Minimum

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers a dominant 1440p experience in Minimum, with 1080p results that suggest a CPU bottleneck at lower settings. The data shows this combo ranks in the 84th percentile of all tested configurations, making it a high-end pairing for this title, though the GPU’s massive headroom is capped by the processor’s six-core architecture.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frames per second reveal a clear hierarchy: Medium settings at 1440p is the sweet spot, delivering 161.6 FPS average. This provides a 58% performance uplift over High settings at the same resolution while maintaining a visual quality that is only one step below the top tier. The jump from Medium to High costs 24.6 FPS (a 15% drop), while the jump from High to Ultra costs 35 FPS (a 26% drop), making Ultra a poor trade-off for the visual gain. At 4K, Medium remains the most balanced choice, with 84.3 FPS average, which is 13% faster than High and 56% faster than Ultra. For competitive play, Low settings at 1440p produces 211.1 FPS, offering a 31% advantage over Medium, but the visual fidelity loss is substantial. The data indicates that Medium is the recommended preset for 1440p and 4K, as it provides the best ratio of smoothness to graphical quality. At 1080p, Medium pushes 245.2 FPS, which is only 9% behind Low, making it the clear winner for high-refresh-rate monitors without sacrificing image clarity.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant component in this pairing, equipped with 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its 5 nm Navi 31 chip contains 57,700 million transistors and 6144 shading units, with a game clock of 2365 MHz and a boost clock of 2498 MHz. This hardware configuration produces a Passmark G3D score of 31238, placing it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs. The VRAM capacity is far beyond what Minimum requires; the data shows no scenario where memory capacity becomes a limiting factor, even at 4K Ultra. The GPU’s raw compute power, measured at 61.39 TFLOPS FP32, allows it to handle the game’s demands with ease. However, the benchmark results suggest the GPU is often idle, particularly at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The GPU’s 192 ROPs and 959.2 GTexel/s texture rate ensure that pixel-heavy scenes at 4K remain fluid, as evidenced by the 74.4 FPS average at High settings. This is a card designed for future-proofing, and in Minimum, it is the primary driver of performance only at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the bottleneck. At Medium settings, performance drops from 245.2 FPS at 1080p to 161.6 FPS at 1440p (a 34% reduction), and then to 84.3 FPS at 4K (a 48% further reduction). This steep decline indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as resolution rises, which is expected given the 3840x2160 pixel count is 4.5 times that of 1920x1080. However, the scaling is not linear. The 1080p to 1440p drop of 83.6 FPS is larger than the 1440p to 4K drop of 77.3 FPS, suggesting that the CPU begins to cap performance at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 269.1 FPS, but at 1440p Low, it only reaches 211.1 FPS — a 22% drop. This pattern repeats across all settings, with the 1080p-to-1440p penalty being more severe than the 1440p-to-4K penalty. The data shows that the i5-10400F’s six cores struggle to feed the RX 7900 XTX at 1080p, where the GPU could otherwise produce even higher frame rates. The limiting component shifts from CPU at 1080p to GPU at 4K, with 1440p serving as the balanced midpoint.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific configuration ranks 277th out of 1733 tested combos, placing it in the top 16% of all systems. This is a strong result, but not elite, reflecting the asymmetry between the high-end GPU and the mid-range CPU. The combo’s percentile is driven almost entirely by the GPU’s capabilities, as the CPU’s own percentile of 73 is significantly lower. In the context of Minimum, this rank means the system outperforms the vast majority of setups, but it is not among the top 250 combinations. The data suggests that pairing this GPU with a faster processor would yield a higher rank, as the GPU is clearly not the limiting factor at 1080p. The 277th position is respectable for a mainstream CPU like the i5-10400F, but it underscores that this is a GPU-first build. For players targeting 4K, this rank is more than adequate, as the frame rates remain playable. For 1080p esports scenarios, the rank flatters the CPU, which is holding back the GPU’s potential.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297 and single-core score of 1453 place it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, indicating solid but not exceptional performance. In Minimum, the CPU’s role is most apparent at 1080p. At Low settings, the combo achieves 269.1 FPS, but this is only 10% higher than Medium settings (245.2 FPS), suggesting the CPU is nearing its limit. The Passmark single-thread score of 2541 and multi-thread score of 12115 show that the processor can handle the game’s threading, but its 14 nm Comet Lake architecture is dated. The data reveals that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary bottleneck, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential—the GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 6841 suggests it could push higher frame rates if fed properly. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU’s load decreases, and the GPU takes over as the limiting factor. The 4.30 GHz boost clock helps in single-threaded scenarios, but the six-core layout is sufficient for this title, as frame rates do not collapse at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo?

A: Medium settings at 1440p provides the best balance, delivering 161.6 FPS average, which is 58% faster than High and 59% faster than Ultra at the same resolution. At 4K, Medium remains optimal with 84.3 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The bottleneck shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU limits performance, as shown by the small gap between Low (269.1 FPS) and Medium (245.2 FPS) settings. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with frame rates dropping to 74.4 FPS on High.

Q: How does the combo rank against all tested systems?

A: This configuration ranks 277th out of 1733 combos, placing it in the top 16% of all tested systems. This rank is driven by the GPU’s high performance.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Minimum?*

A: Yes, at 4K High settings, it averages 74.4 FPS, and at Medium settings, it reaches 84.3 FPS. Ultra settings are playable at 53.9 FPS, but Medium is recommended for smoother gameplay.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Medium settings, frame rate drops from 245.2 FPS at 1080p to 84.3 FPS at 4K, a 66% reduction. The largest single drop occurs between 1440p and 4K, where performance falls by 48%.

Q: What is the GPU’s VRAM capacity and does it matter here?

A: The GPU has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 384-bit bus. In Minimum, no benchmark shows VRAM as a limiting factor, even at 4K Ultra, so the capacity is more than sufficient.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 269.1 FPS average
• Medium: 245.2 FPS average
• High: 204.9 FPS average
• Ultra: 156.5 FPS average

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 211.1 FPS average
• Medium: 161.6 FPS average
• High: 137.0 FPS average
• Ultra: 102.0 FPS average

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 113.4 FPS average
• Medium: 84.3 FPS average
• High: 74.4 FPS average
• Ultra: 53.9 FPS average

The data shows a consistent pattern where each settings tier costs roughly 20-30% performance, and each resolution step costs a similar amount. The 1080p Ultra score of 156.5 FPS is nearly identical to the 1440p Medium score of 161.6 FPS, illustrating that resolution and settings trade-offs are roughly equivalent in this title. The minimum viable experience for competitive play is 1440p Low at 211.1 FPS, while the maximum visual fidelity at playable frame rates is 4K High at 74.4 FPS. The spread between the fastest and slowest configurations is 215.2 FPS (269.1 vs 53.9), showing the wide range of performance available across the 12 measured points.