SYSTEM ANALYZER

Rate My PC: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

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

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
98%
VS
GPU
92%
PROCESSOR

Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus

84,003 Benchmark Score
Top 2% Market Ranking
View Full Specs →
GRAPHICS CARD

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

23,172 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

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

# FAQ

Q: What is the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, and how does it compare to its closest rival?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread desktop processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It scores 84003 on the average benchmark score, which is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807) and 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090). It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%, which scores 85072.

Q: What is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080's performance percentile, and what does that mean?

A: The RTX 3080 sits at the 68th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23172. This places it in the upper-middle tier of graphics cards—capable of high-refresh gaming at 1080p and 1440p, but not at the very top of the current GPU hierarchy.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 3080's average score of 23172 is within 0.4% of the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250), the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273), and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276). The deltas are -0.3%, -0.3%, -0.4%, and -0.4% respectively, meaning the RTX 3080 is effectively tied with these cards in aggregate benchmarks.

Q: What memory and PCIe support does the CPU offer?

A: The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. It also supports ECC memory. For expansion, it provides PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU only.

Q: What is the combined percentile of this CPU+GPU build, and what does it indicate?

A: The combined percentile is 82. This indicates that the pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 outperforms 82% of all tested CPU+GPU combinations in the database, making it a strong high-end desktop configuration overall.

Q: Is the measured gaming data based on real tests or estimates?

A: The data is measured (`dataIsMeasured` is true). The build achieves an average of 156.3 FPS across all tested games, ranking 1060th out of 3861 pairs in the database by average FPS. This puts it in the top 27% of all tested pairs.

Q: What is the recommended PSU for this build, and what is the GPU's power draw?

A: The suggested PSU is 700 W, while the GPU has a TDP of 320 W. The CPU has a TDP of 125 W, so the total system power envelope is comfortably within the recommended PSU headroom.

# Benchmark Performance

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus delivers an average benchmark score of 84003, placing it at the 96th percentile among all CPUs. This is a top-tier result, indicating that the processor outperforms 96% of all CPUs in the database. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score is 51731, while the single-core score is 7303. The multicore result shows exceptional parallel throughput, while the single-core score confirms strong per-thread performance for lightly threaded workloads.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves an average benchmark score of 23172, sitting at the 68th percentile among all GPUs. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 4407, while in Geekbench OpenCL it reaches 152423 and in Geekbench Vulkan 33620. The Passmark G3D score is 25086, with a GPU compute score of 14397. These figures place the GPU firmly in the mid-to-upper range of graphics performance, though not in the top tier occupied by newer flagship cards.

The combined picture shows a CPU that is far stronger than the GPU relative to their respective populations. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 68th percentile reveals a significant performance gap between the two components. In practical terms, this means the CPU has substantial headroom to drive even more powerful graphics cards, while the GPU will often be the limiting factor in demanding workloads.

The pair ranks 1060th out of 3861 pairs by average FPS across games, with an average of 156.3 FPS. This places the build in the top 27% of all tested combinations, which is a strong overall result despite the GPU being the weaker link.

# Upgrade Path and Platform

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus uses the Intel Socket 1851, which is the platform for the Core Ultra Series 2 processors. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel interface and 115.2 GB/s of bandwidth, along with ECC memory support for error-sensitive workloads. PCIe Gen 5 is available with 20 lanes from the CPU, providing ample bandwidth for modern NVMe storage and high-end expansion cards.

The GPU connects via PCIe 4.0 x16, which is fully compatible with the CPU's PCIe Gen 5 capability. The CPU's stronger relative performance means that a future GPU upgrade would be the most sensible path forward. The RTX 3080's successor, the GeForce 40 series, would fit on the same PCIe interface, though the CPU's 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes would also support a newer card without bottlenecking.

The suggested PSU is 700 W, which provides adequate headroom for the 320 W GPU and 125 W CPU. This leaves room for a GPU upgrade to a more power-hungry card, though users should verify that the PSU has the necessary connectors. The GPU uses a 1x 12-pin power connector, which is a consideration for older power supplies.

Memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s is sufficient for the CPU's 24 cores, and the dual-channel DDR5 configuration aligns with the memory bus design. The 36 MB of shared L3 cache helps mitigate memory latency in multi-threaded workloads. For a sensible next upgrade, moving to a higher-tier GPU—one sitting above the 68th percentile—would balance the system better, as the CPU's 96th percentile ranking suggests it can handle significantly more graphics performance.

# Usage Scenarios

High-refresh gaming: The build delivers 243 FPS in Counter-Strike 2 at 1080p and 161 FPS at 1440p, making it excellent for competitive esports titles. Valorant reaches 557 FPS at 1080p and 476 FPS at 1440p, far exceeding any high-refresh display's needs. The average of 156.3 FPS across all games confirms this is a capable high-refresh gaming platform at 1080p and 1440p.

Streaming: The CPU's 24 cores and 24 threads provide substantial headroom for encoding while gaming. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731 indicates the CPU can handle simultaneous game and stream encoding workloads. The Passmark multithread score of 60860 further supports this, showing strong parallel processing capability for software encoding.

Video editing: The CPU's multicore strength, demonstrated by the Cinebench R20 multicore score of 21727 and R15 multicore of 5214, excels in rendering timelines and exporting video. The Passmark floating-point math score of 214760 shows strong numerical processing for filters and effects. The GPU adds hardware acceleration with 272 tensor cores and 68 RT cores, though its 68th percentile ranking means it is adequate but not exceptional for GPU-accelerated effects.

3D rendering: The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731 is a strong indicator of CPU-based rendering performance. The GPU's 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 10 GB of GDDR6X memory with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth provide solid GPU rendering capability, though the 68th percentile ranking means it lags behind higher-tier cards for complex scenes.

Software development: The Passmark data compression score of 698346 and data encryption score of 52563 indicate fast build and compile times. The extended instructions score of 52338 shows strong SIMD performance for compute-heavy code. The 24 threads handle parallel compilation well, and the 36 MB L3 cache helps with large codebases.

Student and office work: This configuration is massively overkill for typical productivity tasks. The Passmark single-thread score of 4823 ensures snappy response in office applications. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking and the GPU's 10 GB of VRAM are far beyond what is needed for document editing, spreadsheets, or web browsing, but the system will never feel slow in these workloads.

# CPU Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. It has a TDP of 125 W and is built on a 3 nm process by TSMC with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The architecture is codenamed Arrow Lake Refresh, part of the Ultra 9 generation, and it is an unlocked multiplier processor, allowing overclocking.

The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. This large L3 is beneficial for workloads that share data across cores, such as databases or virtual machines. The CPU supports ECC memory, which is unusual for a desktop processor and valuable for workstations that need data integrity.

In Cinebench R23, the multicore score of 51731 versus the single-core score of 7303 shows excellent scaling across cores, with the multicore result being roughly 7 times the single-core score. The Cinebench R20 scores of 21727 multicore and 3067 single-core follow a similar pattern. The Passmark multithread score of 60860 and single-thread score of 4823 confirm this behavior.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 84003 places it at the 96th percentile. It leads the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K by 0.2% (83807) and the AMD EPYC 4584PX by 1.1% (83090), while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3% (85072). These are all high-end processors, and the deltas are within a tight band, indicating that the 290K Plus is competitively positioned among the fastest CPUs available.

The Passmark integer math score of 166194 and floating-point math score of 214760 show strong arithmetic throughput. The find prime numbers score of 503 is a weaker result, suggesting that the CPU is less optimized for certain integer-heavy loops, but this is a niche workload. The random string sorting score of 79744 indicates solid data organization performance.

# GPU Analysis

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm Samsung process with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. It has a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU has 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. It includes 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, providing hardware acceleration for ray tracing and AI-based workloads like DLSS. The FP32 performance is 29.77 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 29.77 TFLOPS as well (1:1 ratio). The pixel rate is 164.2 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 465.1 GTexel/s.

In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the GPU scores 4407. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 152423, and the Vulkan score is 33620. The Passmark G3D score is 25086, with a GPU compute score of 14397. The Passmark DirectX 11 score of 207 and DirectX 12 score of 100 indicate that the GPU is well-suited for modern APIs, while the DirectX 9 score of 258 shows robust legacy support.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 23172 places it at the 68th percentile. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.4%: the NVIDIA P106-100 at 23249 (-0.3%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 at 23250 (-0.3%), the AMD Radeon RX 6600M at 23273 (-0.4%), and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X at 23276 (-0.4%). This tight clustering shows that the RTX 3080 is positioned in a crowded performance band.

For rendering, the 10 GB of VRAM is a significant asset for high-resolution textures, though it can become limiting at 4K with maximum detail settings. The 760.3 GB/s bandwidth is ample for most workloads. The RT cores enable real-time ray tracing, though the 68th percentile ranking means performance in ray-traced titles will be moderate rather than exceptional.

# Who Should Build It

The primary audience for this CPU+GPU pairing is gamers targeting high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gaming. The measured FPS data shows 243 FPS in Counter-Strike 2 at 1080p and 161 FPS at 1440p, with 289 FPS in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege at 1080p. These results are far above the refresh rates of most monitors, making this build ideal for competitive esports players who need maximum frame rates.

Content creators who prioritize CPU-heavy workloads will find this build compelling. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731 and Passmark multithread score of 60860 ensure fast video rendering and encoding. The GPU's 10 GB of VRAM and 68 RT cores provide adequate acceleration for GPU effects, though creators who rely heavily on GPU rendering may want a higher-tier card.

Software developers working with large codebases will benefit from the CPU's 24 threads and 36 MB L3 cache. The Passmark data compression score of 698346 and encryption score of 52563 show rapid build and data processing capability. The ECC memory support adds reliability for long-running development sessions.

Students and office workers will find this build vastly overqualified, but it will never struggle with any productivity task. The single-thread score of 4823 ensures responsive application performance, and the 96th percentile CPU ranking means this system will remain fast for years. However, the cost of the CPU and GPU combination is far beyond what these workloads require.

Small business workstations that run virtual machines, database servers, or scientific computations will appreciate the CPU's 24 threads and ECC memory support. The Passmark floating-point math score of 214760 indicates strong numerical processing for engineering or financial applications. The GPU provides additional compute capability for CUDA-accelerated workloads.

# Build Overview

This build pairs the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, a 24-core desktop processor with a 96th percentile ranking, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, a desktop GPU with a 68th percentile ranking. The build class is desktop, and the combined percentile is 82.

The CPU is the dominant component by a wide margin. Its average benchmark score of 84003 places it among the fastest processors in the database, while the GPU's average of 23172 is solidly mid-to-upper tier. This asymmetry defines the character of the build: it is a CPU-first system with a capable but not class-leading GPU.

In terms of overall tier, the 82nd combined percentile places this build in the upper fifth of all tested configurations. It is not a top-tier enthusiast system—those would feature GPUs above the 90th percentile—but it is well above average and capable of handling nearly any workload. The pair ranks 1060th out of 3861 by average FPS, which is in the top 27% of all tested pairs.

The build class is desktop, meaning it is intended for stationary use with full-size components. The GPU is dual-slot with a length of 285 mm (11.2 inches), height of 112 mm (4.4 inches), and width of 40 mm (1.6 inches), which will fit in most mid-tower and full-tower cases.

# Balance and Bottleneck

In this pairing, the GPU is the primary bottleneck for gaming and graphics workloads. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 68th percentile creates a significant imbalance. In CPU-bound scenarios, such as competitive esports titles at 1080p, the CPU can push frame rates to 537 FPS in CS:GO and 557 FPS in Valorant, indicating the CPU is not limiting these workloads.

However, in GPU-bound scenarios at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the frame rate drops from 65 FPS at 1080p to 49 FPS at 1440p and 32 FPS at 4K. This scaling shows the GPU is the constraint. Similarly, Cyberpunk 2077 reaches only 72 FPS at 1080p and 35 FPS at 4K, reflecting the GPU's 68th percentile positioning.

The FPS scaling across resolutions confirms this analysis. In Call of Duty: Warzone, the frame rate drops from 188 FPS at 1080p to 167 FPS at 1440p and 141 FPS at 4K—a relatively modest decline that suggests the CPU is helping to maintain performance. In contrast, Fortnite drops from 117 FPS at 1080p to 39 FPS at 4K, a much steeper decline that indicates the GPU is the limiting factor.

For CPU-heavy workloads like video editing or 3D rendering, the CPU is the strong point. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731 shows exceptional parallel performance, meaning the CPU will not bottleneck these tasks. Instead, the GPU's 68th percentile ranking will limit GPU-accelerated effects and rendering.

The overall balance is skewed toward CPU performance. Users who primarily game at 1080p or 1440p will see good results, as the GPU is sufficient for those resolutions. Users who push 4K gaming or GPU-intensive creative work will find the GPU to be the bottleneck.

# Gaming Performance

The measured FPS data covers 50 games across three resolutions, with all settings at ultra. This is measured data (`dataIsMeasured` is true), not estimates. The build averages 156.3 FPS across all games and resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the build delivers high frame rates in esports titles. Valorant achieves 557 FPS, CS:GO reaches 537 FPS, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege hits 289 FPS. Counter-Strike 2 runs at 243 FPS. Roblox reaches 314 FPS, and To The Core hits 244 FPS. These results are far beyond the refresh rate of any current monitor.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong. Valorant drops to 476 FPS, CS:GO to 370 FPS, and Rainbow Six Siege to 190 FPS. Counter-Strike 2 runs at 161 FPS. Call of Duty: Warzone achieves 167 FPS, showing that even demanding shooters run well at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's 68th percentile ranking becomes apparent. Valorant still reaches 380 FPS, and CS:GO hits 218 FPS, but more demanding titles struggle. Cyberpunk 2077 runs at 35 FPS, Red Dead Redemption 2 at 32 FPS, and Ark: Survival Ascended at only 12 FPS. The Medium drops to 34 FPS, and Hitman 2 to 32 FPS.

The best-performing games at 4K are lighter titles: Valorant at 380 FPS, CS:GO at 218 FPS, and Roblox at 119 FPS. Call of Duty: Warzone reaches 141 FPS at 4K, which is playable but below the 144 FPS threshold for high-refresh 4K monitors.

The worst-performing games highlight the GPU's limitation. Ark: Survival Ascended at 12 FPS at 4K is unplayable. Red Dead Redemption 2 at 32 FPS and Cyberpunk 2077 at 35 FPS are borderline playable but not smooth. The Medium at 34 FPS and Hitman 2 at 32 FPS show similar constraints.

For 1080p gaming, this build is exceptional. Most titles exceed 100 FPS, and competitive games reach several hundred. For 1440p, the build remains strong, with most games above 60 FPS and esports titles far higher. For 4K, the build is only suitable for less demanding titles or games with quality settings reduced below ultra.