Minecraft

# Minecraft (2011) — Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

This combination of a six-core Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 lands at rank 2881 out of 3710 tested combos for Minecraft, placing it in the lower portion of the database's tested configurations. The data indicates this pairing is capable of high frame rates at most settings, but the 4K Ultra results reveal a clear ceiling that separates it from higher-tier systems in this sandbox title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2881 out of 3710 places this system in roughly the bottom 22% of tested configurations for Minecraft. That percentile positioning may seem surprising given the measured FPS numbers, but it reflects the fact that Minecraft is a title where many modern mid-range and high-end systems can achieve triple-digit frame rates. The RTX 2060's overall GPU percentile of 58 versus all GPUs — with an average benchmark score of 15290 — places it near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (deltaPct 0) and AMD Radeon 680M (deltaPct 0.1), while sitting slightly ahead of the RTX 3050 OEM (deltaPct 0.6) and AMD Radeon RX 7600 (deltaPct 0.8). This is a GPU that competes in the middle tier of the database's rankings, and the CPU's percentile of 47 against all CPUs reinforces that this is a balanced, mainstream pairing rather than a high-end outlier.

The Intel Core i5-9400 shows an average benchmark score of 2254, placing it within 0.4% of several rivals: the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avg score 2259, deltaPct -0.2), the Intel Core i7-10710U (avg score 2248, deltaPct 0.3), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (avg score 2246, deltaPct 0.4), and the Intel Core i3-10305 (avg score 2264, deltaPct -0.4). These are extremely tight margins, meaning the CPU's compute performance is essentially indistinguishable from its nearest competitors in synthetic workloads. For Minecraft, what matters more is the combination of the CPU's six physical cores and the GPU's ability to push frames at the chosen resolution and settings — and the measured data shows that the combo's rank is dragged down by the 4K Ultra result of 46 FPS, which is below the smooth threshold many players target.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 355 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 281 FPS at Medium, 223 FPS at High, and 139 FPS at Ultra for the same resolution.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 117 on Low settings down to 46 on Ultra settings. Medium settings yield 93 FPS (with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 107), while High delivers 74 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 2060 the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes more relevant at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080, the FPS spread between Low (355) and Ultra (139) is substantial, but even the Low setting's 355 FPS indicates the GPU is not saturated — the CPU's six cores and 4.10 GHz boost clock are likely the constraining element at this resolution.

Q: What is the best resolution-to-settings balance for this combo?

A: Based on the measured rows, 2560x1440 on High settings (141 FPS) or Medium settings (177 FPS) offers a strong balance. Both exceed 60 FPS comfortably, and the 1440p Medium result of 177 FPS is only 46 FPS lower than the 1080p High result of 223 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2881 out of 3710 tested combos for Minecraft. This places it in the lower portion of the database, though the measured FPS numbers at 1080p and 1440p are well above playable thresholds.

Q: Does the RTX 2060's 6 GB VRAM cause issues at higher settings?

A: The measured data does not show VRAM-related failures. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 46, but this is more likely a rendering load issue than a memory capacity problem, as the 6 GB GDDR6 memory with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for the tested presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 brings 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, with 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock of 1365 MHz and boost clock of 1680 MHz, combined with 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, define the raw throughput available for Minecraft's rendering. The GPU's pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s are the figures that most directly influence how many pixels and texture samples the card can process per second — and the measured FPS results show the expected scaling as resolution increases.

The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, which for Minecraft's blocky but often far-rendered scenes means the bandwidth is rarely a bottleneck. The GPU's benchmark scores tell a consistent story: PassMark G3D scores 14111, Geekbench OpenCL scores 65014, and Geekbench Vulkan scores 65846. The PassMark DirectX scores show 190 for DX9, 110 for DX11, 98 for DX10, and 53 for DX12 — an interesting pattern where older API versions score higher, which aligns with Minecraft's Java-based rendering pipeline that historically relies on OpenGL rather than modern DX12 features.

At 4K, the GPU's load becomes apparent. The drop from 117 FPS at Low to 46 FPS at Ultra represents a roughly 2.5x decrease in frame rate for a settings increase that taxes the GPU far more than the CPU. The RTX 2060's 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are present, but Minecraft's standard rendering does not typically leverage ray tracing, so these units likely contribute little to the measured performance. The GPU's 58th percentile ranking versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15290, confirms it sits in the mid-range tier — capable but not exceptional for a title like Minecraft that can push very high frame rates on modest hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 355 FPS, Medium yields 281 FPS (with a minimum of 239 and maximum of 323), High drops to 223 FPS, and Ultra falls to 139 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, even Ultra settings remain comfortably above 60 FPS, and the Low setting's 355 FPS suggests the CPU is the limiting factor — a six-core i5-9400 with a 4.10 GHz boost clock simply cannot feed the GPU with enough frames to push beyond that threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the FPS numbers scale down predictably. Low settings average 224 FPS, Medium averages 177 FPS (with a minimum of 151 and maximum of 204), High averages 141 FPS, and Ultra averages 88 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result of 88 FPS is notable because it remains above 60 FPS, meaning the combo can handle the full visual preset at this resolution. The Medium settings row shows a 26 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, suggesting some scene-dependent variability but no severe stuttering.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low settings average 117 FPS, Medium averages 93 FPS (with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 107), High averages 74 FPS, and Ultra drops to 46 FPS. The Ultra result is the only measured configuration that falls below 60 FPS, making it the sole setting where the combo fails to maintain smooth gameplay. The transition from 1440p Ultra (88 FPS) to 4K Ultra (46 FPS) represents a 42 FPS drop, which is a substantial penalty for the resolution increase.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the progression is 355 FPS (1080p) → 224 FPS (1440p) → 117 FPS (4K). That's a 37% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 48% drop from 1440p to 4K. These are large percentage reductions, but the absolute numbers remain high enough that Low settings are playable at all three resolutions.

At Ultra settings, the progression is 139 FPS (1080p) → 88 FPS (1440p) → 46 FPS (4K). The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 37%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 48% — identical percentages to Low settings, which suggests the scaling pattern is consistent regardless of preset. This consistency implies the GPU is the dominant scaling factor as resolution increases, since the CPU's workload (draw calls, world simulation) remains largely resolution-independent.

The 4K Ultra result of 46 FPS is the critical data point. It represents a 67% reduction from the 1080p Ultra result of 139 FPS. The RTX 2060's 6 GB VRAM and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are not the limiting factor here, as the memory requirements for Minecraft at 4K Ultra are well within 6 GB. Instead, the GPU's compute throughput — 6.451 TFLOPS FP32 and 201.6 GTexel/s texture rate — determines how many pixels the card can shade per second. The measured data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the card simply runs out of shading capacity, which is why the FPS drops below the 60 FPS threshold.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a minimum, the measured data provides clear guidance. At 4K, Ultra settings are not viable with this combo — the 46 FPS average falls below the threshold, and even the minimum FPS would likely dip lower in busy scenes. The 4K High setting at 74 FPS is the highest preset that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS at this resolution, while 4K Medium (93 FPS) offers additional headroom.

At 1440p, all four presets stay above 60 FPS. Ultra at 88 FPS is playable, but High at 141 FPS and Medium at 177 FPS provide much smoother experiences. The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 151 means even the worst-case scenes stay well above 60 FPS, making it the safest choice for consistent performance at 1440p.

At 1080p, the combo has enough headroom that Ultra at 139 FPS is a solid choice. The Medium preset at 281 FPS (minimum 239) is overkill for most displays, and Low at 355 FPS offers no visual benefit for the extra frames. The data suggests 1080p Ultra is the best experience at this resolution, as it balances the game's visual features with a frame rate that exceeds most monitors' refresh rates.

The overall recommendation based on the measured rows is 1440p High (141 FPS) or 1440p Medium (177 FPS) as the best experience-to-performance tradeoff. Both exceed 60 FPS by a wide margin, and the resolution increase from 1080p provides a sharper image without the steep performance cost of 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides six cores and six threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are the key specifications for Minecraft's world simulation and chunk loading. The CPU's benchmark scores — Cinebench R23 multicore of 6629 and singlecore of 935, Geekbench multicore of 5141 and singlecore of 1389 — show a processor that is competitive with its nearest rivals but not exceptional.

The CPU's percentile of 47 versus all CPUs places it just below the median, and its average benchmark score of 2254 is within 0.4% of the four nearest rivals listed. This indicates that the i5-9400's compute performance is a known quantity — it is neither a bottleneck nor a standout, but rather a mainstream six-core processor that handles Minecraft's single-threaded-heavy rendering demands adequately.

Minecraft's Java-based engine typically relies heavily on single-core performance for the main game loop, and the i5-9400's 4.10 GHz boost clock provides a reasonable ceiling. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (355 FPS) suggests the CPU can feed the GPU with a high frame rate, but the fact that this number does not climb higher — even though the RTX 2060 could likely render more frames at Low settings — points to the CPU's single-thread performance as the limiting factor at this resolution. The 935 Cinebench R23 singlecore score is modest by modern standards, and the data indicates that a stronger single-core CPU would likely push the 1080p Low result higher.

At 4K Ultra, the CPU's role diminishes because the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The drop from 355 FPS at 1080p Low to 117 FPS at 4K Low shows the GPU scaling into the limelight, while the 4K Ultra result of 46 FPS confirms the GPU is fully saturated. The i5-9400's six threads are sufficient to avoid CPU-bound stuttering in most Minecraft scenes, as the minimum FPS values at Medium settings (79 at 4K, 151 at 1440p, 239 at 1080p) indicate stable frame delivery without sudden drops.