Minimum

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers a highly capable 1080p and 1440p gaming experience in Minimum, a third-person shooter released in 2014. Benchmark data, measured across three resolutions and four quality presets, reveals a system that scales predictably with graphical load, though 4K gaming demands significant settings compromises. The combination ranks 2179th out of 3712 tested combos for this specific title, placing it in the upper-middle tier of hardware configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates show a clear progression from 1080p to 4K, with each resolution step producing substantial performance changes. At 1920x1080, the system delivers excellent headroom across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 187 FPS, which represents the highest frame rate in the entire dataset. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 143 FPS, with a minimum of 122 and maximum of 165 FPS recorded. The High preset maintains a strong 120 FPS average, while the demanding Ultra preset still produces a smooth 92 FPS average. Every 1080p configuration stays dramatically above the 60 FPS playability threshold, with the weakest preset (Ultra) still delivering 53% more frames than required.

At 2560x1440, performance remains robust but begins to show the expected resolution penalty. The Low preset averages 121 FPS, which is a 35% reduction compared to 1080p Low. Medium follows at 92 FPS average, with a recorded range of 79 to 106 FPS. High settings produce a 78 FPS average, while Ultra dips to exactly 59 FPS average. This Ultra result sits just one frame below the 60 FPS target, making it technically unplayable by the strict threshold used in this analysis. The 1440p results suggest the GPU is the primary scaling factor, as the frame rate drops proportionally with pixel count increases.

The 3840x2160 results reveal the most significant performance constraints. Ultra settings produce only a 32 FPS average, which is the lowest figure in the entire dataset. High settings improve this to 42 FPS, while Medium reaches a 50 FPS average with a minimum of 42 and maximum of 57 FPS. Only the Low preset clears the 60 FPS bar, achieving a 65 FPS average. The gap between Medium and High at 4K is 8 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra represents a 10 FPS loss. These figures indicate that 4K gaming is only viable with substantial settings reductions for this hardware combination.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, with the CPU providing ample headroom throughout. The Intel Core i7-14700F, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, scores 35122 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4958 in single-core tests. These scores place the processor in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, indicating it is unlikely to bottleneck even demanding titles. The Radeon RX 9060, by contrast, sits in the 59th percentile among GPUs, making it the clear performance limiter in this pairing.

The scaling between resolutions confirms this GPU-centric analysis. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings produces a 35% frame rate reduction (from 120 to 78 FPS), which closely matches the 56% increase in pixel count. Similarly, the 1440p to 4K transition at High settings drops from 78 to 42 FPS, a 46% reduction against a 125% pixel increase. These non-linear relationships suggest the GPU memory bandwidth (288.0 GB/s) and 8 GB frame buffer become increasingly constraining as resolution rises. The RX 9060’s 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB GDDR6 capacity are sufficient for 1080p and most 1440p scenarios but struggle with 4K texture workloads.

The preset scaling at each resolution further illuminates component roles. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 95 FPS (from 187 to 92), which is a 51% performance swing. This wide range indicates the GPU has substantial headroom at lower settings, with the CPU able to feed frames rapidly. At 4K, the same preset swing produces only a 33 FPS difference (65 to 32), suggesting the GPU reaches its absolute limits regardless of settings. The CPU’s strong single-thread performance (4257 in Passmark single-thread, 2429 in Geekbench) ensures that even at 1080p Low with 187 FPS, the processor is not the primary constraint.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 92 FPS average, making it the optimal choice. This represents the highest quality settings that maintain a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The 32 FPS gap between Ultra and the next lower preset (High at 120 FPS) shows there is still performance to spare, but Ultra provides the full visual experience without sacrificing smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 78 FPS average, which is the most demanding configuration that stays above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at this resolution produces 59 FPS average, just missing the playability threshold. Choosing High over Medium (92 FPS) sacrifices some frame rate headroom but provides better visual fidelity. The 19 FPS difference between Medium and High suggests the settings scaling is moderate, making High a reasonable compromise for quality-focused players.

For 3840x2160, only the Low preset reaches playable performance at 65 FPS average. Medium falls short at 50 FPS, and High and Ultra are significantly below playable at 42 and 32 FPS respectively. The 15 FPS gap between Low and Medium at 4K indicates that even a single settings tier increase pushes the system below the 60 FPS target. Players targeting 4K must accept the lowest visual quality to maintain smooth gameplay with this hardware.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Minimum at 1440p with maximum settings?*

A: No. At 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 59 FPS, which falls one frame below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The High preset at 78 FPS is the highest playable configuration at this resolution.

Q: What is the highest frame rate achievable with this hardware?

A: The maximum recorded average is 187 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents the ceiling of the system’s performance in Minimum, with all other configurations producing lower results.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 9060’s average benchmark score is 16014, which places it 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129) and 1% ahead of both the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852). It also leads the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679) by 2.1%.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: Only with Low settings, which produce 65 FPS average at 3840x2160. Medium, High, and Ultra presets all fall below 60 FPS, ranging from 50 down to 32 FPS. The system is not suitable for high-quality 4K gaming in this title.

Q: What CPU performance tier does the i7-14700F occupy?

A: The processor ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53620. It sits very close to the Intel Xeon 6505P (53701, 0.2% ahead) and AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (53288, 0.6% behind).

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance in this game?

A: Benchmark data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter. The RX 9060’s 59th percentile ranking versus the CPU’s 91st percentile, combined with the strong resolution scaling penalties, clearly identifies the graphics card as the bottleneck.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU’s nearest rivals provide context for its performance level. The Intel Xeon 6505P scores 53701, which is 0.2% higher than the i7-14700F’s 53620 average. The Intel Xeon Phi 7290 achieves 53469, representing a 0.3% deficit. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X scores 53288, sitting 0.6% behind, while the AMD EPYC 7313P reaches 53206, a 0.8% difference. These processors would deliver essentially identical CPU-bound performance in Minimum, though their different core configurations could affect other workloads.

For the GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the closest competitor with an average score of 16129, just 0.7% above the RX 9060’s 16014. The AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862, which is 1% lower, while the AMD Radeon RX 7700 also scores 15852, matching the R9 370X at 1% behind. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 2.1% with a score of 15679. In practical terms, these GPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates in Minimum, with differences of only a few frames per second across the tested settings and resolutions.

The Verdict

This PC can run Minimum effectively at 1080p and 1440p, with clear limitations at 4K. At 1920x1080, all four presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—deliver playable performance, with averages ranging from 92 to 187 FPS. The Ultra preset at 92 FPS provides the best visual experience while maintaining a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the system offers three playable presets: Low (121 FPS), Medium (92 FPS), and High (78 FPS). The Ultra preset falls to 59 FPS, just below the playable threshold. This makes High the optimal 1440p configuration, offering strong performance without sacrificing significant visual quality.

At 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves playable performance with 65 FPS average. Medium (50 FPS), High (42 FPS), and Ultra (32 FPS) all fall short of the 60 FPS requirement. Players seeking 4K gameplay must accept minimal graphical settings, making this resolution unsuitable for quality-focused play with this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 2179th out of 3712 tested combinations for Minimum. This placement in the 59th percentile of tested systems reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning rather than the CPU’s high-end capabilities. The ranking suggests that while this system handles 1080p and 1440p gaming admirably, there are numerous other configurations that deliver superior 4K performance or higher overall frame rates. The large gap between the CPU’s 91st percentile and the GPU’s 59th percentile indicates an unbalanced pairing where the processor significantly outperforms the graphics card. A more powerful GPU would likely move this combination substantially higher in the rankings, as the i7-14700F has demonstrated it can feed frames well beyond what the RX 9060 can render at higher resolutions.