SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 9 285T + Intel Arc A380

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

90 / 100
ULTIMATE READY

Apex Performer

Top 10% 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%
VS
GPU
86%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 9 285T

51,310 Benchmark Score
Top 6% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →
GRAPHICS CARD

Intel Arc A380

8,558 Benchmark Score
Top 14% 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
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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

# Balance and Bottleneck

The pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285T with the Intel Arc A380 presents one of the most pronounced CPU-to-GPU performance asymmetries in the current desktop landscape. The data shows a processor that ranks in the 91st percentile against all CPUs, paired with a graphics card sitting in the 44th percentile against all GPUs. This is not a balanced configuration; the CPU is operating in an entirely different performance stratum than the GPU, and the implications for workload distribution are immediate and quantifiable.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 51,310 dwarfs the GPU’s average of 8,558, a ratio of roughly 6:1. In practical terms, the Arc A380 will become the limiting factor in almost any graphics-intensive task, while the Ultra 9 285T will sit comparatively idle, waiting for the GPU to feed it frames. The bottleneck is unequivocally the GPU for gaming and 3D rendering workloads. However, the inverse is true for CPU-bound tasks like data compression, encryption, and software compilation, where the GPU is barely involved, and the processor’s 24 cores and 24 threads can stretch their legs.

Evidence for this GPU-bound reality comes from the FPS scaling implications. With no measured FPS data for this exact combination, the benchmark scores serve as the sole guide. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 6,252 places it near the AMD Radeon 880M (deltaPct 1.4) and NVIDIA GeForce MX330 (deltaPct 1.2), both of which are entry-level or integrated-class solutions. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33,573 is nearly seven times its single-core score of 4,739, indicating massive parallel throughput that a low-end GPU cannot utilize in most gaming scenarios. The bottleneck is so severe that lowering resolution or graphical settings will yield minimal FPS gains because the GPU’s raw compute, not memory bandwidth or CPU draw calls, is the wall.

For CPU-bound workloads, the bottleneck shifts. The PassMark data compression score of 384,140 and encryption score of 32,061 show a processor that can chew through data-intensive tasks. Here, the GPU is irrelevant, and the CPU’s 35W TDP (a remarkably low figure for a 24-core part) suggests power efficiency is prioritized over raw sustained clocks. The base clock of 1.40 GHz with a boost of 5.40 GHz creates a wide dynamic range, allowing the chip to sip power at idle and surge when needed. The bottleneck in these scenarios is memory bandwidth: the dual-channel DDR5 interface yields 102.4 GB/s, which, while respectable, may throttle the L3 cache (36 MB shared) during heavy multi-threaded access patterns.

# Benchmark Performance

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285T delivers exceptional CPU benchmark results that place it firmly in high-end desktop territory. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33,573 and single-core score of 4,739 are standout figures, with the multi-core result reflecting the full utilization of its 24 cores. The Cinebench R20 scores (14,100 multi-core, 1,990 single-core) and R15 scores (3,384 multi-core, 477 single-core) follow the expected scaling curve, showing consistent performance across benchmark generations. The PassMark multi-thread score of 39,931 and single-thread score of 4,576 reinforce this picture, with the average benchmark score of 51,310 placing the chip in the 91st percentile versus all CPUs.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Ultra 9 285T sits in a tight cluster. It edges out the Intel Core i9-14900T by 0.6% (avg score 51,015), trails the Intel Core i9-13900F by 0.8% (avg score 51,730), and leads the Intel Core i7-13850HX by 1.1% (avg score 50,761) and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT by 1.2% (avg score 50,718). These deltas are within noise margins, meaning the 285T effectively trades blows with last-generation flagship silicon. The PassMark integer math score of 132,433 and floating-point math score of 137,923 show balanced arithmetic capability, while the extended instructions score of 27,477 indicates robust SIMD performance for AVX-512-class workloads.

The Intel Arc A380 presents a starkly different picture. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 808 is modest, and its PassMark G3D score of 6,252 lands it in the 44th percentile versus all GPUs. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 38,224 and Vulkan score of 36,736 show compute capability that outstrips its graphics rendering performance, hinting at a card that may be better suited to media encoding or compute offload than traditional rasterization. The average benchmark score of 8,558 places it near the AMD FirePro W5170M (deltaPct -0.4), AMD Radeon HD 8870M (deltaPct 1.1), NVIDIA GeForce MX330 (deltaPct 1.2), and AMD Radeon 880M (deltaPct 1.4). These rivals are all entry-level or mobile-class parts, underscoring the A380’s position as a budget desktop GPU.

The combined percentile for this pairing is 68, which reflects the CPU dragging the overall score upward. The combined picture is one of extreme asymmetry: a top-tier processor hamstrung by a bottom-tier graphics card. Benchmarks that stress the CPU alone (Cinebench, PassMark CPU) will show class-leading results, while any GPU-centric benchmark will pull the system down to entry-level territory. This is a build defined by its contradictions.

# Usage Scenarios

High-refresh gaming: This is not a viable scenario for this pairing. The Arc A380’s 44th percentile GPU score and PassMark DirectX 12 score of 35 indicate that 1080p at high refresh rates (144Hz+) is out of reach. The CPU can certainly generate frames, but the GPU cannot render them fast enough. Expect 1080p at 60Hz to be the practical ceiling, and even that will require medium or low settings in modern titles.

Streaming: The CPU’s 24 cores and 24 threads are overkill for encoding a stream, but the lack of a dedicated NVENC-class encoder on the Arc A380 (it uses Intel’s Quick Sync via the integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU) means the CPU may need to handle encoding. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33,573 suggests ample headroom for x264 encoding at 1080p60 while gaming, but the GPU’s weak rendering will still cap game quality.

Video editing: The CPU excels here. The PassMark data compression score of 384,140 and extended instructions score of 27,477 indicate fast timeline scrubbing and effect processing. The GPU’s 6 GB GDDR6 with 186.0 GB/s bandwidth can handle 1080p previews, but 4K timelines will struggle. The combination is workable for 1080p editing, less so for 4K.

3D rendering: CPU-based rendering (e.g., Blender Cycles CPU) will be excellent, thanks to the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33,573. GPU-based rendering will be poor; the Arc A380’s 4.198 TFLOPS FP32 and 8 RT cores are minimal for ray tracing workloads. Mixed CPU+GPU rendering will be bottlenecked by the GPU.

Software development: Compilation and testing are CPU-bound, and the Ultra 9 285T shines. The PassMark multi-thread score of 39,931 and integer math score of 132,433 suggest fast build times for large codebases. The GPU is irrelevant here. The 35W TDP also means sustained all-core loads won’t require exotic cooling.

Student and office work: This pairing is massively overprovisioned for office tasks. The CPU’s single-core score of 4,576 (PassMark) ensures snappy spreadsheet and browser performance, while the GPU’s 610 PassMark G2D score handles 2D desktop compositing adequately. The 35W TDP makes this a low-power workstation, but the cost is unjustifiable for such light workloads.

# Gaming Performance

No measured FPS rows exist for this exact CPU+GPU combination. The FACT PACK contains no measuredFps data for the Intel Core Ultra 9 285T with the Intel Arc A380. All FPS figures below are estimates derived from the benchmark scores, specifically the GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 6,252 and DirectX 12 score of 35, cross-referenced with the CPU’s high single-thread performance.

At 1080p ultra settings, this pairing will struggle to maintain 30 FPS in most modern AAA titles. The GPU’s 4.198 TFLOPS FP32 is roughly one-quarter the compute of a mid-range card, and its 32 ROPs limit pixel fill to 65.60 GPixel/s. For esports titles like CS2 or Valorant, the CPU’s 5.40 GHz boost clock and 4,739 Cinebench R23 single-core score can push frame rates toward 100+ FPS at low settings, but the GPU will still cap at around 60-80 FPS depending on the title. At 1440p, expect sub-30 FPS in most games, rendering this pairing unsuitable for high-resolution gaming.

The 6 GB VRAM is another constraint. While sufficient for 1080p textures in older titles, modern games with high-resolution texture packs will exceed 6 GB, causing stuttering and texture pop-in. The 96-bit memory bus and 186.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p but will bottleneck at higher resolutions. The 8 RT cores are present but effectively useless; ray tracing performance will be below 20 FPS at 1080p in any RT-enabled title. The Vulkan score of 36,736 suggests better performance in Vulkan-based games (e.g., Doom Eternal), but the overall picture is one of an entry-level gaming experience.

# Who Should Build It

The target user for this pairing is someone who needs extreme CPU compute power but has minimal graphics requirements. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285T’s 91st percentile CPU ranking and 35W TDP make it ideal for a compact, power-efficient workstation that handles software compilation, data analysis, or virtualization. The GPU’s 44th percentile ranking means it can drive basic displays and accelerate media encode/decode (via Quick Sync on the integrated graphics) but not much else.

Gamers should avoid this build entirely. The GPU cannot deliver playable frame rates at 1080p ultra, and the CPU premium is wasted. Content creators who work primarily in CPU-bound applications (audio production, document processing, code compilation) will find value, but video editors and 3D artists needing GPU acceleration will be disappointed. Students and office workers will find the performance excessive for their needs, though the low power draw (35W CPU, 75W GPU) makes for a quiet, cool system. Small business workstations running database queries or financial modeling will benefit from the CPU’s multi-threaded throughput, but the GPU is superfluous.

# GPU Analysis

The Intel Arc A380 is built on the Xe-HPG architecture (Alchemist generation) using a 6 nm TSMC process with 7,200 million transistors on a 157 mm² die. It features 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with 8 RT cores for ray tracing. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2000 MHz and a boost clock of 2050 MHz, with memory clocked at 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective). The 6 GB GDDR6 memory sits on a 96-bit bus, delivering 186.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The benchmark scores reflect this modest specification. The PassMark G3D score of 6,252 places it in the 44th percentile, and its closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce MX330 (deltaPct 1.2), a laptop-class GPU. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 808 is low, indicating poor tessellation and geometry throughput. The PassMark DirectX 9 score of 73 is notably higher than DirectX 10 (37), 11 (38), and 12 (35), suggesting the architecture favors older APIs — a known Alchemist quirk. The FP32 performance of 4.198 TFLOPS and texture rate of 131.2 GTexel/s are entry-level figures.

For rendering, the 8 RT cores are insufficient for modern ray-traced workloads, and the 4.198 TFLOPS FP32 is roughly half that of an NVIDIA RTX 3050-class card. The pixel rate of 65.60 GPixel/s limits fill-rate-heavy effects. The 186.0 GB/s bandwidth is a bottleneck for high-resolution textures. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring API compatibility, but the hardware cannot exploit these features at playable frame rates. The 75W TDP and 1x 8-pin power connector indicate a low-power card, with a suggested PSU of 250W.

# CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285T is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture (Arrow Lake-S codename), manufactured on a 3 nm TSMC process with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. It runs at a base clock of 1.40 GHz and boosts to 5.40 GHz, with a 35W TDP — a remarkably low power envelope for this core count. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 3 MB L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with ECC, delivering 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth.

The benchmark results are stellar. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33,573 and single-core score of 4,739 position it among the fastest desktop CPUs. The PassMark multi-thread score of 39,931 and single-thread score of 4,576 confirm this. The 91st percentile ranking versus all CPUs is justified by these numbers. The nearest rivals — Intel Core i9-14900T (deltaPct 0.6), Intel Core i9-13900F (deltaPct -0.8), Intel Core i7-13850HX (deltaPct 1.1), and AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT (deltaPct 1.2) — are all within 1.2% of its average score of 51,310, indicating the 285T is competitive with previous-generation flagship parts.

The 24 threads equal the 24 cores, meaning no hyperthreading. The 5.40 GHz boost clock is exceptional for a 35W part, suggesting aggressive power management with short-duration boosts. The 36 MB L3 cache is ample for gaming and productivity. The ECC memory support is a boon for workstation reliability. The 3 nm process and TSMC foundry contribute to the low TDP. Real-world workloads will see excellent multi-threaded performance in rendering, compilation, and data processing, but the 1.40 GHz base clock means sustained all-core loads may drop below peak boost frequencies.

# Build Overview

This is a desktop-class build pairing Intel’s top-tier Arrow Lake processor with Intel’s entry-level Alchemist GPU. The combined percentile of 68 reflects the CPU’s dominance pulling the average up. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285T is a 24-core, 35W processor in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, while the Intel Arc A380 is a 6 GB, 75W GPU in the 44th percentile. The pairing is fundamentally mismatched: the CPU is a high-end workstation part, while the GPU is a budget gaming or office card.

The build class is desktop, and the overall tier is mid-range due to the GPU dragging down the combined score. The CPU alone would place this in the top 10% of systems, but the GPU reduces the effective gaming and graphics performance to entry-level. This is a build for users who prioritize CPU compute over graphics, such as developers, data analysts, or researchers. It is not a gaming rig, nor is it a balanced workstation. The 35W CPU TDP and 75W GPU TDP mean the system draws very little power, making it suitable for compact or passively-cooled cases, but the performance asymmetry is glaring.

# FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285T faster than the Intel Core i9-14900T?

A: Yes, marginally. The Ultra 9 285T has an average benchmark score of 51,310, which is 0.6% higher than the i9-14900T’s 51,015. The difference is within measurement noise.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has 186.0 GB/s of bandwidth, derived from 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus clocked at 15.5 Gbps effective.

Q: Does this CPU support ECC memory?

A: Yes, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285T supports ECC memory, and it uses dual-channel DDR5 with a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s.

Q: What is the combined performance percentile of this build?

A: The combined percentile is 68, which is weighed down by the GPU’s 44th percentile ranking versus the CPU’s 91st percentile.

Q: Are there any measured FPS figures for this pairing?

A: No, there are no measured FPS rows for the Intel Core Ultra 9 285T with the Intel Arc A380. All FPS discussions are estimates based on benchmark scores.

Q: What is the power consumption of the CPU and GPU?

A: The CPU has a 35W TDP, and the GPU has a 75W TDP. The suggested PSU for the GPU is 250W, and the CPU uses a 1x 8-pin power connector for the GPU.

Q: How does the Arc A380 compare to the AMD Radeon 880M?

A: The Arc A380 has an average benchmark score of 8,558, which is 1.4% higher than the AMD Radeon 880M’s 8,436. Both are entry-level GPUs.

# Upgrade Path and Platform

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285T uses the Intel Socket 1851 platform, which supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with ECC capability. The CPU provides PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU itself, while the GPU uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. This means the GPU is not a bottleneck from an interface standpoint — the A380’s 8 PCIe 4.0 lanes provide adequate bandwidth for its 186.0 GB/s memory. The platform’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s is a potential limitation for CPU-heavy workloads, but it is consistent with the 35W TDP design.

The GPU’s suggested PSU of 250W and 1x 8-pin power connector indicate low power headroom. A system with this CPU (35W) and GPU (75W) would draw well under 200W under full load, meaning any standard 300W+ PSU is sufficient. The upgrade path is clear: the GPU should be replaced first. The CPU can drive a much more powerful GPU, up to the limits of PCIe Gen 5 bandwidth. A sensible next upgrade would be to swap the Arc A380 for a mid-range or high-end GPU (e.g., an RTX 4060-class or better), which would raise the combined percentile dramatically. The CPU’s 24 cores and 36 MB L3 cache will not bottleneck such a GPU at 1080p or 1440p.

The motherboard must support Socket 1851 and DDR5. The CPU’s 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes can be allocated to a single GPU or split across multiple devices. For storage, the platform supports NVMe SSDs via PCIe Gen 5, which is beneficial for the CPU’s data compression and encryption workloads. The 35W TDP allows for low-profile air coolers, but the 5.40 GHz boost clock may require a capable air cooler to maintain peak frequencies. The GPU’s dual-slot design and 222 mm length fit most mid-tower cases. The ECC memory support is a unique feature for this class of CPU, making it suitable for error-sensitive computational tasks. The next logical upgrade after the GPU would be faster DDR5 memory to increase the 102.4 GB/s bandwidth, which is the primary CPU-side bottleneck.