Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077’s measured frame rates for the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination reveal a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution, with the GPU acting as the primary performance ceiling in most scenarios. The dataset shows a clear scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K, where the average FPS nearly halves at each major resolution step when using identical settings, indicating that the rendering load grows faster than the RTX 4060’s compute capacity can compensate. At 1920x1080, the system delivers a playable 58.2 FPS on High settings, but pushing to 2560x1440 drops that to 41.7 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 26.1 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. This pattern suggests that the RTX 4060, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus, becomes the limiting component as pixel count rises, while the i3-12100F’s four cores and eight threads appear sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions but may not be the primary constraint here.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, pointing directly at the GPU as the bottleneck. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 105.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 81.0 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 24.9 FPS, and then to 53.5 FPS at 3840x2160, which is a 49.5% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling is not linear; the transition from 1440p to 4K causes a larger absolute loss than the step from 1080p to 1440p, which is typical for a GPU that struggles with the increased pixel fill rate demands. At High settings, the pattern repeats: 58.2 FPS at 1080p, 41.7 FPS at 1440p, and 26.1 FPS at 4K, with the 4K result being 55.2% lower than the 1080p baseline. The Ultra preset shows even tighter compression, moving from 54.3 FPS at 1080p to 42.1 FPS at 1440p and 28.9 FPS at 4K, indicating that the GPU’s 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply overwhelmed by the combination of high resolution and complex shading.

The data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low produces 105.9 FPS while Ultra yields 54.3 FPS, a 51.6 FPS spread. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 38.9 FPS (81.0 vs 42.1), and at 4K it further tightens to 24.6 FPS (53.5 vs 28.9). This convergence indicates that at higher resolutions, the pixel throughput becomes the dominant factor, and the setting-dependent shader complexity has less relative impact on the final frame rate. The limiting component is clearly the RTX 4060’s memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s, which is insufficient to sustain high fill rates at 4K, especially with the game’s dense geometry and lighting effects.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the central performer in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the observed FPS behavior. With a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz, the GPU has a theoretical peak FP32 throughput of 15.11 TFLOPS, which is respectable for a 115 W part but not enough to handle Cyberpunk 2077’s demanding engine at 4K with high settings. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus yields a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s, which is a clear constraint; the game’s large textures and open-world streaming require more bandwidth than this bus can deliver at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs are arranged to favor compute-heavy workloads, but the pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s is a limiting factor when the render target expands from 1920x1080 (2.07 million pixels) to 3840x2160 (8.29 million pixels), a fourfold increase in fill demand.

The RTX 4060’s benchmark scores place it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23181. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, scores 23321, a delta of -0.6%, meaning the RTX 4060 is slightly slower in synthetic tests but still competitive. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302 and PassMark G3D score of 19545 reflect its mid-range positioning, but the real-world game data shows that it excels at 1080p and 1440p with medium to high settings, while 4K is only viable at Low settings (53.5 FPS). The GPU’s ray tracing cores (24 RT cores) and tensor cores (96) are present, but the measured FPS does not include RT-specific results, so their impact is not quantified here. The launch MSRP is 299 USD, and the card is dual-slot with a 1x 12-pin power connector and a suggested PSU of 300 W, which indicates it is designed for mainstream builds rather than high-end 4K gaming.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F provides the processing backbone, and its specifications suggest it is not the primary bottleneck in this game. With 4 cores and 8 threads, a base clock of 3.30 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, the CPU has a strong single-thread performance profile, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681 and Geekbench single-core score of 2224. Its multi-threaded results, such as Cinebench R23 multi-core at 11912 and PassMark multithread at 14015, are adequate for feeding a mid-range GPU at 1080p, where the game’s CPU overhead is lower due to the reduced pixel workload. The CPU’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support for DDR4 and DDR5 provide sufficient bandwidth to keep the RTX 4060 fed at lower resolutions, but at 4K, the GPU’s limits dominate, and the CPU’s 4-core design does not appear to be the limiting factor.

The i3-12100F’s benchmark percentile of 72% of all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 13516 place it near the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534, delta -0.1%) and Intel Core i7-1250U (13462, delta 0.4%), which are vastly different products in core count but similar in average score. This indicates that the i3’s high clock speeds and efficient Alder Lake architecture compensate for its low core count in many workloads. However, Cyberpunk 2077 is known for scaling with more cores, and the 8-thread limit might cause occasional dips in CPU-bound scenarios, but the measured FPS data does not show such dips (min FPS is null), so the evidence suggests the GPU is the sole constraint across all resolutions and settings. The CPU’s TDP of 58 W and process node of 10 nm with a die size of 163 mm² are modest, reinforcing that it is a budget-oriented part that punches above its weight in single-threaded tasks.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 1080p for this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 58.2 FPS, which is smooth, while Ultra drops to 54.3 FPS. Low settings reach 105.9 FPS, indicating headroom for higher refresh rates.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Cyberpunk 2077?

A: At 3840x2160, only Low settings provide a playable average of 53.5 FPS. Medium yields 40.5 FPS, High 26.1 FPS, and Ultra 28.9 FPS, all of which fall below smooth gameplay thresholds.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 23181, which is 0.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6600M’s 23321, and 0.7% higher than the Intel Arc B580’s 23021.

Q: Is the i3-12100F a bottleneck for the RTX 4060?

A: The data shows that frame rates drop consistently with resolution and settings, which is characteristic of a GPU bottleneck. The CPU’s single-thread score of 1681 in Cinebench R23 suggests it can keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 81.0 FPS, while Ultra produces 42.1 FPS, a difference of 38.9 FPS, indicating that Ultra is still playable but with a significant performance cost.

Q: Does the GPU’s memory bandwidth limit its performance?

A: The RTX 4060 has 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth from its 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. The steep FPS drops at 4K suggest this bandwidth is insufficient for high-resolution textures, as seen in the 53.5 FPS at Low versus 28.9 FPS at Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The table below lists the exact average FPS values from the FACT PACK for Cyberpunk 2077, organized by resolution and settings.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 26.1 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 53.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 40.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 28.9 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 41.7 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 81.0 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 59.0 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 42.1 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 58.2 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 105.9 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 74.9 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 54.3 |

The data reveals a consistent ordering: Low settings always yield the highest FPS, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the most demanding. At 1080p, the spread from Low to Ultra is 51.6 FPS, but at 4K this spread narrows to 24.6 FPS, confirming that the GPU’s pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint at high resolutions. The 2560x1440 Medium result of 59.0 FPS is a sweet spot for balanced visuals and performance, while 1920x1080 High at 58.2 FPS offers a similar experience with less resolution. This combo ranks 913th out of 1710 combinations in the game’s benchmark database, placing it in the lower-middle tier, which aligns with its 1080p-and-1440p focus rather than 4K capability. The measured data is definitive: the RTX 4060 and i3-12100F are a capable duo for 1080p high-refresh gaming, but 4K requires significant setting reductions to remain playable.