Minecraft

# Minecraft with Intel Core i7-13700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER

This benchmark combination pairs Intel's 16-core Raptor Lake flagship with NVIDIA's 8 GB Turing-based RTX 2070 SUPER, producing measured frame rates that reveal a system heavily influenced by the GPU at higher resolutions while showing remarkable CPU headroom at 1080p. The combo ranks 2136th out of 3710 tested combinations in Minecraft, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database despite delivering playable frame rates across all tested settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern: as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, average frame rates drop substantially across every settings preset. At Low settings, the system delivers 429 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 271 FPS at 1440p and then to 141 FPS at 4K — a reduction of 158 FPS from 1080p to 1440p and another 130 FPS from 1440p to 4K. This scaling behavior indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER becomes the primary limiting component as pixel count rises, since the CPU's compute capabilities remain constant regardless of resolution.

The Medium settings row provides the most complete data with min and max FPS values at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 340 FPS with a minimum of 289 and maximum of 391. Dropping to 1440p Medium reduces the average to 214 FPS, with min and max of 182 and 247 respectively. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 112 FPS, with minimum 95 and maximum 129. The consistent gap between min and max FPS — roughly 100 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 34 FPS at 4K — suggests that frame time variance narrows as the GPU becomes more saturated, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

High settings show a similar trajectory: 270 FPS at 1080p, 170 FPS at 1440p, and 89 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce the lowest numbers across the board, with 169 FPS at 1080p, 106 FPS at 1440p, and 56 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is steepest at Low settings (67% reduction), while Ultra settings show a 67% drop as well — indicating that the resolution penalty is relatively uniform across presets. This uniformity implies that the rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count, and the GPU's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer become increasingly taxed at higher resolutions.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU's 16 cores and 24 threads are capable of feeding the GPU enough draw calls to reach very high frame rates, but the RTX 2070 SUPER's 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance caps the output. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as evidenced by the dramatic FPS reduction that cannot be attributed to CPU limitations — the i7-13700K's single-thread performance, measured at 2116 in Cinebench R23, remains ample for Minecraft's largely single-threaded rendering engine.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 429 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling for this combo, and even at 4K Low, the system still manages 141 FPS average.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 20282, which places it 1% below the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480), 1.2% below the RTX 3070 Mobile (20534), 1.3% below the Intel Arc B570 (20556), and 1.5% below the Intel Arc A750 (20582). These are very small deltas, indicating near-parity performance with those cards.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations in Minecraft?

A: This combo ranks 2136th out of 3710 total tested combinations, which places it in the 57.6th percentile. This suggests that while it delivers playable performance, many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates in this game.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 4K Ultra, the system averages 56 FPS, which is the lowest measured result in the entire dataset. Given that the GPU's performance percentile is 65 (vs. the CPU's 89 percentile), the RTX 2070 SUPER is clearly the limiting factor at this resolution and settings combination.

Q: Does enabling higher settings have a larger impact at 1080p or 4K?

A: At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra reduces average FPS from 429 to 169, a drop of 260 FPS (61%). At 4K, the same settings change reduces FPS from 141 to 56, a drop of 85 FPS (60%). The relative impact is nearly identical, but the absolute FPS loss is much greater at 1080p, indicating that the GPU has more headroom to lose at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread and multi-thread performance profile?

A: The i7-13700K scores 2116 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 30745 in multi-core, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2529 and multi-core of 19429. Its PassMark single-thread score is 4333, and its multithread score is 45887, with a 3DMark max-threads score of 12412.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER achieves a rank of 2136 out of 3710 tested combos in Minecraft. This places the pairing in the bottom 42% of all combinations, which is notable given the CPU's high performance percentile of 89 versus all CPUs. The GPU's percentile of 65 against all GPUs is substantially lower, suggesting that the graphics card is the weaker link in this pairing.

The rank disparity between the CPU's strong standing and the combo's middling position indicates that Minecraft's performance is more dependent on the GPU than the CPU in most tested configurations. However, the CPU's 16 cores and 24 threads with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz provide substantial headroom, as evidenced by the very high frame rates at 1080p Low. The data implies that if this CPU were paired with a higher-performing GPU, the combo rank would likely improve significantly, since the CPU is not the constraint at lower resolutions.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals shows that the i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 46881, which is 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46971) and 0.3% below the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47022), while being 0.5% above both the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (46654) and Intel Xeon w3-2535 (46653). These tiny deltas indicate that the CPU is competitive with its closest alternatives, and any performance differences in Minecraft would be negligible.

The GPU's nearest rivals show a similar pattern of near-parity: the RTX 2070 SUPER's average score of 20282 is within 1.5% of all four listed competitors. This suggests that swapping the GPU for any of these alternatives would produce broadly similar frame rates in Minecraft, assuming the CPU remains constant.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 429 FPS, which is the single highest measurement in the entire dataset. Medium settings follow at 340 FPS average, with a minimum of 289 and maximum of 391 FPS. High settings yield 270 FPS average, and Ultra settings drop to 169 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 260 FPS, showing that settings have a profound impact at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the performance hierarchy remains consistent but with reduced absolute numbers. Low settings average 271 FPS, representing a 37% drop from 1080p. Medium settings average 214 FPS, with min 182 and max 247 — a 37% reduction from the 1080p Medium result. High settings produce 170 FPS average, down 37% from 1080p High. Ultra settings average 106 FPS, a 37% decrease from 1080p Ultra. The uniformity of the percentage drop across all settings at 1440p indicates that resolution scaling is consistent regardless of visual preset.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance is significantly constrained. Low settings average 141 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 67% drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 112 FPS, with min 95 and max 129, making it the only resolution where Medium stays above 100 FPS average. High settings average 89 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 56 FPS average. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured data point below 60 FPS, suggesting that this combination struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at maximum quality in 4K.

The Medium settings row is the only one with complete min and max data at all three resolutions, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the min-to-max range is 102 FPS (289 to 391); at 1440p, the range narrows to 65 FPS (182 to 247); and at 4K, the range tightens to 34 FPS (95 to 129). This narrowing range with increasing resolution suggests that the GPU's workload becomes more consistent as it becomes more fully utilized, reducing the CPU's ability to cause frame rate spikes.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting the highest possible frame rates, Low settings at 1920x1080 deliver 429 FPS average, which far exceeds any display's refresh rate and provides maximum responsiveness. This preset is suitable for competitive play where frame rate is prioritized over visual fidelityaint. However, the 4K Low result of 141 FPS indicates that even at lower resolutions, the system can maintain high refresh rates.

The Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers a balanced experience with 340 FPS average and a minimum of 289 FPS. This settings level provides a substantial visual upgrade over Low while keeping frame rates well above 240 Hz thresholds. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 214 FPS with a minimum of 182, which remains suitable for high-refresh-rate displays and is likely the best visual-to-performance tradeoff for most users.

For 4K gaming, Medium settings at 112 FPS average (min 95, max 129) provide the best playable experience, as High drops to 89 FPS and Ultra falls to 56 FPS. The 4K Medium result maintains frame rates above 90 FPS consistently, which is smooth for most players. Given that the measured data shows Ultra settings reduce performance by 50% compared to Medium at 4K (56 vs 112 FPS), the visual quality difference would need to be substantial to justify that performance cost.

The data suggests that High settings at 1440p (170 FPS) and Medium at 4K (112 FPS) represent the sweet spots for visual quality versus performance. The former suits 1440p high-refresh monitors, while the latter is the only 4K preset that maintains consistently high frame rates. Players with 1080p displays can comfortably use High settings at 270 FPS, which provides excellent visual quality without any frame rate concerns.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz, combined with 30 MB of shared L3 cache, provide substantial compute headroom. The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive: 30745 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 2116 in single-core, and 45887 in PassMark multithread.

In Minecraft, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, world generation, and draw call submission. The very high frame rates at 1080p Low (429 FPS) indicate that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than it can render, meaning the CPU is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions. The single-thread performance, measured at 4333 in PassMark single-thread and 2529 in Geekbench single-core, is critical for a game that historically relies heavily on a single main thread.

The CPU's 3DMark scores show strong scaling from 2 threads (2262) to 16 threads (10717) and max threads (12412). This scaling pattern suggests that the processor can efficiently utilize multiple cores when needed, though Minecraft's engine may not fully exploit all 16 cores. The multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745, ensures that background tasks and game server processes do not interfere with frame delivery.

The CPU's 89th percentile ranking versus all CPUs, and its near-parity with rivals (within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900, Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375, Ryzen 9 7845HX, and Intel Xeon w3-2535), indicates that this processor is highly competitive. In Minecraft, the data shows that the CPU can sustain frame rates above 400 FPS at 1080p Low, proving that it is not the limiting factor in this combination. The bottleneck lies elsewhere — specifically in the GPU's ability to render frames at higher resolutions and settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture (TU104 chip) using TSMC's 12 nm process, with 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Its compute capabilities include 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 40 RT cores, and 320 tensor cores, delivering 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

The GPU's memory configuration is particularly relevant to Minecraft at 4K, where the 8 GB frame buffer and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become significant factors. The measured FPS drop from 1440p to 4K at each settings level indicates that the GPU is struggling to handle the increased pixel throughput. At 4K Ultra, the average of 56 FPS suggests the GPU is fully saturated, with the rendering workload exceeding the card's capabilities.

The RTX 2070 SUPER's benchmark results show a PassMark G3D score of 18169 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651. Its OpenCL score of 83358 and Vulkan score of 90637 in Geekbench indicate solid compute performance. The GPU's 65th percentile ranking versus all GPUs places it in the upper-middle tier, but its nearest rivals all score within 1.5%: the Quadro M4000M (20480), RTX 3070 Mobile (20534), Arc B570 (20556), and Arc A750 (20582).

In Minecraft, the GPU's role becomes dominant at higher resolutions. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a 67% reduction in frame rate across all settings, which is a strong indicator of GPU-bound performance. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Minecraft's textures at these settings, but the raw fill rate and shader processing power limit the maximum frame rates achievable. The data implies that upgrading to a higher-performing GPU would yield significant frame rate improvements, particularly at 1440p and 4K, while the CPU would continue to provide ample headroom.