Minimum

# FAQ

Q: What is the Intel Core i5-14600K's position in the overall CPU landscape?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K sits at the 90th percentile among all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 48618. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (0.2% slower), AMD EPYC 4345P (0.3% faster), Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (0.7% faster), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (0.8% slower).

Q: How does the AMD Radeon RX 580 compare to its closest competitors?

A: The RX 580 holds the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12928. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.1% slower), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (0.4% slower), AMD Radeon 740M (0.5% faster), and AMD FirePro W5100 (0.6% faster). The performance deltas are all under one percent, placing these cards in a tight performance cluster.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1920x1080 for this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the verdict data shows that both Low and Medium settings clear the 60 FPS threshold. The best settings preset is Medium, which delivers an average of 70 FPS. High settings fall short at 58 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 45 FPS.

Q: Are there any playable settings at 2560x1440 or 3840x2160?

A: No. The verdictByResolution data lists empty playable settings arrays for both 2560x1440 and 3840x2160. At 2560x1440, even the Low preset only reaches 59 FPS average, just below the 60 FPS threshold. At 3840x2160, the best average FPS across all presets is 32 (Low), far below playable levels.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations for Minimum?

A: This CPU/GPU combination ranks 3383 out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the lower portion of the database. The rank reflects the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions despite the CPU's strong overall position.

Q: What are the key specifications of the RX 580 that influence its performance?

A: The RX 580 features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. It has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation pipelines. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, with a TDP of 185 W.

# CPU and GPU Roles

The data for Minimum reveals a clear pattern: the GPU becomes the dominant performance limiter as resolution increases, while the CPU's role diminishes. At 1920x1080, the combination achieves 91 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 58 FPS on High and 45 FPS on Ultra. This scaling suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, but the GPU's compute resources (2304 shading units, 6.175 TFLOPS FP32) eventually cap performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS at Low drops to 59, a 35% reduction from the 1080p Low result. At Medium, the drop is from 70 to 45 FPS, a 36% reduction. The consistent percentage drop across presets indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s) are the binding constraints. The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads are not the bottleneck here, as even a weaker CPU would likely produce similar frame rates at this resolution given the same GPU.

At 3840x2160, the performance collapse is dramatic. Low settings yield only 32 FPS, Medium 24 FPS, High 20 FPS, and Ultra 15 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a 46% reduction from Low 1440p to Low 4K. This is consistent with the pixel count increase (2.25x from 1440p to 4K) outpacing what the RX 580's 32 ROPs and 42.88 GPixel/s pixel rate can sustain. The CPU's role at this resolution is nearly negligible, as the GPU is clearly saturated.

The preset scaling within each resolution further confirms the GPU-centric bottleneck. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 21 FPS (91 to 70), Medium to High costs 12 FPS (70 to 58), and High to Ultra costs 13 FPS (58 to 45). The incremental penalties are roughly consistent, suggesting the GPU's shading and texture units are being progressively loaded without the CPU becoming a limiting factor. The Intel Core i5-14600K's strong single-thread performance (PassMark single-thread score of 4270) and multi-thread capability (PassMark multithread score of 38682) are sufficient even for the Ultra preset's demands.

In summary, the data indicates that for Minimum, the AMD Radeon RX 580 is the performance gatekeeper at all resolutions. The CPU's 90th percentile standing does not translate into higher frame rates once the GPU reaches its limits. For users considering upgrades, the CPU is unlikely to be the constraint in this title, and any meaningful FPS improvement would require a faster GPU.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 91 FPS average, no min/max recorded
• Medium: 70 FPS average, 59 FPS minimum, 80 FPS maximum
• High: 58 FPS average, no min/max recorded
• Ultra: 45 FPS average, no min/max recorded

At 1080p, the Medium preset provides the best balance with a 70 FPS average and a minimum of 59 FPS, which just barely stays above the playable threshold. The Low preset delivers 91 FPS, which is 21 FPS higher than Medium and leaves substantial headroom. High settings at 58 FPS average fall just short of the 60 FPS playable target, while Ultra at 45 FPS is clearly below it. The gap between Medium and High is 12 FPS, slightly smaller than the 21 FPS gap between Low and Medium, indicating diminishing returns as settings increase.

2560x1440:

• Low: 59 FPS average, no min/max recorded
• Medium: 45 FPS average, 38 FPS minimum, 52 FPS maximum
• High: 38 FPS average, no min/max recorded
• Ultra: 29 FPS average, no min/max recorded

At 1440p, the Low preset nearly reaches the playable threshold at 59 FPS average, but falls short by one frame. The Medium preset averages 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS, showing significant frame dips during intense scenes. High settings drop to 38 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 29 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra spans 30 FPS, a wider range than at 1080p, reflecting the increased pixel workload. The minimum FPS recorded at Medium (38) is substantially below the average, suggesting stutter-prone sections in the game.

3840x2160:

• Low: 32 FPS average, no min/max recorded
• Medium: 24 FPS average, 21 FPS minimum, 28 FPS maximum
• High: 20 FPS average, no min/max recorded
• Ultra: 15 FPS average, no min/max recorded

At 4K, all presets are far below playable levels. Low averages 32 FPS, Medium averages 24 FPS with a minimum of 21 FPS, High averages 20 FPS, and Ultra averages 15 FPS. The Medium preset's min/max range (21 to 28 FPS) shows relatively tight variance, indicating that the GPU is consistently saturated rather than encountering occasional spikes. The performance hierarchy is consistent across all resolutions: Low > Medium > High > Ultra, with no anomalous inversions.

# The Verdict

According to the verdictByResolution data, this PC can run Minimum at 60 FPS or above only at 1920x1080. The playable settings at this resolution are Low and Medium, with Medium being the best settings preset at 70 FPS average. The 1080p High preset at 58 FPS average misses the 60 FPS threshold by 2 frames, making it technically unplayable under the database's criteria.

At 2560x1440, the verdict lists no playable settings. The Low preset averages 59 FPS, which is just 1 FPS short of the playable threshold. This is a near-miss, but the data is clear: no preset at this resolution clears 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 45 FPS and below are all firmly in non-playable territory.

At 3840x2160, the verdict also lists no playable settings. The best result is Low at 32 FPS average, which is less than half the required 60 FPS. All presets at this resolution are unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

In practical terms, this PC is a 1080p machine for Minimum. Users can comfortably play at Medium settings with a 70 FPS average and a 59 FPS minimum, or at Low for a higher frame rate. For 1440p, the system is on the edge, and even Low settings cannot maintain a consistent 60 FPS. For 4K, the RX 580 does not have sufficient rendering power for this title.

# How This Combo Ranks

This Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 580 combination ranks 3383 out of 3712 tested combos in the database for Minimum. This places it in the bottom 9% of all tested configurations, which is notable given the CPU's strong individual standing. The low ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's performance class, as the RX 580 sits at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs.

The combo rank implies that most other tested combinations deliver higher frame rates in Minimum. The CPU's 90th percentile score does not compensate for the GPU's mid-range position. In games where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, this pairing will consistently underperform relative to combinations with faster GPUs, even if those systems use weaker processors.

The rank also suggests that for Minimum specifically, the RX 580 is the limiting factor across all tested resolutions. A system with a more powerful GPU but a less capable CPU would likely rank higher in this game, since the CPU requirements are clearly being met by the i5-14600K. The data shows that the combo's performance aligns more closely with the GPU's percentile (53rd) than the CPU's percentile (90th), confirming the GPU-bound nature of this workload.

# Best Settings per Resolution

1920x1080: The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Medium, with an average FPS of 70. The minimum FPS at this setting is 59, which is within one frame of the playable threshold. Low settings also qualify at 91 FPS average, but Medium offers better visual quality while still maintaining a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

2560x1440: No preset achieves 60 FPS at this resolution. The closest is Low at 59 FPS average, which falls one frame short. The database records no best settings for 1440p, meaning users would need to reduce resolution or accept sub-60 FPS performance.

3840x2160: No preset is playable. The highest average FPS is 32 at Low settings, which is far below the threshold. There is no recommended preset for 4K in the verdict data.

For users who prioritize frame rate, the 1080p Medium preset represents the optimal balance in this dataset. It delivers 70 FPS average with a 59 FPS minimum, providing both visual fidelity and smoothness. Users who prefer maximum smoothness can select Low for 91 FPS average, while those who accept lower frame rates can experiment with High (58 FPS) despite it being just below the playable threshold.

# Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core i5-14600K, based on average benchmark score, include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698 score, 0.2% slower), AMD EPYC 4345P (48470 score, 0.3% faster), Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (48287 score, 0.7% faster), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (48995 score, 0.8% slower). All four alternatives are within 1% of the i5-14600K's average score of 48618. In Minimum, these CPUs would behave nearly identically to the i5-14600K, since the game is GPU-bound at all resolutions with this graphics card. The choice among these processors would not meaningfully alter frame rates.

For the AMD Radeon RX 580, the nearest GPU rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940 score, 0.1% slower), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12986 score, 0.4% slower), AMD Radeon 740M (12870 score, 0.5% faster), and AMD FirePro W5100 (12847 score, 0.6% faster). These five GPUs form a tight performance cluster with deltas under 1%. In Minimum, swapping the RX 580 for any of these alternatives would produce virtually identical frame rates, within a few FPS at most. The GTX 1660 SUPER, despite being nominally slower in the average benchmark score, would deliver equivalent gameplay experience in this title.

The practical implication is that users with any of these GPU alternatives can expect the same playability profile: 1080p Medium at around 70 FPS, 1440p just below 60 FPS on Low, and no viable 4K options. Similarly, the CPU alternatives would not change the outcome, as the RX 580 remains the bottleneck. Users considering an upgrade path should note that moving to any of these alternatives would not improve Minimum's performance, and a substantial GPU upgrade would be required to unlock higher resolutions or presets.