Minimum

Minimum is a 2014 third-person shooter whose measured performance on the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combo reveals a surprisingly consistent scaling pattern across resolutions and settings. The data shows that this pairing delivers playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra, but the relationship between settings and resolution suggests the GPU is the dominant factor in nearly every scenario, with the older six-core CPU rarely becoming the bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Minimum?

A: The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p delivers the highest frame rates (174–239 FPS across settings), 1440p offers a strong balance (112–206 FPS), and 4K remains playable but with a significant drop (61–124 FPS). For competitive play, 1080p Low at 239 FPS is the peak, while 1440p High at 148 FPS provides a solid visual upgrade without sacrificing smoothness.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4080 than its closest rival?

A: The RTX 4080’s average benchmark score is 54,247, which is a mere 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.1% and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.6%, making it effectively tied with its direct successor in synthetic tests.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 2600 bottleneck the RTX 4080 in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate the CPU is rarely the limiting factor. The Ryzen 5 2600 scores 1,248 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 157.3 in single-core, which is modest, but the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent (e.g., 204 to 79 FPS on High), suggesting GPU load dominates. Only at 1080p Low, where the GPU is underutilized, might the CPU’s single-thread performance (2,239 in Passmark single-thread) come into play.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Low averages 124 FPS while Ultra averages 61 FPS—a 63 FPS drop that represents a 50.8% reduction. Medium sits at 95 FPS and High at 79 FPS, showing that each settings tier costs roughly 15–20 FPS at this resolution.

Q: Is this combo ranked highly among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 617th out of 3,712 tested combos, placing it in the top 16.6% of all pairings. This is a strong result, though not elite, reflecting the RTX 4080’s high percentile (86th among all GPUs) combined with the Ryzen 5 2600’s more modest 75th percentile among CPUs.

Q: Which settings preset offers the best experience at 1440p?

A: Medium provides the most balanced experience with an average of 176 FPS and a minimum of 149 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. High (148 FPS) and Ultra (112 FPS) are also viable, but Medium’s minimum FPS headroom makes it the safest choice for consistent performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the clear workhorse in this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Minimum’s 2014-era textures and effects. The GPU’s boost clock of 2505 MHz (base 2205 MHz) drives its 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, and the data shows this horsepower translates directly into frame rates.

At 1080p, the RTX 4080 is rarely stressed: Low settings average 239 FPS, with Medium at 217 FPS and High at 204 FPS. The gap between these presets narrows as resolution increases, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios. At 4K, the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading units (9,728) become more critical, with Low still hitting 124 FPS but Ultra dropping to 61 FPS—a figure that indicates the RTX 4080 is being pushed near its limits in a decade-old title.

Passmark G3D scores of 34,457 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 at 6,567 confirm the GPU’s raw capability, but the measured FPS reveals that Minimum’s engine does not scale perfectly with such hardware. The 4K Ultra result of 61 FPS suggests the game’s draw calls or shader complexity creates a ceiling that even this GPU cannot fully overcome, despite its 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, Medium settings offer the most compelling balance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium averages 217 FPS with a minimum of 184 FPS, providing a 33 FPS cushion over the 144 Hz threshold. At 1440p, Medium hits 176 FPS average and 149 FPS minimum, which is still well above 144 Hz for most displays. Even at 4K, Medium maintains 95 FPS average and 80 FPS minimum, making it the only preset that stays above 60 FPS at every resolution.

High settings are a reasonable alternative for visual purists, delivering 204 FPS at 1080p, 148 FPS at 1440p, and 79 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is playable but leaves little headroom for drops. Ultra should be avoided at 4K (61 FPS) unless the player accepts 60 FPS as the target; at 1080p and 1440p, Ultra remains smooth at 174 FPS and 112 FPS respectively. Low settings are only recommended for maximum competitive advantage, where the 239 FPS at 1080p and 206 FPS at 1440p provide the lowest latency possible.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture across four settings and three resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance: Low averages 239 FPS, Medium 217 FPS (min 184, max 249), High 204 FPS, and Ultra 174 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 65 FPS, indicating that even the heaviest preset leaves substantial GPU headroom.

At 2560x1440, results remain strong but show a clearer separation: Low averages 206 FPS, Medium 176 FPS (min 149, max 202), High 148 FPS, and Ultra 112 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 94 FPS, and the Medium minimum of 149 FPS is the only figure below 150 FPS across all settings.

At 3840x2160, the impact of resolution becomes apparent: Low averages 124 FPS, Medium 95 FPS (min 80, max 109), High 79 FPS, and Ultra 61 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 63 FPS, but the absolute values drop significantly—Ultra at 61 FPS is exactly at the 60 FPS threshold, making it marginal for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and consistent across settings. On Low, 239 FPS at 1080p falls to 206 FPS at 1440p (a 13.8% decrease) and then to 124 FPS at 4K (a 39.8% decrease from 1440p). On Ultra, the progression is 174 → 112 → 61 FPS, with a 35.6% drop from 1440p to 4K.

This scaling pattern indicates a GPU-bound workload. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain flat across resolutions, but the consistent decline with pixel count shows the RTX 4080’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints. The 4K results—especially the 61 FPS on Ultra—suggest that Minimum’s rendering pipeline does not fully utilize the GPU’s 716.8 GB/s bandwidth, leaving performance on the table even with this high-end card.

The 1440p-to-4K drop is steeper than the 1080p-to-1440p drop in percentage terms, which is typical: quadrupling pixel count from 1080p to 4K (2,073,600 to 8,294,400 pixels) requires proportionally more shading work, and the data shows this manifests as a roughly 40–48% FPS reduction depending on settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 provides six cores and twelve threads with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost up to 3.90 GHz. Its Zen architecture, built on a 12 nm process, includes 16 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with 46.9 GB/s bandwidth. In synthetic tests, it scores 1,248 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 157.3 in single-core, with a Passmark multi-thread score of 13,160.

In Minimum, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is smooth and consistent, which would not be the case if the 2600 were bottlenecking. However, at 1080p Low (239 FPS), the CPU’s single-thread performance (2,239 in Passmark) may become a factor, as the GPU is capable of far higher frame rates in less demanding scenes. The 2600’s 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it is above average, but its age (2018 release) and 3.40 GHz base clock indicate it is not a modern high-frequency part.

The data implies that the Ryzen 5 2600 is sufficient for Minimum’s CPU demands, likely because the game’s 2014 engine does not heavily utilize multi-threading. This is supported by the fact that the combo ranks 617th out of 3,712, which is strong but not top-tier—suggesting that a newer, faster CPU might squeeze out slightly higher frame rates in CPU-limited scenarios, though the GPU remains the dominant factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combo ranks 617th out of 3,712 tested configurations in Minimum, placing it in the top 16.6% of all pairings. This is a commendable result given the CPU’s age, and it underscores the RTX 4080’s ability to carry the workload.

The GPU’s 86th percentile ranking (vs. all GPUs) is the primary driver of this performance, while the CPU’s 75th percentile is secondary. The nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks highlight the GPU’s position: the RTX 4080 is 0.1% ahead of the RTX 4080 SUPER, but 1.1% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X and 2.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB. These marginal differences in synthetic scores translate to negligible real-world FPS variation in Minimum, as the measured data shows the RTX 4080 is more than sufficient for this title.

The 617th rank suggests that while this combo is strong, it is not the best possible pairing for Minimum. Combos with newer CPUs (e.g., Ryzen 7000 series or Intel 13th gen) might achieve higher frame rates at 1080p Low, where CPU single-thread performance matters more. However, at 1440p and 4K, the GPU dominates, and the Ryzen 5 2600’s 12 threads provide enough parallelism to avoid becoming a significant bottleneck. Overall, this combo delivers a highly playable experience across all settings, with the only caveat being 4K Ultra’s marginal 61 FPS average.