Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox title whose performance profile often defies the expectations set by conventional game benchmarks, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER produces a dataset that illustrates this clearly. The measured FPS figures here are exceptionally high across all tested resolutions and settings, indicating that this pairing is more than capable of running the game at maximum refresh rates, but the relationship between the CPU and GPU shifts significantly depending on the workload. The data shows a system that is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the GPU becoming more relevant as resolution and graphical settings increase. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, the ranking of this combo against other tested configurations, and the specific roles each component plays in generating these results.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall ranking of this Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + RTX 4070 SUPER combo in Minecraft?

A: The combo is ranked 139th out of 1,176 tested combos for this game, placing it in the top 12% of all configurations tested. This rank is based on the measured FPS across all settings and resolutions.

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

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 709, which was achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This indicates the game becomes almost trivially easy for the hardware at lower resolutions and settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K’s score of 83,807. This makes the 290K Plus essentially a marginal upgrade over its direct predecessor in terms of raw processing power.

Q: What are the key memory and cache specifications of the CPU?

A: The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. Its cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and how does it impact performance?

A: The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This memory configuration is a significant factor in the performance at higher resolutions, as the game can utilize a large amount of video memory for textures and world data.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is in the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, indicating it outperforms the vast majority of graphics cards in the database across all tested workloads.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and features 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines. Its boost clock is rated at 2475 MHz, and it comes with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. In the context of Minecraft, these specifications translate to a GPU that is rarely the limiting factor, but its role becomes more defined as the rendering load increases.

The data shows that the GPU’s influence is most pronounced when moving from Low to Ultra settings at the same resolution. At 1920x1080, the average FPS drops from 709 on Low to 445 on High and further to 278 on Ultra. This represents a 61% reduction in average FPS from Low to Ultra, which is a substantial performance cost for the increased visual fidelity. The pattern is consistent at 2560x1440, where the average FPS goes from 447 on Low to 176 on Ultra, a 61% drop as well. At 3840x2160, the drop is even more severe, with the average FPS falling from 234 on Low to 92 on Ultra, a 61% reduction. This consistent scaling suggests that the GPU’s compute and memory resources are being taxed more heavily as the rendering complexity increases, with the 61% figure being a consistent indicator of the workload difference between the lowest and highest settings.

The VRAM capacity of 12 GB is a relevant factor because Minecraft, especially with mods and high-resolution texture packs, can have significant memory demands. The data shows that the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s is sufficient to maintain high frame rates even at 3840x2160, as the average FPS never drops below 92 even at Ultra settings. The GPU’s compute performance, measured at 35.48 TFLOPS FP32, provides the raw processing power to handle the game’s rendering pipeline. However, the benchmark results suggest that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck in most scenarios, as the FPS figures are extremely high even at 4K. The GPU’s role is to provide the headroom needed for high-resolution gaming, and the data confirms it does so effectively, but the CPU is often the component that dictates the upper limits of performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is ranked 139th out of 1,176 tested combos for Minecraft, which places it in the 88th percentile of all tested configurations. This is a strong ranking, but it is not at the very top, which indicates that there are other CPU and GPU pairings that produce higher average frame rates. The ranking is a composite measure across all resolutions and settings, so it reflects the combination’s overall versatility rather than its peak performance in any single scenario.

The CPU’s own benchmark score is 84,003, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K with a score of 83,807 (0.2% lower), the AMD EPYC 4584PX with a score of 83,090 (1.1% lower), and the AMD EPYC 9135 with a score of 82,980 (1.2% lower). The only rival with a higher score is the AMD EPYC 7F72, which posts 85,072, a 1.3% advantage. This shows that the 290K Plus is a top-tier processor, but its performance is closely matched by several other high-end chips. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 43,223, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB with a score of 43,262 (0.1% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile with a score of 43,268 (0.1% higher), and the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 with a score of 43,301 (0.2% higher). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is also close, with a score of 43,667, which is 1% higher. These rival scores show that the RTX 4070 SUPER is a solid mid-to-high-range performer, but it is not a standout in terms of raw benchmark numbers.

The combo’s rank of 139 out of 1,176 suggests that while both components are individually strong, the pairing is not perfectly optimized for Minecraft. The data indicates that the system is capable of very high frame rates, but other combinations may achieve even higher scores, likely due to differences in how the CPU and GPU interact with the game’s engine. The ranking is a useful data point for understanding the relative performance of this specific configuration, but it is important to look at the measured FPS breakdown to understand where this combo excels and where it might be limited.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the combo produces an average FPS of 709 on Low settings, 561 on Medium, 445 on High, and 278 on Ultra. The Medium setting also has a recorded minimum FPS of 477 and a maximum of 645, which shows some frame time variance. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is massively overqualified for the game, with even the most demanding Ultra setting producing an average FPS well above the refresh rate of most monitors.

Moving up to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops to 447 on Low, 354 on Medium, 281 on High, and 176 on Ultra. The Medium setting here has a minimum FPS of 301 and a maximum of 407. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant, with the Ultra setting seeing a 37% reduction in average FPS, from 278 to 176. This indicates that the GPU is starting to become more of a factor, but the frame rates remain exceptionally high. The data shows that even at 1440p Ultra, the system is capable of driving a high-refresh-rate monitor without issue.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS is 234 on Low, 185 on Medium, 147 on High, and 92 on Ultra. The Medium setting has a minimum FPS of 157 and a maximum of 213. This is the resolution where the GPU’s limitations become more apparent. The drop from High to Ultra at 4K is notable, with the average FPS falling from 147 to 92, a 37% decrease. This shows that Ultra settings at 4K demand significant GPU resources, but the system still delivers a playable experience. The data shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution and settings increase, but the absolute numbers are high enough that this combo can handle any configuration without dropping below 90 FPS on average. The minimum FPS values for the Medium settings across all resolutions, which are 477 at 1080p, 301 at 1440p, and 157 at 4K, indicate that frame pacing remains stable even when the system is under load.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling of performance from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 demonstrates how the balance of load shifts between the CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 709 at 1080p to 447 at 1440p, a 37% reduction, and then to 234 at 4K, a further 48% reduction from 1440p. This steep drop at 4K indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, as the CPU has less impact on the frame rate at lower settings. The data suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to reach very high frame rates at 1080p, but the GPU’s rendering throughput becomes the bottleneck as the pixel count increases.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute numbers. The average FPS is 278 at 1080p, 176 at 1440p, and 92 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 37%, and from 1440p to 4K is 48%. This consistent pattern of scaling, with a roughly 37% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 48% reduction from 1440p to 4K, is a clear indicator that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary determinants of performance at higher resolutions. The CPU’s role is to prepare the frame data, and at 4K, the GPU takes significantly longer to render each frame, which is reflected in the lower average FPS.

The fact that the percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is nearly identical across all settings (37% for Low, High, and Ultra) suggests that the GPU is scaling predictably with resolution. The further drop to 4K, while larger in percentage terms, is also consistent. This tells us that the limiting component is the GPU, as its performance scales with the number of pixels being rendered. The CPU’s performance, while important for maintaining high frame rates, is not the primary constraint at 4K. The data shows that the system is well-balanced, but the GPU is the component that will determine the maximum playable resolution and settings for a target frame rate. For a 144Hz monitor, the system can handle 1440p Ultra easily, but at 4K, the user would need to drop to High settings to stay above 144 FPS on average, and even then, the margin is thin.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. These specifications provide a massive amount of processing power, and its benchmark scores reflect this, with a multi-core score of 51,731 in Cinebench R23 and a single-core score of 7,303 in the same test.

In Minecraft, the CPU’s role is critical due to the game’s single-threaded nature. The game’s primary game logic, including world generation, entity updates, and block physics, is largely confined to a single thread. This means that the CPU’s single-core performance is more important than its multi-core capabilities for achieving high frame rates. The 290K Plus’s single-core score of 7,303 in Cinebench R23 and its boost clock of 5.80 GHz are key factors in the high FPS numbers seen at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the average FPS is 709, which is a strong indicator that the CPU is able to process the game’s logic fast enough to feed the GPU with a high number of frames per second.

The CPU’s 24 threads, while not fully utilized by Minecraft, do provide headroom for other tasks, such as running a server, streaming, or having background applications open. The PassMark multithread score of 60,860 and the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 show that the CPU is a powerhouse for multi-threaded workloads, but these are not directly relevant to the game’s performance. The data suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this configuration, as the FPS drops are primarily attributable to the GPU at higher resolutions. However, the CPU’s limitations become apparent when comparing the FPS at 1080p Low (709) to the FPS at 4K Low (234). The 4K number is lower because the GPU is working harder, but the 1080p number shows that the CPU is capable of driving frame rates well beyond what most monitors can display.

The CPU’s memory support for dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s is also a factor, as memory bandwidth can affect how quickly the CPU can access world data. The 36 MB of L3 cache helps to keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing latency. In a game like Minecraft, where the world is composed of many blocks and entities, this cache can be beneficial. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 96th among all CPUs confirms that it is one of the fastest processors available, and its performance in this game is consistent with that ranking. The data shows that the CPU is the dominant component at lower resolutions, but its influence wanes as the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. For users who play at 1080p or 1440p, the 290K Plus ensures that the game will not be CPU-limited, allowing the GPU to deliver its maximum performance.