Fortnite

Fortnite on the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination delivers an exceptional high-refresh-rate experience, but the optimal settings depend heavily on your target resolution and refresh rate. The data indicates that this pairing is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while at 1080p, the CPU becomes a more significant factor, though it still manages to push frame rates far beyond what most displays can show.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly shows that Low settings are the only preset that guarantees a 144Hz experience at 4K, with an average of 144 FPS. If you are targeting the highest visual fidelity on a 4K display, the Ultra preset is a significant step down, averaging only 52 FPS, which is not suitable for competitive play but is playable for a cinematic experience. The High preset at 4K, at 79 FPS average, offers a balanced middle ground if you are using a 60Hz or 120Hz 4K monitor.

For the vast majority of players using high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, the High preset is the recommended starting point, as it delivers an average of 149 FPS, perfectly matching a 144Hz display's capabilities. Pushing to Medium at 1440p yields a substantial increase to 193 FPS average, which is ideal for 165Hz or 240Hz panels, though the frame time variance increases slightly. The Low preset at 1440p is an outlier at 273 FPS, but this is likely beyond the refresh rate of most monitors and sacrifices too much visual quality for a marginal competitive edge. The Ultra preset at 1440p, at 99 FPS, is not ideal for competitive play but is the best option for immersive single-player experiences on a high-resolution monitor.

At 1080p, all presets exceed 155 FPS, making the choice purely about visual quality versus maximum frame rate. The Medium preset is the sweet spot for 1080p, offering a 303 FPS average, which is well above the refresh rate of any current monitor and provides a good balance of visual fidelity and performance. The High preset, at 235 FPS, is also excellent and may be preferable for those who prioritize image quality over absolute frame rate. The Low preset's 430 FPS average is an extreme result that will be entirely wasted on any display, and the Ultra preset's 155 FPS average is the minimum you should consider for a 1080p 144Hz monitor, though it may not be stable in all scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the performance scaling across resolutions. It is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is crucial for feeding the 10240 shading units at higher resolutions. The GPU's boost clock of 2550 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz, combined with its 80 RT cores and 320 Tensor cores, allow it to handle Fortnite's most demanding settings with ease, as evidenced by the frame rates.

The data shows a clear GPU bottleneck emerging at 4K. The average FPS drops from 235 at 1080p High to 149 at 1440p High, and then to 79 at 4K High. This steep decline at 4K is a direct result of the GPU's rendering load increasing exponentially with pixel count. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is certainly high, but the 4K Ultra preset, which likely enables the most taxing effects, still brings the average down to 52 FPS. This demonstrates that while the GPU is exceptionally powerful, it is not impervious to the demands of 4K with maximum settings. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 54209, which is only 0.1% below the RTX 4080, confirm its position at the top tier of graphics hardware, yet Fortnite's Ultra preset at 4K can still challenge it.

The memory subsystem is also a key factor. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is ample for Fortnite at any resolution, preventing any potential texture loading stutters. The 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth is sufficient to keep the shading units fed, even at 4K with High settings, where the average FPS of 79 is respectable. However, the transition from Medium to Ultra at 4K shows a massive performance hit, from 102 FPS to 52 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately expensive for the GPU to process, such as advanced ray tracing or high-quality shadows, which are computationally intensive.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F serves as a capable partner to the RTX 4080 SUPER, though its role becomes less critical as resolution increases. This 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Raptor Lake architecture has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. It features a 20 MB shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 22604 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 3191 in single-core, placing it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 25292 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, with a 0% delta, and slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D.

In Fortnite, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p, where frame rates are exceptionally high. The jump from 1080p Medium (303 FPS) to 1080p Low (430 FPS) is a 42% increase, which is a much larger relative gain than what is seen at higher resolutions. This indicates that at 1080p Low, the game is heavily CPU-bound, and the i5-13400F's single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3dmark single-thread score of 960, is the limiting factor. The CPU's 3dmark 16-thread score of 7314 and max-thread score of 7307 show that it has sufficient multi-threaded capability, but Fortnite's engine often relies on a few primary threads for game logic and draw calls.

As the resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, and the CPU's performance headroom grows. The i5-13400F provides a strong enough foundation that it does not hold back the RTX 4080 SUPER at these resolutions. The data shows that at 4K, the difference between Low and Medium settings is 42 FPS (144 to 102), and between Medium and High is 23 FPS (102 to 79). This scaling is more consistent with a GPU-limited scenario, as the CPU has already provided the necessary frame data, and the GPU is struggling to keep up with the increased pixel count. The CPU's 65W TDP and active production status suggest it is an efficient and reliable choice for this gaming workload.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Fortnite at 4K with a 144Hz monitor?

A: Yes, but only on Low settings, which achieves an average of 144 FPS. On Medium settings, the average drops to 102 FPS, and on High, it is 79 FPS, which do not fully utilize a 144Hz display's potential.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p 165Hz monitor?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice, as it delivers an average of 193 FPS, which is above the 165Hz refresh rate. The High preset averages 149 FPS, which is slightly below the monitor's maximum refresh rate.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to the standard RTX 4080 in this system?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER's average benchmark score is 54209, which is only 0.1% lower than the RTX 4080's score of 54247. This indicates that the two GPUs are effectively performance equivalents in this context.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-13400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the CPU is the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 430 FPS average. However, at 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, and the CPU provides sufficient performance to avoid holding the system back.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this system?

A: The only minimum FPS data available is for the Medium preset. At 1080p, the minimum is 257 FPS, at 1440p it is 164 FPS, and at 4K it is 86 FPS. No minimum FPS data is provided for the Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: How does this CPU compare to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D in general performance?

A: The i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25292, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D's score of 25365. This indicates they have nearly identical general processing performance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the shifting bottleneck between the CPU and GPU. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 235 at 1080p to 149 at 1440p (a 37% decrease), and then to 79 at 4K (a 47% decrease from 1440p). This consistent decline indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint at all resolutions, as the rendering load increases with pixel count.

The Low settings data shows a different pattern. The average FPS drops from 430 at 1080p to 273 at 1440p (a 37% decrease), but then only to 144 at 4K (a 47% decrease). The massive jump from 1080p to 1440p suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is the limiting factor, as the GPU is not being fully utilized. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes more involved, but the frame rates are still exceptionally high, indicating that even the GPU is not being maxed out at these settings.

The Medium settings data provides the most insight into the GPU's scaling. The average FPS drops from 303 at 1080p to 193 at 1440p (a 36% decrease), and then to 102 at 4K (a 47% decrease). The minimum FPS data also scales proportionally, from 257 at 1080p to 164 at 1440p and 86 at 4K. This consistent scaling pattern suggests that the Medium preset is the most balanced in terms of CPU and GPU load, allowing the RTX 4080 SUPER to scale predictably with resolution. The Ultra settings data shows a similar pattern, with FPS dropping from 155 at 1080p to 99 at 1440p (a 36% decrease) and then to 52 at 4K (a 47% decrease), confirming that the GPU is the dominant factor at this preset as well.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average FPS of 430.
• Medium: Average FPS of 303, with a minimum of 257 and a maximum of 348.
• High: Average FPS of 235.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 155.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average FPS of 273.
• Medium: Average FPS of 193, with a minimum of 164 and a maximum of 221.
• High: Average FPS of 149.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 99.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average FPS of 144.
• Medium: Average FPS of 102, with a minimum of 86 and a maximum of 117.
• High: Average FPS of 79.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 52.

This data shows a clear performance hierarchy across all resolutions, with Low settings providing the highest frame rates and Ultra providing the lowest. The Medium preset is the only one with complete minimum and maximum FPS data, showing a consistent frame time distribution across all resolutions. The combination ranks 272nd out of 3700 tested combinations in Fortnite, placing it in the top 7.4% of all systems tested. The data confirms that this is a top-tier gaming configuration, capable of delivering competitive frame rates at any resolution, with the only caveat being that 4K Ultra settings will not satisfy a 144Hz display.