high-resolution textures without out-of-core memory swapping. The CPU's role is limited to scene preparation and data transfer, so its modest performance will have less impact on render times than in other workloads.

Software development: Compilation and code indexing will run at moderate speeds due to the CPU's low base clock, but the GPU is largely idle during typical development work. This is not an ideal pairing for developers unless their work involves GPU programming or running GPU-accelerated simulations.

Student and office work: The GPU is massively over-provisioned for productivity applications, and the CPU's modest performance is more than adequate for document editing, web browsing, and spreadsheet work. The 15-watt CPU TDP means this system will be very power-efficient for office workloads, though the GPU's 250-watt TDP undermines the overall energy efficiency when the GPU is active.

Gaming Performance

No measured FPS data exists for this exact CPU-GPU combination in the database. The FACT PACK contains no measuredFps entries for any games or resolutions, so all gaming performance figures below are estimates derived from the benchmark scores and percentile rankings. The GPU's 98th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 184,664 points indicate that it is among the fastest graphics cards in the database, capable of delivering extremely high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p resolutions in most titles, and solid performance at 4K.

The CPU's 50th percentile ranking and 15-watt TDP suggest that it will be the bottleneck in gaming scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can issue draw calls. At 4K resolution, the GPU's workload increases significantly, which may allow the CPU to keep pace more effectively, but the low base clock of 1.30 GHz will still limit minimum frame rates in CPU-heavy scenes. Users considering this build for gaming should expect GPU-bound performance to be exceptional, but CPU-bound scenarios will show noticeable frame rate dips compared to systems with higher-performing processors.

FAQ

Q: What is the combined performance percentile of this CPU-GPU pair?

A: The combined percentile for this Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL and NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation pairing is 74th among all tracked CPU-GPU combinations.

Q: How does the RTX 5000 Ada Generation compare to the NVIDIA A100 SXM4 80 GB?

A: The RTX 5000 Ada Generation has an average benchmark score of 184,664, which is 0.5% higher than the A100 SXM4 80 GB's score of 183,725, placing the two at near parity.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The RTX 5000 Ada Generation has 32 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s and memory clocks running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective).

Q: What socket does the Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL use?

A: The CPU uses Intel Socket 1851 and is based on the Meteor Lake-PS architecture, built on Intel's 7 nm process.

Q: What is the TDP of the CPU and the suggested PSU for the GPU?

A: The CPU has a TDP of 15 watts, while the GPU has a TDP of 250 watts and a suggested power supply rating of 600 watts.

Q: Does the database contain measured FPS data for this combination?

A: No, the database contains no measured FPS rows for this exact CPU-GPU pairing, so all gaming performance figures are estimates derived from benchmark scores.

Q: What is the GPU's FP32 compute performance?

A: The RTX 5000 Ada Generation delivers 65.28 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, with a texture rate of 1,020.0 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 448.8 GPixel/s.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using the AD102 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. The chip contains 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 125.3 million per square millimeter. This is a massive GPU with 12,800 shading units, 400 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units. The GPU also includes 100 RT cores and 400 tensor cores, providing dedicated hardware for ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads.

The memory subsystem consists of 32 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Memory clocks run at 2250 MHz, which translates to 18 Gbps effective. The base clock is 1155 MHz with a boost clock of 2550 MHz, and the GPU has a TDP of 250 watts. The card is dual-slot in width, 267 mm in length, and 112 mm in height, with a single 16-pin power connector. Display output is provided through 4x DisplayPort 1.4a connectors.

The benchmark results show a Geekbench OpenCL score of 175,286 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 194,041, with an average of 184,664 across all GPU benchmarks. This places the GPU at the 98th percentile among all GPUs in the database. The nearest rival comparisons show the RTX 5000 Ada Generation trading blows with the A100 SXM4 variants and the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, all within a 2.7 percentage point range. The GeForce RTX 4090 D trails by 3.7%, and the RTX 5000 Ada leads it by a meaningful margin.

For rendering workloads, the 32 GB of VRAM is a critical advantage, allowing large scenes and high-resolution textures to reside entirely in GPU memory. The 100 RT cores accelerate ray tracing significantly, and the 400 tensor cores enable DLSS and other AI-based rendering techniques. The 65.28 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is augmented by 65.28 TFLOPS of FP16 performance at a 1:1 ratio, which is notable for machine learning inference workloads. The API support includes DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring compatibility with modern graphics and compute applications.

Build Overview

This is a desktop build that pairs Intel's efficiency-focused Core Ultra 5 125UL processor with NVIDIA's workstation-class RTX 5000 Ada Generation GPU. The CPU is a 12-core, 14-thread part from the Core Ultra Series 1, based on Meteor Lake architecture, with a 15-watt TDP and a 50th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The GPU is a 32 GB workstation card from the GeForce 50-series (though marketed as a workstation product), with a 98th percentile ranking among all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 184,664.

The overall tier of this system, as measured by the 74th combined percentile, reflects a build where the GPU is the star performer and the CPU is a supporting actor. The GPU's performance is in the top 2% of all GPUs in the database, rivaling enterprise accelerators like the A100 SXM4, while the CPU's performance is squarely average. This is a system designed for GPU-bound workloads — 3D rendering, AI inference, scientific computing, and other compute-intensive tasks — where the CPU's modest capabilities are less impactful. The 15-watt CPU TDP makes this an unusually power-efficient desktop platform, though the GPU's 250-watt TDP means the system still requires a 600-watt power supply. For users whose primary need is massive GPU compute in a desktop form factor, this pairing delivers exceptional performance in a relatively compact and efficient package.

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL + NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation

Power Build

System Balance Analysis

Intel Core Ultra 5 125UL

NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation

Market Position

Game Performance Benchmarks

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

Performance Insights

Strong Performance

Bottleneck Detected

Performance Tiers Explained

Ultimate

High-End

Mid-Range

Entry Level

Legacy

Upgrade Path and Platform

Benchmark Performance

CPU Analysis

Balance and Bottleneck

Who Should Build It

Usage Scenarios

Gaming Performance

FAQ

GPU Analysis

Build Overview

4K Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

1440p Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

1080p Gaming Performance

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

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