SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 5 235A + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

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

Build Configuration

Select your components

PROCESSOR (CPU)

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GRAPHICS CARD (GPU)

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95 Score

Top 5% Ranking

95 / 100

ULTIMATE READY

Apex Performer

Top 5% 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

94%

GPU

95%

PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 5 235A

48,201 Benchmark Score

Top 6% Market Ranking

View Full Specs →

GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

40,377 Benchmark Score

Top 5% 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 235A and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 form a desktop pairing that lands in the 86th combined percentile, indicating a high-tier system for productivity and modern gaming. The CPU, a 14-core Arrow Lake-S part on the 3nm TSMC process, delivers strong multi-threaded throughput with a 90th percentile rank among all processors. The GPU, while ranking at the 82nd percentile, offers Blackwell 2.0 architecture with dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores, making this a balanced configuration where the processor leads in compute-heavy tasks and the graphics card anchors high-resolution gaming. This analysis draws exclusively on the provided benchmark data, with all performance interpretations derived from the listed scores and percentile positions.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235A is a 14-core, 14-thread desktop processor built on Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 3nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65W TDP. The chip features a hybrid cache layout: 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration, combined with a dual-channel DDR5 memory interface delivering 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth, positions the CPU as a capable performer for both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads.

Benchmark results show a compelling story. In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 32,633 in multi-core and 4,607 in single-core. The single-core score is particularly strong, indicating excellent responsiveness in lightly-threaded applications. The multi-core score of 32,633 suggests robust performance for rendering and compilation tasks. Cinebench R20 results echo this, with 13,705 multi-core and 1,934 single-core. The PassMark suite provides further insight: multithread score of 38,392 and single-thread score of 4,557. The floating-point math score of 118,778 significantly outperforms the integer math score of 88,626, suggesting the architecture is particularly well-suited for scientific and financial workloads that rely on floating-point calculations. Data compression scores 393,800, while encryption reaches 30,136, showing solid throughput for file archiving and security-related tasks.

The processor's 90th percentile ranking against all CPUs places it above the vast majority of desktop and mobile parts. Its average benchmark score of 48,201 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen AI Max PRO 380, which scores 48,171 (a 0.1% difference). It also sits within 0.6% of the AMD Ryzen 9 3900 (47,918) and the AMD EPYC 4345P (48,470). This means the Core Ultra 5 235A trades blows with high-end workstation and server chips, making it an exceptional value in raw compute terms. The 14 threads, however, mean that heavily threaded workloads like 3D rendering or video encoding may see lower scaling compared to processors with more threads, though the per-core performance helps mitigate this.

The 3nm process and 243 mm² die size with 17,800 million transistors indicate a modern, power-efficient design. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 24 execution units provides a basic display output, but the presence of a discrete GPU in this build means the iGPU is largely redundant for gaming. The CPU's memory support is limited to DDR5, which is standard for this generation, and it does not support ECC memory, making it a consumer-focused part despite its workstation-level performance.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 235A compare to its closest rival in raw performance?

A: The Core Ultra 5 235A has an average benchmark score of 48,201, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI Max PRO 380 (48,171) and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (48,287). This places it in a statistical tie with these processors.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and bandwidth?

A: The RTX 5070 features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, effective 28 Gbps.

Q: Does the CPU support overclocking?

A: No, the multiplier is locked (multiplierUnlocked is false), meaning the CPU cannot be overclocked via multiplier adjustment. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz is the maximum factory setting.

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

A: The build achieves an 86th combined percentile, indicating it outperforms 86% of all tested configurations in the database.

Q: How does the GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad score reflect its gaming potential?

A: The RTX 5070 scores 5,077 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is a strong result indicating high DirectX 12 gaming performance, though it is not the top-tier score in the database.

Q: What is the CPU's single-threaded performance ranking?

A: The PassMark single-thread score is 4,557, which is a high value that contributes to the CPU's 90th percentile overall ranking. This suggests excellent performance in tasks that rely on a single core, such as older games or certain productivity apps.

Q: Is the GPU's compute performance suitable for professional workloads?

A: The GPU scores 15,787 in PassMark GPU Compute, indicating competent parallel processing capability. The 192 tensor cores also provide acceleration for AI and machine learning tasks, though specific performance metrics for those workloads are not in the data.

Gaming Performance

The FACT PACK contains no measured FPS data for this exact CPU+GPU combination. Therefore, all gaming performance figures in this section are estimates derived from the benchmark scores. The data clearly indicates that measuredFpsUltraByGame is empty and dataIsMeasured is false, so the following analysis is based on the GPU's 3DMark and PassMark results.

The RTX 5070's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,077 is a strong indicator for modern game performance at high settings. This benchmark is designed to stress DirectX 12 titles, and a score above 5,000 typically translates to smooth gameplay at 1440p with ultra settings in most titles. The PassMark G3D score of 29,137 further corroborates this, placing the GPU well above average. The GPU's 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs means it outperforms the majority of graphics cards, though it is not in the top tier.

For 1080p ultra gaming, the RTX 5070 should deliver very high frame rates, likely exceeding 100 FPS in most titles given the 3DMark score. At 1440p, the 12 GB VRAM and 672 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for ultra textures, with frame rates expected to remain above 60 FPS in demanding titles. At 4K, the GPU will still be playable, but frame rates may drop below 60 FPS in the most graphically intensive games, as the 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is solid but not flagship-level. The 48 ray tracing cores provide hardware acceleration for ray-traced effects, which will impact performance less than on older architectures.

The CPU's single-threaded score of 4,607 in Cinebench R23 is high enough to avoid bottlenecking the GPU in most titles. The 14 cores and 14 threads are sufficient for modern game engines that use multiple threads, though the lack of hyperthreading (14 threads on 14 cores) could be a slight limitation in heavily threaded scenarios. Overall, this pairing is best suited for 1440p high-refresh-rate gaming, with 1080p providing headroom for very high FPS and 4K being viable with settings adjustments.

Balance and Bottleneck

This build demonstrates a well-balanced configuration, but the data shows distinct workload-dependent behavior. The CPU's 90th percentile rank versus the GPU's 82nd percentile suggests the processor has a slight edge in raw compute capability relative to their respective pools. For CPU-bound tasks like video encoding, 3D rendering, or data compression (PassMark score of 393,800), the Core Ultra 5 235A will be the limiting factor only if the workload scales beyond 14 threads. The GPU is unlikely to bottleneck these tasks since its compute score of 15,787 is secondary to CPU throughput.

For gaming, the bottleneck shifts to the GPU at higher resolutions. The CPU's single-thread score of 4,557 in PassMark is sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p and 1440p in most titles. However, at 4K, the GPU's 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 201.0 GPixel/s pixel rate will become the primary constraint, as the CPU has more than enough headroom to process game logic and draw calls. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K will be determined by the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth, not the CPU's core count.

In mixed workloads, such as gaming while streaming or rendering in the background, the CPU's 14 cores will handle the load, but the 14 threads (no SMT) may cause stuttering if the game and encoder compete for the same cores. The GPU's 192 tensor cores can offload some encoding tasks via NVENC, but this is not quantified in the data. The 65W TDP CPU and 250W TDP GPU create a power balance that favors the GPU in gaming, but the CPU's efficiency on 3nm means it will not be a thermal bottleneck in most cases.

Benchmark Performance

The CPU's benchmark suite shows consistent strength. Cinebench R15 multi-core scores 3,289 and single-core 464. The R20 results are 13,705 multi-core and 1,934 single-core. R23 scores 32,633 multi-core and 4,607 single-core. These numbers indicate a processor that scales well with multi-threaded loads while maintaining high clock speeds for single-threaded tasks. The PassMark results are varied: multithread at 38,392, single-thread at 4,557, integer math at 88,626, floating-point math at 118,778, and extended instructions at 31,625. The floating-point advantage over integer math suggests the architecture is optimized for scientific and financial simulations.

The GPU benchmarks show a different profile. 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 scores 5,077, which is a strong but not elite result. Geekbench OpenCL scores 172,660 and Vulkan scores 178,923, indicating good compute performance across APIs. PassMark DirectX tests are lower: DirectX 9 at 320, DirectX 10 at 180, DirectX 11 at 277, and DirectX 12 at 108. These lower DirectX scores are typical for modern GPUs that prioritize newer API paths. The PassMark G3D score of 29,137 is the most representative of gaming performance, while G2D score of 1,305 indicates strong 2D acceleration.

The combined picture is a system that ranks in the 86th percentile overall. The CPU's 90th percentile rank is higher than the GPU's 82nd percentile, meaning the processor is the stronger component relative to its peers. This is unusual for a gaming-focused build, but it makes the system excellent for productivity tasks that benefit from strong CPU performance. The GPU's average benchmark score of 40,377 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40,318, a 0.1% difference), placing it in a specific performance tier that is above entry-level but below flagship.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The CPU uses the Intel Socket 1851, which is specific to the Core Ultra Series 2 (Arrow Lake-S) generation. This socket is not forward-compatible with older Intel platforms, meaning any CPU upgrade requires a new motherboard. The memory support is DDR5 in dual-channel mode, with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. There is no ECC memory support, which is typical for consumer desktop parts. The CPU provides PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU, allowing for high-bandwidth expansion cards like the GPU's PCIe 5.0 x16 interface.

The GPU requires a 600W suggested PSU and uses a single 16-pin power connector. This is a substantial power requirement, but the 65W TDP CPU leaves ample headroom in the power budget. The GPU is a dual-slot card measuring 245 mm in length, 115 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, so it will fit in most mid-tower cases. The display outputs include 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b, supporting modern high-refresh-rate monitors.

A sensible next upgrade would be to increase memory capacity or speed, as the CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s is a potential bottleneck for some workloads. However, the 14-core CPU is already a high performer, so a CPU upgrade would require a new socket and is not recommended until Arrow Lake successors are released. On the GPU side, the RTX 5070 is already at the 82nd percentile, so an upgrade would need to target the 90th percentile or above to be noticeable. The PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensures that the GPU is not bandwidth-limited.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB205 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 5nm process. It features 31,100 million transistors on a 263 mm² die, with a transistor density of 118.3M per mm². The GPU has 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units. It includes 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores, providing hardware acceleration for ray-traced lighting and AI-based features like DLSS.

The memory subsystem is a key strength: 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus delivers 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a high value that supports high-resolution textures and compute workloads. The clocks are set at a base of 2325 MHz and boost to 2512 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The pixel rate is 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate is 482.3 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 30.87 TFLOPS, with FP16 at the same rate (1:1), which is suitable for general compute and some AI inference.

Benchmark scores reveal the GPU's position. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,077 is a strong indicator for gaming, while Geekbench OpenCL (172,660) and Vulkan (178,923) scores show solid compute performance. The PassMark G3D score of 29,137 and GPU Compute score of 15,787 confirm this. The GPU's 82nd percentile rank puts it above average but not in the top tier. Its average benchmark score of 40,377 is within 2% of several rivals: the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40,318, +0.1%), AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40,063, +0.8%), and AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870, -1.2%). The NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile is 2% behind at 39,568.

For rendering workloads, the 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1440p and 4K texture-heavy scenes, but may be limiting for very large 3D scenes or high-resolution video editing. The 192 tensor cores accelerate AI denoising in renderers, and the 48 RT cores handle ray tracing. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS is respectable for compute, but not class-leading.

Build Overview

This build pairs the Intel Core Ultra 5 235A with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 in a desktop configuration. The combined 86th percentile rank indicates a high-performance system that excels in both CPU and GPU workloads. The CPU's 90th percentile rank is the stronger component, making this a compute-first build that also handles gaming well. The GPU's 82nd percentile is solid but not exceptional, meaning the system is not at the absolute top tier for gaming.

The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads, with a 5.00 GHz boost clock, are ideal for productivity tasks like software compilation, data analysis, and multi-tasking. The GPU's 12 GB VRAM and 672 GB/s bandwidth support high-resolution gaming and GPU-accelerated rendering. The 65W CPU TDP and 250W GPU TDP combine for a system that requires a 600W PSU, which is moderate for this performance class. The desktop form factor allows for future expansion, though the socket 1851 limits CPU upgrade options.

This is a system that straddles the line between a high-end gaming rig and a professional workstation. The CPU's strength in floating-point math (118,778 PassMark score) makes it suitable for scientific computing, while the GPU's tensor cores enable AI workloads. The 86th combined percentile means it outperforms most systems in the database, making it a versatile choice for users who need both strong CPU and GPU performance.

Who Should Build It

This build is best suited for users who prioritize multi-threaded CPU performance alongside solid GPU capabilities. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235A's 90th percentile rank makes it ideal for content creators who work with video editing, 3D rendering, and software compilation. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,633 indicates the CPU can handle complex renders, while the single-core score of 4,607 ensures responsive UI interactions.

Gamers at 1440p with high refresh rate monitors will find this system well-matched, as the RTX 5070's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 5,077 supports high frame rates at that resolution. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for ultra textures in most titles. For 4K gaming, the system is capable but may require adjusting settings to maintain 60 FPS, as the GPU's 82nd percentile is not top-tier.

Software developers and data scientists will benefit from the CPU's strong integer math (88,626) and floating-point math (118,778) scores. The 14 threads handle parallel compilation well, and the 24 MB L3 cache reduces memory latency. The GPU's 192 tensor cores accelerate machine learning inference, though the 12 GB VRAM may limit very large model training.

Students and small business users will find this build overkill for basic tasks, but it provides headroom for future workloads. The lack of ECC memory support is a consideration for mission-critical work, but the performance is sufficient for most professional applications. The system is not budget-oriented, but for users who require both CPU and GPU horsepower, this pairing delivers a high performance tier that is difficult to match in a single build.

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 5 235A + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

Apex Performer

System Balance Analysis

Intel Core Ultra 5 235A

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

Market Position

Game Performance Benchmarks

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

Performance Insights

Optimal Performance

4K Gaming Ready

Performance Tiers Explained

Ultimate

High-End

Mid-Range

Entry Level

Legacy

CPU Analysis

FAQ

Gaming Performance

Balance and Bottleneck

Benchmark Performance

Upgrade Path and Platform

GPU Analysis

Build Overview

Who Should Build It

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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