Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Minimum shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop reveals important information about system balance. At 1080p with Low settings, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers 272.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 177.2 FPS, a reduction of roughly 35%. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 97.1 FPS, which is about 64% below the 1080p figure.

The scaling pattern shifts with higher settings. At Ultra, the 1080p result is 136 FPS, 1440p yields 88.3 FPS, and 4K drops to 46.5 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is approximately 66%, which is steeper than the Low settings drop. This indicates that as the graphical load increases, the RTX 4070 becomes the limiting factor more decisively. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed more heavily at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many displays target.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the system is likely CPU-bound in lighter settings. The jump from Low to High at 1080p only reduces FPS from 272.8 to 177.3, a 35% penalty. However, the Ryzen 5 3600's 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz appear sufficient to push frame rates well above 170 FPS even at High settings. The real bottleneck emerges at 4K, where even Medium settings produce only 74 FPS, and Ultra falls to 46.5 FPS. This is a classic GPU-bound scenario where resolution and settings overwhelm the graphics card's compute throughput.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node, containing 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. Its base clock is 1920 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz. The card has 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. These specifications translate into a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 29.15 TFLOPS, which is the same as its FP16 throughput due to the 1:1 ratio.

The 12 GB GDDR6X memory operates at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed across a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. In Minimum, this memory configuration proves adequate for 4K High settings, where the measured average is 61.1 FPS. However, the Ultra preset at 4K drops to 46.5 FPS, indicating that the GPU's shading capacity—not memory bandwidth—is the primary constraint. The benchmark scores for the RTX 4070 show a Passmark G3D score of 26927 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 168006, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 37283, which sits very close to rivals like the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507, deltaPct -0.6%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135, deltaPct -2.2%). The close margins to these rivals in synthetic tests suggest the RTX 4070's real-world gaming performance in Minimum aligns with its theoretical positioning.

The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support, with a Passmark DirectX 12 score of 103, is directly relevant to Minimum's rendering. The game's release in 2014 predates modern API overhead, which likely explains why the card achieves such high frame rates at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the RTX 4070 produces 272.8 FPS, which is nearly six times the 4K Ultra result. This wide spread demonstrates that the card's raw rasterization power is substantial, but the 4K Ultra workload exceeds what the 5888 shading units can handle while maintaining high frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a combo rank of 501 out of 1733 tested combinations in Minimum. This places the pairing in the top 29% of all tested combos, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the overall performance across all resolutions and settings, weighted by the measured data.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 76th among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 18129, places it close to several notable competitors. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores 18150 (deltaPct -0.1%), meaning the Ryzen 5 3600 is essentially tied with that chip. The AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 18101 (deltaPct 0.2%), again a near-identical result. The AMD Ryzen 5 1600 scores 18158 (deltaPct -0.2%), and the AMD EPYC 9274F scores 18189 (deltaPct -0.3%). All four rivals are within 0.3% of the Ryzen 5 3600's average score, indicating that this CPU's compute performance is highly competitive with a range of other options.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4070's 81st percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 37283 places it similarly close to its nearest rivals. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37507 (deltaPct -0.6%), while the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A scores 38008 (deltaPct -1.9%). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile scores 38135 (deltaPct -2.2%), and the AMD Radeon RX 5300M scores 36371 (deltaPct 2.5%). The RTX 4070 is essentially at parity with these cards in synthetic benchmarks, yet in Minimum, the measured FPS shows the desktop card's advantage in sustained gaming workloads.

The combo rank of 501 suggests that while neither component is the absolute top performer, their pairing creates a balanced system for Minimum. The CPU's 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz prevents it from becoming a significant bottleneck at lower resolutions, while the GPU's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute drives high frame rates until 4K Ultra becomes too demanding.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system delivers its highest frame rates. With Low settings, the average FPS is 272.8. Medium settings reduce this to 215.4, a 21% drop. High settings produce 177.3 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 136 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a total reduction of 50%, with each settings tier costing roughly 15-20% performance. The game appears well-optimized for this resolution, as even Ultra maintains a frame rate above 130 FPS.

At 1440p, the frame rates remain playable but begin to show the GPU's workload increase. Low settings produce 177.2 FPS, which is nearly identical to the 1080p High result of 177.3 FPS. Medium settings at 1440p yield 134.9 FPS, High settings produce 115.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 88.3 FPS. The step from Low to Medium at 1440p costs 24% performance, while the step from High to Ultra costs 24% as well. This consistency suggests the GPU's shading units scale linearly with the quality presets.

At 4K, the frame rates become the most constrained. Low settings produce 97.1 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS. Medium settings yield 74 FPS, and High settings produce 61.1 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 46.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. The data shows a clear pattern: at 4K, the RTX 4070 can handle Low through High settings at playable frame rates, but Ultra requires a reduction in resolution or settings to achieve smooth gameplay. The 4K Low result of 97.1 FPS is notable because it is only 45% lower than the 1080p Low result, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s is sufficient for lower-quality 4K rendering.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Minimum with this combo for a 60 FPS target?

A: At 4K, High settings produce 61.1 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS mark. For a comfortable margin, 1440p Ultra delivers 88.3 FPS, while 1080p Ultra reaches 136 FPS.

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

A: The 1080p High result is 177.3 FPS, while 4K High is 61.1 FPS. This represents a 65.5% reduction in average frame rate.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: The 4K Ultra result of 46.5 FPS is the lowest measured, and given the CPU's strong 76th percentile ranking, the GPU's 5888 shading units are the limiting factor at this extreme setting.

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

A: The Ryzen 5 3600's average score of 18129 is within 0.3% of the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150), AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101), AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (18158), and AMD EPYC 9274F (18189).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings produce 177.2 FPS, while Ultra produces 88.3 FPS. This is a 50.2% reduction in performance.

Q: Does the GPU's benchmark performance align with its gaming results?

A: The RTX 4070's average benchmark score of 37283 places it within 2.5% of its nearest rivals, and its gaming results in Minimum show a similar tier of performance relative to the CPU's capabilities.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 3000 series, built on the Zen 2 architecture with the Matisse codename. It operates on a 7 nm TSMC process with 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die. The base clock is 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, and it has a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is evident from the resolution scaling data. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 272.8 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame throughput for this game. The single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2124, is sufficient to drive high frame rates. The multi-thread score of 15045 in Cinebench R23 indicates that the 12 threads provide ample headroom for the game's background tasks. The Passmark single-thread score of 2562 and the 3DMark single-thread score of 696 confirm that the Zen 2 architecture's IPC is competitive for this 2014 release.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 76th among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 18129, places it slightly below the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150, deltaPct -0.1%) and above the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101, deltaPct 0.2%). The 3DMark scores show scaling from 1361 at 2 threads to 4605 at 16 threads, indicating that the 6-core design saturates efficiently. The Passmark multithread score of 17700 and integer math score of 48607 reflect solid compute capacity that keeps pace with the RTX 4070's output at lower resolutions.

The data indicates that the CPU is not a significant bottleneck at 4K, where GPU load dominates. At 4K Low, the frame rate of 97.1 FPS is 64% lower than 1080p Low, a drop that aligns with the GPU's resolution scaling rather than CPU limitations. The Ryzen 5 3600's boost clock of 4.20 GHz and 32 MB of L3 cache provide enough single-thread performance to avoid limiting the RTX 4070 until the GPU becomes fully saturated at 4K Ultra. The system's combo rank of 501 out of 1733 reflects this balanced pairing, where neither component dramatically underperforms the other in Minimum's workload.