SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

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

94 / 100
ULTIMATE READY

Apex Performer

Top 6% of systems. Capable of 4K Ultra gaming and advanced rendering.

4K 60+ FPSVR ReadyRay Tracing

System Balance Analysis

CPU vs GPU performance ratio
Well Balanced
CPU
91%
VS
GPU
97%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 5 225

36,938 Benchmark Score
Top 9% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →
GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

60,347 Benchmark Score
Top 3% 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

Optimal Performance

Your system is in the top tier. You can run any modern game at maximum settings.

4K Gaming Ready

Consider a 4K 144Hz monitor to fully utilize your hardware capabilities.

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

This build pairs the Intel Core Ultra 5 225, a 10-core desktop processor from the Arrow Lake generation, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, the flagship Ada Lovelace GPU. The combination sits at the 87th percentile overall, with the CPU at the 85th percentile and the GPU at the 88th percentile among their respective categories. The platform targets a desktop class, and the measured data provides a clear picture of where this pairing excels and where it leaves performance on the table.

Balance and Bottleneck

The performance data reveals a significant imbalance between the two components in this pairing. The RTX 4090 ranks at the 88th percentile among all GPUs, while the Core Ultra 5 225 sits at the 85th percentile among CPUs. This gap of three percentile points suggests the CPU is the limiting factor in many scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do per frame.

Evidence from the measured FPS data across 51 games shows the scaling pattern clearly. At 1920x1080, the average frame rate is 218.7 FPS, which drops to roughly 144 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to approximately 76 FPS at 3840x2160. The steep decline between 1080p and 1440p indicates that the CPU is holding back the GPU at lower resolutions, as the frame rate does not scale linearly with the pixel count increase.

In lighter titles, the bottleneck becomes even more apparent. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hits 793 FPS at 1080p but drops to 546 FPS at 1440p, a 31% reduction. Valorant shows a similar pattern with 553 FPS at 1080p versus 524 FPS at 1440p, though the 3840x2160 result of 487 FPS suggests the CPU still has headroom. Conversely, in heavier titles like Cyberpunk 2077, the frame rates of 106 FPS at 1080p and 52 FPS at 4K indicate the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The data points to a pairing where the GPU is capable of far more than the CPU can feed it in esports and older titles, but the balance shifts toward the GPU in modern, graphically intensive games. For users targeting high refresh rates at 1080p, the CPU will be the constraint. For 4K gaming, the GPU becomes the primary determinant of performance.

Benchmark Performance

The Core Ultra 5 225 delivers strong single-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3655 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4412. Its multi-threaded results are more modest, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25891 and a Passmark multithread score of 30459. The average benchmark score of 36938 places it in the 85th percentile, and the nearest rivals show how tight the competition is at this level.

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F scores 36945, essentially identical with a 0% delta. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is 0.2% behind, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 trails by 0.4%. The Intel Core i9-12900T is 0.5% behind. This clustering means the Ultra 5 225 is functionally tied with several other mid-range processors, with differences that would be imperceptible in real-world use.

The RTX 4090 posts an average benchmark score of 60347, placing it at the 88th percentile. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 with a 0% delta, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 0.3% behind, and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M trailing by 2.5%. The AMD Radeon PRO V710 sits 2.9% ahead. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 271631 reflect the GPU’s raw compute capability.

The combined picture shows a system that ranks at the 87th percentile overall, with the GPU contributing more to the system’s standing than the CPU. The CPU’s average score of 36938 is about 39% lower than the GPU’s 60347, reinforcing that this is a GPU-dominated build.

Gaming Performance

The measured FPS data covers 51 games at ultra settings across three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system delivers playable frame rates in nearly every title, with only Ark: Survival Ascended falling below 60 FPS at 52 FPS. Esports titles excel, with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive reaching 793 FPS, Valorant at 553 FPS, and Roblox at 464 FPS. The average across all games at 1080p is 218.7 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows the CPU bottleneck. Counter-Strike 2 drops from 359 FPS at 1080p to 238 FPS at 1440p, and Valorant falls from 553 to 524 FPS. Heavier titles like Cyberpunk 2077 manage 79 FPS, while Red Dead Redemption 2 runs at 72 FPS. Ark: Survival Ascended drops to 33 FPS, making it the only title below 40 FPS at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU takes over as the primary driver. Cyberpunk 2077 runs at 52 FPS, Red Dead Redemption 2 at 48 FPS, and The Medium at 50 FPS. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive still manages 322 FPS, and Valorant maintains 487 FPS. Ark: Survival Ascended is the only unplayable title at 17 FPS. The 4K average across all games is approximately 76 FPS, which suggests this pairing is viable for 4K gaming in most titles, though the CPU limits performance in lighter games even at this resolution.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The Core Ultra 5 225 uses the Intel Socket 1851 platform, which supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The platform offers PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU, providing ample bandwidth for the RTX 4090, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The ECC memory is not supported, which matters for certain workstation use cases.

The CPU has a 65 W TDP, while the GPU has a 450 W TDP. The suggested PSU for the system is 850 W, which provides headroom for the combined power draw. The RTX 4090 requires a single 16-pin power connector and takes up a triple-slot width, so case compatibility is a consideration.

A sensible next upgrade would be a higher-core-count processor on the same Socket 1851 platform. The data shows the current CPU is the bottleneck in many gaming scenarios, so upgrading to a chip with more cores or higher single-thread performance would improve frame rates at lower resolutions. The platform’s DDR5 support and PCIe Gen 5 connectivity mean the GPU and memory would carry over without changes.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is built on the Arrow Lake architecture, fabricated on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It contains 10 cores and 10 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The absence of hyper-threading means the core count matches the thread count, which is unusual for modern desktop processors.

The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The Passmark data shows strong integer math performance at 65345, floating point math at 92038, and extended instructions at 27162. Data compression scores 302811, while encryption scores 22285.

The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3655 places it competitively with its nearest rivals, all of which are within 0.5% of its average benchmark score. The multi-core score of 25891 is respectable for a 10-thread processor. The Passmark physics score of 2342 and prime number finding score of 358 indicate the CPU handles well in simulation and calculation workloads.

The 3 nm process and 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die contribute to the 65 W TDP. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 16 execution units provides basic display output, though the discrete RTX 4090 will handle all graphics workloads.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, using the AD102 chip fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It contains 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, with a transistor density of 125.3 million per mm². The GPU has 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units.

The memory subsystem consists of 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. The GPU’s base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, delivering 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 performance.

The RTX 4090 includes 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores. The pixel rate is 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate is 1,290.2 GTexel/s. The Passmark G3D score of 38194 and GPU compute score of 26613 reflect its compute capability. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 255416 provide additional reference points.

The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Display outputs include one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors. The card measures 304 mm in length, 137 mm in height, and 61 mm in width, requiring a triple-slot installation.

FAQ

Q: What is the combined percentile rank of this CPU and GPU pairing?

A: The combined percentile is 87, with the CPU at the 85th percentile and the GPU at the 88th percentile among all components in their respective categories.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 5 225 compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F?

A: The two processors have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with the Ryzen 5 5600F at 36945 and the Core Ultra 5 225 at 36938, representing a 0% delta.

Q: What is the average FPS across all games at 1920x1080?

A: The average across 51 games at ultra settings is 218.7 FPS, with the pair ranking 99th out of 3732 pairs by FPS.

Q: What is the RTX 4090’s memory configuration?

A: It has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth and 21 Gbps effective speed.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the bottleneck at lower resolutions, particularly in esports titles. At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the limiting factor in graphically intense games.

Q: What power supply is suggested for this build?

A: The suggested PSU is 850 W, with the CPU rated at 65 W TDP and the GPU at 450 W TDP.

Q: Does the CPU support ECC memory?

A: No, ECC memory is not supported on the Core Ultra 5 225.

Build Overview

This is a desktop build pairing Intel’s mid-range 10-core Arrow Lake processor with NVIDIA’s flagship RTX 4090 GPU. The CPU ranks at the 85th percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks at the 88th percentile among all GPUs. The combined percentile is 87, placing this system in the upper tier of desktop configurations.

The Core Ultra 5 225 is a 65 W processor with 10 cores and 10 threads, a 4.90 GHz boost clock, and 20 MB of L3 cache. The RTX 4090 is a 450 W card with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, 16,384 shading units, and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The system’s overall tier is high-end, driven primarily by the GPU’s exceptional compute and rendering capabilities.

The data shows this build is capable of high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p and 1440p, with strong 4K performance in most titles. The CPU’s modest core count and lack of hyper-threading limit multi-threaded workloads compared to higher-tier processors, but single-thread performance is competitive with its direct rivals.

Who Should Build It

This pairing suits gamers targeting high refresh rates at 1440p or playable 4K in most titles. The measured data shows 1440p averages around 144 FPS across all games, with esports titles exceeding 500 FPS. Content creators working with GPU-accelerated rendering will benefit from the RTX 4090’s compute power, while the CPU’s 10 threads handle lighter tasks without issue.

Software developers compiling code will find the CPU’s single-thread performance adequate, though multi-threaded builds will be slower than systems with more cores. Students and small business users running office applications, web development tools, or data analysis software will see strong performance from both components. The system is not ideal for workloads requiring heavy multi-threaded CPU computation, such as large-scale video encoding or complex simulations, where the 10-thread limit becomes a constraint.

The GPU’s 24 GB of VRAM makes this suitable for machine learning experimentation or large 3D scenes, though the CPU may bottleneck data preprocessing. Gamers who play at 1080p with a 360 Hz monitor will find the CPU limits frame rates in lighter titles, so this pairing is better suited to 1440p or 4K displays.

Usage Scenarios

For high-refresh gaming at 1440p, this system delivers an average of 144 FPS across all tested games. Esports titles like Valorant reach 524 FPS, Counter-Strike 2 hits 238 FPS, and Rainbow Six Siege runs at 280 FPS. Heavier games like Cyberpunk 2077 manage 79 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play.

Streaming while gaming is feasible with the RTX 4090’s tensor cores handling encoding, though the CPU’s 10 threads may limit simultaneous game and stream processing. The measured 1440p performance leaves headroom for encoding overhead in most titles.

Video editing in applications that leverage GPU acceleration will see excellent performance from the RTX 4090. The 24 GB VRAM handles large timelines and effects, while the CPU’s single-thread score of 3655 in Cinebench R23 ensures responsive timeline scrubbing and preview rendering.

3D rendering workloads that use GPU-based renderers will benefit substantially from the RTX 4090’s 82.58 TFLOPS and 512 tensor cores. CPU-based rendering will be slower due to the 10-thread limit, with Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25891 indicating moderate throughput.

Software development tasks such as compiling, testing, and running development servers are well within the CPU’s capabilities, with Passmark integer math at 65345 and extended instructions at 27162. The 20 MB L3 cache helps with frequently accessed code and data.

For student and office work, this build is overkill but performs flawlessly. The CPU’s single-thread score of 4412 in Passmark ensures snappy application launches, while the GPU’s compute power accelerates any GPU-accelerated office or productivity software. The system’s 87th percentile ranking means it handles any office workload with ease.