Minecraft

Resolution Scaling

Minecraft's frame rate response to resolution changes is unusually flat for this CPU/GPU pairing, which immediately signals that the game is heavily CPU-bound at most settings. At 1080p High, the combo produces 270 FPS average; moving to 1440p High drops that to 170 FPS, and 4K High lands at 89 FPS. That progression shows a roughly 37% performance loss from 1080p to 1440p, and another 48% from 1440p to 4K. Such steep scaling is typical of a GPU that is finally being given enough pixel work to matter, but the absolute numbers at 4K remain high enough that the game is still playable on very demanding hardware.

The Low preset tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the system pushes 429 FPS, which is extraordinarily high and well beyond what most displays can even show. At 1440p Low, that figure drops to 271 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 141 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 37% reduction, identical to the High preset's percentage drop. From 1440p to 4K Low, the reduction is 48%, again matching the High preset's scaling. This consistency across presets is notable because it suggests the limiting factor shifts gradually with resolution rather than suddenly.

Looking at the Medium preset, which is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum frame times, the pattern continues. At 1080p Medium, the average is 340 FPS with a minimum of 289 and maximum of 391. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 214 FPS, with minimum 182 and maximum 247. At 4K Medium, the average is 112 FPS, with minimum 95 and maximum 129. The frame time variance, measured as the gap between minimum and maximum, stays proportionally similar across resolutions, which indicates the engine's frame pacing is stable even as the GPU workload increases.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p Ultra, the combo still manages 169 FPS average. That drops to 106 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and then to 56 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration in the entire measured set that falls below 60 FPS, which is a meaningful threshold for smooth gameplay. The drop from 1440p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 47%, which is consistent with the other presets' 48% scaling between those two resolutions. This consistency strongly implies that the GPU is the dominant performance limiter at 4K, while at lower resolutions the CPU is doing most of the heavy lifting.

What is striking is how high the frame rates stay even at 4K. A 4K High average of 89 FPS is far above what most games would produce with this hardware, and even 4K Medium at 112 FPS is exceptionally smooth. The data suggests that Minecraft's rendering workload, while sensitive to resolution, is not as punishing as other modern titles. The fact that 1080p Low reaches 429 FPS means the CPU is capable of enormous draw call throughput, which is a hallmark of Minecraft's relatively simple geometry compared to other AAA games.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 1,176 CPU/GPU combinations tested in Minecraft, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks at position 597. That places it almost exactly in the middle of the pack, which is a surprising result given how high the absolute frame rates are. The median position suggests that while this combo delivers extremely high FPS in absolute terms, many other combinations in the database achieve even higher numbers, likely due to more powerful GPUs or CPUs that can push the engine even further.

The 597th rank out of 1,176 means there are 579 combinations that perform better in this specific game, and 596 that perform worse. This near-median placement is interesting because the measured frame rates are so high; it indicates that Minecraft is a game where even mid-range hardware from several years ago can achieve triple-digit frame rates, so the competitive field is crowded with capable systems. The RTX 2070 SUPER, being an end-of-life product from the GeForce 20-series, is competing against newer generations that have significantly more raw throughput.

In the context of the GPU's overall standing, the RTX 2070 SUPER sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20,282. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20,480 score, 1% faster), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534 score, 1.2% faster), the Intel Arc B570 (20,556 score, 1.3% faster), and the Intel Arc A750 (20,582 score, 1.5% faster). These deltas are all under 2%, meaning the RTX 2070 SUPER is essentially tied with these competitors in raw compute performance, even though some of them are much newer products.

The CPU, meanwhile, ranks at the 90th percentile among all CPUs, which is a much stronger position. Its average benchmark score of 48,995 puts it in the top decile of all processors, with nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196 score, 0.4% faster), the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228 score, 0.5% faster), the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698 score, 0.6% slower), and the Intel Core i5-14600K (48,618 score, 0.8% slower). The fact that this CPU is near the top of the overall CPU hierarchy but the combo still ranks in the middle for Minecraft suggests the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the TU104 chip using TSMC's 12 nm process, packing 13,600 million transistors into a 545 mm² die. It operates with a base clock of 1605 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz or 14 Gbps effective. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a substantial amount for a card of this era. With 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, the card delivers 113.3 GPixel/s pixel rate and 283.2 GTexel/s texture rate.

The card's FP32 performance is rated at 9.062 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 18.12 TFLOPS using a 2:1 ratio. It includes 40 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores, which are features that Minecraft does not heavily utilize in its standard rendering path. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, all of which are relevant for modern Minecraft versions that use OpenGL or can be configured for other APIs.

In the context of Minecraft's measured results, the GPU's role becomes clear when examining resolution scaling. At 1080p, the GPU is barely stressed, producing 270 FPS on High and 429 FPS on Low. These numbers are so high that the CPU is almost certainly the bottleneck. But at 4K Ultra, the frame rate collapses to 56 FPS, which is a clear sign that the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are being maxed out. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in this game, as even at 4K Ultra the texture sizes in Minecraft are modest compared to other titles.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores reflect its mid-range positioning. Its PassMark G3D score is 18,169, with a G2D score of 878. In DirectX 12 tests, it scores 67, while DirectX 11 tests show 151, DirectX 10 shows 132, and DirectX 9 shows 223. The OpenCL score from Geekbench is 83,358, and the Vulkan score is 90,637. These numbers place the card at the 65th percentile overall, which aligns with its performance in Minecraft where it delivers playable frame rates at 4K but cannot maintain the extremely high numbers seen at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset produces an average of 429 FPS, which is the single highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 340 FPS, with a minimum of 289 FPS and maximum of 391 FPS. High comes in at 270 FPS, and Ultra sits at 169 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 61% reduction in frame rate, which is a substantial performance cost for the higher visual fidelity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high but show a clear step down. Low produces 271 FPS, Medium averages 214 FPS with a minimum of 182 and maximum of 247, High reaches 170 FPS, and Ultra drops to 106 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at this resolution is also 61%, matching the 1080p pattern exactly. This consistency suggests that the relative cost of each preset tier is independent of resolution, which is a sign of a well-behaved rendering pipeline.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more moderate. Low averages 141 FPS, Medium averages 112 FPS with a minimum of 95 and maximum of 129, High averages 89 FPS, and Ultra drops to 56 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the least desirable setting for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 4K, with its 112 FPS average and 95 FPS minimum, remains a very playable option.

Comparing settings across resolutions, the Low preset shows the largest absolute drop from 1080p to 4K, falling from 429 FPS to 141 FPS, a 67% reduction. The High preset drops from 270 FPS to 89 FPS, a 67% reduction as well. Medium falls from 340 FPS to 112 FPS, which is also a 67% reduction. Ultra falls from 169 FPS to 56 FPS, a 67% reduction. The uniformity of this 67% scaling across all presets is remarkable and indicates that the GPU's workload scales linearly with pixel count in Minecraft, with no unexpected bottlenecks appearing at any particular resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on TSMC's 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU has a 192 KB L1 cache per core, 3 MB L2 cache per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and it includes ECC memory support. The CPU's integrated graphics are Arc Xe-LPG with 64 execution units, though the discrete GPU handles all rendering in this configuration.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU demonstrates strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 scores are 32,924 multi-core and 4,648 single-core. PassMark tests show a multi-thread score of 38,706 and a single-thread score of 4,394. More specialized tests include data compression at 400,942, data encryption at 30,236, floating point math at 120,548, and integer math at 91,187. The CPU's average benchmark score of 48,995 places it at the 90th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a high-end processor in the broader market.

Minecraft is known to be heavily single-threaded in its core game loop, which makes the CPU's single-core performance critically important. The Cinebench R15 single-core score of 468 and R20 single-core score of 1,952 both indicate excellent per-thread performance. The boost clock of 5.10 GHz is particularly relevant for Minecraft, as the game's simulation and entity logic often run on a single thread and benefit directly from higher clock speeds.

The CPU's role in the measured frame rates is evident from the extremely high FPS at 1080p Low, where the GPU is barely taxed and the CPU is the primary limiter. The fact that 1080p Low reaches 429 FPS shows that the CPU can process Minecraft's world data and render commands at an extraordinary rate. Even at 1080p Ultra, the 169 FPS result is high enough that the CPU is still keeping pace. The 14-core configuration helps with background tasks and chunk loading, which can use multiple threads, but the core game loop remains single-threaded.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 is 0.5% faster in average score, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G is 0.4% faster, the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H is 0.6% slower, and the Intel Core i5-14600K is 0.8% slower. These tiny deltas mean that in CPU-bound scenarios like Minecraft at low resolutions, swapping between these processors would produce nearly identical frame rates. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking confirms that it is not the bottleneck in most gaming scenarios, and the Minecraft results bear this out with frame rates that exceed what most displays can show at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system in Minecraft?

A: The data shows that 1440p Medium delivers 214 FPS average with a 182 FPS minimum, which is a strong balance of visual quality and performance. For 4K gaming, Medium at 112 FPS average with a 95 FPS minimum is the highest quality option that stays comfortably above 60 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset at 56 FPS is the only configuration that drops below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is this system CPU-bound or GPU-bound in Minecraft?

A: The evidence indicates the system is CPU-bound at low resolutions and GPU-bound at high resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 429 FPS result is far beyond what most GPUs would cap at, suggesting the CPU is the limiting factor. At 4K Ultra, the 56 FPS result shows the GPU is being fully utilized. The uniform 67% frame rate reduction from 1080p to 4K across all presets confirms the GPU workload scales with pixel count.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 20,282. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M at 20,480 (1% faster), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20,534 (1.2% faster), the Intel Arc B570 at 20,556 (1.3% faster), and the Intel Arc A750 at 20,582 (1.5% faster). All of these deltas are under 2%, making them effectively equivalent in raw compute performance.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured 1080p High preset produces an average of 270 FPS. This is high enough that the limiting factor is likely the CPU rather than the GPU, as the RTX 2070 SUPER has more than enough pixel throughput for this workload. The 270 FPS figure is well above the refresh rate of most gaming monitors.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 a high-performing CPU relative to others?

A: Yes, the CPU sits at the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48,995. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.5% faster), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (0.4% faster), the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (0.6% slower), and the Intel Core i5-14600K (0.8% slower). This places it in the top decile of all processors tested.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested CPU/GPU combinations in Minecraft?

A: This pairing ranks 597th out of 1,176 total combinations, placing it almost exactly in the middle of the database. Despite the very high absolute frame rates, many other combinations achieve even higher numbers, which confirms how well Minecraft scales with powerful hardware. The near-median rank suggests the RTX 2070 SUPER is the limiting component in this pairing.