SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000

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

92 / 100
ULTIMATE READY

Apex Performer

Top 8% 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
93%
VS
GPU
91%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 5 235

46,062 Benchmark Score
Top 7% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →
GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000

21,629 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

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

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 form a desktop pairing that mixes a modern, high-efficiency Arrow Lake CPU with a workstation-class GPU from the Turing generation. The data shows a significant generational gap between the components, with the CPU ranking in the 89th percentile among all processors, while the GPU sits lower at the 67th percentile. This combination yields a combined percentile of 78, indicating a system where the CPU is the dominant performer and the GPU represents a historical, albeit capable, component.

FAQ

Q: What is the socket and platform for the Intel Core Ultra 5 235?

A: The processor uses the Intel Socket 1851 and is part of the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake architecture on a 3 nm process node from TSMC.

Q: What type of memory does this CPU support and what is the bus configuration?

A: The Core Ultra 5 235 supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. It does not support ECC memory.

Q: What is the PCIe capability of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235?

A: The CPU provides 20 lanes of PCIe Gen 5 connectivity, which is a high-bandwidth interface for modern expansion cards.

Q: How does the CPU's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i9-13900HX.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth and bus width of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000?

A: The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s.

Q: What is the power draw of the GPU and what PSU is suggested?

A: The Quadro RTX 5000 has a TDP of 230 W, and the suggested PSU for a system with this card is 550 W.

Q: What is the production status of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000?

A: The GPU is marked as end-of-life, having been released in August 2018, with its successor being the Workstation Ampere series.

Benchmark Performance

The performance profile of this build is defined by a stark contrast between its two primary components. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 achieves an impressive 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062. This places it in a tight competitive cluster; it is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and 0.2% ahead of both the AMD EPYC 4364P and EPYC 7303, while being a mere 0.1% behind the Intel Core i9-13900HX. In practical terms, the CPU's performance is on par with some of the best mobile and server processors, indicating exceptional multi-threaded capability for a desktop part.

In contrast, the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000, a Turing-generation workstation card, scores 21629 on average, placing it in the 67th percentile of all GPUs. This is a substantially lower standing than the CPU. The data shows it is 1% behind a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, but 1.2% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile and 2.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL. The GPU's benchmark results indicate it is a capable card, but its performance class is far below what the modern CPU can feed it. The combined picture is one of a system with a top-tier modern processor bottlenecked by a mid-range, older graphics card. The CPU's high PassMark scores, including 37816 in multithread and 4516 in single-thread, far outstrip the GPU's PassMark G3D score of 15616, highlighting a massive imbalance in raw processing power.

Gaming Performance

No measured FPS rows exist for this exact CPU and GPU combination in the data, so all frame rate discussions are estimates based on the individual benchmark scores. The CPU is more than capable of high-refresh-rate gaming, with a PassMark single-thread score of 4516 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085, ensuring it will not bottleneck modern game engines. The limiting factor is the Quadro RTX 5000.

Given the GPU's PassMark G3D score of 15616 and its 67th percentile ranking, it is positioned as a mid-range performer by modern standards. Its performance is estimated to be comparable to a GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, a card from the same era. At 1080p, this GPU could likely deliver playable frame rates in many titles, but not at maximum settings. At 1440p, frame rates would drop significantly, and at 4K, the 16 GB frame buffer would be a benefit for textures, but the raw compute power (11.15 TFLOPS) would struggle to maintain high frame rates in demanding games. Users should expect that this pairing is not optimized for high-refresh 1440p or 4K gaming; it is a workstation configuration that can handle some gaming at lower resolutions and settings. The Vulkan score of 92309 and OpenCL score of 78999 suggest decent API utilization, but the overall compute power is the limiting factor.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The platform is built around the Intel Socket 1851, which is the foundation for the Core Ultra Series 2 processors. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 uses DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, a modern standard that provides ample bandwidth for current applications. The CPU's 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes offer a high-speed path for the latest NVMe SSDs and graphics cards, ensuring that storage and expansion are not bottlenecks.

The most significant upgrade path for this system is the GPU. The current Quadro RTX 5000, which has a TDP of 230 W and requires a 550 W PSU, is the performance ceiling for this build. The data shows that the CPU is in the 89th percentile, while the GPU is only in the 67th, so replacing the GPU with a modern, higher-performing model would drastically improve the system's overall capability. The power supply has headroom for a more power-hungry card, but a new GPU would likely require a reassessment of the PSU if it draws significantly more than 230 W. The CPU, with its 65 W TDP, leaves plenty of thermal and power headroom. A sensible next upgrade would be to move to a modern GPU with a higher percentile ranking to match the CPU's performance class, creating a much more balanced system.

Balance and Bottleneck

The benchmark data indicates a severe bottleneck, with the GPU being the clear limiting factor in this pairing. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking, with an average score of 46062, far exceeds the GPU's 67th percentile and average score of 21629. In gaming workloads, the Quadro RTX 5000 will be the constraint, as its compute performance is insufficient to keep up with the high frame rates the Core Ultra 5 235 can calculate. This is evident in the estimated FPS scaling; the CPU can handle the physics and game logic, but the GPU is responsible for rendering the frames.

In compute and rendering workloads, the imbalance is equally stark. The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 37816 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 show a processor that can handle heavy multi-threaded tasks. The GPU's compute score of 6525, however, shows it will be the limiting factor in GPU-accelerated tasks like 3D rendering or machine learning. The CPU will often be idle waiting for the GPU to finish its work. This is a configuration where the central processor is vastly more powerful than the graphics processor, and any workload that relies on the GPU will be severely constrained.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 is a Turing-architecture workstation GPU built on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 3072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 48 RT cores and 384 tensor cores for ray tracing and AI acceleration. The card is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, offering a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its clocks are listed at a base of 1620 MHz and a boost of 1815 MHz.

In terms of raw compute, the GPU delivers 11.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 22.30 TFLOPS of FP16 performance. The benchmark results show a PassMark G3D score of 15616 and a compute score of 6525. These figures place it in the 67th percentile, just below a GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB. For rendering, the 16 GB frame buffer is a significant asset for large textures and complex scenes, but the compute throughput will limit rendering speed. The presence of RT and tensor cores is a plus for professional applications that can leverage them, but the performance is not competitive with modern GPUs. The 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth is a definite advantage over the GPU's nearest rivals, which is likely why the performance delta is so small.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread desktop processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The CPU has a 24 MB shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache. It supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth.

The benchmark results are impressive. It scores 14769 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2085 in single-core, with corresponding R20 scores of 6202 and 875. In PassMark, it achieves a multithread score of 37816 and a single-thread score of 4516. For real-world workloads, this indicates a processor that excels in heavily threaded tasks like video encoding, 3D rendering, and software compilation. The single-thread performance is also top-tier, ensuring snappy responsiveness and high performance in games and lightly-threaded applications. The data shows it is competitive with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, which is a mobile processor, and the Intel Core i9-13900HX, indicating that this desktop part has exceptional performance per watt and raw capability.

Build Overview

This build pairs a top-tier modern desktop CPU with an end-of-life workstation GPU. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a flagship-class processor, ranking in the 89th percentile of all CPUs with a launch MSRP of $257. It represents the current-generation of desktop performance. The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000, on the other hand, is a legacy product from 2018, ranking in the 67th percentile. It is a capable workstation card, but its technology is several generations old.

The class is a desktop build, and its overall tier is defined by the CPU's high standing. The combined percentile is 78, which is dragged down significantly by the GPU. This is a system that has the brains of a top-tier workstation but the graphics muscle of an entry-level gaming PC from a previous era. It is a fundamentally unbalanced pairing that would benefit most from a GPU upgrade to match the CPU's potential. The CPU's performance is in the top 11% of all processors, while the GPU is in the bottom 33%, creating a stark contrast in capabilities.

Who Should Build It

This configuration targets users who require exceptional CPU power for professional workloads but have modest GPU demands. The data suggests it is not suited for high-end gamers, as the GPU will limit performance. Instead, it fits the profile of a developer, data scientist, or engineer who needs rapid code compilation, data processing, and multi-threaded compute performance. The CPU's PassMark data compression score of 390711 and integer math score of 87948 are strong indicators of its capability in these tasks.

It could also serve as a workstation for students or small businesses that run simulations, financial modeling, or complex spreadsheets, where the CPU is the primary engine. The 16 GB of VRAM on the GPU is beneficial for tasks like CAD or light video editing that can use GPU acceleration, but the overall speed will be limited. For content creators, the CPU will handle video encoding and rendering quickly, but the GPU will not accelerate effects or exports as fast as a modern card. The system is a poor match for gamers at 1440p or 4K resolutions, but it could handle 1080p gaming as a secondary function.

Usage Scenarios

High-Refresh Gaming: This is not a recommended scenario. The CPU's single-thread performance of 4516 in PassMark is excellent and could drive high frame rates, but the Quadro RTX 5000's 15616 G3D score will be the bottleneck, preventing the system from achieving high refresh rates at 1440p or 4K. At 1080p, it may manage medium settings, but it is not optimized for this use case.

Streaming: The CPU is well-equipped for streaming. Its 14 cores and high multi-thread score of 37816 can handle the encoding workload of x264 without impacting game performance. The GPU's older NVENC encoder, while present, is not as advanced as modern ones, so software encoding using the CPU would be the more effective and higher-quality option.

Video Editing: The CPU will provide a smooth editing experience, with fast timeline scrubbing and rendering for effects that are CPU-bound. The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is helpful for large projects and GPU-accelerated effects, but its 11.15 TFLOPS of compute power means exports and renders will be slower than on a modern GPU.

3D Rendering: This is a CPU-dominated workload. The processor's 14769 Cinebench R23 multi-core score will deliver strong performance in CPU-based render engines. The GPU can assist with RTX-accelerated rendering, but its 48 RT cores and 6525 compute score will limit its contribution, making the CPU the primary workhorse.

Software Development: This is an ideal scenario. The CPU's high integer math score of 87948 and multithread score of 37816 will significantly reduce compile times for large codebases. The GPU is largely irrelevant for this task, so its lower performance does not detract from the system's overall utility for developers.

Student and Office Work: This build is overkill for basic tasks. The CPU's power is wasted on word processing and spreadsheets. The system would be highly responsive, but the cost and power are unnecessary. The GPU's compute power is also unused in this scenario, making it a poor investment for purely office-based work.