Fivem

# FiveM Performance Analysis: Intel Core i7-14700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a fascinating performance profile in FiveM, a multiplayer modification platform that stresses both CPU and GPU in unusual ways. Measured data reveals a system capable of extreme frame rates at lower resolutions—368.5 FPS at 1080p Low—but one that scales down dramatically as resolution increases, dropping to 65.2 FPS at 4K Ultra. This combination, ranked 20th out of 1,792 tested combos, demonstrates that even flagship hardware encounters bottlenecks in FiveM's unique engine, where multiplayer server logic, draw calls, and asset streaming interact unpredictably with raw rendering power. The RTX 4090, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, is clearly not the limiting factor at lower resolutions; instead, the data points to a CPU-bound scenario at 1080p that gradually transitions to GPU-bound territory at 4K, though the transition is far from linear. The Core i7-14700F, a 20-core Raptor Lake Refresh part with a 5.40 GHz boost clock, shows its strength in this environment, yet the frame rate deltas between settings presets reveal that FiveM's engine does not reward raw hardware in the way traditional benchmarks might suggest.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution climbs, but the shape of that curve is telling. At 1080p Low, the system produces 368.5 FPS, while 1440p Low yields 244.9 FPS—a drop of approximately 33.5%—and 4K Low falls to 134.5 FPS, another 45.1% reduction. This scaling suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiter, as the RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are nowhere near saturation. Moving to 1440p, the GPU begins to take on more work, but the 33.5% frame rate loss is steeper than the pixel count increase (from 2.07 million to 3.69 million pixels, a 78% increase), indicating that the CPU still constrains performance significantly. At 4K, the pixel count jumps another 2.25x, yet the frame rate only drops by another 45.1% from 1440p, which is actually less than proportional—suggesting the GPU is finally becoming the bottleneck, but the CPU's single-thread performance (5,003 in Cinebench R23 single-core) still influences the outcome.

The Ultra settings tell a similar story with a twist. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 182.7 FPS, but 1440p Ultra drops to 118.2 FPS (a 35.3% reduction), and 4K Ultra falls to 65.2 FPS (a 44.8% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets—roughly one-third from 1080p to 1440p, then another 45% from 1440p to 4K—suggests a compounding effect where both CPU and GPU limits interact. The RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM is never threatened, even at 4K Ultra, so memory capacity is not the issue; instead, the engine's draw call overhead and physics calculations on the 20-core, 28-thread i7-14700F appear to create a ceiling that resolution scaling cannot fully bypass.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F presents an interesting case for FiveM analysis. With 20 cores, 28 threads, and a 5.40 GHz boost clock, this processor scores 35,443 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5,003 in single-core, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X (average score 54,450, just 0.6% higher) and the Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54,681, 1.1% higher), while it edges out the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 by 1.2% and the AMD EPYC 7313P by 1.7%. In FiveM, the data suggests that multi-core performance matters less than single-thread agility, as the frame rate deltas between Low and Ultra presets at any given resolution are substantial—at 1080p, Low hits 368.5 FPS versus 182.7 FPS at Ultra, a 101.6% difference. This indicates that FiveM's server-side simulation and client-side rendering pipeline are not scaling linearly with core count; the 65 W TDP and 2.10 GHz base clock of the i7-14700F suggest power efficiency is prioritized, but the boost to 5.40 GHz provides the burst performance FiveM appears to crave.

The 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 per core likely help with the asset streaming and entity management that define multiplayer sessions. Compared to its rivals, the i7-14700F's performance in synthetic benchmarks translates to a 1.7% lead over the EPYC 7313P, but in FiveM's real-world workload, the CPU's ability to maintain high boost clocks across a few active threads seems more critical than raw multi-threaded throughput. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,261 reinforces this: FiveM's engine appears to have a primary thread that drives the simulation tick rate, and the i7-14700F's 5.40 GHz boost is likely the reason 1080p Low can reach 368.5 FPS without the GPU becoming a constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is, by any measure, a flagship GPU, but FiveM's measured data reveals that its enormous capabilities are often underutilized. With 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, the card's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth are far beyond what FiveM requires at most settings. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, yet at 1080p Low, the GPU is effectively idle waiting on the CPU—the 368.5 FPS figure is a CPU limit, not a GPU one. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU should be stressed, the 65.2 FPS result suggests the engine's rendering path is inefficient, possibly due to FiveM's reliance on older DirectX 11-era techniques rather than leveraging the RTX 4090's DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 support.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (0.4% lower), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (0.9% higher), and NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (1.3% higher), but these are compute-oriented cards, not gaming GPUs. The RTX 4090's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 and PassMark G3D score of 38,194 place it in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, yet FiveM's frame rates at 4K High (86.8 FPS) versus 4K Low (134.5 FPS) show only a 35.5% penalty for raising settings—far less than the 2-3x differences seen in more modern titles. This suggests FiveM's visual upgrades are modest in GPU demand, but the engine's CPU overhead grows disproportionately. The 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die at 5 nm process node give the RTX 4090 raw power that remains untapped; the bottleneck at 4K Ultra is likely a mix of shading complexity and the CPU's inability to feed the GPU fast enough, not the GPU's own limits.

FAQ

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much from 1080p to 4K at Low settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the system achieves 368.5 FPS, but 4K Low falls to 134.5 FPS—a 63.5% reduction. This drop is primarily due to the GPU finally becoming engaged, as the pixel count increases from 2.07 million to 8.29 million, requiring the RTX 4090 to perform more rasterization work. However, the CPU's single-thread performance still limits the absolute ceiling, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 overkill for FiveM?

A: The data suggests yes at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the GPU is clearly not the bottleneck, as the i7-14700F's boost clock of 5.40 GHz and single-core score of 5,003 in Cinebench R23 determine the frame rate. Even at 4K Ultra, the 65.2 FPS result is not GPU-limited in the traditional sense; the engine's CPU overhead remains a factor.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 20th out of 1,792 tested combos in FiveM, placing it in the top 1.1% of all configurations. This is consistent with the i7-14700F's 94th percentile standing among CPUs and the RTX 4090's 91st percentile among GPUs, though the game's engine prevents the hardware from dominating as it would in other titles.

Q: What setting gives the best balance of quality and performance at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High settings deliver 152.9 FPS, which is 29.3% higher than Ultra's 118.2 FPS and only 24.1% lower than Medium's 189.6 FPS. Given that High typically offers most visual benefits at a fraction of Ultra's cost, the data suggests High is the sweet spot for smooth multiplayer gameplay.

Q: Does the CPU's 20-core configuration help in FiveM?

A: The benchmark data indicates limited benefit. The i7-14700F scores 35,443 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, but FiveM's frame rates show that single-thread performance (5,003 in single-core) is more influential. The 28 threads rarely saturate, as evidenced by the 101.6% frame rate gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p, which points to a primary simulation thread bottleneck.

Q: Why is the 4K Ultra frame rate so much lower than expected for an RTX 4090?

A: At 65.2 FPS, the 4K Ultra result reflects FiveM's engine limitations rather than GPU capability. The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient for far more demanding titles, but FiveM's rendering pipeline and CPU overhead create a ceiling that the i7-14700F's 5.40 GHz boost cannot fully overcome in this scenario.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers a wide range of performance depending on settings. Low settings produce 368.5 FPS average, while Medium drops to 291.5 FPS—a 20.9% reduction. High settings yield 233.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to 182.7 FPS, representing a 50.4% drop from Low. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary constraint, as the RTX 4090 has ample headroom. Moving to 2560x1440, Low settings hit 244.9 FPS, Medium achieves 189.6 FPS, High reaches 152.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 118.2 FPS. The percentage drops from 1080p are consistent: Low falls 33.5%, Medium 35.0%, High 34.5%, and Ultra 35.3%, showing that resolution scaling affects all presets similarly. At 3840x2160, the picture changes: Low produces 134.5 FPS, Medium 105.5 FPS, High 86.8 FPS, and Ultra 65.2 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is steeper—45.1% for Low, 44.4% for Medium, 43.2% for High, and 44.8% for Ultra—indicating the GPU is starting to become a factor, though the CPU still exerts influence.

The Ultra preset at each resolution shows the most consistent scaling pattern, with 182.7 FPS at 1080p, 118.2 FPS at 1440p, and 65.2 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 44.8% drop from 1440p to 4K, totaling a 64.3% reduction from 1080p to 4K. Low settings scale slightly better overall, with a 63.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K (368.5 to 134.5 FPS). The data shows that FiveM's settings presets have a more significant impact at lower resolutions—the gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 185.8 FPS, but at 4K it narrows to 69.3 FPS—because the GPU becomes more engaged at higher pixel counts, reducing the CPU's relative influence.

Settings Recommendations

For players prioritizing maximum frame rate at 1080p, Low settings at 368.5 FPS are excessive for most monitors, so Medium at 291.5 FPS offers a better visual experience while still exceeding any 240 Hz display's refresh rate. At 1440p, High settings at 152.9 FPS represent the best compromise: they deliver 29.3% more performance than Ultra's 118.2 FPS while providing more visual fidelity than Medium's 189.6 FPS, which is likely unnecessary for smooth gameplay. For 4K, High at 86.8 FPS is the recommended choice, as it maintains playability above 60 FPS while offering superior visuals to Medium's 105.5 FPS; Ultra at 65.2 FPS is technically playable but leaves little margin for frame rate drops in busy multiplayer scenes. The data indicates that High is the sweet spot across all resolutions, delivering 233.4 FPS at 1080p, 152.9 FPS at 1440p, and 86.8 FPS at 4K, with each result comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and providing a significant visual upgrade over Low.

How This Combo Ranks

This Intel Core i7-14700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination ranks 20th out of 1,792 tested combos in FiveM, placing it in the top 1.1% of all configurations. This ranking is lower than the hardware's synthetic benchmark percentiles might suggest—the CPU sits in the 94th percentile and the GPU in the 91st—indicating that FiveM's engine does not fully translate raw compute power into frame rate. The CPU's average benchmark score of 54,097 is only 0.6% below the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X's 54,450 and 1.1% below the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's 54,681, yet in FiveM, the system's performance is constrained by the game's single-threaded tendencies. The GPU's average benchmark score of 66,473 is comparable to the Tesla T4 (66,733, 0.4% higher) and Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67,097, 0.9% higher), but these compute-oriented cards would perform vastly differently in gaming. The 20th rank out of 1,792 combos means only 19 configurations achieve higher frame rates in FiveM, which likely feature CPUs with even stronger single-core performance or overclocking headroom. The data shows that this combo is near the top of the performance hierarchy, but FiveM's unique engine prevents it from dominating the way it would in more GPU-bound titles, leaving a curious gap between the hardware's theoretical capability and its measured in-game performance.