Don't Starve Together

The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination delivers a robust experience in Don't Starve Together, with the data showing this pairing ranks 939th out of 1667 tested combos for this game. The processor's 20 cores and 28 threads, built on the Raptor Lake architecture, provide substantial headroom for the game's simulation and logic threads. With a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, the CPU can scale its frequency aggressively when needed, which matters for a game that often has single-threaded bottlenecks in its world-generation and entity-update loops. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores, reducing latency in scenarios where many entities are active simultaneously. The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce its capability: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35443 and a single-core score of 5003 indicate strong performance in both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads. Its percentile ranking of 94th among all CPUs places it in the top tier, just 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X in average benchmark score, and 1.2% ahead of the Intel Xeon Phi 7290. This means the i7-14700F is unlikely to be the limiting factor at most settings, as its single-thread performance is more than sufficient to feed the RTX 4060 in a game like Don't Starve Together, which is not known for extreme CPU demands.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the optimal experience across resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 229.7 FPS, which is far beyond what any display can show and suggests the CPU is doing most of the work at this setting. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 161.2 FPS, while High drops to 132.4 FPS and Ultra falls to 107 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 68.5 FPS, but the visual improvements are typically substantial in this game, making Medium the sweet spot for players with high-refresh monitors. The step from Medium to High costs 28.8 FPS, which is a smaller relative drop, but the jump from High to Ultra costs 25.4 FPS, bringing the frame rate to just 107 FPS — still playable but closer to the 60 FPS threshold for less demanding users. At 1440p, the pattern shifts: Low delivers 161.9 FPS, Medium 109.9 FPS, High 91.6 FPS, and Ultra 73 FPS. Here, Medium provides a strong balance, maintaining over 100 FPS while offering better visuals than Low. The High preset at 1440p remains above 90 FPS, which is smooth for most players. At 4K, the options become more constrained: Low reaches 94 FPS, Medium 66.6 FPS, High 58.2 FPS, and Ultra just 44.1 FPS. For a game like Don't Starve Together, where the art style is stylized and not heavily dependent on high-resolution textures, the Medium preset at 4K offers the best compromise, keeping the frame rate above 60 FPS while preserving reasonable visual fidelity. The data indicates that Medium is the recommended starting point across all resolutions, with High being a viable upgrade at 1080p and 1440p for those prioritizing image quality over raw frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the progression is 229.7 FPS at 1080p, 161.9 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K. This represents a 29.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 42% drop from 1440p to 4K. Such steep declines at Low settings indicate the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as resolution increases, even with minimal graphical effects. At Medium settings, the numbers are 161.2 FPS, 109.9 FPS, and 66.6 FPS respectively — a 31.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 39.4% drop from 1440p to 4K. The High settings show 132.4 FPS, 91.6 FPS, and 58.2 FPS, with a 30.8% and 36.5% drop respectively. The Ultra preset demonstrates the most dramatic scaling: 107 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p, and 44.1 FPS at 4K, representing a 31.8% drop and then a 39.6% drop. The consistent pattern of roughly 30% drops from 1080p to 1440p and 40% drops from 1440p to 4K across all settings suggests that the RTX 4060's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are the primary constraints at higher resolutions. The GPU's 128-bit memory bus limits how much data can be moved per clock cycle, and as pixel count increases, the demand on memory bandwidth grows proportionally. The fact that even Low settings lose significant performance at 4K — dropping to 94 FPS from 229.7 FPS at 1080p — confirms that the GPU, not the CPU, is the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The CPU's performance remains relatively constant regardless of resolution, as its workload is tied to game logic rather than pixel rendering.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming with this hardware?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers 109.9 FPS, which provides a smooth experience while maintaining visual quality. The High preset at 91.6 FPS is also viable, but Medium offers better headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: Can this system handle 4K at playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K, the Low preset achieves 94 FPS, Medium reaches 66.6 FPS, and High manages 58.2 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 44.1 FPS, which may be too low for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in raw performance?

A: The i7-14700F scores 54097 in average benchmarks, placing it 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, 1.1% behind the Ryzen 9 9900X3D, and 1.2% ahead of the Intel Xeon Phi 7290. It is 1.7% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 229.7 FPS while Ultra achieves 107 FPS, a difference of 122.7 FPS. This represents a 53.4% reduction in frame rate when moving from Low to Ultra.

Q: Is the RTX 4060 GPU a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU is more of a limiting factor at 1080p, particularly at Low settings where 229.7 FPS is achieved. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 19545 and 66th percentile ranking indicate it has more headroom than the CPU at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4060's average benchmark score of 23181 places it 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 0.7% ahead of the Intel Arc B580, and 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon 760M.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 serves as the rendering engine for Don't Starve Together, and its specifications directly influence the measured frame rates. The GPU is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die. Its 3072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output pipelines provide the raw compute power needed for the game's 2D-style rendering with 3D lighting effects. The boost clock of 2460 MHz, up from a base of 1830 MHz, allows the GPU to dynamically increase its frequency when thermal and power headroom permit. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory running at 2125 MHz with a 128-bit bus width provides 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes strained at 4K. The GPU's FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s indicate solid throughput for a mid-range card. Its DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure modern API usage is available. The RTX 4060's benchmark scores show a Passmark G3D score of 19545 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302, placing it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 23181 is 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6600M and 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti, while being 0.7% ahead of the Intel Arc B580. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for the game's art style, but the 128-bit memory bus creates a bandwidth limitation that becomes apparent at 4K resolution, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops observed at that resolution. The pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s show that the GPU can handle fill-rate-intensive scenes, but the memory system is the limiting factor for high-resolution rendering.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for Don't Starve Together with the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 provides a comprehensive picture of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 229.7 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 161.2 FPS, representing a 29.8% reduction from Low. The High preset at 1080p achieves 132.4 FPS, a 17.9% drop from Medium. The Ultra preset at 1080p falls to 107 FPS, a 19.2% reduction from High. Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 161.9 FPS, which is 29.5% lower than the same preset at 1080p. The Medium preset at 1440p achieves 109.9 FPS, a 31.8% drop from its 1080p counterpart. The High preset at 1440p reaches 91.6 FPS, a 30.8% reduction from 1080p High. The Ultra preset at 1440p delivers 73 FPS, a 31.8% drop from 1080p Ultra. At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 94 FPS, which is 42% lower than 1440p Low. The Medium preset at 4K reaches 66.6 FPS, a 39.4% drop from 1440p Medium. The High preset at 4K delivers 58.2 FPS, a 36.5% reduction from 1440p High. The Ultra preset at 4K falls to 44.1 FPS, a 39.6% drop from 1440p Ultra. This data shows a consistent pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases, with the most dramatic drops occurring between 1440p and 4K across all settings. The smallest absolute frame rate at any setting is 44.1 FPS at 4K Ultra, while the largest is 229.7 FPS at 1080p Low. The data confirms that the RTX 4060 provides playable performance at 4K for Low and Medium presets, while 1080p and 1440p offer smooth frame rates across all settings. The combination of the i7-14700F's strong single-thread performance and the RTX 4060's balanced specs results in a setup where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU remains capable of keeping up at lower resolutions where pixel throughput is less demanding.