Minecraft

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces an unusual set of results in Minecraft, where the measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is heavily limited by the CPU rather than the GPU. The data shows this combo ranks 138th out of 3710 tested combinations, placing it in the top 4% of all tested configurations for this game, though the performance pattern is not what one would expect from a flagship GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how each preset performs at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 656 FPS, Medium achieves 603 FPS, High reaches 555 FPS, and Ultra drops to 362 FPS. The progression from Low to High at 1080p shows relatively small differences, with only a 101 FPS gap between the lowest and highest settings. The Ultra preset, however, imposes a significantly larger penalty, dropping 193 FPS below High.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low averages 563 FPS, Medium 461 FPS, High 366 FPS, and Ultra 229 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is now 137 FPS, while the difference between Low and High is 197 FPS. This suggests that the higher resolution amplifies the cost of the Ultra preset. At 3840x2160, Low produces 304 FPS, Medium 241 FPS, High 191 FPS, and Ultra 119 FPS. The Ultra setting at 4K is the only configuration that dips below 120 FPS average, which may matter for high-refresh-rate displays.

For the best experience, the Medium preset appears to offer the most balanced outcome. At 1080p, Medium delivers 603 FPS with a minimum of 513 FPS and maximum of 694 FPS, providing a very smooth experience. At 1440p, Medium maintains 461 FPS with a minimum of 392 FPS and maximum of 530 FPS. Even at 4K, Medium sustains 241 FPS with a minimum of 205 FPS and maximum of 277 FPS. The Medium preset is the only setting where min and max values are recorded across all three resolutions, indicating it produces a consistent frame delivery. High settings offer slightly lower averages but still remain very playable, while Ultra imposes a substantial performance cost that may not justify the visual gains in a sandbox game like this.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU benchmarks show a single-thread score of 909 in 3dmark, 244 in Cinebench R15, 985 in Cinebench R20, and 1680 in Cinebench R23. Multi-threaded scores reach 5912 in 3dmark max threads, 1759 in Cinebench R15, 6980 in Cinebench R20, and 12380 in Cinebench R23.

Minecraft is known to be a game that relies heavily on a single primary thread for world simulation and chunk updates. The measured FPS data supports this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 656 FPS, which is an extremely high number for any title. Moving to 1440p Low only drops this to 563 FPS, and 4K Low still maintains 304 FPS. The fact that a flagship GPU like the RTX 5090 cannot push beyond 656 FPS at 1080p Low strongly indicates the CPU is the limiting factor at these lower resolutions and settings.

The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by the 909 single-thread score in 3dmark and 3481 in passmark single thread, appears to be the ceiling for this combination. The average benchmark score of 19039 places this CPU at the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (deltaPct 0) and Intel Core 3 201E (deltaPct -0.1). This percentile ranking suggests the CPU is mid-pack overall, yet in Minecraft, the frame rates are extraordinarily high, which means the game is not heavily taxing the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities. Instead, the game's performance is gated by how fast a single core can process game logic.

The 3dmark scores show a progression from 909 single-thread to 1699 for 2 threads, 3067 for 4 threads, 4779 for 8 threads, and 5912 for max threads. This scaling indicates that the CPU does gain from additional threads, but the jump from 8 threads to max threads is modest, suggesting diminishing returns beyond 8 threads. In a game like Minecraft, where the main thread dominates, the boost clock of 4.40 GHz becomes the most relevant specification, and the measured results confirm that the CPU can sustain high single-thread performance across all tested resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a massive GPU by any measure. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, with a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The GPU has 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. Its base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The GPU benchmarks include a 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 334370, and a Vulkan score of 376728. The passmark G3D score is 39650, with a GPU compute score of 26756.

Given these specifications, the RTX 5090 should be able to handle any game at any resolution with ease. However, the measured FPS data in Minecraft shows that the GPU is not the bottleneck in most scenarios. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset achieves 362 FPS average, which is far above the refresh rate of most monitors. The GPU's 32 GB of VRAM is completely unnecessary for Minecraft, as the game's textures and geometry are simple by modern standards. The GPU's 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth is also vastly underutilized.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 92 places it in the top 8% of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (deltaPct 0.3) and AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (deltaPct 1.1). These rivals are all older or lower-tier products, which underscores how powerful the RTX 5090 is. Yet in Minecraft, the GPU's role is reduced to rendering relatively simple scenes at very high frame rates. The data shows that the GPU only becomes more relevant as resolution increases, where the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth start to matter more. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 119, which is still very playable but represents a significant reduction from 1080p Ultra's 362 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 138th out of 3710 tested combos in Minecraft, placing it in the top 3.7% of all configurations. This ranking is notable because the CPU is a mid-range part (73rd percentile), while the GPU is a flagship part (92nd percentile). The fact that this pairing still lands in the top 138 combos suggests that Minecraft's performance is heavily weighted toward CPU single-thread performance, and the i5-12400F's boost clock of 4.40 GHz is sufficient to drive very high frame rates.

Compared to other tested combos, this ranking indicates that there are 137 configurations that perform better in Minecraft. Those likely include CPUs with higher single-thread performance, such as newer or higher-clocked parts. The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals are all within 0.3% of the i5-12400F's average benchmark score, meaning the CPU is closely matched with several other processors. However, the ranking in Minecraft may differ from the general CPU ranking because the game's specific workload favors certain characteristics.

The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (deltaPct 0.3) and Radeon RX 6850M XT (deltaPct 1.1), are not typically associated with gaming performance, which further highlights that the RTX 5090's raw power is not the limiting factor here. The combo rank of 138 is likely driven by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with enough frames, and the i5-12400F does this admirably. The data shows that this is a high-performing combo for Minecraft, but not the absolute best, which would require a faster CPU to push frame rates even higher.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 656, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 603 FPS, and High delivers 555 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM matter for Minecraft?

A: The measured data does not indicate any VRAM-related bottlenecks. At all resolutions and settings, the game runs at high frame rates, suggesting that the 32 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor for this title.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K compared to 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 656 FPS, while at 4K Low it achieves 304 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 352 FPS, representing a 54% reduction. At Ultra settings, 1080p delivers 362 FPS and 4K delivers 119 FPS, a 67% reduction.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 138th out of 3710 tested combinations, placing it in the top 4% of all tested combos for Minecraft.

Q: Which preset provides the most consistent frame delivery?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with recorded min and max FPS values at all three resolutions. At 1080p, it ranges from 513 to 694 FPS; at 1440p, from 392 to 530 FPS; and at 4K, from 205 to 277 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this setup?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the primary limiter at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 656 FPS, and increasing resolution to 1440p Low only drops to 563 FPS, indicating the GPU has plenty of headroom. The CPU's single-thread performance of 909 in 3dmark and 3481 in passmark appears to cap frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear hierarchy. The Low preset averages 656 FPS, which is the highest number recorded for this combo. The Medium preset averages 603 FPS, with a minimum of 513 and a maximum of 694 FPS. The High preset averages 555 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 362 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 53 FPS, between Medium and High is 48 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 193 FPS. This large drop at Ultra indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately expensive at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 563 FPS, which is 93 FPS lower than at 1080p. The Medium preset averages 461 FPS, with a minimum of 392 and a maximum of 530 FPS. The High preset averages 366 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 229 FPS. The differences between Low and Medium (102 FPS), Medium and High (95 FPS), and High and Ultra (137 FPS) are more evenly distributed than at 1080p. The minimum FPS for Medium at 1440p is 392, which is still very high.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 304 FPS. The Medium preset averages 241 FPS, with a minimum of 205 and a maximum of 277 FPS. The High preset averages 191 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 119 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 63 FPS, between Medium and High is 50 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 72 FPS. This is the only resolution where the Ultra preset falls below 120 FPS average, which could be a consideration for users with 120Hz or 144Hz displays.

Looking at the data across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides a balance of high average FPS and recorded minimums. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 513 FPS is higher than the average of many other games' maximum settings. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 392 FPS is still above 360, which is a common high-refresh-rate threshold. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 205 FPS is well above 144, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate 4K monitors.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about which component is limiting performance. At the Low preset, the FPS drops from 656 at 1080p to 563 at 1440p, a reduction of 93 FPS or 14.2%. From 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops from 563 to 304, a reduction of 259 FPS or 46.0%. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 352 FPS, or 53.7%.

At the Medium preset, the FPS drops from 603 at 1080p to 461 at 1440p, a reduction of 142 FPS or 23.5%. From 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops from 461 to 241, a reduction of 220 FPS or 47.7%. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium is 362 FPS, or 60.0%.

At the High preset, the FPS drops from 555 at 1080p to 366 at 1440p, a reduction of 189 FPS or 34.1%. From 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops from 366 to 191, a reduction of 175 FPS or 47.8%. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at High is 364 FPS, or 65.6%.

At the Ultra preset, the FPS drops from 362 at 1080p to 229 at 1440p, a reduction of 133 FPS or 36.7%. From 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops from 229 to 119, a reduction of 110 FPS or 48.0%. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 243 FPS, or 67.1%.

The pattern here is instructive. At the Low preset, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 14.2%, which is much smaller than the drop from 1440p to 4K at 46.0%. This indicates that at Low settings and 1080p/1440p, the CPU is the primary limiter, and the GPU has enough headroom to handle the resolution increase with minimal FPS loss. The larger drop from 1440p to 4K suggests that the GPU starts to become more involved as the pixel count increases.

At the Ultra preset, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36.7%, which is larger than at Low settings. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds GPU-intensive effects that begin to load the GPU even at 1440p. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 48.0%, which is similar across all settings, indicating that the 4K resolution imposes a consistent GPU load regardless of settings.

The overall scaling behavior shows that this combo is CPU-limited at lower resolutions and lower settings, but becomes more GPU-limited as resolution and settings increase. The fact that even at 4K Ultra the combo still averages 119 FPS demonstrates that the RTX 5090 is powerful enough to handle this game's most demanding configuration, while the i5-12400F is sufficient to keep frame rates high in less demanding scenarios. The limiting component shifts from CPU at 1080p Low to GPU at 4K Ultra, with a gradual transition in between.