Minimum

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data for Minimum, a third-person shooter released in 2014, shows a clear performance curve for the Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060. The measurements span three resolutions and four quality presets. The playable threshold is defined at 60 FPS, and the results indicate that this combination scales predictably with both resolution and settings.

At 1920x1080, the combo is overwhelmingly strong. Low settings produce an average of 187 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the entire dataset. Medium settings drop to 143 FPS, with a minimum of 122 FPS and a maximum of 165 FPS. High settings deliver 120 FPS on average. Ultra settings, the most demanding preset, still maintain an average of 92 FPS. Every preset at this resolution clears the 60 FPS threshold by a substantial margin, with even the minimum recorded frame rate at Medium (122 FPS) sitting well above the playable mark.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but begins to show the expected load increase. Low settings average 121 FPS, still comfortably above 60. Medium settings produce an average of 92 FPS, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. High settings average 78 FPS. Ultra settings, however, drop to an average of 59 FPS, which falls just 1 FPS below the 60 FPS threshold. This is the first preset in the dataset that fails to maintain playability at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the demands of 4K become apparent. Low settings average 65 FPS, which clears the threshold but with less headroom than at lower resolutions. Medium settings average 50 FPS, with a minimum of 42 FPS and a maximum of 57 FPS. High settings drop to 42 FPS on average. Ultra settings fall to 32 FPS. Only the Low preset at 4K manages to stay above 60 FPS, and even that result is marginal compared to the larger margins seen at 1080p and 1440p.

The data also reveals that the Medium preset is the only one across all resolutions that includes both minimum and maximum frame rate measurements. At 1080p Medium, the range is 122 to 165 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 79 to 106 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range tightens further to 42 to 57 FPS. This narrowing trend suggests that frame pacing becomes more consistent as resolution increases, even though average performance declines.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Minimum at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings?

A: Yes. The average FPS at 1080p Ultra is 92 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS playable threshold. All four presets at this resolution clear 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best playable preset at 2560x1440?

A: High settings, with an average of 78 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p average 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS threshold, so High is the most demanding preset that remains playable.

Q: Is 4K playable with this combination?

A: Only at Low settings. The 4K Low preset averages 65 FPS. Medium, High, and Ultra at 4K average 50, 42, and 32 FPS respectively, all of which fall below the playable threshold.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At Low settings, the average drops from 187 FPS to 121 FPS, a reduction of 66 FPS. At Medium, the average drops from 143 FPS to 92 FPS, a reduction of 51 FPS. At High, the average drops from 120 FPS to 78 FPS, a reduction of 42 FPS. At Ultra, the average drops from 92 FPS to 59 FPS, a reduction of 33 FPS.

Q: What is the frame rate range at 1440p Medium?

A: The minimum recorded frame rate is 79 FPS and the maximum is 106 FPS, with an average of 92 FPS.

Q: Does the RX 9060 bottleneck the i5-9400 at any resolution?

A: The data does not indicate a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 187 FPS, which suggests strong overall throughput. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 32 FPS, which indicates GPU load is the limiting factor, but the dataset does not separate component utilization.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS data allows for an analysis of how the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 share the workload across resolutions. The i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. The RX 9060 is an RDNA 4.0 GPU with 1792 shading units and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus. The game Minimum is a 2014 title, which suggests its rendering demands are not particularly modern, but the resolution scaling in the data tells a clear story.

At 1920x1080, the GPU is likely the primary factor, but the CPU still has enough headroom to feed it. The jump from Low to Ultra at 1080p is significant: 187 FPS to 92 FPS. This 95 FPS drop is driven by the GPU working harder on higher-quality shading and effects. The CPU, with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz and 9 MB of shared L3 cache, appears sufficient to keep up, as even the lowest average at 1080p (92 FPS at Ultra) is well above the playable threshold.

At 2560x1440, the GPU load increases further. The average at Low is 121 FPS, which is still high. At Ultra, the average falls to 59 FPS, just below the threshold. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at the same preset shows consistent GPU-driven declines: Low drops by 66 FPS, Medium by 51 FPS, High by 42 FPS, and Ultra by 33 FPS. The diminishing absolute drops at higher presets suggest that the GPU is becoming more saturated, while the CPU is still delivering frames without becoming the primary constraint.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the dominant factor. The average at Low is 65 FPS, which is playable but not far above the threshold. At Medium, the average is 50 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 32 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is a drop from 121 FPS to 65 FPS, a 56 FPS reduction. At Medium, the drop is from 92 FPS to 50 FPS, a 42 FPS reduction. At High, the drop is from 78 FPS to 42 FPS, a 36 FPS reduction. At Ultra, the drop is from 59 FPS to 32 FPS, a 27 FPS reduction. These trends confirm that the 4K resolution demands far more from the GPU, and the RX 9060's 8 GB memory buffer and 128-bit bus become limiting factors.

The CPU's role is more visible at the highest frame rates. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 187 FPS, which indicates that the i5-9400's 6 cores are capable of driving very high frame rates in this older game. However, the CPU's Cinebench scores, such as 6629 in R23 multicore and 935 in R23 singlecore, place it in the 47th percentile among all CPUs. This is a mid-range result, but for a 2014 title, it is sufficient. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 17631 places it in the 59th percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 7700, which are comparable in average score. The data suggests that neither component is severely mismatched for this game, but the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution increases.

The Verdict

The question of whether this PC can run Minimum is answered by the verdictByResolution data, which uses 60 FPS as the playable threshold. At 1920x1080, the answer is a clear yes. Every preset, from Low to Ultra, averages above 60 FPS. Ultra delivers 92 FPS, which means the game runs smoothly with maximum visual quality. At 2560x1440, the answer is yes for most presets. High settings average 78 FPS, Medium averages 92 FPS, and Low averages 121 FPS. Ultra at 1440p averages 59 FPS, which is 1 FPS short of the threshold, so it is not considered playable under the database's criteria.

At 3840x2160, the answer is a conditional yes. Only Low settings average above 60 FPS, at 65 FPS. Medium averages 50 FPS, High averages 42 FPS, and Ultra averages 32 FPS. For a 4K display, the user must reduce quality to Low to maintain playability. Overall, this combination is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Minimum, with 4K requiring a significant compromise in settings.

Best Settings per Resolution

The database identifies the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS for each resolution. At 1920x1080, the best setting is Ultra, with an average FPS of 92. This means the user can enable all visual features and still have 32 FPS of headroom above the playable threshold. At 2560x1440, the best setting is High, with an average FPS of 78. This provides 18 FPS of headroom. At 3840x2160, the best setting is Low, with an average FPS of 65. This provides only 5 FPS of headroom, which is a narrow margin and could be affected by scene complexity or driver overhead.

These results show a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the maximum playable preset drops by one step. At 1080p, Ultra is playable. At 1440p, Ultra is not playable, but High is. At 4K, High is not playable, but Low is. The stepwise decline reflects the GPU's limited memory bandwidth (288.0 GB/s) and 128-bit bus, which become more strained at higher pixel counts.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 2179 out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum. This places it in the lower half of all tested systems, at approximately the 58th percentile of combinations. The rank reflects the overall performance across all resolutions and presets, not just the best-case scenario.

The CPU's individual ranking is modest. The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, which places it in the 47th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are closely matched: the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248 (0.3% lower), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 (0.4% lower), and the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264 (0.4% higher). The CPU is essentially tied with these processors in synthetic benchmarks.

The GPU's individual ranking is stronger. The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, which places it in the 59th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (score 16129, 0.7% higher), the AMD Radeon R9 370X (score 15862, 1% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (score 15852, 1% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (score 15679, 2.1% lower). The GPU is competitive with these mid-range cards.

The combo rank of 2179 of 3712 suggests that while the GPU is reasonably strong, the CPU drags the overall result down. For a 2014 game like Minimum, this pairing still delivers playable performance at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results are limited. The rank indicates that many other combinations achieve higher frame rates, likely due to stronger processors or GPUs. However, the measured FPS data shows that for this specific game, the combo is fully capable at standard resolutions.