Fortnite

# Fortnite with AMD Ryzen 5 7500F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in Fortnite presents a dataset that clearly separates CPU-bound and GPU-bound operating regimes. At 1080p, the average frame rates exceed 450 FPS on Low settings, indicating the CPU is the primary limiting factor at lower resolutions. The RTX 4090, with its 24 GB GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, only becomes the dominant bottleneck as resolution climbs to 4K, where the Ultra preset drops to 58 FPS. The measured frame rates across six resolution-settings pairs reveal a consistent pattern of diminishing returns as pixel count increases.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 tells a clear story about where the performance ceiling sits. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 459 FPS, which is an extraordinary figure for a competitive shooter. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 304 FPS, a reduction of 155 FPS or roughly 34%. The further climb to 4K Low yields 160 FPS, which represents another 144 FPS decrease (47% relative to 1440p). This steepening decline as resolution increases is the classic signature of a GPU that becomes progressively more saturated.

The High preset shows a similar but slightly less dramatic curve: 261 FPS at 1080p, 166 FPS at 1440p, and 88 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops between successive resolutions are 36% and 47% respectively, nearly matching the Low preset pattern. This suggests that the RTX 4090's rendering workload scales almost linearly with pixel count in this title, with no unexpected bottlenecks appearing at intermediate resolutions.

The Medium preset, which is the only one with min/max data recorded, offers additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 337 FPS with a minimum of 286 FPS and maximum of 387 FPS, a spread of 101 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 214 FPS with a range of 182 to 246 FPS (64 FPS spread). At 4K Medium, the average falls to 113 FPS with a 96 to 130 FPS range (34 FPS spread). The narrowing frame-time distribution at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming the consistent limiter, reducing the CPU-driven variability seen at lower resolutions.

The Ultra preset delivers the lowest frame rates across the board: 172 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p, and just 58 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is particularly striking — it is the only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, which is notable for a game that is often cited as being easy to run at high frame rates. This data suggests that the RTX 4090, despite its massive compute resources (82.58 TFLOPS FP32), still cannot maintain fluid motion at maximum settings in 4K for this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play with this combo?

A: The data shows 1080p Low delivers 459 FPS, which is the highest measured average across all tested configurations. This provides the maximum frame rate advantage for competitive play, although the 1440p Low setting at 304 FPS still offers extremely high refresh-rate compatibility.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 perform at 4K Ultra in Fortnite?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 58. This is below the commonly desired 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, making it the only tested setting that fails to reach that mark. Players seeking 4K at high frame rates would need to reduce settings to Medium (113 FPS) or High (88 FPS).

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The evidence suggests the CPU limits performance primarily at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 459 FPS result exceeds what most displays can show, and the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings shows a 155 FPS drop, indicating the GPU begins to take over as the limiter. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads with a 5.00 GHz boost clock appear sufficient for high frame rates, but the 3DMark single-thread score of 974 suggests single-core performance caps the absolute maximum FPS.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 304 FPS, while Ultra produces 110 FPS. This is a difference of 194 FPS, meaning the Ultra preset delivers roughly 36% of the Low preset's performance. The visual quality increase from Low to Ultra comes at a substantial frame-rate cost.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Fortnite?

A: The combo ranks 130th out of 3700 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3.5% of all tested setups. This rank reflects the strong overall performance, though the 4K Ultra result shows that even high-end components have limits in this game.

Q: Does the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM matter for Fortnite at these settings?

A: The VRAM allocation is unlikely to be a limiting factor in this title. Fortnite is not a VRAM-intensive game, and the 24 GB GDDR6X capacity is far beyond what the measured settings would require. The GPU's 384-bit memory bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for texture streaming and asset loading.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 130 out of 3700 tested combinations places it in the top 3.5% of all configurations evaluated in Fortnite. This is a strong position, but it is not the absolute top tier, which suggests that some other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates in this specific title. The rank is driven primarily by the exceptional low-resolution performance, where the RTX 4090's raw power (82.58 TFLOPS FP32) combined with the Ryzen 5 7500F's high boost clock produces exceptional results.

When compared to other CPUs in the database, the Ryzen 5 7500F sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24964. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11850H (avgScore 24935, deltaPct 0.1), the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (avgScore 25005, deltaPct -0.2), the Intel Core i7-13620H (avgScore 24911, deltaPct 0.2), and the Intel Core 5 210H (avgScore 24872, deltaPct 0.4). These extremely close scores (all within 0.4% of each other) indicate that the CPU is not a differentiating factor at this performance level.

The RTX 4090 sits at the 88th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Arc Pro A60 (avgScore 60326, deltaPct 0), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (avgScore 60140, deltaPct 0.3), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (avgScore 61896, deltaPct -2.5), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (avgScore 58657, deltaPct 2.9). The fact that the RTX 4090's average score is within 0.3% of several lower-tier GPUs in the synthetic benchmarks is notable, although the measured FPS in Fortnite shows a different story at high resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the four settings produce a wide spread of results. Low delivers 459 FPS, Medium delivers 337 FPS, High delivers 261 FPS, and Ultra delivers 172 FPS. The Medium preset has recorded min/max values of 286 FPS and 387 FPS, showing a 101 FPS range. This spread indicates that the frame rate is highly variable at this resolution, likely due to CPU-driven frame pacing variability.

At 2560x1440, the results scale down proportionally. Low delivers 304 FPS, Medium delivers 214 FPS (min 182, max 246), High delivers 166 FPS, and Ultra delivers 110 FPS. The Medium range of 64 FPS is narrower than at 1080p, indicating more consistent frame pacing as the GPU takes on more of the workload.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates compress further. Low delivers 160 FPS, Medium delivers 113 FPS (min 96, max 130), High delivers 88 FPS, and Ultra delivers 58 FPS. The Medium range shrinks to 34 FPS, and the frame time consistency improves as the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The Ultra setting at 58 FPS is the only configuration that dips below 60 FPS, making it marginal for smooth gameplay on high-refresh displays.

Settings Recommendations

For players prioritizing maximum frame rate, the 1080p Low setting at 459 FPS is the clear choice, though the 1440p Low setting at 304 FPS offers a better balance of resolution and speed. The 1440p Medium setting at 214 FPS provides a more visually polished experience while still maintaining frame rates well above the 144 Hz threshold, making it the recommended sweet spot for most high-refresh displays.

The 4K resolution requires careful setting selection. The 4K Medium setting at 113 FPS is the best option for 4K players who want to stay above 100 FPS, as it provides a 25 FPS improvement over the High setting (88 FPS) and a 55 FPS improvement over Ultra (58 FPS). The 4K Low setting at 160 FPS is viable for competitive play at 4K, but the visual compromise may be significant.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution if frame rate is the primary concern. At 1080p, the 172 FPS result is lower than the High preset's 261 FPS, a 89 FPS penalty for the extra visual effects. At 4K, the 58 FPS result is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, making it unsuitable for competitive or fast-paced play.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture (Raphael), manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s, plus PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes.

In Fortnite, the CPU's role is most evident at low resolutions. The 1080p Low result of 459 FPS indicates that the CPU can sustain extremely high frame rates, though the 3DMark single-thread score of 974 and 2-thread score of 1902 suggest that the CPU's per-core performance is the limiting factor at the very top end. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3218 and multi-core score of 22799 show a strong balance between single-thread and multi-thread performance, though the multi-core advantage is not fully utilized by Fortnite's engine.

The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for Fortnite's workload, as the game does not heavily utilize more than a few threads. The 5.00 GHz boost clock is critical for maintaining high frame rates, and the 32 MB shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency. The CPU's 65 W TDP indicates efficient operation, and its 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it in the upper tier of processors for this workload.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a massive GPU based on the AD102 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. It has 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, 176 ROPs, 128 RT cores, and 512 tensor cores. The GPU has a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus delivering 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. The FP32 performance is 82.58 TFLOPS, with a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s.

The GPU's role in Fortnite becomes dominant at higher resolutions. The 4K Medium result of 113 FPS, compared to the 1080p Medium result of 337 FPS, shows a 224 FPS drop (66% reduction) that is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's rendering workload. The RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM is far beyond what Fortnite requires at any resolution, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and asset loading are not bottlenecks.

The GPU's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347, places it in the upper echelon of graphics cards. However, its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks are all substantially lower-tier cards (Intel Arc Pro A60, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, AMD Radeon Pro W6600M), which suggests that the RTX 4090's advantage in real-world gaming is more pronounced than in synthetic tests. The 4K Ultra result of 58 FPS demonstrates that even the most powerful GPU available cannot run Fortnite at maximum settings with a consistent 60 FPS at 4K, indicating that the Ultra preset includes effects that are extremely taxing on the render pipeline.