SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus + NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh

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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86 Score

Top 14% Ranking

86 / 100

HIGH-END

Power Build

Top 14% of systems. Excellent for 1440p Ultra or 4K High gaming.

1440p Ultra4K High

System Balance Analysis

CPU vs GPU performance ratio

GPU Bottleneck

CPU

97%

GPU

74%

Your GPU is limiting system performance. Consider upgrading to a more powerful graphics card to better utilize your CPU.

PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus

79,574 Benchmark Score

Top 3% Market Ranking

View Full Specs →

GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh

0 Benchmark Score

Top 26% 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.

Bottleneck Detected

GPU Bottleneck - Upgrading the weaker component will improve overall performance.

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 290HX Plus and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh pairing represents a peculiar hybrid: a state-of-the-art, high-core-count mobile processor from 2026 paired with an end-of-life professional GPU from 2019. The data shows a system that is profoundly unbalanced, with the CPU operating in the 95th percentile of all processors while the GPU sits at the 50th percentile of all graphics cards. This is a workstation-class CPU bolted to a GPU that is now two architectural generations old, and benchmark results indicate that the platform’s identity is defined entirely by this mismatch.

CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake-HX Refresh architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It belongs to the Core Ultra Series 2 family and is built for mobile platforms, using the Intel BGA 2114 socket. The chip integrates 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die, a density figure that reflects its modern fabrication node. Clock speeds range from a 2.70 GHz base to a 5.50 GHz boost, and the processor is multiplier-unlocked, allowing for manual overclocking in systems that support it.

The cache hierarchy is substantial: each core has 192 KB of L1 and 3 MB of L2, while a shared 36 MB L3 pool ties the cores together. Memory support is limited to dual-channel DDR5 with a maximum bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, and ECC memory is supported, a feature that points toward professional and reliability-focused workloads. The CPU provides 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes, offering high-bandwidth connectivity for storage and discrete devices. Integrated graphics come in the form of Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units, which serves as a fallback display output but is not a gaming solution in its own right.

Benchmark scores place this CPU firmly in elite territory. In Cinebench R23, it scores 39,684 points in multi-core and 2,356 in single-core. The R20 results are 21,198 multi-core and 2,992 single-core, while R15 shows 5,981 multi-core and 340 single-core. PassMark results are equally strong: multi-threaded performance hits 59,439, single-thread 4,951, integer math 164,839, floating-point math 201,773, and extended instructions 51,290. Data compression scores 658,724, data encryption 50,008, and random string sorting 80,327. The average benchmark score across all tests is 79,574, placing the CPU in the 95th percentile of all CPUs.

The nearest rivals provide context. The Intel Core i9-14900KF has an average score of 79,371, a delta of +0.3% relative to the Ultra 9, meaning the two are effectively tied in overall performance. The AMD EPYC 7413 scores 80,041, putting it 0.6% ahead of the Ultra 9, while the Intel Core i9-14900K scores 79,097, trailing by 0.6%. The Intel Xeon w5-2565X leads the group at 80,671, a 1.4% advantage. In practical terms, the Ultra 9 290HX Plus trades blows with desktop-class high-end CPUs from the previous generation and a server-grade EPYC part, which is remarkable for a mobile chip. For real workloads, this means video encoding, 3D rendering, and scientific computation will be handled with extreme speed, while single-threaded tasks benefit from the 5.50 GHz boost clock.

Upgrade Path and Platform

The platform is defined by the Intel BGA 2114 socket, which is a soldered mobile implementation, meaning the CPU is not user-replaceable. The memory subsystem is dual-channel DDR5 with ECC support, and the system runs on a 55 W TDP for the processor. The GPU, an MXM module with an 80 W TDP, is theoretically replaceable if the laptop chassis supports MXM upgrades, but the data does not specify the exact slot type beyond listing it as an MXM Module with no power connectors, implying it draws power through the slot itself. The GPU is marked as end-of-life, which makes a future GPU upgrade the only meaningful path to rebalancing this system.

The CPU's PCIe Gen 5 support with 20 lanes provides ample bandwidth for modern NVMe storage and external GPU enclosures, though the GPU itself is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16. The 55 W TDP for the CPU is modest given its 24 cores and 5.50 GHz boost, indicating that the platform is designed with thermal constraints in mind. The GPU's 80 W TDP is low by modern discrete graphics standards, and the absence of a suggested PSU figure reflects the laptop form factor, where power delivery is handled by the system's AC adapter and battery.

A sensible next upgrade would be replacing the Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh with a newer MXM-format GPU, assuming the chassis supports it. However, the end-of-life status of the current GPU and the lack of any successor information within the data makes this speculative. Alternatively, the system could serve as a high-performance CPU workstation where the GPU is secondary, leveraging the 24 cores and ECC memory support for compute tasks that do not require graphics acceleration. The platform's strength is raw CPU throughput, and any upgrade path should preserve that while addressing the GPU bottleneck.

Benchmark Performance

The combined percentile for this CPU+GPU pairing is 73, which sits in the upper-middle range of all systems. However, this figure masks a dramatic split: the CPU's 95th percentile performance is offset by the GPU's 50th percentile standing. The CPU's average benchmark score of 79,574 is within 1.4% of the Xeon w5-2565X and within 0.6% of both the i9-14900K and the EPYC 7413, showing that the processor is not just competitive but at parity with some of the best desktop and server chips available. The 0.3% delta versus the i9-14900KF is negligible in real-world terms.

The GPU, by contrast, has no benchmark scores listed in the data, and its average benchmark score is zero. The percentile figure of 50 indicates it performs at the median of all GPUs, which is a stark contrast to the CPU. This means that in CPU-bound workloads, the system will outperform the vast majority of laptops and many desktops, but in GPU-bound workloads, it will perform like a mid-range machine from several years ago. The combined picture is one of a system that is excellent for computation-heavy tasks but mediocre for graphics-intensive ones.

Gaming Performance

The data contains no measured FPS rows for this exact combination, and the measuredFpsUltraByGame object is empty. All gaming performance figures discussed here are estimates based on the benchmark scores of the CPU and GPU, and they should be treated as approximations rather than verified results. The GPU's 50th percentile ranking and its 5.299 TFLOPS of FP32 performance suggest it can handle 1080p gaming at medium to high settings in most titles from its era, but it will struggle with modern AAA games at high resolutions or with ray tracing enabled.

The CPU is not the limiting factor in gaming; its 5.50 GHz boost clock and 4,951 PassMark single-thread score ensure that frame delivery will be high, and the 36 MB L3 cache helps with game asset streaming. The GPU, with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 192-bit bus, has 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p but tight for 1440p textures. Given the GPU's 50th percentile position, expect around 60 FPS in esports titles at 1080p ultra, but newer, more demanding games may require lowering settings to maintain playable frame rates. At 1440p, the GPU will likely fall below 60 FPS in most modern titles, and 4K gaming is not a realistic target for this configuration.

FAQ

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,574.

Q: How does the CPU compare to the Intel Core i9-14900KF?

A: The Ultra 9 290HX Plus scores 0.3% higher than the i9-14900KF, with average scores of 79,574 and 79,371 respectively.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, with 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Does the system support ECC memory?

A: Yes, the CPU supports ECC memory, and the memory bus is dual-channel DDR5 with a maximum bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s.

Q: What is the GPU's architecture and process node?

A: The GPU uses the Turing architecture on a 12 nm process, with a chip designated as TU106.

Q: Is the CPU overclockable?

A: Yes, the multiplier is unlocked, allowing for overclocking, though it is a mobile BGA socket part.

Q: What is the GPU's production status?

A: The GPU is marked as end-of-life, with a release date of May 26, 2019.

GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh is a Turing-architecture GPU built on a 12 nm process by TSMC, packing 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die. It has 1,920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, which produce a pixel rate of 88.32 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 165.6 GTexel/s. The GPU includes 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads, though the Turing implementation is now two generations old. FP32 performance is 5.299 TFLOPS, while FP16 reaches 10.60 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio.

Memory consists of 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, running at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, yielding 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 945 MHz with a boost of 1380 MHz. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring compatibility with modern APIs. It is an MXM module with no power connectors, drawing all power through the slot, and its TDP is 80 W. The bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16, which is a bottleneck relative to the CPU's PCIe Gen 5 support.

The GPU's 50th percentile ranking places it at the median of all GPUs, and it has no benchmark scores in the data. For rendering workloads, the 5.299 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is modest by current standards, and the 6 GB VRAM will limit texture sizes in large 3D scenes. The RT and tensor cores provide some acceleration for ray-traced rendering and AI inference, but the older architecture means driver optimizations and performance per watt lag behind modern equivalents. This is a GPU suited for professional CAD and light 3D work, not for demanding video editing or GPU-accelerated compute tasks.

Who Should Build It

This system targets users who prioritize CPU throughput above all else. The 24-core, 24-thread processor with a 95th percentile ranking is ideal for software developers compiling large codebases, data scientists running multi-threaded analyses, and engineers using CPU-based simulation tools. The ECC memory support adds reliability for long-running compute jobs where data integrity is critical. Students in computer science or engineering fields would benefit from the CPU power, and small business workstations handling spreadsheet-heavy financial modeling or database operations would see strong performance.

Content creators who work primarily in CPU-bound applications, such as video encoding with x264 or x265 and 3D rendering with CPU-based renderers, will find the Ultra 9 290HX Plus exceptionally fast, with Cinebench R23 multi-core scores of 39,684 indicating top-tier rendering throughput. However, the GPU limits GPU-accelerated tasks, so creators using GPU renderers like Octane or Redshift will need to consider the Quadro RTX 3000's 5.299 TFLOPS as a constraint. Gamers at 1080p with modest settings will find the system usable, but the GPU's 50th percentile ranking means it is not a gaming-first machine. This is a CPU-centric build for professionals who need maximum processing power in a laptop form factor.

Build Overview

This is a laptop-class system pairing the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, a 24-core mobile processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, with the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh, an end-of-life Turing-architecture GPU. The combined percentile is 73, which places the system in the upper-middle tier of all builds, but the CPU's 95th percentile and the GPU's 50th percentile create a wide performance gap. The CPU is a modern 3 nm part with a 5.50 GHz boost clock, while the GPU is a 12 nm part from 2019 with a 1380 MHz boost. The system is designed for mobile professional use, with the CPU capable of competing with desktop-class chips like the i9-14900KF and Xeon w5-2565X, but the GPU holding the system back in graphics-intensive tasks.

Balance and Bottleneck

The system is severely CPU-favored, and the data makes this clear through the percentile disparity. The CPU's 95th percentile versus the GPU's 50th percentile means the GPU is the limiting factor in any workload that requires graphics acceleration. In gaming, the CPU's 4,951 single-thread PassMark score and 5.50 GHz boost clock can feed frames far faster than the GPU can render them, so the GPU will be the bottleneck at every resolution. The GPU's 6 GB VRAM and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth will saturate quickly in modern games, capping performance at roughly 1080p medium settings in demanding titles.

In CPU-bound workloads, the opposite is true: the GPU's absence of benchmark scores is irrelevant, and the CPU's 39,684 Cinebench R23 multi-core score ensures that rendering, compilation, and compute tasks will run at near-desktop-class speeds. The bottleneck shifts entirely to the GPU in any GPU-accelerated task, such as ray-traced rendering or machine learning inference, where the 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores provide some capability but are limited by the older architecture and 5.299 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput. The FPS scaling, if measured, would show the GPU capping frame rates regardless of CPU performance, reinforcing that this is a system where the CPU is the star and the GPU is a necessary but weak companion.

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus + NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh

Power Build

System Balance Analysis

Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Mobile Refresh

Market Position

Game Performance Benchmarks

Cyberpunk 2077

Red Dead Redemption 2

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Control

Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite

Performance Insights

Strong Performance

Bottleneck Detected

Performance Tiers Explained

Ultimate

High-End

Mid-Range

Entry Level

Legacy

CPU Analysis

Upgrade Path and Platform

Benchmark Performance

Gaming Performance

FAQ

GPU Analysis

Who Should Build It

Build Overview

Balance and Bottleneck

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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