Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox title that scales across a wide range of hardware, but the combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 produces some unusual results. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions and settings, yet the CPU still plays a decisive role at 1080p. This analysis examines the measured FPS across three resolutions and four settings presets, and places the combo in context with other tested configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings is 560 FPS. This is the highest recorded average in the entire dataset for this combo.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra preset compare to the 4K Medium preset?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset delivers an average of 220 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 109 FPS. That is a reduction of 111 FPS, or roughly half the frame rate, when moving from Medium to Ultra at 4K.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values available in the data?

A: The only preset with a measured minimum FPS is Medium. At 1920x1080 the minimum is 438 FPS, at 2560x1440 it is 359 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it is 187 FPS. No minimum FPS values are listed for Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 421st out of 3710 tested combinations for Minecraft. This places it in the top 12% of all tested combos.

Q: How many cores and threads does the Intel Core i5-11400F have?

A: The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, based on its Rocket Lake architecture. Its base clock is 2.60 GHz and its boost clock is 4.40 GHz.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1875 MHz, or 30 Gbps effective.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field lists a rank of 421 out of 3710 tested combinations. This is a strong position, placing the configuration in the top 11.3% of all tested combos for Minecraft. Given that Minecraft is a sandbox game with a long history, the rank suggests that this hardware pairing is far above the average tested system. The data indicates that the RTX 5080's raw compute and the i5-11400F's six-core, twelve-thread setup combine to deliver performance that exceeds the vast majority of other combos in the database.

However, the rank alone does not capture the nuance of how this combo behaves across different settings and resolutions. The performance envelope is wide: the recorded average FPS spans from 109 FPS at 4K Ultra to 560 FPS at 1080p Low. That is a range of 451 FPS, which shows that the combo's position in the ranking is heavily dependent on the chosen workload. At lower resolutions and settings, the system is pushing against CPU limits, while at 4K Ultra the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. The rank is an aggregate measure, but the data shows that the experience varies dramatically based on the player's settings.

The CPU's nearest rival data offers some context. The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17177, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120) and 0.4% lower than the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239). These deltas are very small, meaning the i5-11400F's overall CPU performance is on par with those processors. Yet its position in the gaming ranking for this particular title is not solely determined by CPU score; the GPU matters as much at higher resolutions. The GPU's nearest rival data shows the RTX 5080 is 0.6% faster than the AMD Radeon 8060S and 0.7% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, placing it in a very close performance cluster.

Settings Recommendations

The settings presets in the dataset are Low, Medium, High, and Ultra, tested at three resolutions. The data reveals that the Medium preset provides a very strong balance between visual quality and frame rate. At 1920x1080, Medium averages 515 FPS, with a minimum of 438 FPS and a maximum of 592 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 422 FPS with a minimum of 359 FPS. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 220 FPS with a minimum of 187 FPS. Every resolution shows a Minimum FPS that is at least 85% of the preset's average, which indicates a stable frame delivery.

High settings are also playable, but the frame rates drop more sharply at 4K. At 3840x2160, High averages 175 FPS, while Medium averages 220 FPS. That is a 45 FPS difference. At 1080p, High averages 474 FPS, which is still very smooth, but it is 41 FPS lower than Medium. The data suggests that if a player prioritizes maximum FPS, Medium is the better choice, but if visual fidelity is more important, High remains viable at 1080p and 1440p.

Ultra is the most demanding preset. At 1080p, Ultra yields 332 FPS, which is still high, but at 4K Ultra drops to 109 FPS. The slope of this drop is steep, and the 109 FPS figure is the lowest in the entire dataset. For a sandbox game like Minecraft, where players often build complex structures and explore large worlds, the minimum frame rate can be more important than the average. The Medium preset's minimum FPS values of 438 at 1080p, 359 at 1440p, and 187 at 4K provide a safer floor. The recommendation based on the measured data is to use Medium for high-refresh-rate monitors, or High if the player prefers visual quality and is running at 1080p or 1440p. Ultra is only recommended for players who prioritize visual effects at 1080p or 1440p, since 4K Ultra falls to an average of 109 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset contains twelve measured rows, one for each combination of three resolutions and four settings. Below is a full breakdown.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 560 FPS. The High preset averages 474 FPS, Medium 515 FPS, and Ultra 332 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one with a minimum and maximum recorded, with a minimum of 438 FPS and a maximum of 592 FPS. This means the Median preset's average of 515 FPS sits between those two values. The range between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 228 FPS, with Low being 168 FPS higher than Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 480 FPS. Medium averages 422 FPS with a minimum of 359 and a maximum of 485. High averages 335 FPS, and Ultra averages 209 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 271 FPS. The Medium preset's maximum of 485 FPS is close to the Low preset's average of 480 FPS, indicating that Medium can occasionally hit the same peaks as Low.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 278 FPS. Medium averages 220 FPS with a minimum of 187 and a maximum of 254. High averages 175 FPS, and Ultra averages 109 FPS. The spread is 169 FPS, which is smaller than the spread at 1440p (271 FPS) and 1080p (228 FPS). This smaller spread at 4K suggests that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck, compressing the differences between settings.

Looking across resolutions, the Medium preset shows a clear pattern. At 1080p, Medium averages 515 FPS; at 1440p, it averages 422 FPS; at 4K, it averages 220 FPS. That is a drop of 93 FPS from 1080p to 1440p, and a further drop of 202 FPS from 1440p to 4K. The ratio from 1080p to 1440p is 0.82, and from 1080p to 4K is 0.43. This scaling is close to the pixel count ratio (1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 4 times), which indicates that the Medium preset is heavily GPU-bound. The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 560 FPS at 1080p, 480 at 1440p (0.86 ratio), and 278 at 4K (0.50 ratio). The Ultra preset is the most resolution-sensitive, with 332 FPS at 1080p, 209 at 1440p (0.63), and 109 at 4K (0.33).

GPU Role

The RTX 5080 is the primary driver of the high FPS numbers in this dataset. It features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory, a 256-bit bus, and a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The GPU clocks are listed as a base of 2295 MHz and a boost of 2617 MHz. The GPU's average benchmark score is 56083, putting it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 8060S (55757, 0.6% slower), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698, 0.7% slower), and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (57367, 2.2% faster). The data shows the RTX 5080 is in a tight performance cluster with those GPUs, but in this specific game, the measured FPS numbers are very high.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s is substantial. In Minecraft, which often relies on large textures and chunk data, memory bandwidth can affect how quickly the GPU can feed the shader units. The 16 GB VRAM is more than enough for any texture pack or mod at 4K resolution. The shading units number 10752, TMUs 336, and ROPs 112. The texture rate is 879.3 GTexel/s and the pixel rate is 293.1 GPixel/s. These numbers indicate a very high throughput, which is reflected in the 4K High average of 175 FPS.

At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 109 FPS. This is the benchmark where the GPU is most stressed. The pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s would theoretically allow for many more FPS, but the game's Ultra preset likely increases the load on the geometry and draw calls, pushing the GPU closer to its limits. The data does not include a minimum FPS for Ultra, but the average of 109 FPS is still playable for many monitors, though not for high-refresh-rate screens. The GPU's performance is the reason why the combo ranks in the top 12% of all tested combos.

The RTX 5080's transistor count is 45,600 million on a 5 nm process, with a die size of 378 mm². Its transistor density is 120.6M / mm². These physical characteristics are not directly visible in the game, but they explain the high compute performance. The FP32 throughput is 56.28 TFLOPS, which is the same as FP16 at a 1:1 ratio. This is a very powerful chip, and the measured FPS numbers in Minecraft are consistent with that.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its cache includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's memory bandwidth is 51.2 GB/s with dual-channel DDR4 support. The combination of 6 cores and 12 threads is more than enough for Minecraft, which is not known for leveraging many cores.

The CPU's benchmark scores are moderate. Its average benchmark score is 17177, placing it in the 71st percentile of all CPUs. In the 3DMark tests, it scores 868 in single-thread, 1691 in 2-thread, 3171 in 4-thread, 4691 in 8-thread, and 5652 in max-thread. The passmark multithread score is 16908. These numbers indicate that the CPU is mid-range, but for Minecraft, the single-thread performance matters a lot. The Cinebench R20 single-core score is 850, and the Cinebench R23 single-core score is 2024.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p Low. That setting yields 560 FPS average, which is a high number. The CPU is likely the limiting factor at that point, because the GPU would be able to render even more frames if the CPU could keep up. The 1080p Low frame rate of 560 FPS is 80 FPS higher than the 1440p Low frame rate of 480 FPS, but only 120 FPS higher than the 4K Low frame rate of 278 FPS. This pattern indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is nearly maxed out, while at 4K the GPU is the primary limit.

The single-thread performance of the i5-11400F is respectable, but not top-tier. The 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and the Geekbench single-core score of 1777 show that it is a solid mainstream CPU. In Minecraft, the game engine is often single-thread bound for world generation and physics, but the data does not show a dramatic CPU bottleneck at 1080p, since the FPS is still above 500. The CPU's 12 threads probably help with background tasks and when many entities are present, but the average FPS numbers do not isolate that effect.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component. For the Medium preset, the FPS drops from 515 at 1080p to 422 at 1440p (a drop of 93 FPS, or 19%), and then to 220 at 4K (a drop of 202 FPS, or 38% of the 1440p value). The pixel count from 1080p to 4K increases by 4 times, but the Medium FPS drops by 295 FPS, which is 57%. This is close to the pixel count scaling, indicating that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K for Medium. The 4K-to-1440p ratio is 0.52, while the pixel ratio is 0.56, so the GPU is almost perfectly pixel-bound.

For the Low preset, the FPS at 1080p is 560, at 1440p is 480 (drop of 80, or 14%), and at 4K is 278 (drop of 202 from 1440p, or 42%). The 1080p to 4K drop is 282 FPS, which is 50% of the 1080p value. Again, the scaling is close to the pixel count. The High preset shows a more aggressive drop: 474 at 1080p, 335 at 1440p (drop of 139, or 29%), and 175 at 4K (drop of 160 from 1440p, or 48%). The Ultra preset is the most sensitive: 332 at 1080p, 209 at 1440p (drop of 123, or 37%), and 109 at 4K (drop of 100, or 48%).

The trend across all four presets is clear: the FPS drops almost linearly with the pixel count. This means the RTX 5080 is the limiting factor when the resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU is more capable of keeping the frame rate high, but as the resolution climbs, the GPU's workload increases faster than the CPU's. The data shows that the CPU is not a major bottleneck at 1440p or 4K, because the FPS scaling matches the pixel count. At 1080p, the CPU does limit the top end, as evidenced by the fact that the Low preset at 1080p does not scale up as much as the pixel count would suggest if the GPU were the only limit.

The measured FPS data indicates that the combo is GPU-bound at 4K and CPU-bound at 1080p. The 1080p Low preset at 560 FPS is likely near the CPU's maximum frame production, while the 4Kp Ultra at 109 FPS is entirely GPU-limited. The 1440p resolution sits in between, with the GPU still being the main limit for the higher presets, but the CPU still able to feed enough frames for 480 FPS in Low. The result is a versatile system that can handle any setting this game throws at it, but the user who wants the absolute highest FPS will need to stick with 1080p and Medium or Low settings.