Fortnite

Fortnite on the Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the Intel Arc B570 presents a combination that lands in the lower half of the benchmark database, ranking 2178th out of 2740 tested combos. The measured frame rates show a system that is clearly capable of delivering smooth gameplay at mainstream resolutions, but one that hits a hard performance ceiling as graphical demands escalate. This analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, component roles, and optimal settings based strictly on the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals a system that becomes increasingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 sees the average frame rate fall from 176 FPS to 112 FPS, a reduction of 64 FPS. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average drops to 59 FPS, meaning that 4K Low delivers less than one-third of the 1080p Low performance. This steep decline indicates that the Intel Arc B570 is the primary limiting factor; the CPU has enough headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions, but the GPU's rendering throughput cannot keep pace as pixel count increases.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At High settings, the average frame rate goes from 96 FPS at 1080p, to 61 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 32 FPS at 4K. This represents a 50% performance loss from 1080p to 1440p, followed by an additional 48% loss from 1440p to 4K. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 124 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K. For the Ultra preset, the numbers are 64 FPS, 40 FPS, and 21 FPS respectively, with each resolution step roughly halving the frame rate.

What this scaling data suggests is that the memory bandwidth and compute resources of the Arc B570 are simply insufficient for 4K gaming in this title. The 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth and 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are adequate for 1080p, but the gap between resolutions grows non-linearly. The most telling metric is the 4K Ultra result of 21 FPS, which is barely playable and indicates that the GPU is severely overwhelmed. In contrast, the 1080p Low result of 176 FPS shows that the i5-13400F can easily push high frame rates when the GPU is not the bottleneck, suggesting that the CPU has significant performance reserves that remain untapped at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 2178 out of 2740, this pairing sits in the 20th percentile of all tested combinations for Fortnite, meaning roughly four out of five other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher average frame rates in this game. This is a below-average result, but the ranking should be interpreted with nuance. The absolute frame rates at 1080p are respectable, particularly the 176 FPS at Low settings, which indicates that the hardware is not fundamentally weak. The low rank is more a reflection of the GPU's limitations at higher settings and resolutions, where the combo falls behind more balanced pairings.

The CPU itself, the Intel Core i5-13400F, holds a percentile rank of 77 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25292. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS with a score of 25284, the Intel Core 5 120 at 25362, and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D at 25365. The delta percentages are negligible, ranging from -0.3% to 0.4%, placing the i5-13400F in a tightly contested performance tier. This suggests that the CPU is not the reason for the low combo rank; it is performing as expected for its class.

The GPU, the Intel Arc B570, has a percentile rank of 65 against all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 20556. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534, the Intel Arc A750 at 20582, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X at 20662. The performance deltas are again minimal, between -0.5% and 0.4%. The fact that the GPU ranks higher than the combo rank suggests that the specific interaction between this CPU and GPU in Fortnite is not optimal, possibly due to driver overhead or architectural inefficiencies in this particular workload.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, codenamed Battlemage, and manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, along with 18 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a fixed clock speed of 2500 MHz for both base and boost, which is a notable characteristic as it leaves no dynamic clock headroom. The memory subsystem consists of 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s.

In Fortnite, the GPU's role becomes dominant as settings increase. The measured data shows that at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 112 FPS (from 176 to 64 FPS), illustrating the heavy load that higher graphical presets place on the GPU. The pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s are moderate figures, and the 4K results confirm that the GPU struggles to fill pixels at that resolution. The 4K Ultra average of 21 FPS is particularly telling, as it shows the GPU is operating at its absolute limit.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is not the limiting factor in this game, as Fortnite is not particularly memory-hungry at these settings. Instead, the compute throughput and memory bandwidth are the constraints. The FP32 performance of 11.52 TFLOPS is adequate for 1080p, but the scaling data suggests that the architecture does not scale efficiently with resolution. The fact that the GPU's nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750, performs within 0.1% in average benchmark scores, yet this combo ranks poorly, indicates that driver optimization for Fortnite specifically may be a factor. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which are all modern APIs that Fortnite can utilize.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Fortnite with this combo?

A: The measured data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the combo delivers consistently high frame rates, with averages ranging from 64 FPS at Ultra to 176 FPS at Low. At 2560x1440, even Low settings only reach 112 FPS, and at 4K, all settings fall below 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25292, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS at 25284 (0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H at 25201 (0.4% delta). It is slightly behind the Intel Core 5 120 and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, both scoring around 25360, a difference of -0.3%.

Q: Is the GPU the main bottleneck in this pairing?

A: Yes, the data strongly indicates this. The CPU ranks in the 77th percentile, while the GPU ranks in the 65th percentile. The resolution scaling shows a steep performance drop from 1080p to 4K, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound system. The 4K Ultra result of 21 FPS is a clear sign of GPU limitation.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Medium settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 176 FPS, while Medium settings produce 124 FPS. This is a difference of 52 FPS, or roughly a 30% reduction in frame rate for the step up in visual quality. The Medium preset also has a minimum FPS of 106 and a maximum of 143.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, scores 20534, which is a 0.1% difference in favor of the Arc B570. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582, which is 0.1% higher.

Q: What is the frame rate at 1440p High settings?

A: The measured average frame rate at 2560x1440 with High settings is 61 FPS. This is a playable frame rate, but it is significantly lower than the 96 FPS at 1080p High, showing a clear performance penalty for the resolution increase.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 13th Generation Raptor Lake processor with 10 cores and 16 threads, utilizing a hybrid architecture. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though the memory bandwidth is not specified in the data.

In Fortnite, the CPU's role is to calculate game logic, physics, and draw calls, which becomes more critical at lower resolutions and higher frame rates. The benchmark results show that the CPU is more than capable of handling this workload. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22604 and single-core score of 3191 indicate strong performance in both multithreaded and single-threaded tasks. The Geekbench scores of 11068 multicore and 1996 single-core reinforce this assessment.

The evidence of CPU headroom is clear in the 1080p Low result of 176 FPS. At this setting, the GPU is not heavily taxed, and the CPU is able to push frame rates well above 144 Hz. Even at 1080p Medium, the 124 FPS average suggests that the CPU can maintain high frame rates. However, the CPU's performance is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions; the GPU saturates first. The CPU's percentile rank of 77 and its close benchmarking to rivals like the Ryzen 9 6900HS and Ryzen 5 5600X3D confirm that it is a solid mid-range performer that will not hold back the GPU in most gaming scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance of visual quality and performance for this combo is the Medium preset at 1920x1080 resolution. This setting delivers an average frame rate of 124 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. The 106 FPS minimum ensures that the experience remains smooth even during demanding scenes, and the average is well above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable gameplay. The step up to High settings at 1080p reduces the average to 96 FPS, which is still playable but loses the headroom needed for consistent high-refresh-rate monitors.

For users with 1440p displays, the Medium preset is also the recommended choice, delivering 79 FPS on average with a minimum of 67 FPS. This is a playable frame rate for most users, though it is noticeably lower than the 1080p Medium result. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 112 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play, but sacrifices visual fidelity. High settings at 1440p drop to 61 FPS, which is borderline, and Ultra settings fall to 40 FPS, which is not recommended for smooth gameplay.

At 4K resolution, the data shows that no preset provides a truly smooth experience. The Low preset achieves 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target, while Medium drops to 42 FPS and High to 32 FPS. Ultra is unplayable at 21 FPS. For 4K users, the Low preset is the only viable option, and even then, the frame rate is inconsistent. The overall recommendation is to prioritize 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium for the best experience, as these settings balance visual quality with the measured performance capabilities of this hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates for this combo is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low settings produce an average of 176 FPS, with no minimum or maximum values recorded. The Medium settings produce an average of 124 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. The High settings produce an average of 96 FPS, and the Ultra settings produce an average of 64 FPS, both without recorded minimum or maximum values.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low settings deliver an average of 112 FPS. The Medium settings deliver an average of 79 FPS, with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 91 FPS. The High settings average 61 FPS, while the Ultra settings average 40 FPS. No minimum or maximum values are recorded for the Low, High, or Ultra presets at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the Low settings average 59 FPS. The Medium settings average 42 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS. The High settings average 32 FPS, and the Ultra settings average 21 FPS. Again, only the Medium preset has recorded minimum and maximum values. The data shows a clear progression where each increase in resolution or settings level reduces the average frame rate, with the most severe penalties occurring at 4K Ultra, which is only one-third the frame rate of 1080p Ultra.