Every figure below is a measurement aggregated from published review charts — the CPU's frame-rate ceiling and the frame rate the GPU delivers in this game, combined. The CPU figure is the highest frame rate that CPU sustained in this game with a flagship GPU installed — past that frame rate, the CPU is the limit. Settings: Max settings, no ray tracing, no upscaling. CPU ceiling measured at 1080p, highest settings (TechPowerUp CPU suite), RTX 5090.
Balanced pairing
Expected frame rate: 190–190 fps (measured range across sources).
The CPU ceiling and the GPU's delivered rate sit within 7.1% of each other — neither part wastes much of the other. The gap is measured between the two figures above: (faster − slower) ÷ faster.
That range feeds a 165 Hz or faster monitor — this is high-refresh territory in this game.
Confidence: MEDIUM — based on 2 source measurements for these two parts.
Mild GPU limit
Expected frame rate: 156–156 fps (measured range across sources).
The GPU side is lower by about 18.2% in this game at 1440p. The math, from the two measured figures above: the pair runs at the lower one (~156 fps), and the gap to the faster side is (190 − 156) ÷ 190 ≈ 18.2% of the faster side's output. That percentage belongs to this game, this resolution and these settings only — the same two parts score differently in another game, which is why no universal bottleneck percentage exists for a pair of parts. Upgrading the faster part alone would not raise the frame rate.
That range justifies a 144 Hz monitor in this game.
Confidence: MEDIUM — based on 2 source measurements for these two parts.
Strong GPU limit
Expected frame rate: 94–94 fps (measured range across sources).
The GPU side is lower by about 50.9% in this game at 4K. The math, from the two measured figures above: the pair runs at the lower one (~94 fps), and the gap to the faster side is (190 − 94) ÷ 190 ≈ 50.9% of the faster side's output. That percentage belongs to this game, this resolution and these settings only — the same two parts score differently in another game, which is why no universal bottleneck percentage exists for a pair of parts. Upgrading the faster part alone would not raise the frame rate.
That range suits a 60 Hz monitor; a high-refresh panel would be underused in this game.
Confidence: MEDIUM — based on 2 source measurements for these two parts.
Full data: Alan Wake 2 benchmarks · how verdicts are computed.