Minimum

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is a lopsided but effective combination for Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The data shows this combo handles the game with massive headroom at most settings, though 4K Ultra remains the single point of failure. Below is the measured performance breakdown, followed by analysis of where the bottleneck sits and how this specific pairing ranks against other tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, this combo delivers triple-digit averages across the board. Low settings produce an average of 277 FPS, which is the highest figure recorded for this pairing at any resolution. Medium settings drop to 212 FPS average, with a minimum of 180 FPS and a maximum of 244 FPS. High settings still hold 178 FPS average, while Ultra remains playable at 136 FPS average. No minimum or maximum values are provided for Low, High, or Ultra at this resolution, but the Medium preset gives the clearest picture of stability: the 180 FPS floor is far above any competitive threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scaling is predictable. Low settings average 179 FPS, Medium averages 137 FPS (minimum 116, maximum 157), High averages 115 FPS, and Ultra averages 87 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is roughly 92 FPS, which shows that the RTX 3080 Ti is still the dominant factor at this resolution. The Medium preset’s 116 FPS minimum is noteworthy because it indicates that even in heavy scenes, the frame rate never dips below the 60 FPS playable threshold.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes more demanding. Low settings average 96 FPS, Medium averages 74 FPS (minimum 63, maximum 85), High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra drops to 47 FPS. The High preset’s 62 FPS average is the only 4K result that sits above the 60 FPS threshold, and it does so by a narrow margin. The Ultra preset at 47 FPS is the sole configuration in the entire dataset that fails to reach playable frame rates. The Medium preset’s 63 FPS minimum is the only 4K minimum provided, and it confirms that Medium is comfortably playable at 4K, while High is borderline.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti is the primary driver of performance at every resolution, but the CPU’s role becomes more apparent as resolution decreases. The jump from 1080p Low (277 FPS) to 1440p Low (179 FPS) is a 98 FPS drop, while the jump from 1440p Low to 4K Low (96 FPS) is an 83 FPS drop. This pattern suggests that the GPU is scaling almost linearly with pixel count, which is typical for a game that is not heavily CPU-bound.

However, the i3-12100F’s four cores and eight threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 3080 Ti even at 1080p. The 277 FPS average at 1080p Low is near the practical ceiling for many CPUs, and the fact that this combo reaches that figure implies the CPU is not holding back the GPU at lower resolutions. The single-thread performance of this CPU, as reflected in a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3444, is strong enough to avoid bottlenecking in a 2014 title like Minimum.

At 4K, the GPU is unquestionably the limiting factor. The difference between 4K Low (96 FPS) and 4K Ultra (47 FPS) is 49 FPS, which is a larger absolute gap than the 33 FPS difference between 1080p Low (277 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (136 FPS). This shows that the RTX 3080 Ti’s raw throughput—34.10 TFLOPS FP32 and 912.4 GB/s memory bandwidth—is what determines the outcome at 4K, not the CPU. The i3-12100F’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 4.30 GHz boost clock are more than adequate for the game’s CPU demands, which are minimal given its 2014 release date.

The scaling between presets at each resolution reinforces this split. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 141 FPS (277 to 136), which is a 51% reduction. At 1440p, the same preset gap is 92 FPS (179 to 87), a 51% reduction. At 4K, the gap is 49 FPS (96 to 47), a 51% reduction. This consistent percentage drop across resolutions indicates that the game’s settings scale uniformly, and the GPU is the component that absorbs the increased load at higher resolutions. The CPU’s contribution remains constant, but it never becomes the limiting factor in this pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti ranks 961st out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum. That places it in the top 26% of all tested configurations, which is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The percentile ranking of the individual components supports this: the CPU sits at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs. The combo’s overall rank is dragged down slightly by the CPU, but the GPU’s high percentile ensures the pairing remains above average.

The comboRankInGame of 961 out of 3712 means that roughly 2751 tested combinations outperform it, but the vast majority of those likely feature higher-tier CPUs. For a game like Minimum, which is not particularly CPU-intensive, the i3-12100F’s lower multi-threaded performance (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860) does not meaningfully penalize the combo in practice. The data shows that the RTX 3080 Ti is the star of this pairing, and the rank reflects that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Minimum? Yes, with substantial headroom at most settings. The verdict by resolution is clear:

• 3840x2160: High, Low, and Medium presets are playable at or above 60 FPS. The best playable setting is High, with an average of 62 FPS. Ultra is not playable at 47 FPS.
• 2560x1440: All four presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—are playable. The best setting is Ultra, with an average of 87 FPS.
• 1920x1080: All four presets are playable. The best setting is Ultra, with an average of 136 FPS.

The only configuration that fails to clear the 60 FPS threshold is 4K Ultra. Every other combination of resolution and preset in the dataset exceeds 60 FPS, and most exceed it by a wide margin. For a game from 2014, this combo is overkill at 1080p and 1440p, but it hits a reasonable ceiling at 4K. If you own a 4K monitor, stick to High settings for a stable 62 FPS average, or drop to Medium for a safer 74 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The i3-12100F’s nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, provide insight into what other CPUs would behave similarly in this pairing. The Intel Core 3 N355 has an average score of 13492, which is effectively identical to the i3-12100F’s 13494 average (0% delta). The Intel Core i5-9500 scores 13452, just 0.3% lower, meaning it would perform nearly the same in Minimum. The Intel Core 5 120UL scores 13594, which is 0.7% higher, and the Intel Core i7-1250U scores 13351, which is 1.1% lower. Any of these CPUs would produce essentially the same frame rates as the i3-12100F in this game, given that the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

For the RTX 3080 Ti, the nearest rivals are more disparate. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 has an average score of 40870, which is 0.8% lower than the RTX 3080 Ti’s 41187. The NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB scores 41707, which is 1.2% higher, and the standard Tesla M40 scores 41897, which is 1.7% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 scores 40377, which is 2% lower. In practice, these GPUs would deliver frame rates within a couple of percent of the RTX 3080 Ti at each resolution and preset. The Tesla M40 cards are datacenter parts with no display outputs, so they are not practical for gaming, but the RTX 5070 and Radeon Pro 5300 would be viable alternatives if you are looking for similar performance.

Best Settings per Resolution

The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS at each resolution is as follows:

• 1920x1080: Ultra, with an average of 136 FPS. This is the highest preset available, and it clears the 60 FPS threshold by more than double.
• 2560x1440: Ultra, with an average of 87 FPS. This preset provides the best visual quality while still maintaining a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.
• 3840x2160: High, with an average of 62 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that stays above 60 FPS. Medium is also playable at 74 FPS, which offers a larger safety margin, but High is the most demanding playable option.

For 4K, the choice between High and Medium is a trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate stability. High sits at 62 FPS average, which is close to the 60 FPS threshold, while Medium provides a 74 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum. If you prefer a buffer against frame drops, Medium is the safer pick at 4K. At 1080p and 1440p, Ultra is the obvious choice, as the GPU has ample headroom to spare.