Don't Starve Together

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Don't Starve Together, with the data showing the combination is firmly in the top tier of tested systems. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing is heavily CPU-limited at lower resolutions, while the GPU's immense resources become more relevant at 4K Ultra settings. The following analysis breaks down the measured performance, scaling behavior, and how this specific configuration ranks against the broader field of 1,667 tested combos.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings is 300.4, which is the highest recorded average in the entire dataset for this game.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS drops to 91.8, whereas at 1920x1080 Ultra, the average is 214. This represents a significant performance reduction of roughly 57% when moving from 1080p to 4K at the highest settings.

Q: Is the Core i5-13400F's performance competitive with its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 25,236, which places it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13620H (25,201) and 0.5% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9474F (25,103). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D by 0.5%, which scores 25,365.

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

A: The RTX 5090 holds a percentile rank of 94, indicating it performs better than 94% of all GPUs in the benchmark database.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium setting produces an average of 223.9 FPS, while High produces 187.6 FPS. This shows a 36.3 FPS gap between the two settings.

Q: How does the combo rank overall in this game?

A: The combo ranks 50th out of 1,667 tested combinations in Don't Starve Together, placing it in the top 3% of all configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a flagship graphics card built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, featuring 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. Its base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and it contains 21,760 shading units alongside 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. The card's raw compute capability is substantial, with an FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. These specifications indicate a GPU designed for extreme workloads, and in this title, the data confirms that its capabilities are not fully stressed at lower resolutions.

In Don't Starve Together, the GPU's role becomes increasingly pronounced as settings and resolution rise. At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 300.4 suggests the game is not GPU-bound, as the card is capable of far higher output. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 91.8 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU is now the limiting factor. The RTX 5090's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, has an average score of 84,241, which is 0.1% lower than the 5090's 84,306 average. This close margin indicates that the GPU's performance is at the very top of the database hierarchy, yet the game's engine still manages to create a bottleneck at higher settings.

The memory subsystem is also a key factor. With 32 GB of VRAM, capacity is not a concern at any tested setting, and the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory-intensive operations at 4K do not cause stuttering. The measured FPS at 4K High (112.4) versus 4K Medium (131.5) shows a moderate drop, suggesting that the GPU's shading units are being tasked more heavily as quality increases. The data indicates that while the RTX 5090 is overkill for this game's lower presets, it provides a definitive performance ceiling at 4K Ultra that is only 91.8 FPS, which is still far above playable thresholds.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear transition in the primary bottleneck. At 1920x1080, the average FPS across all settings ranges from 214 (Ultra) to 300.4 (Low). This narrow spread, especially the high floor, suggests that the Intel Core i5-13400F is the primary limiter. The CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, are sufficient to drive the RTX 5090 at these lower resolutions, but the frame rates are capped by the processor's single-thread and multi-thread throughput. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21,279 and single-core score of 3,004 support this, showing solid but not exceptional performance for a desktop chip.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops noticeably. The Low setting yields 264.6 FPS, while Ultra yields 151.4 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is beginning to take on more of the workload, as the pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p. The difference between 1080p Low (300.4) and 1440p Low (264.6) is 35.8 FPS, a 12% drop. In contrast, the difference between 1080p Ultra (214) and 1440p Ultra (151.4) is 62.6 FPS, a 29% drop. This larger percentage decrease at Ultra settings shows that the GPU's rendering load is scaling more aggressively with resolution when higher-quality effects are enabled.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more pronounced. The Low setting produces 189.1 FPS, while Ultra drops to 91.8 FPS. The gap between 1440p Low (264.6) and 4K Low (189.1) is 75.5 FPS, a 29% reduction. For Ultra, the gap between 1440p (151.4) and 4K (91.8) is 59.6 FPS, a 39% reduction. This data shows that at 4K, the RTX 5090 is finally being pushed, and the frame rates are now limited by the GPU's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and its fill rate. The fact that 4K Low (189.1) is still higher than 1080p Ultra (214) highlights the massive headroom of the GPU, but also shows that the CPU bottleneck at 1080p prevents the combination from reaching its full potential in this specific game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the average FPS values are as follows: Low settings achieve 300.4, Medium achieves 260.5, High achieves 246.5, and Ultra achieves 214. The difference between Low and Ultra is 86.4 FPS, indicating that the quality settings have a substantial impact on the CPU's workload. The gap between Medium and High is 14 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 32.5 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset is significantly more demanding on the system.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: Low at 264.6, Medium at 223.9, High at 187.6, and Ultra at 151.4. The scaling here is more consistent, with a 40.7 FPS drop from Low to Medium, a 36.3 FPS drop from Medium to High, and a 36.2 FPS drop from High to Ultra. This linear degradation suggests that the GPU is now the primary bottleneck, as each settings increase imposes a similar relative cost. The 1440p High result of 187.6 FPS is still exceptionally high, making this resolution ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: Low at 189.1, Medium at 131.5, High at 112.4, and Ultra at 91.8. The drop from Low to Medium is 57.6 FPS, which is the largest single-setting gap in the dataset. This indicates that Medium settings at 4K introduce a significant increase in GPU workload, likely related to texture filtering and shading complexity. The drop from Medium to High is 19.1 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 20.6 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the 91.8 FPS average is the lowest recorded figure, but it remains well above the 60 FPS threshold, confirming that this combo can handle the game at maximum settings in 4K without dipping below playable levels.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 50th out of 1,667 tested combinations in Don't Starve Together. This places the combo in the 97th percentile of all tested systems, indicating that it outperforms the vast majority of configurations. The ranking is likely influenced by the GPU's dominant position in the database, as the RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 84,306 is far above the mean, and its percentile of 94 confirms its elite status.

The CPU's contribution to this rank is more moderate. With a percentile of 82 against all CPUs, the i5-13400F is a solid performer but not a top-tier part. Its average benchmark score of 25,236 is closely matched by its nearest rivals, with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D being only 0.5% faster, and the Intel Core i7-13620H being 0.1% slower. This tight grouping suggests that the CPU is not the differentiator in this ranking. Instead, the GPU's raw power is what propels the combo to the 50th spot.

However, the data also shows that the combo's ranking might be limited by the CPU in certain scenarios. At 1080p, where the CPU is the bottleneck, the combo achieves frame rates that are high but not as high as they could be with a stronger processor. The 300.4 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low is impressive, but it is likely that a more powerful CPU would push this higher. At 4K Ultra, the combo's 91.8 FPS is a result of the GPU's limit, and the CPU's role is diminished. This suggests that the combo's rank of 50 is a product of the GPU's strength, while the CPU prevents it from ranking even higher in CPU-bound scenarios. The overall data indicates a balanced pairing, but one where the GPU is clearly the star performer.