SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 9 288V + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile

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

89 / 100
HIGH-END

Power Build

Top 11% of systems. Excellent for 1440p Ultra or 4K High gaming.

1440p Ultra4K High

System Balance Analysis

CPU vs GPU performance ratio
Well Balanced
CPU
86%
VS
GPU
92%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 9 288V

23,219 Benchmark Score
Top 14% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →
GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile

22,729 Benchmark Score
Top 8% 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

Strong Performance

Excellent for 1440p gaming. Most games will run at high/ultra settings smoothly.

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 9 288V and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile form a laptop combination that pairs a highly efficient, single-thread-focused CPU with a mainstream mobile GPU. The data shows a system designed for balanced performance in a portable chassis, though the absence of measured frame rates for this specific pairing means gaming performance must be inferred from component-level benchmarks. This analysis relies exclusively on the provided benchmark scores, architectural details, and comparative data to define the system's capabilities.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 9 288V is built on the Lunar Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. This is a mobile-first design with 8 cores and 8 threads, meaning it lacks Hyper-Threading, a deliberate trade-off for power efficiency rather than raw multi-threading. The base clock is 3.30 GHz, which can boost up to 5.10 GHz, a substantial single-core headroom that directly explains its strong performance in single-threaded benchmarks. The chip is part of the Core Ultra Series 2 generation, with a 30 W TDP, indicating a focus on sustained performance within a tight thermal envelope.

The cache hierarchy is generous for a mobile part, with 192 KB of L1 per core, 2.5 MB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. This structure supports the high boost clocks by keeping frequently accessed data close to the cores. Memory support is limited to LPDDR5X over a dual-channel bus, providing 136.5 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a moderate figure, but it aligns with the CPU's intended role in thin-and-light systems where power consumption is a higher priority than absolute memory throughput. The CPU connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 4 lanes, which is sufficient for a single high-end GPU or fast storage but not for multi-GPU configurations.

Benchmark results paint a clear picture of a processor that excels in lightly-threaded tasks. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1950 is exceptionally high, and the Passmark single-thread score of 4274 confirms this strength. In contrast, the multi-core scores are more modest: Cinebench R23 multi-core is 10178, and Passmark multithread is 19810. The Passmark physics score of 1637 is notably low, suggesting that the 8 threads limit performance in heavily threaded physics simulations. The data encryption score of 14141 and compression score of 186521 show strong performance in data-handling tasks, while the floating-point math score of 59536 and integer math score of 44019 indicate solid general compute capability.

The average benchmark score of 23219 places this CPU at the 76th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-11900F, which is 0.2% slower, the AMD EPYC 4124P, which is 0.2% faster, and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, which is 0.2% slower. This shows that despite its low TDP and mobile form factor, the Ultra 9 288V matches the multi-threaded performance of older desktop and high-end mobile chips. The single-core advantage is even more pronounced, as the 5.10 GHz boost clock pushes it ahead of many rivals in tasks that rely on a single thread. For real workloads, this translates to snappy application responsiveness, fast web browsing, and quick code compilation for single-threaded scripts, while heavily multi-threaded rendering tasks will see performance constrained by the 8-thread limit.

Balance and Bottleneck

The system's balance is defined by the CPU's high single-thread performance and the GPU's solid mainstream capabilities. The CPU's 76th percentile ranking and the GPU's 67th percentile ranking show a slight skew toward CPU-heavy performance. In gaming scenarios, the CPU is unlikely to be a bottleneck for most titles, as its single-thread score of 4274 in Passmark is sufficient to feed a mid-range GPU. However, the low Passmark physics score of 1637 suggests that games with complex physics calculations could see the CPU limit frame rates, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU has spare capacity.

Conversely, the GPU's performance, which sits near the RTX 2080 in average score, will be the limiting factor at higher resolutions or with demanding graphical settings. The data shows the RTX 4060 Mobile is 0.7% slower than the RTX 2080 and 1.3% faster than the RTX 5060 Mobile, indicating a performance plateau in this class. In FPS terms, the GPU will dictate performance at 1440p or 4K in modern titles, while the CPU will handle the frame pacing and minimum FPS. The absence of measured FPS data means these are estimates, but the component scores provide a reliable basis for projection.

The memory bandwidth of 136.5 GB/s on the CPU side and 256.0 GB/s on the GPU side shows a balanced data flow, with the GPU having sufficient bandwidth for its 8 GB frame buffer. The CPU's PCIe Gen 5 lanes, while limited to 4, are more than adequate for the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, meaning no bottleneck exists in the data transfer between the two components.

Benchmark Performance

The CPU's average benchmark score of 23219 places it at the 76th percentile, with a combined system percentile of 72. This puts the system in the upper tier of laptops, but not at the extreme high end. The GPU's average benchmark score of 22729 places it at the 67th percentile, with its nearest rival being the desktop RTX 2080, which is 0.7% faster. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is 0.8% faster, while the Intel Arc B580 is 1.3% faster, and the RTX 5060 Mobile is 1.3% slower.

The CPU's Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 7069 and single-core score of 997 provide a clear reference point. The single-core score is a standout, indicating top-tier performance for a mobile chip. In Passmark tests, the data encryption score of 14141 and extended instructions score of 15613 show strong capability in cryptographic and SIMD workloads. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 17469 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 89420 confirm its mainstream gaming and compute capabilities. The Vulkan score of 89569 is nearly identical to OpenCL, indicating consistent performance across different API workloads.

The combined picture is a system that sits comfortably in the mid-to-high range of laptop performance. The CPU outperforms its direct rivals in single-threaded tasks, while the GPU matches or slightly exceeds the performance of the desktop RTX 2080. This pairing is well-suited for a laptop that needs to handle both demanding productivity and modern games at medium to high settings.

Who Should Build It

This CPU and GPU combination is targeted at users who need a versatile laptop for work and play. The CPU's high single-thread performance makes it ideal for software developers, as compilation of single-threaded code will be fast, and the 8 cores handle moderate parallel builds efficiently. Content creators who work with video editing will benefit from the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and CUDA acceleration, which can offload rendering tasks. The CPU's Passmark data compression score of 186521 indicates strong archival and file management performance, useful for professionals handling large datasets.

Students and small business users will find the system capable of handling office productivity, spreadsheets, and web-based applications with ease, given the CPU's high single-thread score. Gamers at 1080p will see strong performance in most titles, as the GPU is capable of high frame rates at this resolution. The system is less suited for professionals who require heavy multi-threaded rendering, such as 3D artists using CPU-based renderers, as the 8-thread limit will constrain performance. Similarly, users looking for maximum graphical fidelity at 4K will find the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth limiting.

The 30 W CPU TDP and 115 W GPU TDP suggest a laptop design that balances performance with portability. The CPU's efficiency is a key selling point, allowing for long battery life during light tasks while delivering desktop-like single-thread performance when needed.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, using the AD107 chip on a 5 nm process by TSMC. The chip contains 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die, with a transistor density of 118.9M per mm². The GPU has 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, along with 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores. This hardware configuration supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring compatibility with modern APIs.

The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p gaming and light 1440p, but it may be a limiting factor in texture-heavy games at higher resolutions. The GPU clocks are set at a base of 1545 MHz with a boost of 1890 MHz, and the memory runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed. The pixel rate is 90.72 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 181.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 11.61 TFLOPS and FP16 at 11.61 TFLOPS (1:1).

Benchmark results show the GPU's strengths and weaknesses. The Passmark G3D score of 17469 places it at the 67th percentile, with the desktop RTX 2080 being 0.7% faster. The DirectX 12 score of 73 is low, but this is a synthetic test that does not fully represent real gaming performance. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 89420 indicates strong compute capability, which is useful for GPU-accelerated rendering. The Passmark GPU compute score of 6816 is modest, suggesting that the GPU is not a compute powerhouse but is adequate for typical creative workloads.

In rendering, the 24 RT cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing, and the 96 tensor cores support DLSS, which can significantly boost frame rates in supported games. The 8 GB VRAM is adequate for 1080p with high textures, but 1440p with ultra settings may exceed this capacity in some titles.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The CPU uses the Intel BGA 2833 socket, meaning it is soldered to the motherboard and not upgradeable. The system is designed as a complete laptop package, so the CPU and GPU are not field-replaceable. The CPU supports LPDDR5X memory over a dual-channel bus, which is also soldered, limiting memory upgrades to the configuration at purchase.

The GPU connects via PCIe 4.0 x8, which is compatible with the CPU's PCIe Gen 5 lanes. This interface provides sufficient bandwidth for the GPU's needs. The CPU's TDP is 30 W, and the GPU's TDP is 115 W, indicating a combined thermal load of 145 W under full load. The suggested PSU is not listed, but the system's power draw suggests a laptop adapter in the range of 150-200 W is necessary. The CPU's low TDP leaves headroom for the GPU to sustain its boost clock under sustained loads, but the system's overall performance is ultimately limited by the laptop's cooling solution.

The platform supports PCIe Gen 5 for storage, allowing for fast NVMe SSDs. A sensible next upgrade for a user would be to increase storage capacity, as the CPU's 4 PCIe lanes are sufficient for a single high-speed drive. Memory is not upgradeable, so a buyer should choose the maximum capacity at purchase. The GPU's performance class is fixed, so there is no internal upgrade path; the only way to improve graphics performance is to purchase a new system.

Gaming Performance

No measured FPS rows exist for this exact CPU-GPU combination, so all gaming frame rates are estimates based on the component benchmark scores. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 17469, which is 0.7% slower than the desktop RTX 2080, provides a reference point. The CPU's high single-thread score ensures it will not bottleneck the GPU in most games.

At 1080p resolution, this system is expected to deliver high frame rates in esports titles like Counter-Strike and Valorant, likely exceeding 144 FPS in most scenarios. In AAA games, the GPU will be the limiting factor, with an estimated average of 60-80 FPS at high settings in titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin's Creed. With DLSS enabled, the tensor cores can boost performance by 20-30%, making 100 FPS achievable in many titles.

At 1440p, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth will become a constraint. Estimated performance drops to 40-60 FPS in AAA games at high settings, with DLSS being nearly essential to maintain smooth frame rates. The CPU should not be a bottleneck at this resolution, as the GPU will be fully loaded.

At 4K, the system is not well-suited for high-FPS gaming. The GPU's memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity will limit performance to 20-30 FPS in modern titles, even with DLSS. The CPU's 8 threads may also cause stuttering in games that utilize more than 8 threads for physics and AI. For 4K gaming, a desktop GPU with more VRAM and bandwidth is recommended. These figures are estimates and will vary based on game optimizations and driver updates.

FAQ

Q: What is the CPU's single-core performance compared to its rivals?

A: The Cinebench R23 single-core score is 1950, and the Passmark single-thread score is 4274. This is a top-tier result, placing the CPU ahead of rivals like the Intel Core i9-11900F, which is 0.2% slower in average benchmark score.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and is it sufficient for modern games?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p gaming with high textures, but 1440p with ultra settings may exceed this capacity in some titles.

Q: Does the CPU support ECC memory?

A: No, the CPU does not support ECC memory. It supports LPDDR5X over a dual-channel bus, which is not ECC-capable.

Q: What is the GPU's performance relative to the desktop RTX 2080?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 22729, which is 0.7% slower than the desktop RTX 2080's score of 22895. This makes the mobile GPU comparable to a high-end desktop GPU from a previous generation.

Q: What is the CPU's TDP and how does it affect system design?

A: The CPU has a 30 W TDP, which is low for a high-performance chip. This allows for a thin-and-light laptop design with a smaller cooling solution, while still delivering high single-thread performance.

Q: Can the CPU handle software development tasks?

A: Yes, the CPU's high single-thread score of 4274 in Passmark makes it excellent for code compilation and script execution. The 8 cores handle moderate parallel builds, and the data compression score of 186521 shows strong file handling capability.

Q: Is the GPU capable of ray tracing?

A: Yes, the GPU has 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores, supporting hardware-accelerated ray tracing and DLSS. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support ensures compatibility with modern ray-traced games.

Usage Scenarios

High-Refresh Gaming: At 1080p, the GPU's performance is close to the desktop RTX 2080, which is 0.7% faster. This should deliver frame rates well above 100 FPS in competitive titles, with the CPU's high single-thread score ensuring consistent frame pacing.

Streaming: The GPU's 96 tensor cores and NVENC encoder (implied by the Ada Lovelace architecture) handle video encoding without taxing the CPU. The CPU's 8 threads are sufficient for the game and streaming software, though heavy multitasking may show limitations.

Video Editing: The GPU's Geekbench OpenCL score of 89420 provides strong acceleration for effects and rendering in software like Adobe Premiere. The 8 GB VRAM is adequate for 1080p and 1440p timelines, and the CPU's single-thread performance helps with timeline scrubbing and export.

3D Rendering: The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10178 is modest, so CPU-based rendering in Blender or Cinema 4D will be slower than systems with more threads. The GPU's compute score of 6816 in Passmark indicates it can offload some rendering tasks, but it is not a dedicated rendering powerhouse.

Software Development: The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 4274 makes it ideal for compiling code and running dev servers. The 8 threads handle parallel builds, and the high data compression score speeds up package management and repository operations.

Student and Office Work: The CPU's low 30 W TDP enables long battery life, and its high single-core performance ensures snappy response in web browsers, document editors, and spreadsheets. The GPU is overkill for this workload but provides headroom for light photo editing or casual gaming.