Game Tests 720p

On popular demand from comments over the past several CPU reviews, we are including game tests at 720p (1280x720 pixels) resolution. All games from our CPU test suite are put through 720p using a RTX 5090 graphics card and Ultra settings. This low resolution serves to highlight theoretical CPU performance, because games are extremely CPU-limited at this resolution. Of course, nobody buys a PC with an RTX 5090 to game at 720p, but the results are of academic value because a CPU that can't do 144 frames per second at 720p will never reach that mark at higher resolutions. So, these numbers could interest high-refresh-rate gaming PC builders with fast monitors. Our 720p tests hence serve as synthetic tests in that they are not real world (720p isn't a real-world PC-gaming resolution anymore) even though the game tests themselves are not synthetic (they're real games, not 3D benchmarks).

In case you wonder why the ranking is slightly different in Relative Performance vs Average FPS: both charts use the same benchmark data but combine it differently. Average FPS is a simple arithmetic mean of the raw FPS numbers, which means games that run at higher framerates naturally have more influence on the final result. Relative Performance normalizes each game to a percentage first and then uses a geometric mean, giving every game equal weight regardless of whether it runs at 50 FPS or 300 FPS. Both approaches are valid—Average FPS gives you a tangible real-world number, but with a slight bias, while Relative Performance provides a fairer comparison where no single game can skew the ranking.

Individual Benchmark Scores

Gaming with Ray Tracing