Minimum

# FAQ

Q: What is the playable threshold for Minimum, and how does this combo fare against it?

A: The playable threshold is 60 FPS. At every resolution tested, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 clears this bar, with the lowest average being 69 FPS at 3840x2160 on Ultra settings.

Q: Which component is more likely to bottleneck in this game?

A: The data shows the GPU is the primary scaling factor. At 1080p, the CPU is strong enough to push frame rates to 370 FPS on Low, while the 4K Ultra result of 69 FPS indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the best preset at 4K for this combo?

A: Ultra settings are fully playable at 3840x2160, with an average of 69 FPS. This is the most demanding preset that stays above the 60 FPS threshold.

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

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 109th out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the top 3% of all configurations in the benchmark database.

Q: What are the CPU and GPU benchmark percentiles?

A: The CPU sits in the 87th percentile versus all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 92nd percentile versus all GPUs. Both components are well above average, with the GPU being the stronger relative performer.

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Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, delivering an average of 197 FPS. The margin is enormous — this combo has more than three times the headroom needed for the playable threshold. Even the Low preset reaches 370 FPS, which is useful for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 2560x1440, Ultra again is the best choice, averaging 127 FPS. The drop from 1080p Ultra to 1440p Ultra is 70 FPS, a 36% reduction, but the experience remains silky smooth. Medium settings at this resolution produce 199 FPS, while High delivers 167 FPS.

At 3840x2160, Ultra remains the optimal setting, averaging 69 FPS. This is the tightest margin in the entire dataset — just 9 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at 4K yield 90 FPS, Medium produces 107 FPS, and Low reaches 140 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration where the frame rate approaches the playable minimum, but it still clears it comfortably.

For players prioritizing visual fidelity, Ultra is the recommended preset at all three resolutions. For those seeking maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p offers 370 FPS, which is the highest average recorded in the measured data.

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CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate that the GPU becomes increasingly important as resolution rises, while the CPU remains largely sufficient even at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset hits 370 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU with minimal bottlenecking. The 1080p Ultra result of 197 FPS is still far above the playable threshold, so neither component appears to be a limiting factor at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scaling from Low to Ultra shows a clear GPU-bound pattern: Low hits 260 FPS, Medium 199 FPS, High 167 FPS, and Ultra 127 FPS. The consistent step-down between presets indicates the GPU is doing progressively more work. The CPU still has ample headroom, as the 1440p Low result exceeds the 1080p Ultra result by 63 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is unquestionably the dominant factor. The 4K Low preset (140 FPS) is barely half of the 1080p Low preset (370 FPS), a 62% reduction. The 4K Ultra result of 69 FPS is the only data point where the frame rate dips below 100 FPS, confirming that the RTX 5090's rendering workload scales steeply with resolution. The CPU's role diminishes as resolution climbs; the Ryzen 9 5900X's 12 cores and 24 threads are more than adequate for this third-person shooter, even at 4K.

The delta between 1080p and 4K on the same preset illustrates the GPU's burden. On Ultra, 1080p produces 197 FPS, while 4K produces 69 FPS — a 128 FPS drop. On Low, the drop is 230 FPS (from 370 to 140). The GPU is clearly the performance arbiter at higher resolutions, while the CPU's contribution is secondary but sufficient.

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The Verdict

This PC can run Minimum without question. The verdict by resolution is unambiguous: at 3840x2160, all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) clear the 60 FPS threshold, with Ultra averaging 69 FPS. At 2560x1440, Ultra delivers 127 FPS, and at 1920x1080, Ultra reaches 197 FPS. Every resolution and preset combination in the measured data is playable.

The most demanding scenario is 4K Ultra at 69 FPS, which is still 9 FPS above the threshold. If a player wants to guarantee the highest visual quality at 4K, this combo delivers. For those targeting 1440p or 1080p, the headroom is substantial — even the most demanding preset at 1440p is more than double the threshold. The data indicates no playability concerns at any setting.

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Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 370 FPS average (no min/max reported)
• Medium: 309 FPS average, 262 FPS minimum, 355 FPS maximum
• High: 259 FPS average (no min/max reported)
• Ultra: 197 FPS average (no min/max reported)

2560x1440:

• Low: 260 FPS average (no min/max reported)
• Medium: 199 FPS average, 169 FPS minimum, 229 FPS maximum
• High: 167 FPS average (no min/max reported)
• Ultra: 127 FPS average (no min/max reported)

3840x2160:

• Low: 140 FPS average (no min/max reported)
• Medium: 107 FPS average, 91 FPS minimum, 123 FPS maximum
• High: 90 FPS average (no min/max reported)
• Ultra: 69 FPS average (no min/max reported)

The Medium preset is the only setting with complete min/max data. At 1080p, the minimum of 262 FPS is still far above the playable threshold. At 1440p, the minimum of 169 FPS holds up well. At 4K, the minimum of 91 FPS is the only sub-100 FPS minimum in the dataset, but it remains comfortably above 60 FPS. The lack of min/max data for other presets indicates the benchmark harness recorded averages only, but the Medium data provides a reliable baseline for fluctuation behavior.

The scaling between resolutions on the same preset is consistent. For Medium, 1080p yields 309 FPS, 1440p yields 199 FPS (36% reduction), and 4K yields 107 FPS (65% reduction). For Ultra, the progression is 197 FPS at 1080p, 127 FPS at 1440p, and 69 FPS at 4K. The frame rate drops are proportional to pixel count, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

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How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 109th out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum. This places the configuration in the top 2.9% of all tested hardware pairings, a strong showing for a desktop platform. The rank reflects the combined capability of the CPU and GPU, with the RTX 5090's 92nd percentile GPU score contributing more than the CPU's 87th percentile score.

The gap between this combo and the top-ranked configurations is not large in absolute terms, given the high percentile placements. The rank of 109 suggests that a handful of combinations with even more powerful CPUs or SLI/CrossFire setups edge ahead, but for a single-GPU desktop build, this is near the top of the database.

The average benchmark score for the combo is 41376 (CPU) plus 79842 (GPU), which is a synthetic aggregate. In real-world Minimum performance, the measured FPS data confirms the rank's validity — the combo delivers playable frame rates at all resolutions and presets, with only 4K Ultra approaching the lower bounds of playability.

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Similar Performance Alternatives

CPU rivals: The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X has an average benchmark score of 41376. The closest competitors are the Intel Core i7-14650HX at 41576 (0.5% faster), the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H at 41263 (0.3% slower), the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H at 41215 (0.4% slower), and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440 at 41208 (0.4% slower). These four CPUs would behave nearly identically in Minimum, with frame rate differences well under 1%. The Core i7-14650HX is the only one that edges ahead, while the three others are within a rounding error of the Ryzen 9.

GPU rivals: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 79842. The nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X at 80959 (1.4% faster), the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB at 79605 (0.3% slower), the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB at 79396 (0.6% slower), and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78940 (1.1% slower). The Radeon Pro Vega 64X is a workstation card that would deliver slightly higher frame rates, while the Tesla P100 variants are compute-oriented and would perform within 1% in gaming workloads. The RX 6850M XT would be the closest mainstream gaming alternative, but it lags by 1.1%.

For a full system swap, pairing the Core i7-14650HX with the Radeon Pro Vega 64X would yield a marginal performance boost, but the differences are so small that users would not perceive a change in Minimum's frame rates. The Ryzen 9 5900X and RTX 5090 combination sits in a performance cluster where all alternatives are within 1.4% of its aggregate score.