Fortnite

# Fortnite with Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a top-tier Fortnite experience, ranking 125th out of 3700 tested combos. The data, drawn from measured benchmarks, shows a system capable of extreme frame rates at lower settings but one that requires careful settings selection to balance visual fidelity with performance, particularly at 4K resolution where the demands on the GPU become significant.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall ranking of this CPU and GPU combo for Fortnite?

A: This combination ranks 125th out of 3700 tested combos in Fortnite, placing it in the top 3.4% of all tested pairings.

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

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 469 FPS. With Medium settings, it reaches 337 FPS average.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's memory bandwidth compare to its rivals?

A: The RTX 4090 has a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This is a significant advantage, though direct rival comparisons in the data show the GPU's average benchmark score is nearly identical to the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (0.3% delta).

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i5-12600KF scores 1016 in the 3dmark_single_thread benchmark and 3302 in the cinebench_r23_singlecore test, indicating strong per-core performance which is beneficial for Fortnite's game logic.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest recorded average FPS is 58 at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is a substantial drop from the 88 FPS average seen at High settings at the same resolution.

Q: Does the data include minimum and maximum FPS for all settings?

A: No. The measured data includes min and max FPS only for Medium settings at each resolution. For example, at 2560x1440 Medium, the FPS ranges from 182 to 246.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 125 out of 3700 tested combinations places it in the upper echelon of Fortnite systems. This position reflects the synergy between the i5-12600KF and the RTX 4090. While the CPU itself holds a 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs, and the GPU an 88th percentile among all GPUs, their combined performance in this specific title is exceptional. The ranking is not just about raw component strength but also about how well they feed each other data. The CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, are sufficient to keep the GPU fed with draw calls and game state updates, preventing the CPU from becoming a bottleneck that would drag down the overall score. The data suggests this pairing is well-balanced for Fortnite's engine, which can leverage both high-core-count CPUs and massive GPU compute resources. The deltaPct values from the CPU's nearest rivals show a tight cluster: the i5-12600KF is within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE and 0.3% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, indicating that the choice of CPU around this performance class has minimal impact on the final ranking. At 1080p with Low settings, the system pushes an average of 469 FPS, which is well beyond the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is heavily taxed, the combo still produces a playable 58 FPS average, though this is the only point where the frame rate dips below the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered the baseline for smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on the optimal settings preset for this combo. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 469 FPS, while Medium produces 337 FPS. The jump to High reduces the average to 261 FPS, and Ultra drops it further to 172 FPS. For competitive play at 1080p, the Low or Medium presets are the clear choices, as the extreme frame rates minimize input latency and provide the smoothest possible experience. The 108 FPS difference between Low and Medium suggests that Medium is a reasonable compromise for those who want better visual fidelity without sacrificing the competitive edge of high frame rates. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset with an average of 214 FPS (min 182, max 246) offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, as it stays well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common at this resolution. The High preset at 166 FPS average is also viable. At 3840x2160, the situation changes. The Medium preset averages 113 FPS (min 96, max 130), which is the sweet spot for 4K gaming. The High preset at 88 FPS average is playable, but the Ultra preset at 58 FPS average should be avoided for fast-paced gameplay. The data shows that the Ultra preset across all resolutions incurs a significant performance penalty, with average frame rates roughly 34% lower than High at 1080p (172 vs 261) and 34% lower at 1440p (110 vs 166). For the best experience, the Medium preset at 1440p or 4K, or the Low/Medium presets at 1080p, provides the most consistent and high-performance results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its peak performance capabilities. With Low settings, the average FPS is 469. Switching to Medium, the average drops to 337, with a minimum of 286 and maximum of 387. The High preset produces an average of 261 FPS, and the Ultra preset yields 172 FPS. These numbers show a clear scaling pattern where each step up in settings costs a significant number of frames. Moving from 1080p to 2560x1440, the performance decreases as expected. Low settings at 1440p average 304 FPS, which is still exceptionally high. The Medium preset averages 214 FPS with a range of 182 to 246. High settings drop the average to 166 FPS, and Ultra further reduces it to 110 FPS. The transition from 1440p to 3840x2160 is where the most dramatic performance shift occurs. At 4K, the Low preset averages 160 FPS. Medium averages 113 FPS, with a measured range of 96 to 130 FPS. The High preset brings the average down to 88 FPS, and Ultra produces only 58 FPS. This data illustrates that the RTX 4090 is powerful enough to handle 4K gaming, but the Ultra preset at this resolution is the only combination that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that the GPU is being pushed to its limits. The min and max FPS data for Medium settings across all resolutions shows consistent frame pacing, with the spread between min and max being 101 FPS at 1080p (286 to 387), 64 FPS at 1440p (182 to 246), and 34 FPS at 4K (96 to 130). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that frame time consistency improves as the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this combo for Fortnite, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This massive memory subsystem is crucial for 4K textures and high-detail geometry, though Fortnite is not typically a VRAM-heavy title. The GPU's base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and it features 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The FP32 compute throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS gives it immense raw processing power. In the measured data, the GPU's role is most evident in the 4K results where the average FPS drops from 160 at Low to 58 at Ultra. This 102 FPS difference is primarily due to the GPU's workload increasing with each settings tier. The GPU's benchmark scores are strong, with a passmark_g3d score of 38194 and a 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 9223. Its percentile ranking of 88 among all GPUs indicates it is in the top 12% of graphics cards. However, the nearestRivals data shows that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4090's average score of 60347 is nearly identical to the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, 0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140, 0.3% delta). This is surprising given the RTX 4090's specifications, but it suggests that these synthetic benchmarks may not fully capture the 4090's gaming-specific strengths, which the Fortnite FPS data clearly demonstrates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF provides the processing foundation for this combo. With 10 cores (a mix of performance and efficiency cores) and 16 threads, it offers substantial multi-threaded capability. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz, boosting to 4.90 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. For Fortnite, which is a game that benefits from strong single-thread performance but also scales with multiple cores, the i5-12600KF is well-suited. The single-thread benchmark scores are solid: 1016 in 3dmark_single_thread and 3302 in cinebench_r23_singlecore. These scores indicate that the CPU can handle the game's main game logic thread without becoming a bottleneck. The multi-thread scores are also robust, with a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 23391 and a geekbench_multicore score of 12137. The CPU's role becomes more critical at lower resolutions and settings where frame rates are extremely high. At 1080p Low, the system averages 469 FPS, which means the CPU must process game state updates and issue draw calls at a rate of nearly 470 times per second. The data shows that the CPU is up to this task, as the frame rate at 1080p is significantly higher than at 4K, indicating that the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The CPU's percentile ranking of 79 among all CPUs places it in the top 21%, and its average benchmark score of 27799 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, which has an average score of 27872 (a delta of -0.3%). This suggests that in terms of overall CPU performance, the i5-12600KF is comparable to a high-end previous-generation part.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across resolutions reveals a clear scaling pattern that indicates the system's bottleneck shifts from the CPU at 1080p to the GPU at 4K. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 469. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 304 FPS, a 35% decrease. At 4K Low, the average is 160 FPS, which is a 47% decrease from 1440p and a 66% decrease from 1080p. This pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For Medium settings, the progression is 337 FPS at 1080p, 214 FPS at 1440p, and 113 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops from 1080p to 1440p are 35% for Low, 37% for Medium, 36% for High, and 36% for Ultra. The drops from 1440p to 4K are 47% for Low, 47% for Medium, 47% for High, and 47% for Ultra. The strikingly consistent percentage drops between 1440p and 4K (all around 47%) strongly indicate that the GPU is the limiting factor in this resolution range. The number of pixels being rendered quadruples from 1440p to 4K, and the GPU's performance scales accordingly. However, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is less severe (around 35-37%), which suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is partially limiting performance. If the GPU were the sole bottleneck at 1080p, the frame rate would be expected to be much higher, as the RTX 4090 is capable of far more than 469 FPS in less demanding titles. The data shows that as resolution increases, the FPS drops in a manner consistent with the GPU's fill rate and compute limits, while at 1080p, the CPU's ability to feed the GPU becomes a factor, capping the maximum achievable frame rate.