Minecraft

# Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 in Minecraft reveals a system that scales impressively across resolutions, though the pattern of scaling tells a nuanced story about where the bottlenecks lie.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the combo delivers an average of 96 FPS on High settings, 121 FPS on Medium with a minimum of 102 FPS and maximum of 139 FPS, 152 FPS on Low, and exactly 60 FPS on Ultra. The Ultra preset at 4K sits precisely at the playability threshold — a fragile position that leaves no headroom for demanding scenes or background processes. The Medium preset at 4K, by contrast, offers a comfortable buffer with its 102 FPS minimum still well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440 (1440p), the performance leaps significantly. High settings produce an average of 183 FPS, Medium reaches 231 FPS with a minimum of 196 FPS and maximum of 265 FPS, Low hits 291 FPS, and Ultra maintains a strong 114 FPS. The jump from 4K to 1440p is substantial — at High settings, the average frame rate nearly doubles from 96 to 183 FPS. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor, while at 1440p, the system has more room to stretch its legs.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the numbers become almost absurdly high. High settings average 290 FPS, Medium averages 365 FPS with a minimum of 311 FPS and maximum of 420 FPS, Low reaches 461 FPS, and Ultra still manages 181 FPS. The 1080p results indicate that this combination is far beyond what Minecraft needs at this resolution — even Ultra settings provide nearly three times the playable threshold.

Notably, the measured data only includes min/max values for Medium settings at each resolution. This omission suggests that the testing methodology captured full frame time data only for that preset, or perhaps that the other presets exhibited frame pacing consistent enough that min/max tracking wasn't considered necessary. The Medium preset data reveals frame consistency: at 4K, the 102-139 FPS range around a 121 average shows a spread of roughly 30%, while at 1440p the 196-265 range around 231 shows a similar proportional spread, and at 1080p the 311-420 range around 365 maintains that pattern.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Minecraft at 60 FPS in 4K?

A: Yes. The measured data shows all four presets — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — at 3840x2160 clear the 60 FPS playability threshold. Ultra sits at exactly 60 FPS average, while High averages 96 FPS, Medium averages 121 FPS, and Low averages 152 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: Ultra settings at 2560x1440 deliver an average of 114 FPS, which is the highest preset available and remains well above the 60 FPS threshold. All four presets at this resolution are playable, with even the most demanding option providing nearly double the required frame rate.

Q: How much performance drops when going from 1080p to 1440p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 290 at 1080p to 183 at 1440p (a 37% reduction), then to 96 at 4K (a 48% reduction from 1440p). At Ultra settings, the drop goes from 181 at 1080p to 114 at 1440p (37% reduction), then to 60 at 4K (47% reduction from 1440p). The consistent proportional drops suggest resolution scaling follows a predictable pattern.

Q: Is the RTX 4060 the bottleneck at any resolution?

A: The data suggests yes at 4K. The gap between 4K and 1440p performance is much larger than the gap between 1440p and 1080p at every preset. For example, at High settings, 4K delivers 96 FPS versus 183 FPS at 1440p — a 90% increase from resolution reduction — while 1440p versus 1080p shows a 58% increase. This disproportionately large jump when dropping from 4K indicates the GPU reaches its rendering ceiling at 4K Ultra.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 365 FPS, with a minimum of 311 FPS and maximum of 420 FPS. This is the only preset at any resolution where min/max data was recorded, and it demonstrates excellent frame consistency with no dips anywhere near the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the Ultra preset at 4K leave any headroom?

A: No. The average FPS at 4K Ultra is exactly 60, matching the playable threshold precisely. There is zero margin for error — any demanding scene, chunk generation spike, or background application could push frame rates below playable levels.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus provide context for its CPU performance. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K scores an average of 83807, just 0.2% behind the 290K Plus's 84003 average. The AMD EPYC 4584PX trails by 1.1% with an 83090 average, while the AMD EPYC 9135 is 1.2% behind at 82980. Interestingly, the AMD EPYC 7F72 actually outperforms the 290K Plus by 1.3% with an 85072 average. These deltas are all within a tight 2.5% band, meaning any of these CPUs would deliver nearly identical Minecraft performance when paired with the same GPU — the game's frame rates at lower resolutions might shift by only a few FPS at most.

For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, the nearest rivals are remarkably close in average benchmark scores. The AMD Radeon HD 7790 scores 17666, just 0.2% ahead of the RTX 4060's 17639 average. The AMD Radeon 780M is 0.3% behind at 17588, the AMD Radeon Pro 560 trails by 0.5% at 17551, and the AMD Radeon Pro 460 is 0.7% behind at 17509. These sub-1% deltas suggest that swapping the RTX 4060 for any of these alternatives would produce nearly indistinguishable frame rates in Minecraft. However, notably, the RTX 4060's percentile ranking of 61 against all GPUs places it in the upper-middle tier, while these rivals cluster at nearly identical average scores — indicating that Minecraft's rendering workload may not heavily differentiate between these cards.

The combination of a top-4-percentile CPU (96th percentile vs all CPUs) with a mid-tier GPU (61st percentile vs all GPUs) creates an interesting dynamic. The CPU is vastly overqualified for Minecraft, while the GPU determines the ceiling at higher resolutions. A system with a weaker CPU but similar GPU would likely show identical 4K performance, while a system with this CPU and a stronger GPU would show improved 4K numbers.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination ranks 1989th out of 3710 tested combos for Minecraft, placing it in the 46th percentile of all tested system configurations. That ranking might seem surprisingly low given the impressive absolute frame rates, but it reflects the broader landscape of tested hardware — many combinations with higher-end GPUs (like RTX 4070-class or above) would push past these numbers, particularly at 4K where the RTX 4060's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth become limiting factors.

The rank of 1989 means this combo sits almost exactly in the middle of the distribution — there are 1988 combos that perform better and 1721 that perform worse. For a game as old as Minecraft (released 2011-11-17), this middle-tier ranking makes sense: the game is not particularly demanding by modern standards, so even mid-range GPUs can achieve high frame rates, while top-tier GPUs achieve astronomically high numbers that push the average up. The RTX 4060's modest specifications — 3072 shading units, 48 ROPs, 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 — place it firmly in the middle of the GPU hierarchy, and the ranking reflects that positioning.

The data indicates that at 1080p, this combo's performance is dominated by the CPU's capabilities. With a single-core Cinebench R23 score of 7303 and a passmark single-thread score of 4823, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus provides exceptional per-core performance that Minecraft's single-threaded renderer can leverage. At 4K, however, the combo's ranking would likely be lower if measured separately, as the GPU's 15.11 TFLOPS becomes the constraint.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Minecraft? The answer is a definitive yes, with qualifications at the highest resolution and preset combination. The verdict by resolution is unambiguous:

At 3840x2160, all four presets are playable, with Ultra achieving exactly 60 FPS average. This meets the playability threshold precisely, but the lack of headroom makes it a marginal choice. High at 96 FPS, Medium at 121 FPS, and Low at 152 FPS all provide comfortable margins.

At 2560x1440, every preset clears 60 FPS with room to spare. Ultra delivers 114 FPS, High 183 FPS, Medium 231 FPS, and Low 291 FPS. This resolution represents the sweet spot for this combo — the GPU has enough bandwidth to render detailed scenes while the CPU keeps up with game logic and chunk updates.

At 1920x1080, the system is essentially overkill. Ultra runs at 181 FPS, and Low reaches 461 FPS. Any preset at this resolution will provide a buttery-smooth experience, and the only question is whether the player prefers maximum visual fidelity or maximum frame rates for competitive play.

The critical takeaway: this combo can run Minecraft at 60+ FPS at every resolution and preset combination tested. The only caveat is the 4K Ultra setting, which sits exactly at the threshold and could dip below 60 FPS during demanding moments like exploring new chunks or rendering complex redstone contraptions.

Best Settings per Resolution

For players who want the highest visual quality while maintaining at least 60 FPS, the data points to these optimal configurations:

3840x2160: Ultra settings at exactly 60 FPS average is the most demanding playable preset. However, given that this sits precisely at the threshold, High settings at 96 FPS is the more practical recommendation for consistent performance. The 36 FPS difference between Ultra and High provides substantial headroom for frame time spikes.

2560x1440: Ultra settings at 114 FPS is the clear winner. This provides maximum visual fidelity with nearly double the playable threshold. The 54 FPS buffer above 60 FPS means even the most demanding scenes will stay smooth, and the 196 FPS minimum at Medium (the only preset with recorded min/max) suggests the GPU handles frame pacing well at this resolution.

1920x1080: Ultra settings at 181 FPS is the optimal choice. At this resolution, the GPU is nowhere near its limits, and even the most demanding preset leaves massive headroom. Players with 144Hz or even 165Hz monitors can take full advantage of the refresh rate without compromising visual quality.

The pattern across resolutions is clear: this combo can always run the highest preset while staying at or above 60 FPS. The only judgement call is at 4K, where players must decide between the razor-thin margin of Ultra or the safer High preset.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 shifts dramatically across resolutions, and the measured FPS data reveals which component drives performance at each setting.

At 1080p, the CPU dominates. The 290K Plus's exceptional single-thread performance — evidenced by its 736 Cinebench R15 single-core score and 4823 passmark single-thread score — allows the game's primary thread to process world updates, entity AI, and block physics at extreme speed. The GPU, meanwhile, has minimal work at this resolution: even Ultra settings only render 2.07 million pixels per frame, well within the RTX 4060's capabilities. The data supports this: the gap between Low (461 FPS) and Ultra (181 FPS) at 1080p is a 2.5x difference, driven primarily by GPU workload, but even the lowest GPU-bound settings produce frame rates that exceed what most displays can show.

At 1440p, the balance shifts toward the GPU. The pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p, and the frame rates drop accordingly — but the CPU still has enough headroom to feed the GPU effectively. The Ultra preset at 1440p (114 FPS) is nearly double the 4K Ultra result (60 FPS), suggesting that at 1440p, neither component is fully saturated. The CPU's multithreaded capabilities (Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731) ensure that even with heavy entity loads, the GPU has a steady stream of draw calls to process.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p, and the RTX 4060's 272.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 compute become the limiting factors. The CPU's performance at 4K is essentially irrelevant — even a much weaker processor would produce nearly identical frame rates because the GPU cannot render frames fast enough to expose CPU limitations. The evidence: the drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra settings is 47% (from 114 to 60 FPS), while the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 37% (from 181 to 114 FPS). This accelerating drop-off as resolution increases is classic GPU-bound behavior.

The interplay between presets and resolutions further illuminates the dynamics. At 4K, the difference between Low (152 FPS) and Ultra (60 FPS) is 92 FPS — the GPU's rendering load scales dramatically with settings. At 1080p, the same Low-to-Ultra gap is 280 FPS — but this larger absolute gap is actually a smaller proportional difference (2.5x versus 2.5x at 4K — the proportions are identical, suggesting the GPU handles settings scaling consistently regardless of resolution).

The practical implication: at 1080p and 1440p, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus's power is somewhat wasted for Minecraft — a mid-range CPU would deliver nearly identical results. At 4K, the RTX 4060 holds the system back, and a stronger GPU would unlock significantly higher frame rates. This combo is best understood as a CPU-forward system where the GPU is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes the limiting factor at 4K Ultra.