Fortnite

Fortnite with the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 presents a dataset where the GPU is the clear performance ceiling at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s strong single-thread capabilities allow for extreme frame rates at 1080p. The measured FPS values across three resolutions and four settings presets reveal a component pairing that scales predictably with graphical load, though the gap between presets narrows significantly as resolution drops.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a pronounced drop in average FPS as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the Low preset, the average frame rate falls from 478 FPS at 1080p to 304 FPS at 1440p, and then to 160 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a further 47% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling suggests that at 1080p, the system is likely hitting a CPU or engine-level limit, as the RTX 4090 has ample headroom to render more frames if the processor could feed it faster.

For the Medium preset, the averages are 337 FPS at 1080p, 214 FPS at 1440p, and 113 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 47%, which is nearly identical to the Low preset’s scaling. This consistency indicates that the RTX 4090’s rendering throughput is the limiting factor at these higher resolutions, regardless of the quality settings. The High preset follows a similar pattern: 261 FPS at 1080p, 166 FPS at 1440p, and 88 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is roughly half of the 1440p result, which aligns with the pixel count doubling from 2.07 million to 3.69 million pixels.

The Ultra preset shows the steepest absolute decline, starting at 172 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 110 FPS at 1440p, and then halving to 58 FPS at 4K. The 1440p to 4K reduction is 47%, matching the other presets, but the 1080p to 1440p drop is 36%, slightly higher than the Low preset’s 33%. This indicates that Ultra settings introduce additional GPU workload that scales more aggressively with resolution, likely due to increased shading complexity and texture filtering demands.

The most telling observation is the relative performance gap between presets at each resolution. At 4K, the Low preset achieves 160 FPS, while Ultra achieves 58 FPS, a 176% difference. At 1080p, the same comparison yields 478 FPS versus 172 FPS, a 178% difference. The gap remains nearly constant, which suggests that the game’s settings presets affect GPU load proportionally across resolutions, and that the RTX 4090 is not being bottlenecked by the Ryzen 7 9700F even at 1080p with lower presets.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its cache structure includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score is 4691, which places it in the 94th percentile against all CPUs. This high single-thread performance is critical for Fortnite, which is known to be sensitive to per-core performance in its game logic and draw call processing.

In the benchmark data, the CPU’s influence is most evident at 1080p with the Low preset, where the system reaches 478 FPS. This is substantially higher than the 4K Low result of 160 FPS, indicating that the CPU can sustain frame generation well beyond what the GPU can output at higher resolutions. The Ryzen 7 9700F’s 16 threads also help with background tasks and physics, but the game’s frame rate scaling suggests that single-thread speed is the primary driver.

The nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark data include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX with an average score of 69875 (0.2% slower), the Intel Core i7-14700KF at 70163 (0.2% faster), and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69515 (0.7% slower). These delta percentages are minimal, meaning the 9700F is positioned in a tight competitive cluster. Its multi-thread PassMark score of 36470 is strong, but the game’s frame rates at 1080p suggest that the boost clock of 5.50 GHz is the more relevant metric for Fortnite.

The 9700F’s 65 W TDP is remarkably low for a desktop CPU with 8 cores and 16 threads, which may allow for sustained boost clocks in thermally constrained systems. However, the data provided does not include power throttling metrics, so this remains a qualitative inference. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, which is sufficient for feeding the RTX 4090’s frame buffer at high speeds.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a 24 GB GDDR6X graphics card with a 384-bit memory bus and 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Its base clock is 2235 MHz, boosting to 2520 MHz. The GPU has 16384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs. Its PassMark G3D score is 38194, placing it in the 88th percentile against all GPUs. The nearest rival in terms of average score is the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60326 (0% delta), which is a workstation card with far lower gaming performance, indicating that the G3D score is not directly comparable to Fortnite frame rates.

The RTX 4090’s role becomes clear when examining the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K. At the Medium preset, the 1080p average is 337 FPS, while the 4K average is 113 FPS, a 66% reduction. This is consistent with the GPU being the primary limiter at 4K, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The 24 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for Fortnite’s texture and geometry data, even at Ultra settings, so capacity is not a constraint in these measurements.

The RTX 4090’s memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s is a key feature for high-resolution rendering. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 58, which is low for this GPU but reflects the extreme workload of the settings preset. The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute provide the raw throughput needed to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, though the data shows that players seeking higher refresh rates would need to lower settings.

The GPU’s 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are present in the hardware, but Fortnite’s measured FPS data does not distinguish between rasterized and ray-traced workloads. The data suggests that the GPU scales linearly with resolution, as the 1440p to 4K drop is consistently around 47% across all presets, which aligns with the pixel count increase of 77% (from 2.07M to 3.69M pixels) after accounting for other overheads.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium achieves 337 FPS with a minimum of 286 FPS, which is well above any display refresh rate. At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 214 FPS with a minimum of 182 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay on high-refresh monitors. At 3840x2160, Medium yields 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS, which is playable but may not fully saturate 120 Hz displays.

The High preset is a viable alternative for those prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate. At 1440p, High achieves 166 FPS, which is still high, but at 4K it drops to 88 FPS. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p or 1440p use, as it delivers 172 FPS and 110 FPS respectively, but falls to 58 FPS at 4K, which may cause noticeable stuttering on fast-paced action. The Low preset achieves the highest frame rates, reaching 478 FPS at 1080p, but this comes at the cost of significant visual quality reduction.

The data indicates that the Medium preset provides the best frame rate consistency, as it is the only preset with recorded minimum FPS values (286 at 1080p, 182 at 1440p, and 96 at 4K). These minimums suggest that the Medium preset avoids the severe frame time spikes that can occur with higher settings, while still offering a reasonable visual upgrade over Low. For 4K gaming, the choice between Medium and High depends on the display’s refresh rate; Medium’s 113 FPS average is better suited for 120 Hz panels, while High’s 88 FPS falls short.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 91st out of 2740 tested combos in Fortnite. This places the pairing in the top 3.3% of all tested systems, which is expected given the high-end nature of both components. The rank reflects the average performance across all settings and resolutions, and the data shows that this combo excels at lower resolutions where the CPU can stretch its legs.

The 91st rank out of 2740 combos is notable because the RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product, yet it still performs admirably in Fortnite. The combo’s rank is likely driven by the 1080p results, where the 9700F’s single-thread performance (4691 PassMark score) allows the RTX 4090 to be fully utilized. At 4K, the combo’s performance is less exceptional, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck, but it still outperforms the vast majority of other tested systems.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing’s rank of 91 suggests that there are 90 other combinations that achieve higher average FPS in Fortnite. These could include systems with faster CPUs like the Ryzen 9 7950X (which has a 0.7% higher CPU score) or Intel’s 14th generation parts. However, the 9700F’s boost clock of 5.50 GHz is among the highest in its class, and the data shows that the combo is well-balanced for Fortnite’s CPU-intensive nature.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS is 478, achieved at the Low preset with a resolution of 1920x1080.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average FPS of 58, which is the lowest measured value in the dataset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 214, and the minimum FPS is 182. The scaling from 1080p (337 FPS) suggests the GPU is the primary limiter at this resolution.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested systems in Fortnite?

A: The combo ranks 91st out of 2740 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3.3% of all systems.

Q: Does the RTX 4090’s 24 GB VRAM become a limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data does not indicate VRAM capacity as a limitation; the 4K High preset achieves 88 FPS and Medium achieves 113 FPS, suggesting memory bandwidth and compute are the constraints.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F compare to its nearest CPU rival in terms of score?

A: The 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-14700KF.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low preset 478 FPS, Medium preset 337 FPS (with a minimum of 286 FPS and maximum of 387 FPS), High preset 261 FPS, and Ultra preset 172 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one at this resolution with recorded minimum and maximum values, indicating frame time variance that is still within acceptable bounds.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 304 FPS, Medium 214 FPS (minimum 182 FPS, maximum 246 FPS), High 166 FPS, and Ultra 110 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 182 FPS ensures that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate remains above most display refresh rates. The High and Ultra presets do not have reported minimums, but their averages are significantly lower than Medium.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 160 FPS, Medium 113 FPS (minimum 96 FPS, maximum 130 FPS), High 88 FPS, and Ultra 58 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 96 FPS is the only sub-100 FPS value recorded in the entire dataset, which highlights the performance cliff at 4K with higher settings. The Low preset at 4K still achieves 160 FPS, which is higher than the Ultra preset at 1440p (110 FPS), demonstrating the significant impact of settings on frame rate.

The data also shows that the jump from Low to Medium at each resolution incurs a consistent penalty: 141 FPS at 1080p, 90 FPS at 1440p, and 47 FPS at 4K. The penalty from Medium to High is 76 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K. The penalty from High to Ultra is 89 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K. These diminishing returns suggest that Medium offers the best compromise between visual quality and performance.