Minecraft

Minecraft with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 570 presents a stark illustration of GPU-bound scaling. The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, frame rates drop dramatically, indicating that the Radeon RX 570 is the limiting factor in this pairing, despite the CPU's considerable processing power.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS numbers reveal a predictable but severe penalty when moving from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 187 FPS, which drops to 118 FPS at 1440p and then plummets to 62 FPS at 4K. That is a 67% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, demonstrating that the GPU's rendering workload is the primary constraint.

The scaling pattern becomes more telling at higher settings. At High settings, the frame rate goes from 118 FPS at 1080p, down to 74 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 39 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, a 47% decrease, which suggests the RX 570's memory bandwidth and pixel throughput are being saturated. At Ultra settings, the situation is more severe: 74 FPS at 1080p falls to 46 FPS at 1440p and collapses to 24 FPS at 4K, making the game effectively unplayable at that resolution.

These results indicate that the limiting component in this system is unequivocally the graphics card. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has the headroom to push far higher frame rates, but the RX 570 cannot keep pace as pixel count increases. For a smooth experience at 1080p, the GPU is sufficient, but for 1440p or 4K, users will need to significantly lower settings or accept sub-60 FPS performance. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates even at Medium and High settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, a 14 nm process, and a 256-bit memory bus. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory operates at 1750 MHz, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with base and boost clocks of 1168 MHz and 1244 MHz respectively. These specifications explain the observed frame rate ceilings, particularly at higher resolutions where memory capacity and bandwidth become critical.

In benchmark terms, the RX 570 scores 880 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 39349 in Geekbench Metal, 32084 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 42752 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its average benchmark score is 28766, which places it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Compared to its nearest rivals, it trails the AMD Radeon RX 470 by 0.8% and the AMD Radeon RX 6800M by 0.4%, while leading the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 0.7% and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 by 1.2%. These margins are marginal, confirming that the RX 570 sits in a specific performance class that is now considered entry-level for modern gaming.

The 4 GB VRAM is a notable constraint in Minecraft, especially with modded textures or high render distances. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 24 FPS, which is likely a combination of both pixel fill rate limits and memory pressure. Even at 1440p Ultra, the 46 FPS result suggests the GPU is struggling to maintain adequate frame pacing. The 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU indicate this is a modest card, and the benchmark results confirm it is not designed for high-resolution, high-settings gaming in a game like Minecraft that can be surprisingly demanding with certain configurations.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Minecraft at 1080p with high settings?

A: Yes. The measured data shows 118 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU pairing?

A: The data indicates 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution. At 1080p, even Ultra settings achieve 74 FPS, while 1440p and 4K results fall below 60 FPS at higher settings.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score is 28766, which is 0.8% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 470 (28996) and 0.4% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28874). It outperforms the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 0.7% and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 by 1.2%.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus holding back the RX 570?

A: No. The benchmark data shows the GPU is the bottleneck, as frame rates scale inversely with resolution. The CPU's performance, with a 96th percentile ranking, is more than sufficient for this GPU.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 94 at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS, providing a playable experience.

Q: Does the 4 GB VRAM cause problems at 4K?

A: The data suggests it contributes to poor performance. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 24, and at 4K High, it is 39. These low frame rates indicate the GPU is overwhelmed, likely due to both memory capacity and bandwidth limitations.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3485 out of 3710 tested combos for Minecraft. This places it in the bottom 6% of all tested pairings, which is a poor result for a system featuring a top-tier CPU. The ranking underscores the severe imbalance between the components: the CPU is in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 74th percentile. This pairing does not leverage the CPU's potential, and the overall combo performance is dragged down by the older graphics card.

The low rank is not surprising given the GPU's age. The RX 570 was released in 2017 and is now end-of-life, while the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a current-generation desktop processor. The 3710 tested combos include many with more balanced pairings, which likely achieve higher frame rates in Minecraft due to stronger GPU performance. For a game like Minecraft that can be CPU-intensive in certain scenarios, this combo does show that the CPU can deliver high frame rates at low resolutions, but the GPU prevents it from doing so consistently across all settings and resolutions. The data indicates that users would see a significant rank improvement by pairing this CPU with a more modern GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, with 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and 115.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and it has 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. Its benchmark scores are exceptional: 51731 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 7303 in Cinebench R23 single-core, and 60860 in Passmark multithread. It ranks in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84003.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807), 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090), and 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9135 (82980). It is 1.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7F72 (85072). These are all high-end server and desktop processors, and the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus holds its own among them.

In this Minecraft pairing, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 187 FPS, which indicates the CPU can handle the game's single-threaded demands with ease. However, the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases. The 5.80 GHz boost clock and 24 cores provide ample headroom, but this is wasted in a game where the GPU cannot keep up. For users with this CPU, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield far greater performance gains than any CPU change. The CPU is not the limiting factor; the RX 570 is.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table and notes provide the complete measured FPS data for this combo across all tested resolutions and settings.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 187 FPS average
• Medium: 148 FPS average, with a minimum of 126 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS
• High: 118 FPS average
• Ultra: 74 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 118 FPS average
• Medium: 94 FPS average, with a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS
• High: 74 FPS average
• Ultra: 46 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 62 FPS average
• Medium: 49 FPS average, with a minimum of 42 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS
• High: 39 FPS average
• Ultra: 24 FPS average

At 1080p, the combo delivers playable frame rates at all settings, with even Ultra exceeding 60 FPS. The jump from Ultra to Low at 1080p more than doubles the frame rate, from 74 to 187 FPS. At 1440p, Medium settings are the sweet spot, offering 94 FPS average, while Ultra dips to 46 FPS, which is not ideal for fast-paced action. At 4K, only Low settings manage to stay above 60 FPS, and all other settings fall below that threshold, with Ultra being unplayable at 24 FPS.

The data also shows that the difference between settings is consistent across resolutions. For instance, the gap between Low and Ultra is roughly 113 FPS at 1080p, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. This demonstrates that the GPU's capacity to process higher-quality graphics diminishes as pixel count increases. The Medium settings at 1440p provide the best balance of visual quality and performance, with a 94 FPS average that remains smooth. For 4K users, the data strongly suggests using Low settings to maintain playability, as the step to Medium drops the frame rate by 13 FPS, and High drops it by another 10 FPS.