Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a decisive performance statement in Minimum, a third-person shooter from 2014. The measured data, captured across three resolutions and four quality presets, shows a system that not only clears the 60 FPS playability threshold everywhere but does so with enough headroom to max out the game’s visual settings at every resolution tested. The benchmark results indicate a combination that is effectively overkill for this title, yet the scaling patterns between resolutions and presets reveal where the workload shifts between the CPU and GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high, reflecting the CPU’s strong single-thread performance and the GPU’s immense rasterization power. With Low settings, the average FPS reaches 211, a figure that suggests the game is barely stressing the hardware. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 164 FPS, with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 188 FPS, showing that even at this mid-tier preset, the frame pacing remains tight. High settings produce an average of 123 FPS, while Ultra, the most demanding preset, still averages 117 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 94 FPS, which is a substantial range, but the absolute numbers mean that even the lowest recorded figure (139 FPS at Medium) is more than double the 60 FPS playability threshold.

At 2560x1440, the resolution increase brings a predictable reduction in frame rates, but the system remains firmly in high-refresh territory. Low settings average 170 FPS, while Medium drops to 132 FPS, with a minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 152 FPS. High settings deliver 99 FPS on average, and Ultra settings average 95 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is a 22 FPS drop, from 117 to 95 FPS, which is a modest penalty for the additional pixel count. Interestingly, the delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 75 FPS, a smaller gap than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to become more of a limiting factor as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, also known as 4K, the performance remains playable across all presets, though the frame rates finally start to approach more terrestrial numbers. Low settings average 125 FPS, Medium averages 97 FPS with a minimum of 83 FPS and a maximum of 112 FPS, High averages 73 FPS, and Ultra averages 70 FPS. The data shows that the RTX 4080’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth are sufficient to handle 4K textures without catastrophic dips, as the minimum FPS at Medium is still 83. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 55 FPS, which is the smallest absolute difference across the three resolutions, reinforcing that the GPU workload scales with resolution while the CPU headroom remains constant.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which averages 117 FPS. This is the highest quality setting available, and the data shows it runs with 57 FPS of headroom above the playability threshold. There is no reason to compromise on visual fidelity at this resolution, as even the heaviest preset leaves the system far from struggling.

At 2560x1440, the answer is again Ultra, with an average of 95 FPS. This is 35 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold, providing a comfortable margin for demanding scenes. The step down to High, at 99 FPS, is only a 4 FPS difference, which suggests that Ultra is not a significant performance penalty over High at this resolution. The benchmark results indicate that players can enable the full suite of graphical effects without worrying about frame rate stability.

At 3840x2160, Ultra remains the best playable setting, averaging 70 FPS. This is 10 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold, which is a tighter margin than at lower resolutions but still acceptable. The data shows that High settings, at 73 FPS, offer only a marginal 3 FPS improvement over Ultra, meaning the visual cost of Ultra at 4K is minimal. For those who prefer a larger safety buffer, Medium at 97 FPS is the next step down, but the verdict is clear: this combo can run Minimum at maximum settings in 4K.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU’s nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, are all within a very tight performance band. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 has an average score of 35802, which is a 0.3% delta from the Ryzen 7 7700X’s 35909. The Intel Core 7 250H scores 35728, a 0.5% delta, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 scores 35719, also a 0.5% delta. The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is slightly further back at 35670, a 0.7% delta. These sub-1% differences mean that swapping the 7700X for any of these CPUs would result in virtually identical frame rates in Minimum, as the game is unlikely to be CPU-bound at the settings tested.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4080’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, with an average score of 54209 against the 4080’s 54247, a delta of just 0.1%. This is effectively a tie, and the data suggests that the SUPER variant would produce nearly identical FPS numbers. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828, which is 1.1% higher, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698, 2.6% higher. The AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55757, 2.7% higher. These deltas are small enough that in a game like Minimum, which is not particularly demanding by modern standards, the frame rate differences would be within the margin of error for most benchmarking runs.

FAQ

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

A: Yes. The measured data shows an average of 70 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which is 10 FPS above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The system also maintains a minimum of 83 FPS at Medium settings in 4K, indicating stable performance.

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 1920x1080?

A: Ultra is the best playable setting at 1080p, averaging 117 FPS. The system has 57 FPS of headroom above the 60 FPS threshold, meaning even the most demanding preset is comfortably playable.

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

A: At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 117 at 1920x1080 to 70 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 47 FPS. This represents a 40% decline in frame rate, which is a significant but expected cost for the four-fold increase in pixel count.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes more important at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops from 211 FPS at 1080p Low to 125 FPS at 4K Low, a 86 FPS decrease, while the CPU’s single-thread score of 1090 in 3DMark remains constant. The scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, while the CPU has ample headroom.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 1228 out of 3712 tested combinations, placing it in the top 33% of all systems tested. This percentile position reflects the high-end nature of both components, though the game’s age means many lower-tier combos can also achieve playable frame rates.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded across all tests?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 83, which occurs at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. This is still 23 FPS above the playability threshold, demonstrating that the system never dips below comfortable frame rates.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 becomes clearer when examining the scaling across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS is 211, which is extraordinarily high and suggests the CPU is the primary driver of performance at this resolution. The 7700X’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1090 and multi-thread score of 8859 indicate strong per-core performance, which is crucial for games that rely on single-threaded logic. However, as the resolution increases to 3840x2160, the frame rate at Low settings drops to 125 FPS, a 41% reduction. This decline is almost entirely attributable to the GPU’s workload, as the CPU’s capabilities are unchanged.

The preset scaling further clarifies the roles. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 94 FPS (211 to 117), which is a 45% reduction. At 4K, the same preset comparison yields a 55 FPS difference (125 to 70), a 44% reduction. The consistency of these percentages suggests that the GPU is handling the visual complexity scaling in a linear fashion, while the CPU’s contribution remains constant regardless of resolution. The RTX 4080’s 9728 shading units and 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are clearly sufficient to handle the game’s graphical demands, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 70 FPS.

The data implies that the Ryzen 7 7700X is not a bottleneck in Minimum, even at the lowest resolution and settings. The CPU’s 8 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, provide more than enough processing power for a 2014 title. The GPU, however, is the component that determines the ceiling at higher resolutions. The RTX 4080’s memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s and 16 GB of VRAM ensure that texture-heavy scenes at 4K do not cause frame rate collapses, as the minimum FPS of 83 at Medium settings shows.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of all tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 1228 out of 3712 combinations. This places it in the 67th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly two-thirds of all systems tested. The rank is somewhat modest for such high-end components, which speaks to the age of Minimum and the fact that many mid-range configurations from more recent years can also achieve high frame rates. The CPU’s percentile of 85 versus all CPUs and the GPU’s percentile of 86 versus all GPUs indicate that both components are in the top 15% of their respective categories, yet the game’s low system requirements mean that the combo’s rank in this specific title is not as dominant as it would be in a more modern, demanding game.

The gap between the combo’s component percentiles and its game-specific rank highlights a key insight: Minimum is not a title that scales with hardware beyond a certain point. The measured FPS data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system averages 70 FPS, but a system with a less powerful GPU and a similar CPU might achieve 60 FPS, which is still playable. The combo’s rank of 1228 reflects that many other combinations can also meet the 60 FPS threshold, even if they cannot match the 7700X and RTX 4080’s raw headroom.

The Verdict

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 can absolutely run Minimum, and the data shows it does so with exceptional ease. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 117 FPS on Ultra settings, which is 57 FPS above the playability threshold. At 2560x1440, Ultra settings yield 95 FPS, 35 FPS above the threshold. At 3840x2160, Ultra settings produce 70 FPS, 10 FPS above the threshold. The verdict by resolution is unambiguous: all playable settings lists include High, Low, Medium, and Ultra at every resolution, meaning there is no configuration where this system fails to meet the 60 FPS target. The best settings are Ultra at all three resolutions, with average FPS of 117 at 1080p, 95 at 1440p, and 70 at 4K. The system is overqualified for this game, but for users who want to run Minimum at maximum visual fidelity without compromise, this combo delivers a flawless experience.