Fivem

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 1157th out of 3707 tested combos in Fivem, placing it in the 69th percentile of all configurations. This is a solid mid-pack result for a multiplayer title that often behaves differently from single-player benchmarks, and the measured FPS data confirms the pairing delivers playable performance across most settings, though the CPU’s six cores and six threads show their limits at high frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1157 out of 3707 tested configurations puts it comfortably above the median, but it is not an elite performer. In percentile terms, roughly 69% of all tested combos rank below this pairing, which aligns with the i5-9400’s own CPU percentile of 47 (meaning it sits near the middle of all CPUs) and the RTX 3080’s GPU percentile of 68 (meaning it outperforms most GPUs). The data suggests the GPU is doing the heavy lifting for the rank, while the CPU holds the combo back from climbing higher.

When compared to other CPUs in the database, the i5-9400’s average benchmark score of 2254 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The Intel Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259, a delta of -0.2%, meaning the i5-9400 is just 0.2% behind. The Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248 (0.3% ahead), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 (0.4% ahead), and the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264 (0.4% behind). These tiny deltas indicate the i5-9400 is essentially tied with those processors in synthetic multi-threaded tests, which translates to similar real-world CPU-bound behavior in Fivem.

The RTX 3080’s average benchmark score of 23172 is likewise tightly clustered with its nearest GPU rivals. The NVIDIA P106-100 scores 23249 (-0.3%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 scores 23250 (-0.3%), the AMD Radeon RX 6600M scores 23273 (-0.4%), and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X scores 23276 (-0.4%). These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, suggesting the RTX 3080 is not an outlier in raw compute benchmarks, but its real advantage shows in gaming workloads where its 10 GB GDDR6X memory and high bandwidth matter more than synthetic scores.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. Its base clock runs at 1440 MHz with a boost clock of 1710 MHz, while the 10 GB of GDDR6X memory operates at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed across a 320-bit bus, yielding 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. That memory bandwidth is critical for Fivem at high resolutions, where texture streaming and draw calls from the multiplayer world can saturate lesser GPUs.

In Fivem, the GPU’s role varies by resolution. At 1080p, the RTX 3080 is rarely the limiting factor—the CPU’s six cores and six threads cap frame rates well below what the GPU could deliver. At 4K, however, the GPU becomes the primary constraint, as evidenced by the measured FPS dropping from 213 at 1080p Low to 91 at 4K Low. The GPU’s 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines provide the raw throughput needed for Fivem’s open-world rendering, but the game’s engine is not particularly demanding on modern hardware, so the RTX 3080 often sits idle waiting for the CPU.

The RTX 3080’s 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores are not directly leveraged by Fivem’s default rendering path, but they do contribute to the GPU’s overall compute capability, as reflected in its FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS. The GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, though Fivem’s older engine typically uses DirectX 11 by default, which is why the PassMark DirectX 11 score of 207 is more relevant than the DirectX 12 score of 100. The GPU’s TDP of 320 W and suggested PSU of 700 W indicate it is a power-hungry part, but that power translates into consistent frame delivery across the measured settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake Refresh part with 6 cores and 6 threads, a base clock of 2.90 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and 256 KB of L2 per core are modest by modern standards, and its dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth is adequate but not exceptional. The CPU’s TDP of 65 W is low, which helps with thermals, but the lack of hyper-threading means the CPU can only handle 6 threads simultaneously—a limitation that Fivem’s multiplayer servers often expose.

Fivem is a multiplayer modification that inherits the base GTA V engine, which is known to be heavily single-threaded. The i5-9400’s single-core Cinebench R23 score of 935 and Geekbench single-core score of 1389 are respectable for its generation, but they are not high enough to push frame rates beyond what the measured data shows. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 213 FPS, which suggests the CPU is nearing its ceiling; higher settings at the same resolution yield lower FPS (157 High, 196 Medium, 122 Ultra), but the variance is more likely due to GPU load than CPU limits.

Multi-threaded performance is a different story. The i5-9400’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and Geekbench multi-core score of 5141 place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, meaning half of all processors tested score higher. This mid-tier standing is reflected in Fivem’s performance at 1080p, where the CPU can feed the GPU enough frames for 122-213 FPS depending on settings, but cannot sustain the highest refresh rates that a more capable CPU might enable. The CPU’s nearest rivals—all scoring within 0.4% of its average—reinforce that this is a mainstream part, not a high-end one.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 213 FPS, Medium settings produce 196 FPS with a minimum of 166 and maximum of 225, High settings produce 157 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 122 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 91 FPS, which is substantial and indicates that GPU load scales significantly with settings even at 1080p. The Medium preset’s 196 FPS with a tight min-max range of 166-225 suggests good frame pacing, while the Ultra preset’s 122 FPS leaves headroom for the CPU to become the bottleneck.

Moving to 2560x1440, frame rates drop across the board. Low settings average 164 FPS, Medium averages 130 FPS with a min of 110 and max of 149, High averages 104 FPS, and Ultra averages 80 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 23% reduction at Low (213 to 164), a 34% reduction at Medium (196 to 130), a 34% reduction at High (157 to 104), and a 34% reduction at Ultra (122 to 80). These consistent drops indicate that the GPU is becoming more involved at 1440p, but the CPU still has enough headroom to keep frame rates above 80 FPS even at Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the combo starts to struggle. Low settings average 91 FPS, Medium averages 72 FPS with a min of 61 and max of 83, High averages 58 FPS, and Ultra averages 45 FPS. The 45 FPS at 4K Ultra is below the 60 FPS threshold most players consider smooth, while 4K High at 58 FPS is borderline. Only 4K Low and Medium deliver consistently playable results, with Medium’s 72 FPS being the best balance of visual quality and performance at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component at each resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 213 FPS, and at 1440p Low it hits 164 FPS—a 23% reduction. At 4K Low, it hits 91 FPS, which is a 57% reduction from 1440p and a 73% reduction from 1080p. This steep drop at 4K indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at that resolution, as the RTX 3080’s 760.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are stretched by the 8.3 million pixels of 4K.

At higher settings, the scaling pattern changes. For Medium settings, FPS drops from 196 at 1080p to 130 at 1440p (34% reduction) and then to 72 at 4K (45% reduction from 1440p). For High settings, FPS drops from 157 at 1080p to 104 at 1440p (34% reduction) and then to 58 at 4K (44% reduction). For Ultra settings, FPS drops from 122 at 1080p to 80 at 1440p (34% reduction) and then to 45 at 4K (44% reduction). The consistent 34% drop from 1080p to 1440p across Medium, High, and Ultra suggests the GPU is handling the resolution increase linearly, while the 44-45% drop from 1440p to 4K indicates the GPU is hitting memory bandwidth or compute limits.

The CPU’s role in this scaling is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the 213 FPS figure is likely CPU-limited. If the GPU were the sole constraint, the difference between Low and Medium at 1080p would be smaller than the observed 17 FPS gap (213 to 196). Instead, the CPU caps the frame rate at 213 FPS, and as settings increase, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck, which is why the 1080p to 1440p drop is consistent at 34% for Medium, High, and Ultra. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 91 FPS at Low—a figure that would be much higher if the CPU were still the constraint.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance: 196 FPS average with a minimum of 166 FPS, which is well above 144 Hz refresh rates and provides smooth gameplay. The Low preset’s 213 FPS is higher, but the visual quality trade-off is not worth the 17 FPS gain, especially since the minimum FPS for Medium is 166, which is still very high. Ultra at 1080p drops to 122 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh monitors, and the 74 FPS gap between Medium and Ultra suggests diminishing returns.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again stands out with 130 FPS average and a minimum of 110 FPS, which is suitable for 120 Hz displays. High settings at 104 FPS are also viable for 100 Hz monitors, but Ultra drops to 80 FPS, which is still playable but below the 100 FPS threshold many players prefer. Low settings at 164 FPS offer the highest frame rates but sacrifice too much visual quality for a 34 FPS gain over Medium. The data suggests Medium is the sweet spot at 1440p, delivering 130 FPS while maintaining a minimum of 110 FPS.

At 4K, the choice is more constrained. Medium settings provide 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS playability threshold and offers the best balance of quality and performance. Low settings at 91 FPS are smoother but visually sparse, while High at 58 FPS and Ultra at 45 FPS are below 60 FPS and likely to feel stuttery in fast-paced multiplayer. For 4K gaming, Medium is the recommended preset, as it keeps the frame rate above 60 FPS while preserving enough visual detail to enjoy the open-world environment. High at 58 FPS is borderline, and players with adaptive sync displays might tolerate it, but the data clearly favors Medium for consistent performance.