Minecraft

Minecraft with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti produces exceptionally high frame rates across all tested configurations, placing this pairing in the 1525th position out of 3710 tested combos. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-bound as resolution drops, with the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus providing 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1575 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, built on Samsung’s 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors, while the six-core i5-9400 runs at 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost with 9 MB of shared L3 cache.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The RTX 3070 Ti’s specifications directly explain the measured FPS patterns in Minecraft. With 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, the GPU delivers 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s. These raw numbers translate into the observed performance: at 3840x2160 Ultra settings, the combo averages 71 FPS, while dropping to Low settings at the same resolution yields 181 FPS — a 2.5x improvement that highlights how much headroom the GPU has when pixel shading demands decrease.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Minecraft at these tested settings, as evidenced by the stable frame rates even at Ultra presets. The memory clock of 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) combined with the 256-bit bus produces the 608.3 GB/s bandwidth figure, which proves adequate for the game’s texture streaming needs. Notably, the GPU’s percentile rank of 75 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29945, places it slightly ahead of the RTX 2080 Ti (29783, +0.5%) and marginally behind the RX 6800 (30095, -0.5%), according to the nearestRivals data.

The 1575 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost clocks are modest for a card of this class, yet the architectural efficiency of Ampere, with 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, allows it to maintain high throughput. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 455 FPS average, suggesting the GPU is barely stressed — the limiting factor becomes the CPU’s ability to feed draw calls. The pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and the 267 mm dual-slot design with a single 12-pin power connector round out the physical picture, but the performance data indicates the RTX 3070 Ti is never the bottleneck in this pairing except at the most demanding 4K Ultra preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS ranges from 216 to 455 across the four settings presets. Low settings produce 455 FPS average, Medium 418 FPS (with a minimum of 356 and maximum of 481), High 346 FPS, and Ultra 216 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 239 FPS, representing a 52.5% drop from the lowest to highest quality settings. Even at the lowest figure, 216 FPS at Ultra, the experience is far beyond the refresh rate of typical displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages decrease but remain very high. Low settings yield 347 FPS, Medium 275 FPS (min 234, max 316), High 218 FPS, and Ultra 136 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra here is 211 FPS, a 60.8% reduction. The Medium preset’s minimum of 234 FPS is still above what most 1440p monitors can display, indicating consistent performance without major dips.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more pronounced. Low settings average 181 FPS, Medium 144 FPS (min 122, max 165), High 114 FPS, and Ultra drops to 71 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 110 FPS, a 60.8% reduction as well. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration where the frame rate dips below the 100 FPS threshold, and the Medium preset’s minimum of 122 FPS confirms that even with transient load spikes, the system maintains playable performance.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: each settings tier costs roughly 25-30% of the previous tier’s performance. For instance, at 1440p, moving from Low to Medium drops 72 FPS, Medium to High drops 57 FPS, and High to Ultra drops 82 FPS. This nonlinear scaling suggests the Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU, likely related to shadow resolution and render distance.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based strictly on the measured rows, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers the most balanced experience. It delivers 275 FPS average with a minimum of 234 FPS, which is sufficient for high-refresh-rate gaming while maintaining visual fidelity above Low. The 234 FPS minimum is particularly telling — it shows that even in the worst-case frames, the system doesn’t drop below 200 FPS, providing smooth gameplay without stutter.

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves 455 FPS average, but this leaves significant visual quality on the table. The High preset at 1440p (218 FPS average) is a better compromise for most users, as it improves lighting and texture detail while still exceeding 200 FPS. At 4K, the High preset at 114 FPS is the sensible choice — it’s 60% faster than Ultra’s 71 FPS and only marginally lower quality than the top tier.

The Ultra preset is difficult to recommend based on the data. At 1080p it produces 216 FPS (still excellent), but at 1440p it drops to 136 FPS and at 4K to 71 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra over High is steep: 38% at 1080p, 38% at 1440p, and 38% at 4K. Given that Minecraft’s visual differences between High and Ultra are often subtle (mostly shadow softness and particle effects), the High preset appears to be the sweet spot across all resolutions, offering at least 114 FPS even at 4K.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data shows how the bottleneck shifts as resolution changes. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 455 FPS; at 1440p Low, 347 FPS; and at 4K Low, 181 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 23.7%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 47.8%. This accelerating decline indicates the GPU becomes progressively more stressed as pixel count increases, which is expected given the RTX 3070 Ti’s memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s.

For the High preset, the scaling is similar: 346 FPS at 1080p, 218 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and 114 FPS at 4K (47.7% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 216 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and 71 FPS at 4K (47.8% drop). The consistency of the 1080p-to-1440p drop at around 37% across High and Ultra suggests a fixed computational overhead that scales with resolution.

The 4K-to-1440p ratio is particularly illuminating. At Low settings, the 4K FPS is 52.2% of the 1440p FPS; at Medium, it’s 52.4%; at High, 52.3%; and at Ultra, 52.2%. This near-constant ratio across all settings indicates that the GPU is the dominant limiting factor at 4K, with the CPU’s contribution becoming negligible. Conversely, at 1080p Low settings, the 455 FPS figure is likely close to the CPU’s maximum draw call throughput, as the i5-9400’s six cores and six threads (no hyperthreading) at 2.90 GHz base / 4.10 GHz boost create a ceiling. The fact that 1080p Low (455 FPS) is only 31% higher than 1080p Ultra (216 FPS) while 4K Low (181 FPS) is 155% higher than 4K Ultra (71 FPS) confirms this interpretation.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-9400 + RTX 3070 Ti combination ranks 1525 out of 3710 tested combos in Minecraft, placing it in the 58.9th percentile of all systems tested. This rank is modest given the GPU’s high performance, which suggests that the CPU is holding back the overall score. The i5-9400’s average benchmark score of 2254 places it at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, -0.2%), Core i7-10710U (2248, +0.3%), and Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, +0.4%).

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 29945 puts it at the 75th percentile, with the RTX 5070 Mobile (29928, +0.1%) and RX 6800 (30095, -0.5%) as direct competitors. The discrepancy between the GPU’s 75th percentile and the combo’s 58.9th percentile rank in this game highlights the CPU bottleneck. In Minecraft, which is notoriously single-thread sensitive, the i5-9400’s single-core Cinebench R23 score of 935 and Geekbench single-core of 1389 are modest figures.

The rank of 1525 out of 3710 means 2185 combos performed better, and 1524 performed worse. This places the combo in the upper-middle tier, which aligns with the measured FPS being high in absolute terms but not class-leading. The data suggests that pairing the RTX 3070 Ti with a stronger CPU would likely push this combo much higher in the rankings, as the GPU has ample headroom at 1080p and 1440p.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 455, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 2560x1440 Low, it drops to 347 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it reaches 181 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 3070 Ti bottleneck at 1080p in this game?

A: Yes, the data indicates CPU limitation at 1080p. The difference between Low (455 FPS) and Ultra (216 FPS) at 1080p is only 239 FPS, while at 4K the same settings gap produces 110 FPS difference, showing the GPU has more influence at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest minimum FPS in the measured data is 122 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. The 1080p Medium preset shows a minimum of 356 FPS, and 1440p Medium shows 234 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested systems in Minecraft?

A: The combo ranks 1525 out of 3710 total tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the database. The GPU’s 75th percentile ranking is higher than the combo’s overall ranking, indicating the CPU holds back performance.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the combo averages 71 FPS. This is playable but below the 100 FPS threshold commonly desired for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 4K averages 114 FPS, which is a better option.

Q: What memory configuration does the RTX 3070 Ti use?

A: The GPU uses 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, with a memory clock of 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective), providing 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The i5-9400 supports dual-channel DDR4 with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-9400 brings six physical cores and six threads — no hyperthreading — based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm process. It runs at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boosts to 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 256 KB L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. These specifications produce an average benchmark score of 2254, placing it at the 47th percentile among CPUs.

In Minecraft, the CPU’s role is primarily to handle game logic, chunk loading, and entity updates, all of which rely heavily on single-thread performance. The i5-9400’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935 and Geekbench single-core of 1389 are modest, which explains why the combo’s FPS at 1080p Low (455 FPS) does not scale proportionally with the GPU’s power. The CPU’s six cores without SMT mean that multi-threaded workloads are limited to six concurrent threads, and Minecraft’s render thread is largely single-core bound.

The benchmark data shows the CPU’s nearest rivals include the Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, -0.2%), Core i7-10710U (2248, +0.3%), and Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, +0.4%) — all within 0.5% of its average score. This tight clustering indicates the i5-9400 is a mid-range performer, and in a game like Minecraft, the 4.10 GHz boost clock is the key figure. The 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth from dual-channel DDR4 is sufficient for the game’s data streaming needs, as evidenced by the stable minimum FPS values at Medium settings.

The combination of the i5-9400’s 47th percentile CPU rank and the RTX 3070 Ti’s 75th percentile GPU rank creates a system where the CPU becomes the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully utilized (71 FPS), but at 1080p Low, the CPU maxes out at 455 FPS, leaving the GPU underutilized. This imbalance is the primary reason the combo ranks 1525 out of 3710 rather than higher, despite the GPU’s strong specifications.