Minecraft

Minecraft, the endlessly moddable sandbox, is not a typical GPU showcase, but AMD’s Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1650 bring it to life. This combo produces surprisingly high frames, but the data shows a clear ceiling: the GTX 1650 struggles at higher resolutions while the CPU retains headroom. Measured results from 1080p to 4K reveal a system that can hold 60 FPS at 1440p in medium presets, though the older CPU and entry-level GPU create a noticeable bottleneck under load.

FAQ

Q: What are the measured average FPS at each preset and resolution?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 186 on Low, 147 on Medium, 117 on High, down to 73 on Ultra. At 2560x1440, the numbers are 117, 93, 74, and 46 for Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 3840x2160, the averages are 61, 49, 39, and 24 for the same presets.

Q: Which preset is the fastest for this hardware?

A: The Low preset at 1080p delivers the highest measured FPS, with an 186 FPS average. This is 73 FPS higher than the next fastest (1440p Low at 117 FPS) and more than twice the 4K Ultra figure of 24 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 2600 compare to its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21484. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V, scores 21440, a difference of 0.2% (deltaPct). The Core i9-11910H scores 21367 (0.5% higher), while the EPYC 9454 sits at 21414 (1.2% higher) and the Xeon D-1746TER at 21635 (0.7% lower).

Q: How does the GTX 1650 rank in GPU benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1650’s average benchmark score is 7472, placing it in the 40th percentile of all GPUs tested. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon HD 8850M (7447, 0.3% difference), followed by the Intel UHD Graphics 750 (7441, 0.4%), the Radeon R7 350 (7425, 0.6%), and the Intel Arc A310 (7550, -1.0%).

Q: Are there any min/max FPS samples?

A: Yes, the Medium preset has both min and max FPS for all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the min is 125 and max is 170 FPS. At 1440p, the min is 79 and max 107 FPS. At 4K, the min is 41 and max 56 FPS.

Q: Does the combo rank well among all tested systems?

A: This pairing is ranked 3548 out of 3710 tested combos, which places it in the lower portion of the chart.

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CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen architecture, fabricated on a 12 nm node with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. It includes 16 MB of shared L3 cache, with 96 KB per core L1 and 512 KB per core L2 cache. A 65 W TDP and AM4 support make it a mainstream desktop chip. The dual‑channel memory bus provides a measured bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s, and the CPU supports DDR4 memory without ECC. Its production status is marked as 'Active' with a release date of April 18, 2018, and it has a launch MSRP of $199.

In CPU-specific benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 2600 posts a Cinebench R15 multicore score of 1248 and a single-core score of 157.3. Geekbench results show 5648 for multicore and 1154 for single-core. The Passmark data-thread suite reports a multicore score of 13160 and a single-thread score of 2239. These numbers place the CPU in the 75th percentile of all processors, meaning it outperforms a majority of tested CPUs. Its nearest rivals—the Core Ultra 5 228V, Core i9-11900H, Xeon D-1746TER, and EPYC 9454—all score between 21200 and 21700 on average, so the Ryzen 5 2600 is solidly in the mid-pack.

Within Minecraft, the CPU’s six cores and twelve threads help manage the game’s world simulation and entity updates. The high base and boost clocks ensure that single-threaded tasks receive up to 3.90 GHz. However, the frame rate data suggests that the CPU is rarely the bottleneck until the resolution and preset force the GPU to work harder. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 186 FPS, which is far above the a 60 FPS target. This high headroom implies that the CPU can feed the GTX 1650 with enough data to push high frame counts, and the CPU’s single-thread score of 157.3 (R15) provides the raw single-thread performance needed for Minecraft’s logic.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is based on the Turing architecture, built on a 12 nm process, with a die size of 200 mm² and 4,700 million transistors. It has 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 Raster Output Units. The GPU core runs at a base clock of 1485 MHz with a boost of 1665 MHz, paired with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s. There is no dedicated RT or tensor core, as this is a GTX-class adapter. The board’s power consumption stays at 75 W with no external power connector, and the recommended PSU is 250 W. It has one DVI, one HDMI 2.0, and one DisplayPort 1.4a output.

In synthetic tests, the GTX 1650 scores 305 on the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, and 29,629 on the Geekbench OpenCL test, plus 33,042 on Vulkan. Its Passmark G3D score is 7880, and the GPU compute score is 3048. This puts the GPU at the 40th percentile among all GPUs, meaning 60% of tested GPUs are faster. The nearest rivals are all small integrated or older discrete cards, with average scores between 7433 and 7550, all within 1% of each other.

In Minecraft, the GPU’s role scales with resolution and presets. Low settings keep the GPU lightly loaded, allowing high FPS, while the Ultra preset at any resolution dramatically reduces the average. At 1080p Low, the 186 FPS shows the GPU is many times above the display, but at 4K Ultra the 24 FPS average reveals the hard limit of the 4 GB memory and 128-bit bandwidth. The GPU’s strong raw compute may not be fully exercised by the Low preset, but it loses ground quickly when textures, shadows, and draw distance inflate. The results indicate that the 1650 is effective for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but 4K is not a practical target unless the preset is reduced to Low.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing of Ryzen 5 2600 and GTX 1650 achieves an overall rank of 3,548 out of 3,710 tested combinations in Minecraft. That places it in the bottom fifth of all systems, specifically the 20th percentile (or 3548/3710 = 95.6% of tested combos are better). For reference, the top-performing combos likely pair high-core-count CPUs with flagship GPUs, which is not the case here. The CPU is in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, but the GPU is only in the 40th percentile, and the gap between those two components explains the poor combined ranking. The presence of other combos, especially those with older low-end CPUs but better GPUs, or newer mainstream GPUs, pushes this pairing down.

The benchmark raw scores illustrate the CPU is far more capable than the GPU. For instance, the Ryzen 5 2600 outperforms its GPU in terms of percentile: the CPU beats 75% of all CPUs, while the GPU beats only 40% of GPUs. This imbalance is amplified in games that scale well with GPU load, because the GPU becomes the limiting pirate.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frames drop sharply as resolution climbs, illustrating where the GPU becomes the bottleneck. Starting at 1080p, the Low preset yields 186 FPS. Moving to 1440p, that number falls to 117 FPS, a reduction of 79 FPS. At 4K, the Low preset averages 61 FPS, which is nearly two-thirds below the 186 FPS achieved at 1080p. The relative rise in CPU load does not offset the GPU’s fillrate limitations. The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 147 FPS at 1080p, 93 FPS at 1440p, and 49 FPS at 4K. Even High settings, which at 1080p manage 117 FPS, yield only 74 FPS at 1440p and 39 FPS at 4K.

This scaling reveals that the GTX 1650’s memory bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s is a decisive factor. At 8 million, the 8 Gbps effective memory speed is fixed, and the render target count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, quadrupling the data that must be written to VRAM. The 40% percentile GPU performance and the 4 GB VRAM further limit the visibility of the 4K data. The CPU’s role is to keep the scene coherent, but its single-core performance does not degrade with resolution. The FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p is larger than from 1440p to 4K across all presets, indicating that the GPU’s raw shading power is the primary hurdle.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following measurements are taken directly from the test run.

1920x1080

• Low: avg 186 FPS, no min/max.
• Medium: avg 147 FPS, min 125, max 170 FPS.
• High: avg 117 FPS, no min/max.
• Ultra: avg 73 FPS, no min/max.

2560x1440

• Low: avg 117 FPS, no min/max.
• Medium: avg 93 FPS, min 79, max 107 FPS.
• High: avg 74 FPS, no min/max.
• Ultra: avg 46 FPS, no min/max.

3840x2160

• Low: avg 61 FPS, no min/max.
• Medium: avg 49 FPS, min 41, max 56 FPS.
• High: avg 39 FPS, no min/max.
• Ultra: avg 24 FPS, no min/max.

These numbers confirm that the GTX 1650 does not maintain even 60 FPS at 4K Medium, and only its Low preset reaches 60 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra dips to 46 FPS, below the 60 target, but Medium posts 93 FPS with the lowest min of 79, staying steady. At 1080p, even Ultra yields 73 FPS, which is above 60, though it is a generator of the GPU’s stress.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the most visually satisfying setting that also maintains a playable frame rate is the Medium preset at 1440p. It averages 114 FPS—actually 93 FPS to be exact—with a minimum of 79 FPS, so it never drops below 75 FPS. This is a comfortable frame for most players. If the target is 144 Hz, the 1080p Medium preset offers 147 FPS, with a minimum of 125, meaning even in taxing scenes the frame rate stays above the refresh rate of a typical 144 Hz monitor.

For those who insist on Ultra, 1080p gives 117 FPS, but that dips to 46 FPS at 1440p, which is below the 60 FPS standard. At 4K, the only viable preset is Low, at 71 FPS, but it’s a game performance hit. The balance between quality and responsiveness lies at 1440p Medium, where the GPU stays under control and the CPU never holds anything back. The 39 FPS average at 4K High is not recommended, as the visual jump from Medium to High at 4K is negligible given the heavy FPS loss. The data suggests that the Ryzen 5 2600 and GTX 1650 are best aimed at 1080p, with a headroom to try 1440p Medium for a “high refresh” experience at the cost of resolution.

In summary, this combo is a capable 1080p, 60 FPS machine with modest scaling. The GPU is the limiting factor, especially at 1440p and 4K, while the CPU offers more than enough headroom for Minecraft’s simulation. For users aiming for steady gameplay, the 1440p Medium preset is the provided sweet spot of the tested configurations.