Ready Or Not

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivers a remarkably consistent experience in Ready Or Not, but the data reveals a clear and predictable shift in system dynamics as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is a modest 71.1 FPS (from 312.8 down to 241.7), indicating the CPU is doing the heavy lifting. The GPU is so fast at this resolution that it is rarely the limiting factor; the 6-core, 6-thread i5-9400 with its 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost clock becomes the primary constraint. The FPS drop from High to Ultra is just 45.8 FPS, which is significant but not catastrophic, showing the game’s Ultra preset adds substantial visual load without overwhelming the 4070 Ti’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory.

Moving to 2560x1440, the picture changes. The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 113.6 FPS, but the absolute numbers remain high: 266.2 FPS at Low and 152.6 FPS at Ultra. This is the sweet spot for this combo. The GPU’s 2310 MHz base and 2610 MHz boost clocks are now being utilized more effectively, and the 192-bit memory bus with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient to feed the rasterizer. The scaling from Medium to Ultra is 82.6 FPS, which is a larger step than at 1080p, suggesting the graphics pipeline starts to matter more. At 4K (3840x2160), the data tells a different story. The average FPS at Ultra drops to 78.6, which is still playable, but the spread from Low (140.5) to Ultra (78.6) is a massive 61.9 FPS. This indicates the RTX 4070 Ti is now the clear bottleneck; the CPU has enough headroom to issue draw calls, but the GPU’s 80 ROPs and 7680 shading units are working at full capacity to render the higher pixel count.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 1748 tested combinations, this specific pairing of the i5-9400 and RTX 4070 Ti holds the 427th position in Ready Or Not. That places it in the top 24.4% of all tested combos, which is a strong result for a CPU that is several generations old. The i5-9400’s individual percentile rank is 50, meaning it sits exactly at the median of all CPUs tested, yet it is not holding the system back in this title. The GPU, however, is the star: its 85th percentile among all GPUs indicates it is far above average, and this is reflected in the high FPS numbers. The combination works because the game is not heavily threaded; the 6 threads of the i5-9400 are enough to keep the 4070 Ti fed at most resolutions.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the CPU, the i5-9400’s average benchmark score of 2305 is within 0.6% of the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319) and 0.4% of the Intel Xeon E-2134 (2295). This tells us the 9400 is punching at its weight class in synthetic tests, but in Ready Or Not, the real-world performance is dictated by the GPU’s dominance. The rank is not higher because at 1080p, the CPU’s 9 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth become limiting factors, preventing the system from achieving the 300+ FPS numbers that a newer CPU might unlock. Still, a rank of 427 out of 1748 is a solid placement, and the data shows that this combo is more than capable for high-refresh 1440p gaming.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti is the driving force behind this combo’s success. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is ample for the textures used in Ready Or Not’s tactical environments, and the 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth ensures that data flows quickly to the 7680 shading units. The GPU’s boost clock of 2610 MHz is high, and the data shows it scales well with resolution. At 4K Low, the card produces 140.5 FPS, which confirms its raw compute power (40.09 TFLOPS FP32). The card’s 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are not directly tested by these rasterization benchmarks, but they indicate the hardware is capable of handling future titles with ray tracing enabled, even if Ready Or Not does not appear to leverage them heavily.

The GPU’s 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs is justified by the measured results. Compared to its nearest rivals, the 4070 Ti’s average score of 44900 is only 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44195, deltaPct 1.6) and 1.5% behind the Intel Arc A730M (45592, deltaPct -1.5). These are tight margins in synthetic tests, but in Ready Or Not, the 4070 Ti’s driver maturity and architecture shine through. The memory configuration of 12 GB on a 192-bit bus is a potential bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the card drops to 78.6 FPS, but this is still a playable frame rate. The data suggests that the GPU is the primary component dictating performance above 1080p, and it does so admirably.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings produce an average of 312.8 FPS, Medium 298.1 FPS, High 287.5 FPS, and Ultra 241.7 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 14.7 FPS, Medium to High is 10.6 FPS, and High to Ultra is 45.8 FPS. The Ultra preset is clearly more demanding, but even at its most intensive, the system stays well above 240 FPS. This is a scenario where the CPU is the limiting factor, as the GPU has plenty of headroom to render frames faster than the processor can issue them.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 266.2 FPS (Low), 235.2 FPS (Medium), 217.7 FPS (High), and 152.6 FPS (Ultra). The scaling is more linear here, with a 31.0 FPS drop from Low to Medium, a 17.5 FPS drop from Medium to High, and a 65.1 FPS drop from High to Ultra. The 4K results show 140.5 FPS (Low), 122.7 FPS (Medium), 113.2 FPS (High), and 78.6 FPS (Ultra). The drop from High to Ultra at 4K is 34.6 FPS, which is the largest relative percentage drop across all resolutions (30.5%). This indicates that the Ultra preset’s additional effects—likely shadows and ambient occlusion—are heavily taxing the GPU’s pixel pipeline.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the data points to 2560x1440 with the High preset as the optimal balance. It delivers 217.7 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors, and the visual quality is only slightly below Ultra. At 1080p, the High preset at 287.5 FPS is a waste of potential; the CPU is the bottleneck, and you would be better served by raising the resolution to 1440p to shift the load to the GPU. At 4K, the High preset (113.2 FPS) is the sensible choice for competitive play, as the Ultra preset’s 78.6 FPS is playable but may introduce input latency on faster panels.

If you prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, the Medium preset at 1440p (235.2 FPS) is a strong alternative, offering a 17.5 FPS advantage over High while still looking good. Avoid the Low preset at any resolution above 1080p, as the game’s tactical visibility—which relies on spotting enemies in dark corners—may suffer from reduced shadow quality. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p users with high-refresh displays, where the 241.7 FPS average is still excellent. For most players, 1440p High is the sweet spot, providing a 92.7% higher frame rate than 4K Ultra while maintaining visual integrity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boosting to 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (42.7 GB/s bandwidth) are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for Ready Or Not. The game’s engine appears to be well-optimized for six threads, as the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU at 1440p or 4K. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, but at higher resolutions, the GPU takes over. This is a classic sign of a balanced system at 1440p, where the i5-9400’s 6 threads are enough to keep the 4070 Ti busy.

The CPU’s synthetic benchmarks are average—its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 places it at the 50th percentile—but in gaming, it holds its own. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, has an almost identical average score (2300 vs 2305), yet the i5-9400’s higher boost clock (4.10 GHz vs the i3’s unspecified clock) likely gives it a slight edge in lightly-threaded game logic. The 65W TDP and Intel Socket 1151 compatibility mean this CPU is easy to cool and install, but its end-of-life status suggests it is not a future-proof choice. For this specific game, however, the CPU plays a supporting role, providing enough throughput to avoid being the primary bottleneck above 1080p. The measured FPS shows that upgrading the CPU would yield diminishing returns beyond 1440p, as the GPU becomes the dominant performance driver.