Minimum

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 produces a wide spread of frame rates in Minimum, ranging from a highly playable 62 FPS at 4K High to a blistering 258 FPS at 1080p Low. This combination places 1,021st out of 3,712 tested combos, indicating a solid mid-to-upper tier standing. The data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the six-core processor begins to show its age only when the graphical load is reduced to its lowest settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable and dramatic decline in performance as resolution increases, but the rate of that decline tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 179 FPS to 115 FPS, a reduction of 64 FPS or roughly 36%. This is a substantial hit, but it is not the full story.

The transition from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 at High settings is even more punishing, with the average FPS falling from 115 to 62. That represents another 53 FPS loss, or a 46% decrease. This steeper decline at the highest resolution strongly suggests that the rendering load on the RTX 4070 is scaling super-linearly with pixel count, and the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor. The GPU is working progressively harder to fill those extra pixels, and the frame rate suffers accordingly.

When we look at the Low preset, the pattern shifts. At 1080p Low, the system produces 258 FPS, but dropping to 1440p Low yields 179 FPS, and 4K Low still manages 97 FPS. The percentage drops between these steps are 31% and 46%, respectively. The fact that the 1440p to 4K drop at Low settings (46%) is nearly identical to the drop at High settings (46%) suggests that even at Low settings, the resolution is still heavily taxing the GPU. The CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU at 1440p Low, but the GPU's raw throughput is the ceiling at 4K, regardless of the preset.

The data implies that the RTX 4070 is the dominant component in this pairing for most of the tested scenarios. The frame rate is highly sensitive to resolution changes, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound system. The i5-9400, with its six cores and six threads, appears able to keep up with the GPU's demands until the very lowest settings and highest frame rates are requested.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its benchmark results place it in the 47th percentile among all CPUs, with an average score of 2254. This places it in direct competition with parts like the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, which it trails by a mere 0.2%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, which it leads by 0.4%.

In Minimum, the CPU's role appears to be that of a capable, but not unlimited, partner to the GPU. The evidence for this comes from the High and Medium settings at 1080p. At this resolution, the GPU has less work to do per frame, allowing frame rates to climb to 179 FPS (High) and 213 FPS (Medium). These are high numbers, but they are not as high as the 258 FPS achieved at Low settings. This gap between the Low and High presets at 1080p suggests that the CPU is not the sole arbiter of performance; the GPU is still doing significant work at High settings.

However, the 1080p Low result of 258 FPS is a data point that hints at the CPU's potential ceiling. If the GPU were infinitely fast, the CPU's ability to process the game's logic and draw calls would limit the frame rate. The fact that the system can reach 258 FPS at 1080p Low indicates the i5-9400 is capable of feeding the RTX 4070 with a very high number of frames. The data does not show a scenario where the CPU becomes a hard bottleneck, as even the highest frame rate recorded is substantial. The CPU's six threads are sufficient to avoid stalling the GPU in most cases, but the large jump from 179 FPS (High) to 258 FPS (Low) at 1080p implies that the CPU is working near its limit, and the reduced draw calls at Low settings allow it to push just a bit more data.

Settings Recommendations

Analyzing the measured rows, the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 4K, it delivers a respectable 74 FPS average with minimums of 63 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience that stays above common 60 FPS thresholds. At 1440p, Medium produces 137 FPS, and at 1080p, it reaches 213 FPS. These numbers represent a significant step up from the High preset while maintaining playability.

The High preset is also viable, but it comes with a noticeable cost. At 4K, it averages 62 FPS, which is playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The step up to Ultra, however, appears to be excessive for this hardware. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 47, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Ultra (88 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (136 FPS), the performance is acceptable, but the incremental gain over Medium is not worth the performance penalty.

Therefore, the data recommends the Medium preset as the optimal choice for this combination. It offers the best trade-off between visual fidelity and performance, maintaining a comfortable margin above 60 FPS at 4K and delivering very high frame rates at lower resolutions. The Low preset, while offering the highest frame rates, is likely to sacrifice too much visual quality for the marginal gains seen at 1080p and 1440p, where Medium already provides a high refresh-rate experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in the tested data?

A: The highest average frame rate is 258 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: Can this system maintain a 60 FPS experience at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, at 4K with High settings, the average FPS is 62. With Medium settings, the average is 74 FPS, and the minimum observed FPS is 63. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 47 FPS.

Q: How does the i5-9400 compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, which is 0.2% lower than the i7-1068NG7's score of 2259. This makes the two processors effectively equivalent in overall synthetic performance.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 179 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves an average of 88 FPS. This represents a 91 FPS difference between the two settings.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested hardware combinations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 1,021st out of 3,712 tested combos, placing it in the top 28% of all configurations.

Q: Is there a significant difference between the High and Medium presets at 1080p?

A: Yes, the difference is 34 FPS. High settings average 179 FPS, while Medium settings average 213 FPS. The Medium preset provides a 19% higher frame rate.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is a formidable graphics card, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and featuring 5,888 shading units. It operates at a boost clock of 2475 MHz and is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its benchmark scores place it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 37648, putting it just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56.

In Minimum, the GPU is the clear star of the show. Its role is to render the game's third-person shooter environments, and the data shows it does so with significant authority. The 4K High result of 62 FPS reflects its raw power, as is the 1440p High result of 115 FPS. The GPU's 12 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for the game's demands at these resolutions and settings, and there is no evidence in the data of a memory capacity limitation.

The scaling of frame rates with settings changes reinforces the GPU's dominance. At 1440p, moving from Low (179 FPS) to Medium (137 FPS) to High (115 FPS) to Ultra (88 FPS) shows a clear, stepwise reduction in performance as the GPU is tasked with more complex shading, lighting, and effects. This is the expected behavior for a GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 4070's raw compute and memory bandwidth are the primary determinants of the final frame rate, and the CPU is only a secondary factor, primarily at the lowest resolutions and settings. The GPU's high pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s provide the theoretical foundation for the high frame rates observed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average FPS measurements for each resolution and settings combination.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|:--- |:--- |:--- |:--- |:--- |

| 3840x2160 | High | 62 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 97 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 74 | 63 | 85 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 47 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 115 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 179 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 137 | 117 | 158 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 88 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 179 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 258 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 213 | 181 | 245 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 136 | - | - |

At 1080p, the system is capable of extremely high frame rates, with all presets averaging above 136 FPS. The Low preset reaches 258 FPS, suggesting a potential for high refresh rate monitors. The 1440p results are also strong, with all presets exceeding 88 FPS. The 4K results show that the system is capable of 4K gaming, but only at Medium or High settings, as the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS mark.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 1,021 out of 3,712 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the upper 27.5% of all configurations tested. This is a strong showing, but it is not at the top tier. The ranking suggests that while the RTX 4070 provides excellent graphical performance, the i5-9400's position in the 47th CPU percentile holds the combo back from reaching the highest echelons of the leaderboard.

The data implies that this ranking is heavily influenced by the CPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks. The i5-9400's average score of 2254 is closely matched by rivals like the i7-10710U and Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, showing it is a competent but not exceptional processor. In a game like Minimum, where the GPU is often the limiting factor, the combo's rank is still high, but a more powerful CPU would likely push this pairing much higher in the rankings. The GPU's 81st percentile ranking is significantly higher than the CPU's 47th percentile, creating an inherent imbalance. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the system performs admirably at higher resolutions where the GPU is the bottleneck, but the gap between the 1080p Low and other presets suggests the CPU is the secondary constraint. The 1,021st rank is a reflection of this balance, indicating a system that is powerful overall but leaves some performance on the table in CPU-limited scenarios.