Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti combination delivers a playable experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter, but the data reveals a system that is firmly constrained by its graphics card at higher resolutions. The measured frame rates across four presets and three resolutions show a clear hierarchy: the combo is capable of high refresh rates at 1080p, yet struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS rows to understand where this pairing excels, where it falls short, and what the numbers indicate about the underlying hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking pattern in the measured data is the dramatic collapse of frame rates as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with the Low preset, the combo produces 132 FPS, which is more than double the 46.1 FPS achieved at 4K on the same settings. This 65% drop in performance across the resolution spectrum is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound workload, where the GTX 1660 Ti’s pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor.

At the High preset, the scaling is equally telling. The system delivers 88.2 FPS at 1080p, drops to 55.4 FPS at 1440p, and then falls to 31.2 FPS at 4K. The step from 1440p to 4K represents a 44% performance loss, which is steeper than the 37% loss from 1080p to 1440p. This nonlinear degradation suggests that the graphics card’s memory bandwidth and fill rate are being saturated as the pixel count approaches 4K. The GTX 1660 Ti has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, and the data shows this is simply not enough to maintain fluid motion at the highest resolution.

The Ultra preset tells the harshest story. At 1080p, the combo manages 66.9 FPS, which is playable. At 1440p, it drops to 42.1 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to a marginal 23.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is a 49% difference (46.1 vs 23.3 FPS), which is wider than the 50% gap at 1080p (132 vs 66.9 FPS). This indicates that the game’s Ultra settings impose a heavy shading load that the GPU cannot handle when also pushing 8.3 million pixels. The CPU, with 6 cores and 12 threads, is likely not the bottleneck here, as the frame rate scales almost entirely with resolution rather than with scene complexity.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured rows, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the data supports the High preset as the best balance. It delivers 88.2 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while providing a substantial visual uplift over the Low preset’s 132 FPS. The Medium preset offers 99.7 FPS, but the 13% gain over High comes at the cost of reduced visual fidelity. The Ultra preset is also viable at 1080p with 66.9 FPS, but the 24% performance penalty compared to High makes it a less attractive choice for competitive play.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts to Medium. The Medium preset produces 67 FPS, which is the only setting that clears the 60 FPS mark at this resolution. High manages 55.4 FPS, which is borderline playable but may feel stuttery in fast-paced third-person action. Low runs at 86 FPS, but it sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that likely benefits from better textures and shadows. Ultra at 42.1 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the playable threshold.

For 3840x2160, the data is unambiguous: only the Low preset is viable. It delivers 46.1 FPS, which is below 60 FPS but still playable for a single-player experience. The Medium preset drops to 32.5 FPS, High to 31.2 FPS, and Ultra to 23.3 FPS. These lower values are too choppy for a third-person shooter, which relies on smooth camera movement. The 4K Low setting is the only row that avoids single-digit frame rates, and the 70% drop from Low to Ultra at this resolution underscores that the GTX 1660 Ti is not designed for 4K gaming on demanding presets.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. In Minimum, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU, given that frame rates scale so strongly with resolution. However, the processor’s benchmark scores offer context for its capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 11186 multi-core and 1579 single-core, placing it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. This suggests it has ample headroom for gaming workloads.

The nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark data are all within a narrow band. The Intel Core i5-1345U scores 19691 (0.4% higher than the Ryzen’s average of 19616), while the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U scores 19508 (0.6% lower). The Intel Core i7-10700F is 0.7% behind, and the Intel Core i5-11600KF is 0.6% ahead. This tight clustering indicates that the Ryzen 5 2600 is competitive with much newer processors in synthetic tests, but in Minimum specifically, the game’s engine likely does not stress the CPU beyond its capabilities.

The measured FPS at 1080p Low (132 FPS) shows that the CPU can feed the GPU enough frames to hit high refresh rates. Even at 1440p Low, the combo reaches 86 FPS, which is still high. The CPU’s 16 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 46.9 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for this title. There is no evidence in the data that the CPU becomes a limiting factor at any resolution or preset, as the frame rate degradation is consistent with GPU-bound behavior.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 1487 out of 1733 tested combos for Minimum. This places it in the bottom 14% of all combinations, which might seem surprising given the playable frame rates at 1080p. However, the ranking reflects the entire spectrum of tested hardware, including far more powerful GPUs that can handle 4K Ultra with ease.

The rank is influenced by the combo’s poor performance at 4K and its mid-range showing at 1440p. While it achieves 132 FPS at 1080p Low, many other combos likely exceed 200 FPS at that resolution. The 1487th position indicates that the GTX 1660 Ti, which sits in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, is the weak link. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 13925 is nearly matched by the AMD Radeon RX 570X (13871, 0.4% lower) and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (13821, 0.8% lower). This places the GTX 1660 Ti in a crowded mid-range segment, but in Minimum, it cannot compete with higher-tier cards that have more VRAM and faster memory.

The CPU, on the other hand, is not the reason for the low rank. The Ryzen 5 2600’s 77th percentile standing among CPUs suggests it is a capable partner. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, as evidenced by the 4K frame rates. The combo’s rank of 1487 out of 1733 means it outperforms roughly 14% of tested systems, which aligns with the GTX 1660 Ti’s 55th percentile GPU rank—the disparity suggests the game is more GPU-demanding than average.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is built on the Turing architecture with 1536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 raster operation units. It has a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. The memory runs at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective), providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications directly explain the measured frame rates.

The GPU’s pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s and texture rate of 169.9 GTexel/s are the key metrics for resolution scaling. At 4K (3840x2160), the GPU must process 8.3 million pixels per frame. With the High preset, it manages 31.2 FPS, which translates to roughly 259 million pixels per second—this is well below the theoretical pixel rate, indicating that the shading load is the constraint. The FP32 performance of 5.437 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, and the data shows that the Ultra preset’s additional shader work cuts performance by 25% compared to High at 4K (23.3 vs 31.2 FPS).

The GTX 1660 Ti’s 6 GB VRAM is sufficient for Minimum at all tested settings, as the game’s 2014 release date suggests moderate memory requirements. However, the GPU’s 12 Gbps effective memory speed is not enough to sustain high frame rates at 4K. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is the likely bottleneck when pushing 4K Ultra, where the frame rate drops to 23.3 FPS. The GPU’s passmark G3D score of 12871 and its 55th percentile ranking confirm it is a mid-range part, and the measured FPS data in Minimum aligns with this positioning.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo playable at 1080p?

A: Yes, the data shows solid performance at 1920x1080 across all presets. The Low preset delivers 132 FPS, Medium hits 99.7 FPS, High reaches 88.2 FPS, and Ultra still manages 66.9 FPS, all of which are above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The measured data favors 1920x1080 as the sweet spot. At 2560x1440, only the Low (86 FPS) and Medium (67 FPS) presets stay above 60 FPS, while 4K only achieves a playable frame rate on Low (46.1 FPS).

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 19616, which is within 0.7% of its closest rivals. The Intel Core i7-10700F scores 19485 (0.7% lower), while the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U scores 19508 (0.6% lower), indicating the CPU is competitive.

Q: Why is 4K performance so poor?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti’s 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 5.437 TFLOPS FP32 performance are insufficient for 4K. The frame rate drops from 46.1 FPS at Low to 23.3 FPS at Ultra, showing the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among tested systems?

A: This pairing ranks 1487 out of 1733 combos in Minimum, placing it in the bottom 14% of the database. This low rank is driven by the GPU’s limitations at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU?

A: No, the data indicates the CPU is not a bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 132 FPS, and the CPU’s 6-core/12-thread configuration with a 3.90 GHz boost clock provides sufficient performance for this game.