Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination delivers a playable but aging experience in Minimum, a 2014 Third-Person Shooter. The measured data shows a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings, with the combo ranking near the bottom of the tested pool at 1519 out of 1733 combinations. This analysis breaks down the FPS figures, CPU behavior, and optimal settings based solely on the provided benchmark results.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, revealing a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 132.2 FPS, but this falls to 83.6 FPS at 1440p and 44.8 FPS at 4K. That represents a 36.8% decline from 1080p to 1440p and a further 46.4% decline from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is consistent across all settings, indicating that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The scaling becomes more severe at Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 67 FPS, dropping to 42.4 FPS at 1440p and 20.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is below 30 FPS, making it effectively unplayable for smooth action. The data suggests that at 4K, even Low settings (44.8 FPS) barely cross the 60 FPS threshold, while High (28.7 FPS) and Medium (35.4 FPS) fall short. This is a clear sign that the 6 GB GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus of the GTX 1660 SUPER are overwhelmed by the 3840x2160 resolution, regardless of the CPU's capability.

At 1440p, the situation improves but remains constrained. High settings yield 54.4 FPS, which is close to but not consistently at 60 FPS. Medium at 63.2 FPS and Low at 83.6 FPS provide more headroom. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is roughly 30-40% across all presets, confirming that the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth are the bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 2600's role is less apparent in this scaling, as the FPS drops track the pixel count increase rather than CPU thread usage.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. Its architecture is Zen (Pinnacle Ridge), built on a 12 nm process. In terms of raw compute, it scores 11186 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1579 in single-core. These numbers place it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, but its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-1345U (deltaPct -0.4) and AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (deltaPct 0.6), showing it is competitive with modern mid-range mobile parts.

For Minimum, the CPU's impact is likely minimal due to the game's age. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (132.2 FPS) suggests the processor can feed frames well above the GPU's capability at lower resolutions. However, the single-thread performance (1579 in Cinebench R23) is modest by today's standards, which could limit performance in CPU-heavy scenes. The data does not isolate CPU vs GPU bottlenecks, but the resolution scaling pattern indicates that at 4K, the GPU is fully saturated while the CPU has headroom. At 1080p, the combo reaches 132.2 FPS on Low, which is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game, but without a CPU-only test, this remains speculative.

The 12 threads of the Ryzen 5 2600 are more than sufficient for a 2014 title, which typically uses 4-8 threads. The L3 cache is 16 MB shared, and the memory bandwidth is 46.9 GB/s dual-channel DDR4. These specs are adequate but not exceptional, and the CPU's percentile ranking (77) suggests it handles most games without being a major constraint. For this specific combo, the GPU is the weaker link, as evidenced by the 4K FPS falling below 30 on Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance for each resolution. At 1080p, the best experience is High settings, delivering 86.1 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS target and provides better visual quality than Medium (102.6 FPS) or Low (132.2 FPS). Ultra at 67 FPS is also playable, but the marginal visual gain over High comes with a 22.2% FPS penalty. For players prioritizing smoothness, High is the sweet spot.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts to Medium, which produces 63.2 FPS. High (54.4 FPS) is below the 60 FPS threshold, while Low (83.6 FPS) sacrifices too much visual fidelity. Medium offers the best balance, keeping the frame rate above 60 while maintaining reasonable settings. Ultra at 42.4 FPS is not recommended for competitive play, as the drop below 45 FPS becomes noticeable in a Third-Person Shooter.

At 4K, the data shows no preset achieves a consistent 60 FPS. Low is the only option above 40 FPS, at 44.8 FPS. Medium (35.4 FPS) and High (28.7 FPS) are playable only in slow-paced scenarios, and Ultra (20.1 FPS) is not viable. For this resolution, the recommendation is Low with an acceptance of 44.8 FPS, or a reduction to 1440p for a better experience. The 6 GB VRAM is sufficient for 4K textures, but the GPU's compute power (5.027 TFLOPS FP32) is insufficient for higher presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1519 out of 1733 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 12.4% of the pool. This low rank reflects the GPU's age, as the GTX 1660 SUPER is in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14286. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (deltaPct -0.2) and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics (deltaPct -0.2), indicating the GPU is only slightly better than integrated graphics in some cases.

The CPU ranks higher, in the 77th percentile, with an average benchmark score of 19616. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-11600KF (deltaPct -0.6) and Intel Core i7-10700F (deltaPct 0.7), showing it is competitive with older desktop parts. However, the combo rank is dragged down by the GPU, which is end-of-life and has a successor in the GeForce 20 series. The rank of 1519 suggests that most other tested combos have either a stronger GPU or a more balanced pairing. For a 2014 game, this rank is low, indicating that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the limiting factor even at lower resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Minimum at 4K with playable frame rates?*

A: No. The highest measured FPS at 3840x2160 is 44.8 on Low settings. Medium (35.4), High (28.7), and Ultra (20.1) all fall below 45 FPS, making only Low remotely playable.

Q: What is the best setting for 1080p with this hardware?

A: High settings at 1920x1080 produce 86.1 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target. Ultra (67 FPS) is also playable, but High offers a better balance of visual quality and frame rate.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU has an average benchmark score of 14286. It is 0.2% slower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and 0.2% slower than the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics, showing a near-tie in raw compute.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 2600 a bottleneck at 1440p?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1440p, the FPS scales with settings (83.6 Low to 42.4 Ultra), suggesting the GPU is the primary limiter. The CPU's multi-core score of 11186 in Cinebench R23 is sufficient for this title.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 102.6 at 1920x1080 with Medium settings. This is well above 60 FPS and provides a smooth experience.

Q: How does this combo's ranking compare to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 1519 out of 1733 combos, placing it in the bottom 12.4% of the pool. This low rank is attributed to the GPU, which is in the 55th percentile, rather than the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table lists all measured average FPS values from the data:

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 28.7 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 44.8 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 35.4 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 20.1 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 54.4 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 83.6 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 63.2 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 42.4 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 86.1 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 132.2 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 102.6 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 67.0 |

The 1080p results show a clear spread from 67 FPS on Ultra to 132.2 FPS on Low, a 97.3% increase. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 42.4-83.6 FPS, a 97.2% increase. At 4K, the spread is 20.1-44.8 FPS, a 122.9% increase, indicating that the GPU's limitations become more pronounced at higher resolutions. The minimum FPS and maximum FPS fields are null in the data, so only averages are reported. For a 2014 game, these numbers are acceptable at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results are substandard for modern standards, reinforcing the GPU's role as the primary constraint.