NukeMark Unreal Engine 5.7 GPU Stress Test Brings RTX 5090 to 15 FPS

NukeMark, a GPU stress test developed using Unreal Engine 5.7, has reduced the performance of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 to 15 frames per second (FPS), according to reporting from Games Press on July 30, 2026. The benchmark is designed to push hardware to its absolute limits to identify stability and thermal ceilings in high-end graphics processing units.

The test utilizes the latest capabilities of Unreal Engine 5.7 to create extreme rendering loads. By forcing the RTX 5090—NVIDIA’s flagship consumer GPU—down to 15 FPS, NukeMark demonstrates the current upper boundary of real-time rendering complexity and the impact of extreme stress on hardware throughput.

NukeMark Performance Impact on RTX 5090

The RTX 5090 typically handles modern gaming and professional workloads with high frame rates, but NukeMark intentionally bypasses standard optimization to stress the silicon. According to Games Press, the benchmark achieves a 15 FPS result by maximizing the load on the GPU’s cores and memory bandwidth.

This level of performance degradation is the intended outcome of a stress test. Unlike standard benchmarks that measure average gaming performance, NukeMark seeks the “breaking point” where the hardware can no longer maintain fluid motion, providing data on how the GPU handles extreme bottlenecks.

Unreal Engine 5.7 Technical Implementation

The use of Unreal Engine 5.7 allows NukeMark to leverage advanced lighting, geometry, and shading features that were unavailable in previous versions of the engine. These features increase the computational demand per frame, contributing to the significant drop in FPS observed on the RTX 5090.

By utilizing the 5.7 build, the test can simulate environments with higher polygon counts and more complex ray-tracing calculations than typical commercial software. This creates a synthetic environment where the hardware’s raw power is the only limiting factor, rather than software optimization.

Hardware Implications for High-End GPUs

The result highlights the gap between optimized gaming experiences and unoptimized, high-stress rendering. For developers and hardware enthusiasts, the 15 FPS mark on an RTX 5090 serves as a baseline for the most demanding possible scenarios in the current generation of hardware.

Industry analysts use these types of stress tests to evaluate thermal throttling and power delivery. When a GPU is pushed to this extent, it typically operates at maximum TDP (Thermal Design Power), allowing testers to see if the card maintains stability or if the clock speeds drop to prevent overheating.