Minimum

Can Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D run Minimum? The measured data says yes, and emphatically so. This combination of Intel's top Arrow Lake Refresh desktop CPU and NVIDIA's flagship Blackwell GPU does not merely meet the 60 FPS playability threshold; it obliterates it at every tested resolution and preset. The benchmark results show a system with such massive headroom that the question shifts from "can it run it?" to "what is the ceiling of this hardware?" The data indicates a performance profile that is overkill for a 2014 third-person shooter, yet the specific frame rates across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K reveal interesting scaling behaviors that hint at where the CPU and GPU each carry their weight.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are astronomical. The Low preset produces an average of 430 FPS, which is the highest recorded average across the entire test suite. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 329 FPS, with a minimum of 280 FPS and a maximum of 379 FPS. High settings at 1080p yield an average of 276 FPS, while the Ultra preset still maintains an average of 210 FPS. Even at the lowest minimum recorded at this resolution (280 FPS on Medium), the system is running nearly five times faster than the 60 FPS playability threshold. The delta between Low and Ultra is 220 FPS, showing that the preset scaling is substantial but that even the most demanding settings leave immense performance on the table.

At 2560x1440, the numbers remain incredibly high. Low settings average 277 FPS, which is a 153 FPS drop from the 1080p Low result, indicating a resolution penalty that is steep but expected. Medium averages 212 FPS, with a minimum of 180 FPS and a maximum of 244 FPS. High settings produce 178 FPS on average, while Ultra still clears 136 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 141 FPS, which is smaller than the 220 FPS gap seen at 1080p. This suggests that as resolution increases, the CPU's ability to drive frame rates becomes less of a bottleneck, and the GPU's workload becomes more dominant.

At 3840x2160, the system finally starts to show signs of being challenged, though "challenged" is relative. The Low preset averages 149 FPS, while Medium averages 114 FPS with a minimum of 97 FPS and a maximum of 131 FPS. High settings drop to a 96 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 73 FPS on average. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the entire dataset that dips below the 100 FPS mark, but it still stays comfortably above 60 FPS. The step from High to Ultra at 4K is a 23 FPS reduction, which is the largest single-setting penalty observed at any resolution. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the minimum FPS (not recorded for this preset) would likely stay well above the playable threshold, given that Medium's minimum is 97 FPS.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 210 FPS. Every preset is playable, but Ultra represents the maximum visual fidelity while still delivering over three times the required frame rate. The data shows no reason to compromise on settings at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, Ultra is again the best choice, averaging 136 FPS. This is a significant drop from the 1080p Ultra result (210 FPS), but it remains far above the 60 FPS threshold. The 1440p Ultra configuration provides the highest image quality available in the game while maintaining a frame rate that is smooth for any display.

For 3840x2160, Ultra is still the best setting, with an average of 73 FPS. This is the only resolution where the Ultra preset dips below 100 FPS, but 73 FPS is still 13 FPS above the playability threshold. The benchmark results indicate that 4K Ultra is viable, but it is the only configuration where the system's headroom starts to shrink. If a user prioritizes a higher refresh rate over absolute fidelity, dropping to High (96 FPS) or Medium (114 FPS) would provide a more substantial buffer.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average is 430 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra in Minimum?

A: Yes, the 3840x2160 Ultra preset averages 73 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded across all tests?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 97 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 on the Medium preset.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At Low settings, the average drops from 430 FPS at 1080p to 149 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 281 FPS. At Ultra, the average drops from 210 FPS to 73 FPS, a reduction of 137 FPS.

Q: Is the Ultra preset at 1440p faster than the High preset at 4K?

A: Yes, the 1440p Ultra average is 136 FPS, while the 4K High average is 96 FPS, a difference of 40 FPS.

Q: Which resolution shows the largest gap between Low and Ultra settings?

A: The largest gap is at 1920x1080, where Low averages 430 FPS and Ultra averages 210 FPS, a difference of 220 FPS.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, show extremely tight competition. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K scores 83,807, which is a 0.2% delta from this chip's 84,003 average. The AMD EPYC 4584PX (83,090) is 1.1% behind, and the AMD EPYC 9135 (82,980) is 1.2% behind. On the other side, the AMD EPYC 7F72 scores 85,072, which is 1.3% ahead of the 290K Plus. These deltas are negligible in gaming contexts, meaning that swapping to any of these CPUs would likely produce nearly identical frame rates in Minimum, since the game is not heavily CPU-bound at the tested settings.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are more surprising. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT scores 76,904, a 1.1% delta behind the RTX 5090 D's 77,712 average. The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78,940, which is 1.6% ahead. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (both 12 GB and 16 GB) score 79,396 and 79,605, respectively, putting them 2.1% and 2.4% ahead. These are data-center or mobile parts, and their proximity in average benchmark score suggests that in synthetic workloads, the RTX 5090 D is not overwhelmingly ahead of these alternatives. However, in actual gaming, the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and Blackwell architecture would likely provide a different experience than these rivals, though the measured FPS data for those alternatives is not available in this pack.

How This Combo Ranks

In the game Minimum, this combination of Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 5th out of 3,712 tested combos. This places it in the top 0.13% of all configurations in the database for this specific title. The rank is a composite measure that likely accounts for both CPU and GPU performance, and given that the combo achieves 73 FPS at 4K Ultra, it is clear that only a handful of other setups (likely those with even more exotic hardware or higher-clocked variants) can surpass it. The data suggests that for Minimum, this combo is effectively at the pinnacle of what is achievable, with the top 4 combos presumably offering only marginal improvements that would not be perceptible in real gameplay.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Minimum? Based on the verdictByResolution data, the answer is a definitive yes at all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the best playable setting is Ultra with an average of 210 FPS. At 2560x1440, Ultra is again the best, averaging 136 FPS. At 3840x2160, Ultra remains the best setting, with an average of 73 FPS. The playable settings lists for all resolutions include High, Low, Medium, and Ultra, meaning every single configuration tested clears the 60 FPS threshold. The system does not just run the game; it runs it at frame rates that would satisfy even the most demanding high-refresh-rate display. The 4K Ultra result is the weakest performance point, but 73 FPS is still 13 FPS above the playable threshold, and the minimum FPS for that preset is not recorded, though it would likely stay above 60 based on the trend from other presets.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the CPU is the primary driver of performance. The gap between Low (430 FPS) and Ultra (210 FPS) is 220 FPS, which is the largest preset delta in the dataset. This suggests that at 1080p, the RTX 5090 D is capable of rendering frames faster than the CPU can issue draw calls and physics updates, making the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus the limiting factor. The 24-core, 24-thread CPU with a 5.80 GHz boost clock is clearly powerful, but even it cannot fully feed the GPU at 1080p Low.

As resolution increases to 2560x1440, the GPU begins to take on more of the workload. The Low-to-Ultra gap shrinks to 141 FPS, indicating that the GPU's rendering time is starting to dominate. At 3840x2160, the gap narrows further to 76 FPS (149 FPS Low vs 73 FPS Ultra). This is strong evidence that the RTX 5090 D is the bottleneck at 4K, as the frame rate drops are more directly tied to pixel count and shading complexity rather than CPU headroom. In simpler terms, the CPU matters most at 1080p, while the GPU matters most at 4K. The 1440p results represent a balanced midpoint where both components contribute significantly, but the sheer power of this combo means that even the "weaker" component is far stronger than what Minimum requires.