Don't Starve Together

# Don't Starve Together with Intel Core i5-12400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a surprisingly wide spread of performance across Don't Starve Together's settings and resolutions, with the data revealing a system that is far more GPU-bound at 4K than at 1080p. The measured frame rates show a combo that can push well past 200 FPS at lower presets, yet the Ultra setting at 4K drops to just above 60 FPS, suggesting the game's heavier visual features place a significant load on the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and AD104 chip. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all twelve tested configurations, examines what the resolution scaling implies about the bottleneck, and contextualizes the combo's rank against the 1,667 other combinations tested.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the frame rate drops disproportionately, indicating that the RTX 4070 becomes the limiting component at higher resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 284.5 FPS, but moving to 1440p at the same settings drops to 221.8 FPS — a 22% reduction. At 4K Low, the frame rate falls to 129.7 FPS, which represents a 54% drop from 1080p Low. This scaling is steeper than what would be expected if the CPU were the primary constraint, since the i5-12400F's 6 cores and 12 threads can handle the game's logic at these frame rates without becoming a bottleneck.

The Ultra preset tells a similar but more dramatic story. At 1080p Ultra, the combo scores 147.2 FPS, which drops to 103.4 FPS at 1440p (a 30% reduction) and then to 61.3 FPS at 4K (a 58% reduction from 1080p). The fact that the 4K Ultra frame rate is nearly identical to the 4K High frame rate (61.3 vs 72.7 FPS) suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling at this resolution, likely due to memory bandwidth or shading unit limits rather than settings complexity. The RTX 4070's 504.2 GB/s bandwidth and 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 performance are being fully utilized at 4K, whereas at 1080p the CPU's 2.50 GHz base clock and 4.40 GHz boost clock appear sufficient to keep feeding the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

Analyzing the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 218.3 FPS, which is 23 FPS higher than High but still 66 FPS lower than Low — a reasonable trade-off for improved visuals. At 1440p Medium, the frame rate sits at 153.8 FPS, comfortably above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many monitors target, while 4K Medium still manages 91.9 FPS, which is playable for the game's art style.

The High preset is also viable, particularly at 1080p where it hits 180.7 FPS, but at 4K High the 72.7 FPS average is noticeably lower than Medium's 91.9 FPS. The Ultra preset, while visually impressive, pushes the system too hard at higher resolutions — the 61.3 FPS at 4K Ultra is only marginally above the 60 FPS threshold, and the 103.4 FPS at 1440p Ultra leaves less headroom than Medium. For players with high-refresh displays, the data suggests that Medium or High at 1440p provides the most consistent experience, while 4K users should stick to Medium or below to maintain frame rates above 90 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 413 out of 1,667 tested combinations, placing it in the top 25% of all systems evaluated for Don't Starve Together. This rank reflects the RTX 4070's strong performance — the GPU sits in the 81st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,283. The CPU also contributes positively, as the i5-12400F ranks in the 77th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 19,221. The combination's ranking suggests that while the system is not top-tier, it outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations, which aligns with the measured frame rates showing 100+ FPS at nearly every settings/resolution combination except 4K Ultra.

The nearest rival data for the CPU shows the i5-12400F is closely matched with the Intel Core i7-8700K (0.1% difference in average score) and the Intel Core i5-1335U (0.3% difference), while the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS trails by 0.7%. On the GPU side, the RTX 4070 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (-0.6% delta), but the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A is 1.9% faster and the RTX 4080 Mobile is 2.2% faster in average benchmark scores. These narrow margins indicate that the combo's rank is more dependent on the game's specific optimization than on raw hardware potential, as the measured FPS numbers are consistently high across the board.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 284.5 FPS, Medium drops to 218.3 FPS, High achieves 180.7 FPS, and Ultra settles at 147.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 137.3 FPS, indicating that the GPU has ample headroom at this resolution, and the CPU's 12 threads are not a limiting factor.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show greater sensitivity to settings. Low hits 221.8 FPS, Medium reaches 153.8 FPS, High scores 129.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 103.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 118.4 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is starting to feel the resolution increase. At 3840x2160, the performance curve flattens: Low achieves 129.7 FPS, Medium hits 91.9 FPS, High manages 72.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 61.3 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is only 68.4 FPS, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The AD104 chip, built on TSMC's 5 nm process, contains 35,800 million transistors across a 294 mm² die, with 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The GPU's base clock is 1920 MHz, boosting to 2475 MHz, and its 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is substantial for a game like Don't Starve Together, which is not known for heavy graphical demands.

The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 4070's memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The 504.2 GB/s figure is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 3840x2160 the pixel throughput demands more than the 192-bit bus can efficiently deliver, especially at Ultra settings where the 61.3 FPS result suggests the GPU is operating near its memory bandwidth ceiling. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is not an issue here, as the game's textures are unlikely to exceed that amount, but the bandwidth constraint is evident in the resolution scaling. The GPU's 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,283, places it well above the median, yet the nearest rival data shows only a 2.5% difference from the AMD Radeon RX 5300M, indicating that within this performance tier, the game's optimization plays a larger role than raw GPU power.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achieved by this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS at 1920x1080 is 284.5 FPS, achieved with Low settings. Medium settings produce 218.3 FPS, High reaches 180.7 FPS, and Ultra delivers 147.2 FPS.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60+ FPS at 4K with all settings?

A: Yes, the lowest recorded average FPS is 61.3 at 4K Ultra, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. All other 4K settings — Low at 129.7 FPS, Medium at 91.9 FPS, and High at 72.7 FPS — exceed 60 FPS.

Q: How does the i5-12400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i5-12400F scores 19,221 on average, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-8700K (19,210), 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-1335U (19,167), and 0.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (19,364).

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 413 out of 1,667 total combos tested in Don't Starve Together, placing it in the 75th percentile or higher.

Q: How much does the GPU's clock speed affect the 4K Ultra result?

A: The RTX 4070's boost clock of 2475 MHz, combined with its base clock of 1920 MHz, contributes to the 61.3 FPS at 4K Ultra. The GPU's 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 performance is the primary driver, but the 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth appears to be the limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: Which settings preset shows the smallest performance drop when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: Low settings show the smallest relative drop: from 284.5 FPS at 1080p to 129.7 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 54.4%. Ultra settings drop from 147.2 FPS to 61.3 FPS, a reduction of 58.4%, making Low the most resolution-resilient preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. Its 3DMark scores show strong scaling from 2 threads (1,699) to 8 threads (4,779) and max threads (5,912), with a single-thread score of 909.

In Don't Starve Together, the CPU's role is evident in the 1080p results, where frame rates exceed 200 FPS at Low and Medium settings. The 12 threads handle the game's simulation and logic efficiently, as evidenced by the 284.5 FPS at 1080p Low, which is only slightly below the 3DMark max-thread score's proportional performance. The CPU's 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19,221, indicates it is well above average, though its nearest rivals — the i7-8700K and i5-1335U — are within 0.3% of its performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16,518 and single-core score of 2,332 further confirm that the i5-12400F provides sufficient single-thread performance for the game's primary game logic, while the 18 MB L3 cache helps maintain consistent frame times even at high FPS. At 4K, however, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the frame rate drops are clearly driven by the GPU's resolution scaling.