Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the Intel Core i7-14700K's position in the overall CPU benchmark rankings?

A: The Core i7-14700K sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs tested in the database. Its average benchmark score is 69,355, which places it within 0.1% of the AMD EPYC 9115 (score 69,288) and within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (score 69,515).

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its closest GPU rivals in synthetic testing?

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1,482. It leads the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX by 1.3% (that card scores 1,463), the GeForce 800M by 1.5% (score 1,460), the GeForce GT 625 OEM by 2.5% (score 1,446), and the GeForce GT 710 by 2.7% (score 1,443). The Arc B390 ranks at the 9th percentile among all GPUs.

Q: What are the key specifications of the Intel Core i7-14700K?

A: This is a 20-core, 28-thread desktop processor from Intel's Core 14th Gen series, built on Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus and includes UHD Graphics 770 integrated graphics. Its launch MSRP was $409.

Q: What are the key specifications of the Intel Arc B390?

A: The Arc B390 uses the Panther Lake chip with Xe3-LPG architecture on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with 1,536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 raster operations units, and 12 ray tracing cores. Its TDP is 80 W, and it uses system-shared memory, making its bandwidth system-dependent. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination delivers exactly 60 FPS or above for this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 61 FPS on High settings, 95 FPS on Low, and 72 FPS on Medium (with minimum 62 FPS and maximum 83 FPS). At 2560x1440, only Low settings reach 61 FPS. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches the 60 FPS threshold; the highest average is 33 FPS on Low.

Q: Where does this CPU+GPU combination rank among all tested combos in Minimum?

A: The combination ranks 3,299th out of 3,712 tested combos for this game, placing it in the lower tier of systems capable of running the title.

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded data for Minimum reveals a clear pattern: the GPU is the dominant constraint at every resolution, and the CPU's headroom does not compensate for the graphics bottleneck. This is evident from the scaling behavior across resolutions and presets.

At 3840x2160, the frame rate drops markedly as settings increase. Low settings produce an average of 33 FPS, Medium drops to 25 FPS (with a minimum of 21 and maximum of 29), High falls to 21 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 16 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 17 FPS, which is a 52% reduction from the Low setting baseline. This steep decline indicates that the Arc B390's shading units and texture throughput are saturated early at 4K resolution; the GPU's 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 120.0 GTexel/s texture rate simply cannot keep pace with the pixel workload.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with higher absolute numbers. Low settings average 61 FPS, Medium averages 47 FPS (minimum 40, maximum 54), High averages 39 FPS, and Ultra averages 30 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 14 FPS, representing a 23% performance loss. From Medium to High, the loss is 8 FPS (17%), and from High to Ultra another 9 FPS (23%). The GPU remains the limiting factor, as even the lowest preset barely clears the 60 FPS threshold.

At 1920x1080, the situation improves substantially. Low settings average 95 FPS, Medium averages 72 FPS (minimum 62, maximum 83), High averages 61 FPS, and Ultra averages 46 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium is 23 FPS (24% reduction), Medium to High is 11 FPS (15% reduction), and High to Ultra is 15 FPS (25% reduction). The fact that High settings still hit 61 FPS while Ultra falls to 46 FPS suggests a specific rendering feature in Ultra that taxes the GPU disproportionately, likely related to the 12 ray tracing cores or advanced shading effects.

The CPU's role is secondary throughout. The i7-14700K's multi-threaded capabilities, reflected in a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33,440.5 and a PassMark multi-thread score of 52,392, provide ample processing power for game logic and draw calls. At 1080p with Low settings, the 95 FPS average indicates the CPU is not holding back the GPU. Even at 4K, where frame rates drop to the 16 to 33 FPS range, the bottleneck is clearly the GPU's fill rate and shader throughput, not the CPU's 5.60 GHz boost clock or 33 MB of L3 cache.

In summary, the data shows that upgrading the CPU would yield negligible gains in Minimum, while upgrading the GPU would directly improve frame rates at all resolutions. The Arc B390's 9th percentile GPU ranking, compared to the i7-14700K's 94th percentile CPU ranking, underscores this imbalance: the processor is far more capable than the graphics solution paired with it.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700K and Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 3,299th out of 3,712 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the 11th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 89% of tested configurations deliver higher frame rates in this title.

This ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's performance tier. The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1,482 places it at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, which is an extremely low position. In contrast, the CPU alone sits at the 94th percentile. The combination's rank reflects the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's strengths; a system with this processor but a more capable graphics card would rank substantially higher.

The measured frame rates confirm this assessment. Even at the most favorable settings (1080p Low), the combo reaches 95 FPS, which is respectable but not exceptional. At 4K Ultra, the 16 FPS average is firmly in unplayable territory. The database's playable threshold is 60 FPS, and the combo clears it only at 1080p (High, Medium, Low) and 1440p (Low only).

The rank of 3,299 out of 3,712 indicates that this is a low-end configuration for Minimum, despite the high-end CPU. The processor's 20 cores and 28 threads are largely underutilized in this game, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor even at 1080p Medium where the average is 72 FPS but the minimum drops to 62 FPS. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming at conservative settings, and that its 4K capabilities are minimal.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rival CPUs to the i7-14700K, based on average benchmark scores, are all within 0.9% of its performance. The AMD EPYC 9115 scores 69,288 (0.1% lower), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69,515 (0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 69,875 (0.7% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69,996 (0.9% higher). In practice, any of these processors would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Minimum when paired with the same GPU, as the game's performance is GPU-bound at all tested resolutions.

The nearest rival GPUs to the Arc B390 are all NVIDIA parts from older generations, and they cluster tightly around the same performance level. The GeForce GT 520MX scores 1,463 (1.3% lower), the GeForce 800M scores 1,460 (1.5% lower), the GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1,446 (2.5% lower), and the GeForce GT 710 scores 1,443 (2.7% lower). The Arc B390 is the fastest of this group, but the margins are small: the largest gap, versus the GT 710, is only 2.7%. A user moving from any of these GPUs to the Arc B390 would see a negligible performance improvement in Minimum.

For users considering alternative hardware, the data indicates that swapping the CPU to any of the four listed rivals would produce no measurable change in Minimum's frame rates. Swapping the GPU to any of the four listed rivals would result in a small performance decrease, ranging from 1.3% to 2.7%, which would likely drop the 1080p High average from 61 FPS to approximately 59 to 60 FPS, potentially crossing below the playable threshold. The Arc B390 is the optimal choice among its immediate peers, but the entire group operates in the same low-performance tier.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data provides average frame rates for each resolution and settings combination, with minimum and maximum values available for Medium settings at each resolution.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 33 FPS average
• Medium: 25 FPS average, 21 FPS minimum, 29 FPS maximum
• High: 21 FPS average
• Ultra: 16 FPS average

At 4K, the combo fails to reach 60 FPS at any preset. The gap between the best (Low at 33 FPS) and the 60 FPS threshold is 27 FPS, meaning the system delivers only 55% of the target frame rate even at the lowest settings. The Ultra preset's 16 FPS average is a quarter of the playable threshold.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 61 FPS average
• Medium: 47 FPS average, 40 FPS minimum, 54 FPS maximum
• High: 39 FPS average
• Ultra: 30 FPS average

At 1440p, only Low settings clear the 60 FPS bar, and barely so at 61 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 40 FPS indicates significant frame pacing issues, with a 14 FPS gap between the minimum and average. The Ultra preset's 30 FPS average is exactly half of the playable threshold.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 95 FPS average
• Medium: 72 FPS average, 62 FPS minimum, 83 FPS maximum
• High: 61 FPS average
• Ultra: 46 FPS average

At 1080p, the combo achieves playable performance on three of four presets. Low settings provide a comfortable 95 FPS average. Medium settings offer 72 FPS with a minimum of 62 FPS, meaning the lowest recorded frame still clears the 60 FPS threshold. High settings average exactly 61 FPS, just above the playable line. Ultra settings fall to 46 FPS, rendering that preset unplayable.

The minimum and maximum values for Medium settings show the frame time variance across resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the spread from minimum to maximum is 21 FPS (62 to 83). At 1440p Medium, the spread narrows to 14 FPS (40 to 54). At 4K Medium, the spread shrinks further to 8 FPS (21 to 29). This pattern suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU is consistently saturated, producing steadier but lower frame rates, while at 1080p, there is more headroom for variance.

The Verdict

The data answers the question directly: this PC can run Minimum, but with significant caveats depending on resolution and settings.

At 3840x2160, the system cannot achieve playable performance at any preset. The best result is 33 FPS on Low settings, which is 27 FPS below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra all fall further behind, with Ultra at 16 FPS. The verdict for 4K is unplayable across all settings.

At 2560x1440, the system achieves playable performance on a single preset: Low settings at 61 FPS. This clears the 60 FPS bar by only 1 FPS, so it is technically playable but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes. Medium (47 FPS), High (39 FPS), and Ultra (30 FPS) all fall short of the threshold. The verdict for 1440p is playable only on Low.

At 1920x1080, the system achieves playable performance on three presets: Low (95 FPS), Medium (72 FPS), and High (61 FPS). The High preset's 61 FPS average is just above the threshold, while Medium's minimum of 62 FPS ensures consistent playability. Ultra (46 FPS) is the only unplayable preset at 1080p. The verdict for 1080p is playable on High, Medium, and Low.

In summary, the i7-14700K and Arc B390 combination is a 1080p-oriented system for Minimum. It can handle the game at high settings with average frame rates at the playable boundary, and it offers comfortable performance at medium or low settings. At 1440p, users must drop to low settings for playable performance. At 4K, the system is not suitable for this game.

Best Settings per Resolution

The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS average determines the best settings for each resolution.

3840x2160: No preset qualifies. The highest average FPS at 4K is 33 FPS on Low, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. The database records no playable settings for this resolution, so there is no recommended preset.

2560x1440: The best settings are Low, which delivers 61 FPS average. This is the only preset at 1440p that clears the 60 FPS bar. Medium falls to 47 FPS, so it is not viable. Users at this resolution should select Low settings to maintain playable frame rates.

1920x1080: The best settings are High, which delivers 61 FPS average. This is the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS. Medium offers more headroom at 72 FPS average with a 62 FPS minimum, but High is the highest-quality option that still meets the playable threshold. Low provides 95 FPS for those prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity. Ultra falls to 46 FPS and should be avoided.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the Arc B390's performance ceiling in Minimum is approximately 95 FPS at 1080p Low, and its playable ceiling is 61 FPS at 1080p High or 1440p Low. The i7-14700K's processing power does not change these limits, as the GPU is the binding constraint in every measured configuration.