Minimum

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers overwhelming performance in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. Across every resolution tested, the combo clears the 60 FPS playable threshold even at the highest settings, leaving substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. The data indicates this is a case of extreme hardware surplus, where the GPU’s massive 32 GB GDDR7 memory and the CPU’s 20 cores create a bottleneck-free experience. Benchmark results show the most demanding preset at each resolution still produces frame rates well above what the game’s engine likely requires, making this configuration effectively future-proof for any potential mods or engine updates.

Best Settings per Resolution

The measured FPS data reveals that Minimum is exceptionally light on modern hardware, allowing the highest visual preset at every tested resolution. At 3840x2160 (4K), the Ultra preset maintains an average of 73 FPS, which is the most demanding setting that stays above the 60 FPS threshold. The fact that Ultra runs at 4K with nearly 22% headroom over the playable threshold suggests the game’s rendering pipeline is not heavily taxing the RTX 5090 D’s 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. Moving down to 2560x1440, the Ultra preset achieves an average of 136 FPS, more than double the playable threshold, indicating the GPU is nowhere near its limits. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings produce an average of 210 FPS, which is 3.5 times the 60 FPS baseline. The pattern is clear: at every resolution, Ultra is the recommended setting, and the system has enough performance to push far beyond standard 60 Hz displays.

The scaling between resolutions reinforces this conclusion. Dropping from 4K Ultra (73 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (136 FPS) yields a 86% performance increase, while dropping from 1440p to 1080p Ultra (210 FPS) yields another 54% gain. These are massive jumps that indicate the GPU is the primary limiter even at 4K, but the CPU’s 28 threads ensure the frame pacing remains smooth. For players with 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitors, the 1440p and 1080p results provide enough frames to fully utilize such displays, though the 4K Ultra result of 73 FPS would cap out at a 60-75 Hz display. The data strongly suggests that Minimum is not a game that will stress this hardware, and users should simply select Ultra at their native resolution.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Examining the nearest rivals for both components provides context for how this combo compares to other hardware configurations. The Intel Core i7-14700K sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69355. Its closest competitor is the AMD EPYC 9115, which scores 69288 and is just 0.1% slower. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69515, a mere 0.2% advantage over the i7-14700K, making these two effectively interchangeable for gaming workloads. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F score 69875 and 69996 respectively, putting them 0.7% and 0.9% ahead. These delta values are so small that they would be imperceptible in real-world gaming, meaning any of these CPUs paired with a comparable GPU would produce nearly identical frame rates in Minimum.

On the GPU side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, scores 76904 and is 1.1% slower — a surprisingly small gap given the architectural differences. The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78940, which is 1.6% faster, while the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB and 16 GB variants score 79396 and 79605, putting them 2.1% and 2.4% ahead respectively. These delta percentages are remarkably tight for such a high-end card, suggesting that Minimum’s workload is not particularly sensitive to raw GPU compute. In practical terms, a system with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and an AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT would deliver essentially identical performance in this game, making the i7-14700K + RTX 5090 D combo more about future-proofing than current-game advantage.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete FPS dataset shows consistent performance across all settings and resolutions, with no anomalies or unexpected drops. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 73 FPS, Medium averages 114 FPS with a minimum of 97 FPS and maximum of 131 FPS, High averages 96 FPS, and Low averages 149 FPS. The Medium preset’s min/max range of 34 FPS indicates some scene-to-scene variability, but even the minimum of 97 FPS is far above the 60 FPS threshold. This suggests that the game has some heavy scenes, but the hardware absorbs them without issue. At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 136 FPS, Medium averages 212 FPS (min 180 FPS, max 244 FPS), High averages 178 FPS, and Low averages 277 FPS. The Medium preset’s 64 FPS spread shows more variability at lower resolutions, likely due to CPU frame time fluctuations, but the minimum of 180 FPS remains exceptionally high.

At 1920x1080, the results are predictably the fastest: Ultra averages 210 FPS, Medium averages 329 FPS (min 280 FPS, max 379 FPS), High averages 276 FPS, and Low averages 430 FPS. The Low preset at 1080p produces a staggering 430 FPS average, which is over 7 times the playable threshold. The Medium preset’s min/max range of 99 FPS is the largest observed, indicating that at this resolution, the CPU’s 20 cores and 28 threads are being pushed to deliver frames as fast as the engine can produce them. Interestingly, the difference between High and Medium at 1080p is only 53 FPS (276 vs 329), while the jump from Medium to Low is 101 FPS (329 vs 430), suggesting that the Medium preset includes some GPU-intensive effects that scale non-linearly with resolution. Overall, the data shows a smooth, predictable scaling curve with no frame drops below 60 FPS at any setting or resolution.

FAQ

*Q: Can this PC run Minimum at 4K with the highest settings?*

A: Yes. The 3840x2160 Ultra preset averages 73 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playable threshold. The system handles the most demanding configuration at 4K without issue.

Q: What is the best setting for 1440p gaming?

A: Ultra is recommended at 2560x1440, where it averages 136 FPS. This leaves significant headroom above the 60 FPS threshold and would support high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested hardware?

A: This combination ranks 5th out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum. The CPU sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary scaling factor. At 1080p, the jump from Ultra (210 FPS) to Low (430 FPS) is over 2x, indicating GPU-bound rendering. The CPU’s 20 cores are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking at any resolution.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures for the Medium preset?

A: At 3840x2160, Medium has a minimum of 97 FPS. At 2560x1440, the minimum is 180 FPS. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 280 FPS. All values are far above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the game run smoothly at 4K with High settings?

A: Yes, the 4K High preset averages 96 FPS, which is 60% above the playable threshold. This provides a comfortable margin for scene complexity variations.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS data reveals an interesting division of labor between the Intel Core i7-14700K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D. At 4K, the scaling from Low (149 FPS) to Ultra (73 FPS) represents a 51% performance drop, indicating the GPU is the dominant factor at this resolution. The GPU’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 512-bit bus provide ample bandwidth for 4K textures, and the 21760 shading units handle the increased pixel workload. However, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the jump from Low (430 FPS) to Ultra (210 FPS) is a 51% reduction as well, but the absolute frame rates are so high that the CPU must be delivering frames at an incredible rate. The i7-14700K’s 28 threads and 5.60 GHz boost clock ensure that the game’s logic and draw calls are processed quickly enough to feed the GPU.

The resolution scaling provides further insight. Moving from 4K Ultra (73 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (136 FPS) is an 86% improvement, while moving from 1440p Ultra to 1080p Ultra (210 FPS) is a 54% improvement. These ratios are not proportional to pixel count (4K has 2.25x the pixels of 1440p, and 1440p has 1.78x the pixels of 1080p), which suggests the game has a fixed CPU overhead that becomes relatively more significant at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls and manage game state becomes a larger percentage of the total frame time, even though the absolute frame rates are vastly higher. The data indicates that for Minimum, the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, while the CPU becomes a co-bottleneck at 1080p, though neither component ever approaches its limits.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a rank of 5th out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum. This top-0.1% placement is consistent with the component-level percentiles: the CPU sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. The fact that the combo ranks higher than either component’s individual percentile suggests that this particular pairing is synergistic for this game, with the i7-14700K’s strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2160) complementing the RTX 5090 D’s raw throughput. The rank implies that only 4 other tested configurations outperform this one, likely featuring even higher-end components or more optimized pairings. Given that this combo already delivers 4K Ultra at 73 FPS and 1080p Ultra at 210 FPS, the performance gap to the top-ranked combos is unlikely to be perceptible in actual gameplay.

The ranking also contextualizes the nearest rivals. The CPU’s closest competitors, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, score within 0.2% of the i7-14700K, and the GPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, is just 1.6% faster. This means that a combo with those two components would likely rank nearly identically, perhaps within a few positions. The tight clustering of scores among the top components suggests that Minimum does not differentiate heavily between high-end hardware, and the 5th place rank is more a reflection of the sheer performance ceiling of this pairing than any specific optimization for this particular game.

The Verdict

The Intel Core i7-14700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D can unquestionably run Minimum at every resolution and setting combination tested. The verdict by resolution is unambiguous: at 3840x2160, all four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable, with Ultra averaging 73 FPS — the best playable setting at that resolution. At 2560x1440, Ultra is the best setting with an average of 136 FPS, and at 1920x1080, Ultra achieves 210 FPS. The playable threshold of 60 FPS is cleared with substantial margin at every data point.

The only consideration is display refresh rate. At 4K Ultra, the 73 FPS average would not fully utilize a 144 Hz monitor, but it is perfectly suited for 60-75 Hz displays. At 1440p and 1080p, the frame rates are high enough (136 FPS and 210 FPS respectively) to support high-refresh-rate gaming. The data shows no scenario where this combo fails to meet the playable threshold, and the lowest recorded minimum FPS across all tests is 97 FPS (4K Medium), which is still 62% above the threshold. For a game released in 2014, this hardware is massively overprovisioned, and the performance headroom suggests that even heavily modded or remastered versions of Minimum would run smoothly. This is a definitive pass with extreme headroom.