Ready Or Not

Intel Core i5-12400 pairs with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 in Ready Or Not to produce frame rates that are almost absurdly high, yet the data reveals a clear hierarchy of bottlenecks depending on resolution. The 6-core, 12-thread Alder Lake processor, with its 2.50 GHz base and 4.40 GHz boost clock, is the foundation here. Its benchmark profile suggests it is a solid mid-range contender, sitting at the 77th percentile of all CPUs with an average score of 19850. However, the RTX 5090 is a different beast entirely; it is a 94th-percentile GPU with an average benchmark score of 84306, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is likely the primary limiter, while at 4K, the GPU begins to take on a more significant role, though both components are clearly powerful enough to deliver playable, if not extreme, performance.

CPU Role

The Core i5-12400 provides the processing muscle for Ready Or Not's AI-driven tactical scenarios. With 6 physical cores and 12 threads, it can handle the game's simulation and entity logic, but its single-threaded performance is the key metric for frame generation. The 3dmark single-thread score of 910 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249 indicate strong per-core capability, which is crucial for the game's main thread. In synthetic multi-threaded tests, the processor posts a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935, showing it can manage parallel workloads, but the game's engine likely relies more heavily on fewer, faster cores. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS is 521.8, which is nearly double the 4K Ultra result of 99 FPS. This massive delta suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU is being pushed to its limits to feed frames to the GPU, while at higher resolutions, the GPU's rendering load becomes the constraining factor. The processor's 18 MB of shared L3 cache is a modest amount, but the benchmark results—such as a Passmark integer math score of 58366 and a floating point score of 45494—paint a picture of a capable, balanced CPU that does not embarrass itself next to the top-tier GPU.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12400 compare to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database?

A: The data shows it is exceptionally close to its rivals. It is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-9700 (avg score 19831) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-11600K (avg score 19771). It trails the Intel Core i7-8700 by 0.2% (avg score 19894) and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by 0.4% (avg score 19928). These deltas are within a rounding error, indicating that CPU performance is nearly identical across these models in synthetic tests.

Q: What is the performance difference between the RTX 5090 and its closest rivals?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score is 84306. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, scores 84241, which is a 0.1% difference. The RTX 5050 Mobile is also 0.2% ahead, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 is 1.3% behind. The NVIDIA CMP 40HX is 1.6% ahead in score, but these are all marginal differences in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved in Ready Or Not with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 521.8, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is a staggering frame rate that far exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 99, which is seen at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is still a very playable frame rate for a tactical shooter, but it highlights the significant performance cost of 4K Ultra settings.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in the game?

A: The combo ranks 19th out of 1748 tested combinations. This places it in the top 1.1% of all tested hardware pairings, indicating exceptional overall performance.

Q: Does the CPU's performance limit the GPU in this game?

A: The data suggests yes, particularly at lower resolutions. For instance, at 1080p Low, the system produces 521.8 FPS, but at 4K Low it only produces 180.8 FPS. The CPU is likely the limiting factor at 1080p, as the GPU is not being fully utilized. At 4K, the GPU's rendering workload becomes more significant, reducing the CPU's role as the primary bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is revealing. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 425.7 at 1920x1080 to 272.1 at 2560x1440, and then to 140.1 at 3840x2160. This is a 67% drop from 1080p to 4K. The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings, but the magnitude of the drop varies. For Low settings, the drop is from 521.8 to 340.5 to 180.8, a 65% decrease from 1080p to 4K. This indicates that the system is not purely GPU-bound at lower resolutions; the CPU is holding back the frame rate. If the GPU were the only bottleneck, the 4K FPS would be roughly a quarter of the 1080p FPS due to the fourfold increase in pixel count. Instead, the 4K results are about 35% of the 1080p results, suggesting that the CPU's limits are being reached at 1080p, and as resolution increases, the GPU's load ramps up, creating a more balanced workload. The 4K Ultra result of 99 FPS shows that even at the highest resolution and settings, the GPU is still capable of maintaining a high frame rate, but the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K (180.8 vs 99) is smaller than at 1080p (521.8 vs 300.8), further confirming that the GPU becomes the dominant constraint at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear hierarchy of performance across presets. At 4K, the Ultra preset delivers 99 FPS, which is playable but the lowest of the bunch. Dropping to High yields 140.1 FPS, a 41.5% improvement over Ultra, while Medium provides 158.2 FPS and Low offers 180.8 FPS. For a tactical shooter where visual clarity can be a competitive advantage, the High preset at 4K appears to be the sweet spot, offering a substantial frame rate increase over Ultra with presumably a minor visual penalty. At 1440p, the High preset produces 272.1 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p still delivers 186.8 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. At 1080p, the High preset's 425.7 FPS is overkill for most displays, but it shows the headroom available. The data indicates that the Medium preset at 4K (158.2 FPS) offers a good balance, but the High preset at 4K (140.1 FPS) is the better choice for those who want a high frame rate without sacrificing too much visual quality. The Ultra preset is best reserved for scenarios where visual fidelity is prioritized over raw frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 19 out of 1748 tested combos in Ready Or Not. This places it in the top 1.1% of all configurations, which is an exceptional result. The data implies that this CPU-GPU pairing is highly effective for this game, despite the CPU being a more budget-oriented part compared to the flagship GPU. The ranking suggests that the game is not heavily CPU-bound at the settings tested, or that the i5-12400 provides enough single-threaded performance to keep up with the RTX 5090. The fact that it does not rank higher (e.g., in the top 5) could indicate that other combos with faster CPUs, such as those with more cores or higher clocks, achieve slightly better results, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU load is higher. However, for the vast majority of users, being in the top 1.1% of all tested combos is a strong indicator of excellent performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are as follows: Low settings produce 521.8 FPS, Medium produces 471.5 FPS, High produces 425.7 FPS, and Ultra produces 300.8 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 221 FPS, showing that settings have a significant impact even at this resolution. Moving to 2560x1440, the results are 340.5 FPS on Low, 297.9 FPS on Medium, 272.1 FPS on High, and 186.8 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 153.7 FPS. Finally, at 3840x2160, the average FPS is 180.8 on Low, 158.2 on Medium, 140.1 on High, and 99 on Ultra. The difference between the lowest and highest settings is now 81.8 FPS. This progressive narrowing of the gap between presets as resolution increases confirms that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU's influence on settings-based performance decreases.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, with a 94th-percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 512-bit bus provide a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is critical for handling the high-resolution textures and complex scenes in Ready Or Not. The GPU's base clock is 2017 MHz, with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and it features 21760 shading units. The 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411 and the Geekbench OpenCL score of 380114 underscore its raw compute power. The measured FPS data shows that at 4K Ultra, the system still achieves 99 FPS, a signal of the GPU's ability to render the game at high fidelity. However, the data also reveals that the GPU is not always the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the 521.8 FPS result is so high that the CPU's limits are likely being hit, as the GPU has plenty of headroom. The GPU's role becomes more critical as resolution increases, with the 4K results showing a clear dependence on the GPU's rendering capabilities. The RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance ensures that it can handle the game's visual effects with ease, but the data suggests that pairing it with a more powerful CPU could yield even higher frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, where the current processor is the limiting factor.