Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination delivers a playable but heavily resolution-bound experience in Minimum, with the GPU clearly acting as the primary constraint at higher settings. At 1080p, the pairing is strong enough for high-refresh gameplay, but 4K Ultra falls below playable thresholds.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal a classic GPU-bound scaling curve, with the RTX 2060 SUPER losing over half its performance when moving from 1080p to 4K at identical settings. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 108.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 72.3 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 35.6 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that pixel throughput is the dominant limiting factor.

The scaling pattern holds across other settings. At Low, the transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 sees average frame rates fall from 167.9 FPS to 60.4 FPS — a 64% decline. Medium settings show a similar trajectory: 127.6 FPS at 1080p, 85.4 FPS at 1440p, and 46.5 FPS at 4K. Ultra is the most punishing, starting at 80.5 FPS at 1080p and collapsing to 28.5 FPS at 4K.

The fact that Low settings at 4K (60.4 FPS) barely outperform High settings at 1440p (72.3 FPS) in raw frame rate suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading resources are saturated regardless of preset. The RTX 2060 SUPER offers 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth across a 256-bit bus, which appears insufficient for 4K resolutions in this title at higher quality presets.

At 1080p, the scaling is more moderate. Going from Low to Ultra costs 87.4 FPS (from 167.9 FPS to 80.5 FPS), indicating that the CPU and GPU combination can still absorb the increased load at lower pixel counts. However, at 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is only 31.9 FPS (60.4 FPS to 28.5 FPS), confirming that resolution is the bottleneck rather than settings complexity.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 3600 provides a solid foundation with 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boosting to 4.20 GHz. Its Zen 2 architecture on the 7 nm process delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15045 and a single-core score of 2124, which places it in the 76th percentile among all CPUs.

In this game, the CPU appears to be more than sufficient at all tested resolutions. The evidence is the frame rate behavior: if the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see similar frame rates across resolutions at the same settings. Instead, the data shows significant drops at higher resolutions, which is the signature of a GPU bottleneck.

The 3DMark scores reinforce this interpretation. The Ryzen 5 3600 achieves a 2-thread score of 1361 and a 4-thread score of 2579, suggesting that even lightly threaded workloads are handled competently. The single-thread score of 696 in 3DMark and 2562 in PassMark indicate that the CPU's per-core performance is adequate for this third-person shooter.

Comparisons with nearest rivals show the Ryzen 5 3600 is essentially tied with the Intel Core i5-11400, which scores 18150 versus the AMD chip's 18129 average benchmark score, a delta of -0.1%. The AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS is 0.2% behind, while the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 is 0.2% ahead. These tiny differences mean the CPU choice is unlikely to be the deciding factor in Minimum's frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1278 out of 1733 tested combinations. This places it in the lower third of all tested combos, which is notable given that the CPU sits in the 76th percentile and the GPU in the 63rd percentile of their respective categories.

The rank reflects the GPU's age and performance tier. The RTX 2060 SUPER is end-of-life and its average benchmark score of 19774 puts it only 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (19706) and 0.5% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (19680). These rivals are close enough that game-specific optimization could swing results, but the overall rank suggests the combo is mid-pack at best.

The discrepancy between individual component percentiles and the combo's rank indicates that the GPU drags down the overall performance. In a game like Minimum, where the GPU is the clear bottleneck at higher resolutions, this ranking is expected. At 1080p Low, the system can reach 167.9 FPS, which is competitive, but the 4K Ultra result of 28.5 FPS pulls the overall assessment down.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all four settings presets and three resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the system produces 35.6 FPS on High, 60.4 FPS on Low, 46.5 FPS on Medium, and 28.5 FPS on Ultra. The spread between Low and Ultra is 31.9 FPS, with each preset step costing roughly 8-14 FPS. Only Low achieves a frame rate above 60 FPS at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, High produces 72.3 FPS, Low produces 110.1 FPS, Medium produces 85.4 FPS, and Ultra produces 53.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 56.2 FPS, indicating that the GPU has more headroom to work with at this resolution. High and Medium both exceed 70 FPS, making 1440p a viable resolution for this combo.

At 1920x1080, the system shows its best performance: High produces 108.2 FPS, Low produces 167.9 FPS, Medium produces 127.6 FPS, and Ultra produces 80.5 FPS. All presets exceed 80 FPS, and Low approaches 170 FPS, making 1080p the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate monitors.

The progression from 1080p to 4K at each settings level is consistent: Low drops from 167.9 to 60.4, Medium from 127.6 to 46.5, High from 108.2 to 35.6, and Ultra from 80.5 to 28.5. The percentage losses are steepest at High (67%) and shallowest at Low (64%), but all presets show that the GPU is the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the TU106 chip using the Turing architecture at a 12 nm process node. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1470 MHz and boosts to 1650 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

The GPU's compute capabilities are modest by modern standards: 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines. Its FP32 performance is 7.181 TFLOPS, and its PassMark G3D score of 16462 places it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (0.3% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (0.5% ahead), and the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (0.8% behind).

In Minimum, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM appears sufficient at all tested settings, since none of the measured frame rates suggest memory capacity issues — performance drops are consistent with compute and bandwidth limits rather than VRAM swapping. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely the primary constraint at 4K, where the pixel fill rate of 105.6 GPixel/s cannot keep up with the 8.3 million pixels of a 3840x2160 display at high quality.

The RTX 2060 SUPER supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, meaning it can handle modern rendering APIs. However, its Turing architecture lacks the newer efficiency improvements found in subsequent generations, which explains its end-of-life status and the 63rd percentile ranking.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution.

At 1920x1080, Ultra settings provide 80.5 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold and offers the best visual quality without sacrificing playability. If a higher refresh rate is preferred, Medium at 127.6 FPS or Low at 167.9 FPS are excellent alternatives that still look acceptable in a third-person shooter.

At 2560x1440, High settings at 72.3 FPS is the recommended balance. Medium at 85.4 FPS is smoother but the visual difference may be noticeable. Ultra at 53.9 FPS dips below 60 FPS, making it less desirable unless the player prioritizes image quality over smoothness.

At 3840x2160, only Low settings at 60.4 FPS provide a playable frame rate. Medium at 46.5 FPS and High at 35.6 FPS are below 60 FPS, and Ultra at 28.5 FPS is not recommended for active gameplay. Players with 4K displays should either drop to Low or consider running the game at a lower resolution.

For the best overall experience, 1920x1080 at Ultra delivers the highest quality with playable performance, while 2560x1440 at High offers a good middle ground for players with larger monitors.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Minimum at 4K?*

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which produces 60.4 FPS. Medium yields 46.5 FPS, High yields 35.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 28.5 FPS, all below the 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh rates?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 167.9 FPS and Medium delivers 127.6 FPS, both suitable for 120Hz or 144Hz monitors. At 2560x1440, Low reaches 110.1 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its closest rivals?

A: It is 0.3% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, 0.5% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, and 0.8% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro K5200, based on average benchmark scores.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck in this game?

A: No. The frame rate drops consistently as resolution increases, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 76th percentile, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15045.

Q: What settings should I use at 1440p?

A: High settings at 72.3 FPS is the best balance. Medium at 85.4 FPS is smoother, while Ultra at 53.9 FPS falls below 60 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 108.2 FPS to 35.6 FPS, a 67% reduction. At Low settings, it drops from 167.9 FPS to 60.4 FPS, a 64% reduction.