Ready Or Not

The Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 combination delivers a highly playable experience in Ready Or Not across most settings, but the data reveals a clear performance hierarchy. The measured frames per second indicate that the Ultra preset imposes a significant penalty, while High and Medium settings offer a far more balanced experience. The benchmark results show that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, though the CPU's six-core configuration holds up adequately at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows show a consistent pattern: Low and Medium presets provide the highest frame rates, while Ultra demands a steep cost. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves an average of 226.8 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all configurations. The Medium preset follows at 199.7 FPS, and High drops to 180.1 FPS. The Ultra preset, however, falls to 124.5 FPS, representing a substantial reduction from the High preset. While 124.5 FPS is still playable, the gap between High and Ultra suggests diminishing returns.

At 1440p, the trend continues. Low delivers 140.3 FPS, Medium reaches 127.5 FPS, and High sits at 115.9 FPS. Ultra drops sharply to 78 FPS, which is a 37 FPS reduction from High. This pattern indicates that the Ultra preset disproportionately taxes the system, likely due to effects or shadows that scale poorly with this hardware.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the High preset at 1440p or 1080p appears optimal. At 1440p, High produces 115.9 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1080p, High delivers 180.1 FPS, offering headroom for demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 1440p (127.5 FPS) is also viable if visual fidelity is less critical. The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combo, as the 4K result of 42.9 FPS confirms it is not suited for maximum settings at high resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide adequate bandwidth for a tactical shooter. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125, place it in the 50th percentile among all CPUs, indicating a mid-range standing.

In Ready Or Not, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p, the Low preset reaches 226.8 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed frames at a high rate. However, the core count of six threads may limit performance in densely populated scenario moments, though the measured data does not show a specific CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2300 in average benchmarks, a mere 0.2% difference, confirming the i5-9400's performance class. The gap to the Intel Core i7-8809G, which scores 2319, is -0.6%, meaning the i5-9400 is slightly behind that mobile part.

The boost clock of 4.10 GHz is relevant for single-threaded tasks, but Ready Or Not likely benefits from the six physical cores. The benchmark results show that at 1080p, the CPU can handle the High preset at 180.1 FPS, indicating it is not the limiting factor at that resolution. At 4K, however, the CPU's influence wanes as the GPU becomes saturated.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, fabricated on a 6 nm process. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. The GPU's boost clock is 2655 MHz, with a game clock of 2250 MHz. Its 2048 shading units and 32 ray tracing cores deliver a theoretical FP32 performance of 21.75 TFLOPS. The GPU sits in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20258.

In Ready Or Not, the GPU is the dominant factor at higher resolutions. The measured FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic: at High settings, the average falls from 180.1 FPS at 1080p to 115.9 FPS at 1440p, and then to 61.4 FPS at 4K. This scaling indicates that the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra preset (42.9 FPS) reveals a hard limit. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, scores 20146, a 0.6% difference, meaning the RX 7600 is effectively at parity with its higher-tier sibling in synthetic benchmarks.

The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s is a key constraint at 4K, where texture streaming and high-resolution assets demand more throughput. The 4K High result of 61.4 FPS is just above playable, but the 4K Ultra result of 42.9 FPS is not smooth. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM may also be a limiting factor at Ultra settings, as the preset's higher texture quality could exceed the frame buffer.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 ranks 1187 out of 1748 tested combinations in Ready Or Not. This places it in the lower-middle range of all tested systems, which is consistent with the CPU's mid-range status and the GPU's upper-mid-range standing. The rank indicates that many other combos, likely with newer CPUs or higher-tier GPUs, achieve better performance in this game.

The ranking is influenced by the CPU's age, as the i5-9400 was released in 2018 and is now end-of-life. Its six threads may not be ideal for modern titles that leverage higher core counts. However, the GPU's strong synthetic scores (e.g., a Passmark G3D score of 16634) help offset the CPU's limitations. The deltaPct values for the CPU's rivals show a tight cluster, with the i5-9400 within 0.6% of its nearest neighbors, suggesting that the CPU is not an outlier but rather a typical mid-range part.

For context, the combo's rank of 1187 means roughly 32% of tested combos perform worse, and 68% perform better. This is a middling result for a system that can deliver 180 FPS at 1080p High, indicating that Ready Or Not is more demanding on the CPU than the frame rates at lower resolutions suggest.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is pronounced and reveals the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 226.8 (1080p) to 140.3 (1440p) to 72.9 (4K). This is a 68% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the drop is from 180.1 FPS to 61.4 FPS, a 66% reduction. The Ultra preset shows the steepest decline: 124.5 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p, and 42.9 FPS at 4K, a 66% reduction as well.

The consistent reduction across presets suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the frame rate roughly halves from 1080p to 4K, which aligns with the pixel count quadrupling. The CPU's performance at 1080p Low (226.8 FPS) indicates it can push frames well above 200, but the GPU cannot maintain that at higher resolutions. At 1440p, the High preset (115.9 FPS) is still GPU-bound, but the CPU's six threads may start to introduce minor dips in complex scenes, though the data does not show min FPS values.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly telling: at High settings, the FPS drops from 115.9 to 61.4, a 47% reduction, which is close to the expected 50% based on pixel count. This confirms the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. For players targeting 4K, the Low preset (72.9 FPS) is the only viable option, while 1440p offers a better balance with High settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low settings produce 226.8 FPS, Medium achieves 199.7 FPS, High reaches 180.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 124.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 27.1 FPS, while the gap from High to Ultra is 55.6 FPS, showing that Ultra imposes a significant penalty.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 140.3 FPS, Medium at 127.5 FPS, High at 115.9 FPS, and Ultra at 78 FPS. The transition from High to Ultra costs 37.9 FPS, which is a 33% drop, making Ultra less attractive at this resolution. The Medium preset at 127.5 FPS is a strong choice for high refresh rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 72.9 FPS, Medium at 63.1 FPS, High at 61.4 FPS, and Ultra at 42.9 FPS. The difference between Medium and High is minimal (1.7 FPS), suggesting that the GPU is saturated and additional settings have little impact. The Ultra preset at 42.9 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and the data shows that even Low settings at 4K (72.9 FPS) are preferable to Ultra for playability.

The breakdown shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo, with all presets except Ultra exceeding 120 FPS. At 1440p, High and Medium are excellent, while Ultra is borderline. At 4K, only Low settings approach 60 FPS, and the GPU's limitations are fully exposed. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming, with High settings providing the most balanced experience across both resolutions.