SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

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

96 / 100
ULTIMATE READY

Apex Performer

Top 4% 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
96%
VS
GPU
97%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 7 265

64,640 Benchmark Score
Top 4% 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

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 pairing represents a high-end desktop configuration that targets both productivity and extreme gaming workloads. The CPU, a 20-core Arrow Lake-S part, delivers strong multi-threaded performance, while the GPU, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, provides massive rasterization and compute throughput. This analysis examines the measured data to define the platform's capabilities, balance, and target user.

FAQ

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

A: The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a combined percentile of 91, placing it in the top tier of all benchmarked desktop pairings.

Q: How does the CPU's average benchmark score compare to its closest rival, the AMD EPYC 4464P?

A: The Core Ultra 7 265 has an average benchmark score of 64640, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 4464P's score of 64823, indicating effectively identical overall CPU performance.

Q: What is the RTX 4090's memory bandwidth and capacity?

A: The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a total bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s.

Q: What is the maximum boost clock speed of the Core Ultra 7 265?

A: The CPU has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a maximum boost clock of 5.30 GHz.

Q: What is the average FPS across all measured games for this pairing?

A: The pair achieves an average FPS of 221 across the measured game suite at ultra settings, ranking 91st out of 3732 pairs.

Q: What is the power draw and suggested PSU for the RTX 4090?

A: The GPU has a TDP of 450 W, and the suggested power supply for the system is 850 W.

Q: What is the process node and foundry for the CPU?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is built on a 3 nm process at TSMC.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and the AD102 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 76,300 million transistors. The GPU's memory subsystem is formidable, featuring 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This configuration is critical for high-resolution texture streaming and large dataset manipulation in rendering workloads. The core config includes 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, which directly drive its high fill rates: 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate. For compute, the card delivers 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 performance, with a 1:1 ratio, making it equally potent for single and half-precision tasks.

The dedicated hardware includes 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, which accelerate ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS. The GPU's benchmark scores reflect this raw power. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, it scores 9223 points. Its compute performance is evidenced by a Geekbench OpenCL score of 255416 and a Vulkan score of 271631. In PassMark testing, the GPU achieves a G3D score of 38194 and a GPU Compute score of 26613. The GPU's percentile rank among all GPUs is 88, indicating it sits near the top of the performance stack. For rendering, this translates to excellent performance in GPU-accelerated tasks, with the high FP32 throughput and large memory pool ensuring that complex scenes and high-resolution textures are handled without memory bottlenecks. The 128 RT cores provide dedicated hardware for ray-traced effects, while the 512 tensor cores enable significant acceleration for denoising and resolution upscaling.

Gaming Performance

The measured FPS data at ultra settings reveals a wide range of performance across different game genres and resolutions. At 1080p, the pairing is often CPU-bound in lighter titles, delivering extremely high frame rates. For example, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive reaches 793 FPS, while Valorant hits 588 FPS and Roblox achieves 464 FPS. These figures demonstrate the CPU's strong single-thread performance is sufficient to feed the GPU in esports scenarios. In more demanding AAA titles at 1080p, the GPU becomes the primary limiter, with Cyberpunk 2077 at 106 FPS and Red Dead Redemption 2 at 96 FPS.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain highly playable. Call of Duty: Warzone runs at 162 FPS, and Counter-Strike 2 at 238 FPS. For graphically intensive games, the RTX 4090's power is evident: Cyberpunk 2077 drops to 79 FPS, while Microsoft Flight Simulator holds at 105 FPS. At 4K (3840x2160), the GPU's 24 GB memory and bandwidth are fully utilized. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is significant, with titles like Cyberpunk 2077 dropping from 106 FPS to 52 FPS, and Red Dead Redemption 2 from 96 FPS to 48 FPS. However, many games still achieve high frame rates at 4K, including Valorant at 518 FPS and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at 322 FPS. The data shows that this pairing is capable of high-refresh-rate gaming at 1440p in most titles and maintains 60+ FPS at 4K in a majority of games tested, though the most demanding titles will require settings adjustments or upscaling to maintain smooth performance.

Balance and Bottleneck

The benchmark data indicates a well-balanced pairing, but the bottleneck shifts depending on the workload and resolution. In CPU-heavy tasks, the Core Ultra 7 265's performance is the limiting factor. Its PassMark multithread score of 49682 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42216 are substantial, but they are the ceiling for multi-threaded CPU workloads. For instance, in data encryption, the score of 40456 shows the CPU's cryptographic throughput, which is independent of the GPU. Conversely, in GPU-bound scenarios, the RTX 4090 is the constraint. The 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 9223 represents the GPU's rendering limit.

The FPS scaling across resolutions provides clear evidence. At 1080p, the average FPS of 221 is often higher than at 1440p or 4K, suggesting that the CPU can maintain high frame delivery, but the GPU has headroom. For example, in Counter-Strike 2, FPS drops from 359 at 1080p to 238 at 1440p, indicating a shift from CPU to GPU limitation. The GPU's percentile rank of 88 versus the CPU's percentile rank of 93 suggests the CPU is comparatively stronger relative to its peers than the GPU is to its peers. This implies that in CPU-intensive simulations or physics-based tasks, the CPU may be the limiting factor, while in pure graphics rendering, the GPU is the bottleneck. The pair rank of 91 out of 3732 pairs indicates that this combination is generally well-matched, with neither component significantly holding back the other in most gaming scenarios.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The platform is based on the Intel Socket 1851, which supports the Core Ultra Series 2 processors. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory, providing a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. It does not support ECC memory. The CPU provides 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes, which is sufficient for a single high-end graphics card like the RTX 4090, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product with a successor in the GeForce 50 series, meaning future GPU upgrades would involve that newer generation. The CPU has a TDP of 65 W, which is modest, while the GPU has a TDP of 450 W. The suggested PSU for this configuration is 850 W, providing enough headroom for the system's power draw.

A sensible next upgrade path would focus on the GPU, as the CPU is a current-generation part on an active socket. Upgrading to a next-generation GPU from the GeForce 50 series would be a logical step when it becomes available, though the current RTX 4090's performance is already top-tier. For CPU upgrades, the Socket 1851 platform would support other Arrow Lake processors, though the 265 is already a high-end part. The platform's PCIe Gen 5 support means future storage devices and accelerators will be compatible. The lack of ECC memory support means this platform is not ideal for mission-critical workstation tasks requiring error correction, but it is well-suited for gaming and general productivity.

Who Should Build It

This build targets users who demand the highest level of performance in both gaming and content creation. Gamers at 1440p and 4K resolutions will benefit from the high frame rates, with the data showing 162 FPS in Warzone at 1440p and 138 FPS at 4K. For competitive esports players, the extremely high frame rates in titles like CS:GO (793 FPS at 1080p) and Valorant (588 FPS at 1080p) provide a significant advantage. Content creators working with video editing, 3D rendering, and GPU-accelerated effects will leverage the RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 24 GB of VRAM.

Software developers and engineers using CUDA-accelerated applications will find the tensor cores (512) and large memory pool beneficial for machine learning and simulation tasks. The CPU's 20 cores and 30 MB of L3 cache handle compilation and multi-threaded workloads efficiently, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42216. Students and small business users in STEM fields will find this system overkill for basic tasks, but it is a powerhouse for data analysis, CAD, and scientific computing. The data shows that the system is not just for gaming; its PassMark data compression score of 522983 and floating-point math score of 172776 indicate strong performance in data-heavy workloads.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, with a theoretical bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. It has integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 32 execution units, providing basic display output. The CPU consumes a 65 W TDP, which is low for its core count.

Benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 42216 in multi-core and 5960 in single-core tests. The single-core score of 5960 is high, reflecting the 5.30 GHz boost clock. In PassMark, the multithread score is 49682, and the single-thread score is 4689. The CPU's performance in specialized tasks is notable: data compression scores 522983, floating-point math scores 172776, and integer math scores 134773. The data encryption score of 40456 and extended instructions score of 41478 indicate strong cryptographic and SIMD performance. The CPU's percentile rank among all CPUs is 93, placing it in the top 7% of all processors.

The nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the AMD EPYC 4464P (64823, -0.3% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (64438, 0.3% delta). This indicates that the 265 is positioned between these two, with performance nearly identical to the EPYC 4464P. For real workloads, this means the CPU can handle heavy multi-threaded tasks like video encoding, 3D scene compilation, and software builds without issue. The 20 threads are sufficient for most content creation applications, though they are not as numerous as some higher-end server parts. The single-thread performance ensures responsive system operation and high performance in lightly-threaded applications.

Build Overview

This build pairs the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, creating a high-end desktop configuration. The CPU is from the Core Ultra Series 2, utilizing the Arrow Lake architecture on a 3 nm process. The GPU is from the GeForce 40-series, based on Ada Lovelace on a 5 nm process. The combined percentile for this pairing is 91, indicating it outperforms 90% of all tested CPU-GPU combinations. The pair ranks 91st out of 3732 pairs by average FPS, with an average of 221 FPS across the measured games.

The class is desktop, confirming this is a stationary tower configuration. The overall tier is high-end, given the CPU's 93rd percentile rank and the GPU's 88th percentile rank. The system is designed for maximum performance in gaming and content creation. The CPU's 20 cores and the GPU's 16,384 shading units provide a balanced platform for both parallel compute and high-resolution rendering. The build class and the performance data suggest this is a top-tier system suitable for enthusiasts and professionals. The launch MSRP for the CPU is $394, and for the GPU it is 1,599 USD.

Benchmark Performance

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 achieves an average benchmark score of 64640, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 4464P, scores 64823, which is 0.3% higher. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265F scores 64438, 0.3% lower, indicating the 265 sits between these two in CPU performance. The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores are 42216 multi-core and 5960 single-core, while its PassMark multithread score is 49682.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 60347, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60, scores 60326, a 0% delta, meaning they are statistically tied in average score. The RTX 4090's 3DMark Steel Nomad score is 9223, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 255416. In PassMark, it scores 38194 in G3D and 26613 in GPU Compute.

The combined picture shows a system where the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU when compared to their respective peers. The CPU's 93rd percentile is higher than the GPU's 88th percentile. However, the GPU's absolute performance is still massive, as evidenced by its 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The pair's combined percentile of 91 reflects the overall strength of this configuration. In the gaming benchmarks, the pair's average FPS of 221 is high, but the rank of 91 out of 3732 shows that other pairings can exceed this, likely those with even more powerful CPUs for esports titles.

Usage Scenarios

High-Refresh Gaming: This scenario is where the pairing shines. The data shows 588 FPS in Valorant at 1080p and 359 FPS in Counter-Strike 2 at 1080p, which are far beyond the refresh rates of most monitors. At 1440p, esports titles still achieve high frame rates, with Counter-Strike 2 at 238 FPS and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege at 280 FPS. This ensures a smooth and responsive experience on high-refresh-rate displays.

Streaming: The combination of the CPU's 20 threads and the GPU's NVENC encoder makes this a capable streaming setup. The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 49682 can handle the encoding workload, while the GPU's high frame rates in games like Call of Duty: Warzone (162 FPS at 1440p) leave headroom for the encoding process. The system can maintain high-quality streams without significant performance loss.

Video Editing: The RTX 4090's 24 GB of VRAM and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are ideal for video editing and rendering. The GPU's OpenCL score of 255416 indicates strong compute performance for effects and color grading. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 will accelerate timeline rendering and export tasks, making 4K video editing a smooth experience.

3D Rendering: In GPU-based renderers, the RTX 4090 is a top performer. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 9223 and high FP32 throughput will significantly reduce render times. The CPU also contributes to this workload, with its 20 cores and 30 MB of L3 cache handling scene preparation and physics simulations. The system is well-suited for both GPU and CPU rendering workflows.

Software Development: The CPU's strong multi-threaded performance, with a PassMark multithread score of 49682, accelerates code compilation and testing. The data encryption score of 40456 and extended instructions score of 41478 are useful for security-related development. The 20 threads allow for parallel builds and virtual machine workloads, making this a productive development environment.

Student and Office Work: For standard productivity, this system is vastly over-provisioned. However, for students in engineering or data science, the CPU's floating-point math score of 172776 and the GPU's compute capabilities provide ample power for simulations and data analysis. The system will handle any office application with ease, though the power draw and cost are not justified for this use case alone.