Minecraft: Java Edition

FAQ

Q: What is the highest playable settings preset at 3840x2160 for this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the highest setting that remains at or above 60 FPS is High, delivering an average of 81.1 FPS. Ultra drops to 50 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, scores 2259, a delta of -0.2%. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, a delta of 0.4%, meaning the i5-9400 is effectively within a fraction of a percent of all four nearest rivals.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT sits at the 70th percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score is 24442, placing it slightly above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (24277, delta 0.7%) and slightly below the Intel Arc A350M (24647, delta -0.8%).

Q: At which resolution does the combo achieve the highest average FPS?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 390, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the same resolution, Ultra settings still deliver 155.3 FPS average, which is more than double the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the Ultra settings performance at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 97 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS playability threshold, making Ultra fully playable at this resolution.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 2000 MHz, which translates to 16 Gbps effective.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals a clear pattern: this game is heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions and becomes more balanced as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the scaling between Low and Ultra settings is dramatic: 390 FPS at Low versus 155.3 FPS at Ultra, a reduction of roughly 60% when moving to maximum visual quality. This indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 1080p, as the i5-9400 has ample headroom to feed the RX 6600 XT at these frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low settings produce 247.6 FPS, while Ultra yields 97 FPS, a drop of approximately 61%. The relative scaling is similar to 1080p, suggesting the GPU remains the dominant constraint. However, the absolute frame rates are lower across all settings, which points to increasing pixel throughput demands on the GPU. The CPU's role diminishes slightly, as the higher resolution reduces the frame rate ceiling and thus the CPU's required input rate.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is unequivocally the limiting factor. The gap between Low (126.1 FPS) and Ultra (50 FPS) is a 60% reduction, but more importantly, even High settings drop to 81.1 FPS. The CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads, with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, are sufficient to maintain frame pacing at these lower frame rates. The measured data shows that the i5-9400 does not become a bottleneck until very high frame rates, which only occur at 1080p Low settings.

Across resolutions, the consistent pattern is that settings scaling affects FPS by roughly 60% from Low to Ultra, regardless of resolution. This uniformity indicates that the game's rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count and visual quality, and the GPU is the component that absorbs these changes. The CPU's role is to maintain a high enough frame rate ceiling, which it does admirably given that even at 1440p Ultra, the combo sustains 97 FPS.

The interesting nuance appears at 4K Ultra, where the combo drops to 50 FPS. This is the only configuration where the system fails the 60 FPS threshold, and it is solely due to GPU throughput limitations. The RX 6600 XT's 8 GB memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's asset streaming, but the 10.60 TFLOPS FP32 compute is not enough to sustain Ultra quality at 4K.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 155.3 FPS. This is more than double the playability threshold, indicating substantial headroom for future driver updates or more demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, Ultra is again the best playable setting, delivering 97 FPS average. This remains comfortably above 60 FPS, though the margin is narrower than at 1080p. The drop from 155.3 to 97 FPS represents a 37.5% reduction when moving from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra quality.

At 3840x2160, the most demanding playable preset is High, with an average of 81.1 FPS. Ultra falls to 50 FPS, which is below the threshold. The jump from High to Ultra at 4K costs 31.1 FPS, a 38.3% reduction, making Ultra infeasible for consistent 60 FPS gameplay.

The verdict data confirms these findings: the database lists High as the best setting at 4K, and Ultra as the best at both 1440p and 1080p. The playable settings at 4K are Low, Medium, and High, while at 1440p and 1080p, all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable.

The Verdict

This PC can run Minecraft: Java Edition with strong performance across most configurations. At 1920x1080, all four settings presets clear 60 FPS, with Ultra achieving 155.3 FPS average. This is the most demanding resolution and settings combination that remains fully playable, and the margin is significant.

At 2560x1440, all presets also clear 60 FPS. Ultra delivers 97 FPS average, which provides a comfortable buffer for complex scenes or multiplayer environments where frame times can spike. The system maintains playability even at the highest quality setting.

At 3840x2160, the system is partially playable. Low, Medium, and High presets all exceed 60 FPS, with High being the best at 81.1 FPS. Ultra, however, drops to 50 FPS, which fails the 60 FPS threshold. For 4K gaming, users should select High settings to maintain smooth performance.

The overall picture is that this combo is well-suited for the game at 1080p and 1440p, with excellent headroom at both resolutions. At 4K, it handles everything except the absolute highest quality preset. The only configuration that is not playable is 4K Ultra, which is a reasonable limitation given the GPU's mid-range positioning.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the Intel Core i5-9400, the nearest rivals in average benchmark score are all within a fraction of a percent. The Intel Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259, which is 0.2% higher. The Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248, 0.3% lower. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, 0.4% lower. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264, 0.4% higher. Any of these CPUs would deliver nearly identical CPU-bound performance in this game, meaning the frame rate ceiling at low resolutions would be essentially unchanged.

For the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, the nearest GPU rivals show more variance. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 scores 24277, which is 0.7% lower. The Intel Arc A350M scores 24647, 0.8% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti scores 24236, 0.8% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER scores 24170, 1.1% lower. The RTX 2080 SUPER is an interesting comparison: despite being a higher-tier card historically, its average benchmark score is slightly below the RX 6600 XT. In practice, any of these GPUs would produce very similar frame rates in Minecraft, with differences well under 2%.

The practical implication is that swapping the CPU for any of its four nearest rivals would yield imperceptible performance changes, as would swapping the GPU for any of its four nearest rivals. The bottleneck profile would remain GPU-bound, and the playable settings at each resolution would be identical.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all tested CPU and GPU combinations in the database, this pairing ranks 1193 out of 1727 total combos. This places it in the 31st percentile of all tested combinations, meaning roughly 69% of tested combos perform better, while 31% perform worse.

Given that the CPU sits at the 47th percentile among all CPUs and the GPU at the 70th percentile among all GPUs, the combo rank of 1193 is slightly lower than the individual component percentiles might suggest. This is likely because Minecraft's performance characteristics favor high single-thread CPU performance, where the i5-9400's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935 is moderate, and the game does not fully utilize the GPU's compute capabilities in the same way synthetic benchmarks do.

The ranking indicates that while this is not a top-tier combination, it is far from the bottom. The GPU's strong 70th percentile ranking helps offset the CPU's 47th percentile, and the measured FPS data confirms that the combo performs well above the 60 FPS threshold in all but one configuration (4K Ultra).

Measured FPS Breakdown

3840x2160 (4K UHD):

• Low: 126.1 FPS average
• Medium: 103.7 FPS average
• High: 81.1 FPS average
• Ultra: 50 FPS average

At 4K, the performance scales predictably with quality. The gap between Low and Medium is 22.4 FPS, between Medium and High is 22.6 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 31.1 FPS. The largest drop occurs when moving to Ultra, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

2560x1440 (QHD):

• Low: 247.6 FPS average
• Medium: 196.7 FPS average
• High: 152.4 FPS average
• Ultra: 97 FPS average

At 1440p, all presets remain well above 60 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is consistent, with each step reducing FPS by roughly 20-25%. Ultra's 97 FPS provides a 61.7% margin above the playability threshold.

1920x1080 (Full HD):

• Low: 390 FPS average
• Medium: 309.3 FPS average
• High: 243.5 FPS average
• Ultra: 155.3 FPS average

At 1080p, the combo delivers exceptional performance. Even at Ultra, the frame rate is 155.3 FPS, which is 2.6 times the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset hits 390 FPS, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU at very high rates when visual quality is minimal.

The data shows no min or max FPS values recorded, so the analysis relies on average FPS. This is acceptable for a game like Minecraft, where average frame rates are consistently high and frame pacing issues are rare at these performance levels. The only configuration that fails the 60 FPS threshold is 4K Ultra at 50 FPS, which is a clear indication that users targeting 4K should use High settings for a smooth experience.