Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D's average benchmark score, and how does it compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 37018, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, scores 37093 — a difference of -0.2% — while the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Core Ultra 5 225 both sit within 0.2% of its score. The Intel Core i9-12900T is 0.3% ahead at 37112.

Q: What is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080's GPU benchmark percentile, and which rivals are closest?

A: The RTX 3080 sits in the 68th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 23172. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, -0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, -0.3%), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, -0.4%), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, -0.4%) — all within 0.4% of its score.

Q: At which resolution and settings does this combo achieve exactly 60 FPS average?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS is exactly 60. At the same 4K resolution, Medium settings deliver 71 average FPS (min 60, max 82), while Low settings reach 93 average FPS. Ultra at 4K drops to 45 average FPS.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 1051 out of 3712 tested combinations in Minimum, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the overall distribution. This rank reflects the balance between the CPU's 85th-percentile standing and the GPU's 68th-percentile standing.

Q: Which settings are playable at each resolution, based on the 60 FPS threshold?

A: At 3840x2160, playable settings are High, Low, and Medium (with Ultra failing at 45 FPS). At 2560x1440, all four settings — High, Low, Medium, and Ultra — are playable, with Ultra averaging 84 FPS. At 1920x1080, all settings are playable, with Ultra averaging 131 FPS.

Q: What are the CPU's key specifications relevant to gaming performance?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 3 (Vermeer) processor on the AMD Socket AM4 platform, with a base clock of 3.00 GHz, boost clock of 4.00 GHz, and 96 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and has a 105 W TDP, PCIe Gen 4 with 20 CPU lanes.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU dominance at higher resolutions, with the CPU becoming less relevant as pixel count rises. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Ultra settings spans from 267 to 131 average FPS — a 136 FPS gap that suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well at lower settings, but the GPU's rendering load grows substantially as quality scales. The 1080p Low result of 267 FPS indicates the CPU is not the bottleneck at this resolution; the GPU's work at Ultra settings (131 FPS) is what limits the frame rate.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scaling pattern shifts. Low settings average 172 FPS, High averages 110, and Ultra averages 84. The drop from Low to High (62 FPS) and High to Ultra (26 FPS) shows that the GPU's workload increases disproportionately with each preset tier. At 4K (3840x2160), the GPU's role becomes even more pronounced: Low averages 93 FPS, Medium averages 71, High averages 60, and Ultra collapses to 45. The 4K Ultra result falls below the 60 FPS playable threshold, confirming that the RTX 3080's 10 GB GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the most demanding preset at this resolution.

The data implies that at 1080p and 1440p, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D's 96 MB L3 cache and 6-core architecture provide ample headroom — the GPU is the limiting factor above Low settings. At 4K, the GPU's raw throughput (29.77 TFLOPS FP32) becomes the sole determinant, with the CPU's role nearly negligible. The 4K Medium result of 71 average FPS with a 60 FPS minimum shows that the GPU can maintain playability at moderate presets, but the Ultra preset's 45 FPS average indicates a hard ceiling.

The resolution scaling also reveals diminishing returns from CPU performance. The transition from 1080p Low (267 FPS) to 1440p Low (172 FPS) represents a 35.6% reduction, while the transition from 1440p Low to 4K Low (93 FPS) is a 45.9% reduction. These percentages suggest that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become increasingly taxed as resolution grows, with the CPU's contribution remaining relatively constant.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured data shows a wide spread across presets. Low settings average 93 FPS, Medium averages 71 FPS with a minimum of 60 and maximum of 82, High averages exactly 60 FPS, and Ultra averages 45 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 60 FPS is notable — it indicates that even in the worst-case frames, the system stays at the playable threshold. High at 4K averages 60 FPS but lacks a reported minimum, suggesting the average is exactly at the boundary. Ultra's 45 FPS average is 15 FPS below the playable threshold, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, all presets deliver well above 60 FPS. Low averages 172 FPS, Medium averages 132 FPS (min 112, max 151), High averages 110 FPS, and Ultra averages 84 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 112 FPS provides a substantial cushion above the playable threshold, and even Ultra's 84 FPS average leaves 24 FPS of headroom. The spread from Low to Ultra is 88 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU's workload at 1440p scales significantly with preset quality.

At 1920x1080, the numbers are uniformly high. Low averages 267 FPS, Medium averages 204 FPS (min 174, max 235), High averages 171 FPS, and Ultra averages 131 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 174 FPS is higher than many systems' average at other resolutions, and the Low preset's 267 FPS suggests the CPU can push frame rates well beyond typical display refresh rates. Ultra at 1080p still averages 131 FPS, which is more than double the 60 FPS threshold.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution decreases. At 4K, the gap is 48 FPS (93 to 45). At 1440p, the gap is 88 FPS (172 to 84). At 1080p, the gap is 136 FPS (267 to 131). This trend indicates that at lower resolutions, the GPU has more headroom to render additional effects, while at 4K the GPU's resources are nearly exhausted even at Low settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1051 out of 3712 tested combinations in Minimum, placing it in the 71.7th percentile of all tested systems (calculated from the rank and total). This position is notable given the CPU's 85th-percentile standing and the GPU's 68th-percentile standing — the combo performs slightly better than the GPU's percentile alone would suggest, likely due to the CPU's strong single-thread performance (2941 in PassMark single-thread) and large L3 cache.

The rank implies that the CPU-GPU pairing is well balanced for this game. The RTX 3080's 68th-percentile GPU score is the weaker link, but the Ryzen 5 5500X3D's 85th-percentile CPU score compensates in CPU-light scenarios. The 1051st rank out of 3712 means there are 2661 combinations that perform worse, but also 1050 that perform better — a solidly above-average result.

The rank also suggests that the game benefits from the CPU's cache architecture. Minimum, a third-person shooter from 2014, likely has modest CPU demands, so the 96 MB L3 cache and 6 cores are more than sufficient. The GPU's 10 GB memory and 320-bit bus width become the limiting factor at 4K Ultra, which is reflected in the 45 FPS result. The rank's position between the two components' percentiles indicates that neither is severely bottlenecked by the other.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (avg score 36945, 0.2% behind), Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938, 0.2% behind), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093, 0.2% ahead), and Intel Core i9-12900T (37112, 0.3% ahead). These four CPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates in Minimum, with deltas under 0.3% translating to sub-1 FPS differences at most settings. The Ryzen 5 5600F and Core Ultra 5 225 are the closest matches, offering essentially the same performance profile.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, 0.3% behind), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, 0.3% behind), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, 0.4% behind), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, 0.4% behind). These GPUs would produce very similar results to the RTX 3080 in Minimum, with the 0.3-0.4% deltas being imperceptible in practice. The RX 6600M and R9 M290X are particularly close, though their architectures differ significantly from the RTX 3080's Ampere design.

The data indicates that swapping the CPU or GPU for any of these rivals would result in essentially unchanged performance. The largest delta is 0.4%, which at 4K Ultra's 45 FPS would translate to less than 0.2 FPS difference. This means the combo's 1051st rank is robust — even with the nearest alternatives, the ranking would remain within a few positions.

The Verdict

The data confirms that this PC can run Minimum at all three resolutions, with the exception of 4K Ultra. At 3840x2160, the playable settings are High (60 FPS average), Low (93 FPS), and Medium (71 FPS, min 60) — but Ultra falls to 45 FPS, below the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, all four settings clear 60 FPS, with Ultra averaging 84 FPS. At 1920x1080, all settings clear 60 FPS by a wide margin, with Ultra averaging 131 FPS.

The verdict is straightforward: for 4K gaming, users must choose between High, Medium, or Low presets — Ultra is not viable. For 1440p and 1080p, the system can run the game at Ultra settings without dropping below the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Medium result's minimum of 60 FPS is the only measured frame minimum that touches the playable threshold, but it does not fall below it.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is High, with an average of exactly 60 FPS. The Medium preset (71 average, 60 minimum) is also viable, but High offers better visual quality at the same average frame rate. Ultra at 4K (45 FPS) is not playable.

At 2560x1440, the most demanding preset is Ultra, averaging 84 FPS. This is 24 FPS above the playable threshold, providing comfortable headroom. The Medium preset (132 average, 112 minimum) offers an alternative for higher frame rates, but Ultra is the best visual quality that remains playable.

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset is Ultra, averaging 131 FPS. This is more than double the playable threshold, making Ultra the obvious choice for 1080p gaming. The Medium preset (204 average) and High preset (171 average) are also viable for users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, but Ultra at 131 FPS leaves no reason to compromise.

The best settings per resolution are thus: High at 4K (60 FPS), Ultra at 1440p (84 FPS), and Ultra at 1080p (131 FPS). These settings maximize visual quality while maintaining at least 60 FPS average performance.