Revolution Idle

Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 pairing delivers a playable but not exceptional experience in Revolution Idle, a game that is surprisingly demanding at higher presets. The measured frame rates reveal a hardware combination that is well-balanced at 1080p but struggles to maintain fluid motion at 4K, particularly when settings are pushed past Medium. The data indicates that this system’s performance ceiling is defined more by the GPU than the CPU, especially as resolution scales.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, highlighting the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At High settings, average frame rate falls from 96 FPS at 1920x1080 to 60 FPS at 2560x1440, a 37.5% reduction, and then plummets to 34.5 FPS at 3840x2160. This pattern—a halving of performance when moving from 1440p to 4K—is a classic sign that the RTX 4060’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus are being saturated by the pixel count. The 272.0 GB/s memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor, as the data shows the GPU cannot keep pace with the rendering load at 4K.

Low settings illustrate the same trend but with a higher baseline. The average frame rate at 1920x1080 Low is 130.5 FPS, which drops to 86.8 FPS at 2560x1440 and then to 46.6 FPS at 3840x2160. Even at the lowest preset, 4K still produces frame rates below 60 FPS, confirming that resolution is the dominant variable. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is dramatic: 46.6 FPS versus 19.5 FPS, respectively. This suggests that while lowering settings helps, it cannot overcome the fundamental resolution penalty.

The scaling between Medium and High is minimal at all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium yields 100.8 FPS and High yields 96 FPS, a difference of just 4.8 FPS. At 1440p, the gap narrows to 5.9 FPS (65.9 vs. 60.0). This indicates that the game’s Medium preset is already close to the GPU’s optimal workload, and the High preset adds only marginal visual complexity without a significant frame rate cost. The Ultra preset, however, is a different story: it introduces a substantial performance hit at every resolution, with 61.4 FPS at 1080p and only 19.5 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that Ultra is designed for more powerful hardware and is not viable for this combo at 1440p or above.

At 1080p, the CPU begins to show its relevance. The jump from Medium (100.8 FPS) to Low (130.5 FPS) is 29.7 FPS, which is larger than the jump from High to Medium (4.8 FPS). This indicates that at 1080p, the Intel Core i5-12400F’s six cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, but the GPU is still the primary limiter. The processor’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz and single-thread score of 909 in 3dmark suggest it can handle the game’s logic, which is typical for an idle genre title that relies on background calculations rather than complex physics.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60 FPS?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 on High settings achieves exactly 60.0 FPS average. For a more comfortable margin, 1920x1080 on Medium or High yields 100.8 FPS and 96 FPS, respectively, ensuring smooth performance without approaching the 4K bottleneck.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Ultra settings deliver an average of 61.4 FPS, which is playable but close to the 60 FPS threshold. This is a 35.6 FPS drop compared to High settings at the same resolution, indicating that Ultra is not optimized for this GPU.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this hardware?

A: No. The highest average frame rate at 3840x2160 is 46.6 FPS on Low settings. High settings drop to 34.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 19.5 FPS. All 4K results are below the 60 FPS target, making the experience suboptimal.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 86.8 FPS, while High settings produce 60.0 FPS. This is a 26.8 FPS difference, suggesting that High is a better choice for visual fidelity without a severe performance penalty relative to other presets.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 962 out of 1774 tested combinations, placing it in the 54th percentile. This is a mid-pack result, indicating that while it is not a top-tier performer, it is not at the bottom either.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at 4K?

A: No. The consistent frame rate drops from 1440p to 4K across all settings point to the GPU as the bottleneck. The i5-12400F’s multi-threaded score of 16518 in Cinebench R23 suggests it has ample headroom for this game’s computational demands.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a six-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake-S architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 10 nm process node position it as a solid mid-range desktop chip, and the benchmark data confirms it performs well in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. The 3dmark single-thread score of 909 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for an idle game that may run many small, concurrent tasks.

In Revolution Idle, the CPU’s role is to manage game state calculations, which are typically not graphically intensive. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 130.5 FPS, which is the highest measured result. This suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution and settings level. The processor’s passmark multithread score of 19433 and its 3dmark max threads score of 5912 indicate it can handle parallel workloads efficiently, which is beneficial for an idle game that might run background simulations.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-12400F is closely matched. Its average benchmark score of 19221 is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-8700K and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-1335U, but 0.7% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS. This shows that the CPU is competitive with older high-end and newer mid-range parts, but it does not offer a decisive advantage. The processor’s 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs reinforces that it is a capable but not exceptional choice.

The lack of integrated graphics is irrelevant here since the system uses a discrete RTX 4060. The CPU’s PCIe Gen 5 support with 20 lanes provides adequate bandwidth for the GPU, which uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 adds flexibility, but the game’s performance is not memory-bound based on the measured results.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, Medium settings provide 100.8 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and offers a good balance between visual quality and performance. High settings at 1080p yield 96 FPS, a negligible drop of 4.8 FPS, making High a viable choice for those who prefer better visuals. Ultra at 1080p drops to 61.4 FPS, which is still playable but leaves little headroom for frame rate dips, so it is only recommended if the user prioritizes maximum detail over smoothness.

At 2560x1440, High settings deliver exactly 60.0 FPS, which is the minimum for a smooth experience. Medium settings provide 65.9 FPS, offering a small performance buffer, while Low settings reach 86.8 FPS. Ultra at 1440p falls to 38 FPS, which is not recommended for sustained play. The data suggests that High is the best choice at 1440p, as it provides the best visual quality while maintaining the 60 FPS target.

For 4K, no preset achieves 60 FPS. Low settings produce 46.6 FPS, Medium yields 35.3 FPS, and High drops to 34.5 FPS. Ultra is unplayable at 19.5 FPS. Given these results, the only reasonable recommendation at 3840x2160 is Low settings, and even then, users should expect a compromised experience. The frame rate difference between Low and Medium at 4K is 11.3 FPS, which is significant, but the visual improvement may not be worth the performance cost.

The performance delta between Medium and High is consistently small across all resolutions, with a maximum difference of 5.9 FPS at 1440p. This suggests that High is a "free" upgrade over Medium in terms of performance cost, making it the preferred preset for most users. Ultra, conversely, incurs a steep penalty, with a 34.6 FPS drop from High at 1080p and a 25.5 FPS drop at 1440p, confirming that it is not optimized for this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested hardware combinations for Revolution Idle, the Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 962 out of 1774, placing it in the lower half of the field. This mid-pack ranking is consistent with the measured frame rates, which show a system that can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming but falls short at 4K. The combo’s position suggests that many other configurations, likely with more powerful GPUs, achieve higher frame rates at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s performance is a key factor in this ranking. The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 23181, which is 0.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6600M and 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti, but 0.7% higher than the Intel Arc B580. This places it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, indicating it is a mid-range part. The GPU’s 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302 and passmark G3D score of 19545 reflect its capability, but the 8 GB memory capacity is a limitation for 4K textures.

The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking is higher than the GPU’s 66th percentile, implying that the processor is relatively stronger than the graphics card. This asymmetry explains why the combo struggles at 4K: the CPU can keep up, but the GPU cannot. The combo rank of 962 out of 1774 means that roughly 54% of tested configurations outperform it, which is a fair assessment given the hardware’s mid-range positioning. The data does not suggest any pairing-specific issues; rather, the results are consistent with the individual components’ capabilities.