Fortnite

Fortnite at 4K High averages 59 FPS, while the same settings at 1440p produce 112 FPS and at 1080p reach 177 FPS. This combination of an Intel Core i7-13700K and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 places the system at rank 1043 out of 3700 tested combos for this title, showing a strong but not top-tier pairing for a Battle Royale that scales heavily with both CPU and GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: as resolution drops, frame rates climb substantially. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 324 FPS, which falls to 206 FPS at 1440p Low and then to 109 FPS at 4K Low. That translates to a 57% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The scaling is less steep but still significant at Medium: 228 FPS at 1080p, 145 FPS at 1440p, and 77 FPS at 4K. High settings follow the same trajectory with 177 FPS, 112 FPS, and 59 FPS respectively. At Ultra, the numbers drop to 117 FPS, 74 FPS, and 39 FPS.

The gap between 1080p and 1440p is proportionally larger than the gap between 1440p and 4K at every preset except Low. For example, at High settings, moving from 1080p to 1440p costs 65 FPS (a 37% loss), while moving from 1440p to 4K costs 53 FPS (a 47% loss). This suggests the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck earlier than expected, as the RTX 3080 with its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth handles 1440p well but struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K.

At 1080p Low, the 324 FPS result indicates the system is not entirely GPU-limited; the CPU’s 16 cores and 24 threads with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz are capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions. However, the sharp decline at 4K Ultra (39 FPS) points to the GPU’s pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s being insufficient for maximum settings at that resolution. The data shows that 1440p Medium (145 FPS) and 1080p High (177 FPS) offer the best balance between visual fidelity and performance, while 4K is only viable at Low or Medium settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Fortnite?

A: The highest measured average is 324 FPS at 1080p with Low settings. The next highest is 228 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 206 FPS at 1440p Low.

Q: Can this system run Fortnite at 4K smoothly?

A: At 4K High, the average FPS is 59, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. At 4K Medium, it averages 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 FPS, making it playable. 4K Ultra drops to 39 FPS, which is below the typical smooth threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 3080’s VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: The GPU has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS falls to 39, suggesting that the memory capacity or bandwidth is strained at maximum settings. Lowering to 4K Medium improves the average to 77 FPS, indicating that reducing texture and shadow loads relieves the VRAM pressure.

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play?

A: For high refresh rates, 1080p Low delivers 324 FPS, which exceeds most monitors’ refresh rates. 1440p Low at 206 FPS is also viable for competitive play, while 1080p Medium at 228 FPS offers a good compromise between visuals and speed.

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

A: The combo ranks 1043 out of 3700 tested combinations, placing it in the top 28% of systems. This is a solid position, but not exceptional, given that the CPU and GPU are both mid-to-high tier parts.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the 324 FPS result suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the i7-13700K’s single-thread score of 1136 in 3DMark and multi-thread score of 12412 at max threads provide ample headroom. The GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the FPS drops from 1080p to 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, and it has an L3 cache of 30 MB shared. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and its TDP is 125 W. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 30745 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2116 in single-core, while Geekbench results show 19429 multi-core and 2529 single-core.

For Fortnite, the CPU’s role is most evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 324 FPS, which is 46% higher than 1080p High’s 177 FPS. This indicates that at Low settings, the game’s rendering load is reduced enough for the CPU to push more frames. The 3DMark scores support this: 2-thread score of 2262 and 4-thread score of 4469 show strong single and multi-thread performance, which matters for a game that uses multiple cores for physics and game logic.

Compared to nearest rivals, the i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 46881, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46971) and 0.3% lower than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47022). It is 0.5% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (46654) and the Intel Xeon w3-2535 (46653). These differences are minimal, meaning the CPU is on par with its immediate competitors in general compute, but Fortnite’s engine may favor Intel’s higher boost clock of 5.40 GHz.

The PassMark single-thread score of 4333 and multi-thread score of 45887 further indicate that the CPU can handle high frame rate scenarios without becoming a bottleneck. However, the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (39 FPS) shows that even a strong CPU cannot compensate for GPU limitations at maximum settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In Fortnite, this CPU-GPU combination ranks 1043 out of 3700 tested combos. This places it in the 72nd percentile of all systems tested, meaning roughly 28% of combos perform better. The rank reflects a balance: the i7-13700K is a high-end CPU with an 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the RTX 3080 is a mid-to-high tier GPU with a 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The GPU’s percentile is notably lower than the CPU’s, which suggests that the RTX 3080 is the weaker link in this pairing for Fortnite. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 23172, with a PassMark G3D score of 25086 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4407. These numbers are respectable, but the GPU’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, 0.3% higher), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, 0.3% higher), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, 0.4% higher), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, 0.4% higher). All of these are within 0.4% of the RTX 3080’s average score, indicating that the GPU sits in a crowded mid-range performance band.

The combo rank of 1043 out of 3700 is consistent with a system that can play Fortnite at high frame rates on 1080p and 1440p, but falls short of the top echelons at 4K. For context, a combo ranked near the top would likely pair a faster GPU with a similar CPU. The data shows that the i7-13700K is not the limiting factor at 1080p, as the 324 FPS Low result is among the higher measurements in the dataset. The RTX 3080’s 10 GB VRAM and 320-bit bus are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but 4K Ultra’s 39 FPS average suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth or capacity is a constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It has 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, along with 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores. The GPU’s base clock is 1440 MHz with a boost clock of 1710 MHz, and its memory runs at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The 10 GB of GDDR6X memory is paired with a 320-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 29.77 TFLOPS, and its pixel rate is 164.2 GPixel/s.

In Fortnite, the GPU’s role becomes dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU can produce 324 FPS at Low and 177 FPS at High, which indicates that the GPU is not fully saturated at lower settings. At 1440p, the GPU’s load increases, with 206 FPS at Low and 112 FPS at High. The jump to 4K reveals the GPU’s limits: 109 FPS at Low, 77 FPS at Medium, 59 FPS at High, and 39 FPS at Ultra. The 4K Medium result, with a minimum FPS of 65, shows that the GPU can maintain playable frame rates only with reduced settings.

The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s is high, but 10 GB of VRAM may be insufficient for 4K Ultra textures in Fortnite, leading to the 39 FPS average. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 25086 and DirectX 12 score of 100 (relative) indicate solid DirectX 12 performance, which Fortnite uses. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 33620 further shows the GPU’s capability in modern APIs.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 3080’s average benchmark score of 23172 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, 0.4% higher) and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, 0.4% higher). This suggests that in raw compute, the RTX 3080 is not significantly ahead of these lower-tier GPUs, but its advantage in real-world gaming comes from its higher memory bandwidth and newer architecture. However, in Fortnite, the measured FPS shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the CPU’s performance is sufficient to drive higher frame rates at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions—1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160—each with four settings presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The averages are as follows:

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 324 FPS
• Medium: 228 FPS (minimum 194, maximum 262)
• High: 177 FPS
• Ultra: 117 FPS

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 206 FPS
• Medium: 145 FPS (minimum 123, maximum 167)
• High: 112 FPS
• Ultra: 74 FPS

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 109 FPS
• Medium: 77 FPS (minimum 65, maximum 88)
• High: 59 FPS
• Ultra: 39 FPS

The Medium preset is the only setting with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, showing that at 1080p Medium, the frame rate ranges from 194 to 262 FPS, at 1440p Medium from 123 to 167 FPS, and at 4K Medium from 65 to 88 FPS. These ranges indicate that Medium settings produce more consistent frame pacing than other presets, which may be relevant for competitive play.

The FPS drop between presets is consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, Low to Medium costs 96 FPS, Medium to High costs 51 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 60 FPS. At 1440p, the drops are 61, 33, and 38 FPS respectively. At 4K, the drops are 32, 18, and 20 FPS. The absolute FPS loss per preset decreases as resolution increases, but the percentage loss remains similar, indicating that the GPU is consistently the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The data shows that the combo can exceed 200 FPS only at 1080p Low and 1440p Low. For players targeting 144 Hz monitors, 1080p Medium (228 FPS) and 1440p Low (206 FPS) are the only settings that consistently stay above that threshold. At 4K, no preset achieves 144 FPS, and even 4K Low’s 109 FPS is below that mark.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the optimal settings depend on the target refresh rate and resolution. For 1080p, the Low preset delivers 324 FPS, which is far above any current monitor’s refresh rate, making it ideal for maximum responsiveness. Medium at 1080p still provides 228 FPS with a tight frame range (194-262), offering better visuals without sacrificing competitive performance. High at 1080p drops to 177 FPS, which is still above 144 Hz, but Ultra falls to 117 FPS, which may not satisfy high-refresh-rate players.

For 1440p, Low at 206 FPS is the only preset that exceeds 144 Hz. Medium at 145 FPS is just above 144 Hz and has a minimum of 123 FPS, which could dip below the refresh rate during intense scenes. High at 112 FPS and Ultra at 74 FPS are better suited for 60-100 Hz displays. Players with 144 Hz monitors should choose 1440p Low or 1080p Medium.

At 4K, the choice is between Low (109 FPS), Medium (77 FPS), High (59 FPS), and Ultra (39 FPS). For a 60 Hz display, Medium is the best option, as it averages 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay. High at 59 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 39 FPS is not recommended for playable frame rates. For 120 Hz or higher displays, 4K is not viable with this combo, and players should drop to 1440p.

The data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance across all resolutions, as it is the only setting with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, indicating more stable performance. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 228 FPS; at 1440p Medium, 145 FPS; and at 4K Medium, 77 FPS. For most users, 1440p Medium is the sweet spot, providing high frame rates and good visual quality without the steep performance cost of Ultra settings.

If visual fidelity is the priority, 1080p Ultra at 117 FPS or 1440p Ultra at 74 FPS are options, but the FPS drop from High to Ultra is significant—60 FPS at 1080p and 38 FPS at 1440p. The RTX 3080’s 10 GB VRAM may also cause stuttering at Ultra in 4K, given the 39 FPS average. Therefore, the recommendation is to use 1440p Medium for a balanced experience, 1080p Low for maximum FPS, and 4K Medium only if the display is limited to 60 Hz.