A fascinating benchmark test has emerged from China, pairing Nvidia's new China-exclusive RTX 5090D graphics card with an unlikely partner — a nine-year-old Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4 CPU that costs just $7. The results reveal some unexpected findings, particularly when using NVIDIA's latest frame generation technologies.
The testing, which included modern titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Counter-Strike 2, and Marvel Rivals, showed that while the aging Xeon processor generally lagged behind modern CPUs, it managed to hold its own under specific conditions.
In Counter-Strike 2 at 4K maximum settings, the old Xeon struggled the most, delivering 168 FPS compared to modern CPUs reaching up to 322 FPS. The performance gap was even more pronounced in 1% low framerates, where the Xeon achieved only 72 FPS versus 163 FPS on top-performing chips.
However, the story changed dramatically when testing Marvel Rivals with DLSS4 and Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) enabled. The ancient Xeon reached impressive average framerates of 213 FPS, just 6% behind the latest Intel processors. Though minimum framerates still showed the CPU's age, averaging 78 FPS compared to 120-150 FPS on modern chips.
Cyberpunk 2077 with RT-Overdrive at 4K showed similar patterns. Without frame generation, the Xeon managed 29 FPS versus 34 FPS on the best modern CPUs. However, enabling DLSS4 with MFG allowed the old processor to achieve competitive average framerates, though minimum framerates remained notably lower.
While these results don't suggest that pairing a high-end GPU with a nine-year-old CPU is ideal, they demonstrate how modern frame generation technologies can help bridge performance gaps in specific scenarios. However, users should note that the base frame rates before MFG multiplication remain relatively low, which can impact overall gameplay smoothness despite higher displayed frame rates.