Minecraft

Minecraft pairs an Intel Core i5-13400F with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, a combination that ranks 119th out of 3,710 tested combos in this game. The measured data covers four settings presets across three resolutions, providing a clear picture of how this hardware handles the sandbox title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but not uniform across all settings. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (683 FPS) to 2560x1440 (568 FPS) represents a 16.8% reduction, while moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 (297 FPS) cuts performance by 47.7%. This steep decline at higher resolutions indicates the RTX 4090 becomes increasingly pixel-bound as resolution climbs.

For Medium settings, the scaling pattern is similar. From 1080p (628 FPS) to 1440p (450 FPS) the drop is 28.3%, and from 1440p to 4K (235 FPS) the reduction is 47.8%. The consistency of these percentages suggests the limiting factor shifts from CPU-bound at lower resolutions to GPU-bound at 4K.

High settings show a gentler initial drop: 566 FPS at 1080p falls to 357 FPS at 1440p, a 36.9% decline, then to 187 FPS at 4K, another 47.6% drop. The 4K-to-1440p ratio stays near 0.52 across all presets, meaning the RTX 4090 delivers roughly half its 1440p frame rate when resolution doubles.

Ultra settings produce the lowest absolute numbers but follow the same trend: 354 FPS at 1080p, 223 FPS at 1440p (37.0% drop), and 117 FPS at 4K (47.5% drop). The consistent ~47% penalty from 1440p to 4K across all presets indicates this is purely a pixel-throughput limitation of the GPU, not a CPU bottleneck.

The 1080p-to-1440p scaling varies more by preset (16.8% for Low, 28.3% for Medium, 36.9% for High, 37.0% for Ultra). This divergence suggests that at lower settings, the CPU can still feed the GPU adequately at 1080p, but as settings increase, the per-frame work grows, making the transition to 1440p more costly.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090 carries 16,384 shader units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs, built on the AD102 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory operates across a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU runs at a base clock of 2235 MHz with a boost of 2520 MHz, and memory clocks at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective).

In Minecraft, the GPU role becomes evident in the 4K results. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo produces 187 FPS average. Dropping to Medium raises this to 235 FPS, and Low reaches 297 FPS. The Ultra preset, which likely enables more demanding visual effects, yields only 117 FPS at 4K. These numbers span a 2.5x range from Ultra to Low, showing that the GPU's workload scales dramatically with preset.

The benchmark scores place this GPU in the 88th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60,347. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326, 0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61,896, -2.5% delta). These comparisons are based on aggregate benchmark averages rather than Minecraft-specific performance, so the actual in-game deltas may differ.

The 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth appears sufficient for Minecraft's texture streaming needs, even at 4K. The 24 GB VRAM capacity is far beyond what this game requires at any tested resolution, meaning VRAM capacity is unlikely to be a limiting factor in any measured scenario. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for the high frame rates observed at 1080p.

At 1080p Low, the 683 FPS result approaches the display refresh rate limits of most monitors, indicating the GPU is barely stressed. The GPU's FP32 compute of 82.58 TFLOPS (with FP16 at the same 1:1 ratio) ensures that even the most demanding shader configurations in Minecraft do not saturate the compute units.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides 10 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 2.50 GHz with a boost of 4.60 GHz. This Raptor Lake-S part, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a 215 mm² die size, has a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 20 MB shared L3.

This CPU sits in the 77th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 25,292. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25,284, 0% delta), Intel Core 5 120 (25,362, -0.3% delta), and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25,365, -0.3% delta). The 13400F essentially matches these alternatives in aggregate benchmarks.

In Minecraft, the CPU's influence appears most clearly at 1080p with lower settings. The 1080p Low result of 683 FPS likely approaches the game engine's frame generation ceiling, where per-frame CPU work becomes the bottleneck. The single-thread performance, as measured by the 960 score in 3DMark single-thread and 3,191 in Cinebench R23 single-core, drives Minecraft's primary game thread.

Multi-threaded performance shows the 13400F scaling well: 3DMark scores progress from 1,880 (2 threads) to 3,459 (4 threads) to 5,591 (8 threads) to 7,307 (16 threads) and 7,314 (max threads). This near-linear scaling through 8 threads indicates the 10-core design handles parallel workloads effectively, though Minecraft's rendering thread remains largely single-threaded.

The 16 threads and 20 MB L3 cache help maintain consistent frame pacing during world generation and chunk loading, where multiple background threads process terrain data. The dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support provides adequate bandwidth for the CPU's memory controller, though the specific memory configuration in the tested system is not recorded in the data.

Cinebench R23 results of 22,604 multi-core and 3,191 single-core demonstrate strong computational throughput. The PassMark multi-thread score of 25,032 and single-thread score of 3,634 corroborate the CPU's balanced performance profile. For Minecraft, the single-core strength matters most, and the 13400F delivers sufficient performance to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4090 at 1080p, as evidenced by the 683 FPS Low result.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are 683 FPS for Low, 628 FPS for Medium, 566 FPS for High, and 354 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset records a minimum of 534 FPS and maximum of 722 FPS, indicating a 188 FPS spread between worst and best frames. The Ultra preset's 354 FPS average represents a 48.2% reduction from Low, the largest relative gap among all resolutions.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 568 FPS, Medium 450 FPS (min 382, max 517), High 357 FPS, and Ultra 223 FPS. The Medium preset's 135 FPS range between minimum and maximum shows more frame time variance at this resolution. The Ultra preset here delivers 223 FPS, which is 39.4% below the 4K High result of 187 FPS when comparing across resolution/preset combinations.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 297 FPS, Medium 235 FPS (min 200, max 270), High 187 FPS, and Ultra 117 FPS. The Medium preset's 70 FPS spread between min and max represents the smallest absolute variance across all Medium configurations. The Ultra preset at 4K produces the lowest measured average in the entire dataset at 117 FPS, yet this still exceeds typical 60 Hz monitor refresh rates.

Comparing presets across resolutions, the High preset shows a clear progression: 566 FPS at 1080p, 357 FPS at 1440p, and 187 FPS at 4K. Each resolution doubling reduces High preset performance by roughly half. The Low preset follows a similar pattern but with higher absolute numbers: 683, 568, and 297 FPS respectively.

The Medium preset data, the only one with min/max values recorded, reveals interesting frame pacing. At 1080p, the 534-722 FPS range shows the CPU can occasionally push frames much higher, while the 4K range of 200-270 FPS suggests GPU-bound operation with tighter frame delivery.

Ultra preset results show the most dramatic scaling: 354 FPS at 1080p drops to 223 FPS at 1440p, then 117 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is 33% of the 1080p Ultra number, while for other presets the 4K-to-1080p ratio ranges from 43% (High) to 51% (Medium). This suggests Ultra settings impose a disproportionately heavy load at 4K.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 683 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in aggregate benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4090 scores 60,347 on average, which is 0% different from the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326), 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60,140), and 2.5% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61,896).

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all CPUs?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F sits in the 77th percentile, with an average benchmark score of 25,292.

Q: Which settings preset and resolution combination produces the lowest measured FPS?

A: The lowest average is 117 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the combo rank higher in CPU benchmarks or GPU benchmarks?

A: The GPU ranks in the 88th percentile among GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 77th percentile among CPUs, so the GPU holds a higher relative standing.

Q: What is the frame spread for Medium settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 382 and the maximum is 517, producing a 135 FPS spread.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests the Medium preset offers the best balance for most scenarios. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 628 FPS average with a 534-722 FPS range, which is only 8.1% lower than Low's 683 FPS while presumably offering improved visuals. The High preset at 1080p (566 FPS) still provides headroom above 500 FPS, making it a viable choice for high-refresh-rate displays.

For 2560x1440, Medium at 450 FPS (min 382, max 517) provides smooth performance with margin for demanding scenes. High at 357 FPS remains playable on 240 Hz monitors, while Ultra at 223 FPS suits 144 Hz displays. The Low preset's 568 FPS here offers no practical advantage over Medium given typical display refresh rates.

At 3840x2160, the choice depends on display capability. Medium at 235 FPS (min 200, max 270) ensures frame delivery stays above 200 FPS even in worst-case scenes, making it the recommended 4K preset. High at 187 FPS works for 144 Hz panels, while Ultra at 117 FPS still clears 60 Hz but with less headroom for frame drops.

The Ultra preset across all resolutions produces the lowest FPS but remains playable: 354 FPS at 1080p, 223 FPS at 1440p, and 117 FPS at 4K. For users prioritizing visual fidelity over frame rate, Ultra at 1440p (223 FPS) provides a strong middle ground with near-4K visual quality at higher frame rates than native 4K Ultra.

Given the data, Medium at 1440p appears to be the sweet spot: 450 FPS average with a minimum of 382 FPS ensures no perceptible stutter, while the visual upgrade over Low is likely noticeable. For 4K users, Medium (235 FPS) is the safest recommendation, as it maintains minimum FPS above 200.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 119th out of 3,710 tested combos in Minecraft, placing it in the top 3.2% of all configurations. The rank reflects the combo's overall measured performance across the tested resolutions and settings.

The GPU's 88th percentile standing among all GPUs is notably higher than the CPU's 77th percentile among CPUs. This discrepancy suggests the RTX 4090 contributes more to the combo's strong ranking than the 13400F does. In Minecraft, where single-thread CPU performance matters, the 13400F's 960 single-thread 3DMark score and 3,191 Cinebench R23 single-core result provide adequate support for the GPU's capabilities.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks—the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, Intel Core 5 120, and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D—all score within 0.4% of the 13400F. This tight clustering means swapping to any of these CPUs would likely produce similar Minecraft results, assuming the GPU remains constant. The GPU's nearest rivals, including the Intel Arc Pro A60 and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, show that even chips with similar aggregate scores can differ meaningfully in gaming workloads.

The combo's rank of 119 out of 3,710 indicates that while the RTX 4090 provides exceptional raw performance, the 13400F does not hold it back in Minecraft. The 1080p Low result of 683 FPS demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU at rates far exceeding typical display refresh rates. The consistent ~47% FPS drop from 1440p to 4K across all presets confirms the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, which is expected given the RTX 4090's architecture.

Compared to lower-ranked combos, the top 3.2% placement shows this pairing excels in Minecraft specifically. The game's voxel-based rendering benefits from the combination of strong single-thread CPU performance and massive GPU throughput. The RTX 4090's 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores, while not directly measured in this data, contribute to the card's overall benchmark standing and likely enhance any ray-traced rendering in the game.

The data confirms this combo is well-balanced for Minecraft: the CPU provides enough single-thread performance to avoid bottlenecking at 1080p, while the GPU's overwhelming compute resources ensure high frame rates at 4K even on Ultra settings. The 119th rank out of 3,710 combos places this configuration firmly in the upper echelon of tested systems for this game.