Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a strong performance profile for Minimum, a third-person shooter that favors high frame rates. The benchmark data for this combination shows that it comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS playability threshold at 1080p and 1440p across all tested presets, with 4K remaining viable at medium-to-high settings. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions, settings, and relative ranking among the 3,712 tested combos.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the combination achieves its highest playable fidelity at the Ultra preset, averaging 136 FPS. This is the most demanding setting that remains above the 60 FPS threshold, and it does so with a substantial margin. For users prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Low preset reaches 278 FPS, while Medium averages 213 FPS and High averages 179 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset again delivers the best visual quality while maintaining playable performance, averaging 88 FPS. This represents a 35% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score, but still leaves ample headroom above the 60 FPS playability line. The High preset averages 115 FPS, Medium averages 137 FPS, and Low reaches 179 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the scene changes. The Ultra preset drops to 47 FPS, falling below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The best settings that remain playable are High, averaging 62 FPS. This is the tightest margin in the entire dataset — just 2 FPS above the threshold. Medium averages 74 FPS, while Low reaches 97 FPS. The data shows that 4K Ultra is the only configuration that fails to clear 60 FPS, making High the recommended ceiling for 4K gaming.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling between resolutions and presets reveals how the workload shifts between the Ryzen 5 9600X and the RTX 4070. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra, the average FPS drops from 136 to 88 — a 35.3% decrease. This magnitude of drop indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the pixel count increase directly impacts rendering load.

However, the CPU's role becomes more apparent when examining preset scaling at a fixed resolution. At 1080p, going from Low to Ultra reduces average FPS from 278 to 136 — a 51.1% reduction. The CPU must feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, and at lower resolutions with high frame rates, the CPU's single-thread performance becomes increasingly relevant. The Ryzen 5 9600X posts a 3dmark single-thread score of 1253 and a passmark single-thread score of 4570, indicating strong per-core performance that supports high FPS ceilings.

At 4K, the GPU's dominance is absolute. The difference between Low and Ultra at 3840x2160 is 97 FPS versus 47 FPS — a 51.5% reduction. The RTX 4070's 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are the determining factors here. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, provides sufficient headroom that it does not become the limiting factor at 4K, as evidenced by the fact that even the demanding Ultra preset still achieves 47 FPS — a GPU-bound result.

The data indicates a balanced pairing: at 1080p and 1440p, both components contribute meaningfully, with the CPU capable of driving frame rates well above 100 FPS. At 4K, the RTX 4070 becomes the clear bottleneck, and the CPU's role recedes into supporting background tasks and game logic without constraining GPU output.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination ranks 885th out of 3,712 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the top 23.8% of all configurations tested for this game. The percentile ranking aligns closely with the individual component percentiles: the CPU sits at the 81st percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU also sits at the 81st percentile among all GPUs.

This ranking reflects a system that is well above average for Minimum, but not at the extreme top tier. The game's 2014 release date means it is not particularly demanding by modern standards, yet the combination still does not crack the top 800. The 885th rank suggests that while this hardware is more than capable for this title, there are many higher-end combinations — likely featuring RTX 4080-class or better GPUs — that achieve even higher frame rates, particularly at 4K Ultra.

The rank is consistent with the measured FPS data: the combo clears 60 FPS at every resolution except 4K Ultra, and delivers excellent performance at 1080p and 1440p. The ranking reflects a system that would be considered "high-end" for most games, but for Minimum, it lands in the upper-middle tier of the tested pool.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rivals by average benchmark score are all AMD processors with very tight deltas. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE scores 29,656 versus the Ryzen 5 9600X's 29,713 — a 0.2% difference, meaning it would perform nearly identically in CPU-bound scenarios. The AMD Ryzen 7 7840H scores 29,868, a 0.5% delta, and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT scores 29,879, a 0.6% delta. The AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS rounds out the group at 29,955, a 0.8% delta. All four rivals would deliver essentially indistinguishable CPU performance in Minimum, given the game's modest multi-threading requirements.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals show similar tight groupings. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 has an average score of 37,628 versus the RTX 4070's 37,648 — a 0.1% delta. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37,507, a 0.4% delta. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile scores 38,135, a 1.3% delta, meaning it would be slightly faster. The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 scores 37,157, a 1.3% delta, meaning it would be slightly slower. In practice, any of these alternatives would produce very similar frame rates in Minimum, with the RTX 4080 Mobile offering a marginal improvement and the RX Vega 56 or PRO W6400 a marginal decrease.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all resolution and settings combinations.

1920x1080:

• Low: 278 avg FPS
• Medium: 213 avg FPS (min 181, max 245)
• High: 179 avg FPS
• Ultra: 136 avg FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 179 avg FPS
• Medium: 137 avg FPS (min 117, max 158)
• High: 115 avg FPS
• Ultra: 88 avg FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 97 avg FPS
• Medium: 74 avg FPS (min 63, max 85)
• High: 62 avg FPS
• Ultra: 47 avg FPS

The min/max data for Medium settings shows the frame time consistency at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the spread is 64 FPS (181 to 245), indicating some variance but with the minimum still far above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p Medium, the spread narrows to 41 FPS (117 to 158), with the minimum remaining comfortably playable. At 4K Medium, the spread is 22 FPS (63 to 85), and the minimum of 63 FPS is just 3 FPS above the playability threshold — the closest call in the entire dataset aside from 4K High.

The progression across resolutions shows a consistent pattern: each step up in resolution reduces average FPS by approximately 35-40% at the same settings. The gap between Low and Ultra grows with resolution: 142 FPS at 1080p, 91 FPS at 1440p, and 50 FPS at 4K. This reflects the GPU becoming more dominant at higher pixel counts, as the CPU's frame-generation capability becomes less of a limiting factor.

The Verdict

This PC can run Minimum at all three tested resolutions, but with one notable caveat at 4K Ultra. The verdict data shows:

• 3840x2160: Playable at High, Low, and Medium settings. The best playable setting is High, averaging 62 FPS. Ultra is not playable, averaging 47 FPS.
• 2560x1440: Playable at all four settings. The best playable setting is Ultra, averaging 88 FPS.
• 1920x1080: Playable at all four settings. The best playable setting is Ultra, averaging 136 FPS.

The system delivers a clear "yes" for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with enough headroom at Ultra settings to maintain high frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K, the answer is "yes, with settings adjustments" — dropping from Ultra to High recovers 15 FPS, bringing the average to 62 FPS, which is just barely playable. For users who prefer maximum visual quality at 4K, the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 158.4 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient for High settings, but not for the most demanding preset.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Minimum at 4K with Ultra settings?*

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 47, which falls below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The best playable 4K setting is High, averaging 62 FPS.

Q: What is the highest setting that maintains 60 FPS at 2560x1440?

A: Ultra settings at 2560x1440 average 88 FPS, which is the most demanding preset that stays above 60 FPS. All four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable at this resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Ultra settings, average FPS drops from 136 at 1920x1080 to 47 at 3840x2160, a 65.4% reduction. At Low settings, the drop is from 278 FPS to 97 FPS, a 65.1% reduction.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck at 4K?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck at 3840x2160. The RTX 4070's rendering workload scales directly with pixel count, while the Ryzen 5 9600X's single-thread score of 1253 in 3dmark and 4570 in passmark provides ample CPU headroom to feed frames.

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

A: This combination ranks 885th out of 3,712 tested combos, placing it in the top 23.8% of all systems tested for Minimum. Both the CPU and GPU sit at the 81st percentile among their respective categories.

Q: Are there similar-performing alternatives to this hardware?

A: Yes. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE is the closest CPU rival with a 0.2% benchmark delta, and the NVIDIA Tesla P4 is the closest GPU rival with a 0.1% delta. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile also fall within 1.3% of the RTX 4070's average benchmark score.