Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 is a classic mid-range combination, and the measured frame rates in Minimum show exactly how this pairing behaves under load. At 1080p, this combo is firmly playable, but the data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs. This analysis breaks down the measured results to show where this combo thrives and where it struggles.

Resolution Scaling

The measured average FPS across resolutions tells a clear story about the balance between the CPU and GPU in this pairing. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 91 FPS average, which is a very strong result for a fast-paced third-person shooter. Moving to Medium settings at 1080p drops the average to 70 FPS, and High settings further reduce it to 58 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields a 45 FPS average, which is still playable but indicates the GPU is starting to work harder.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a significant performance hit. At 2560x1440 with Low settings, the average FPS drops from 91 to 59, a reduction of 32 FPS. This is a steep decline, but it is important to note that the 1440p Low result is still above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At Medium settings, the 1440p average is 45 FPS, which is 25 FPS lower than the 1080p Medium result. High settings at 1440p produce a 38 FPS average, and Ultra settings drop to 29 FPS. The pattern here is consistent: each resolution step up costs roughly a third of the performance, which points directly at the GPU as the primary bottleneck.

The 4K results are where this combo simply runs out of headroom. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average FPS falls to 32, which is below the playable threshold for most action games. Medium settings at 4K yield only a 24 FPS average, with a minimum of 21 FPS and a maximum of 28 FPS, showing the frame time variance is also getting worse. High settings at 4K produce a 20 FPS average, and Ultra settings bottom out at 15 FPS. The frame rate drops from 1080p Low to 4K Low are severe: 91 to 32 FPS, a 65% reduction. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RX 580’s 8 GB of memory and 256-bit bus are not enough to feed the pixel count at 4K.

Interestingly, the ratio between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution is consistent. At 1080p, Ultra is roughly half the FPS of Low (45 vs 91). At 1440p, the ratio is similar (29 vs 59). At 4K, the ratio is also about half (15 vs 32). This consistent scaling across resolutions indicates that the RX 580 is the limiting component in every scenario; the CPU is not holding back the frame rate, as the relative performance gap between settings remains stable regardless of resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the workhorse in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured results. It is built on the Polaris 20 chip with a GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. The GPU has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operations pipelines. Its base clock is 1257 MHz with a boost clock of 1340 MHz, and the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 2000 MHz with an effective data rate of 8 Gbps, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 256-bit bus.

These specs are dated but competent for 1080p gaming. The 8 GB VRAM is a key asset; it prevents the frame rate from collapsing due to memory overflow at higher resolutions or texture settings. However, the data shows that at 4K, the GPU’s raw compute power is insufficient. The FP32 performance is 6.175 TFLOPS, which is simply not enough to push 8.3 million pixels per frame at high detail levels. The pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s are the physical limits here, and the measured FPS at 4K reflects those limits.

The GPU’s benchmark scores also place it in context. Its average benchmark score is 12928, putting it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in terms of average score are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile at 12940 (a 0.1% difference), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER at 12986 (a 0.4% difference), and the AMD Radeon 740M at 12870 (a 0.5% difference). This means the RX 580 is performing exactly in line with its expected tier; it is not a surprise outlier. The GPU's DirectX 12 benchmark score of 43 and DirectX 11 score of 60 show that it handles older APIs reasonably well, but the PassMark G3D score of 8813 indicates mid-range performance. The GPU’s 185 W TDP and requirement for a 450 W power supply are consistent with its performance class.

The VRAM capacity is not the issue in this game. The 8 GB allocation is ample for Minimum, which was released in 2014 and is not a VRAM-heavy title. The bottleneck is the compute throughput and memory bandwidth at higher resolutions. The 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p, but at 4K, the GPU must access textures and geometry at a much higher rate, and the data shows it simply cannot keep up. The result is the 20 FPS average at 4K High, which is a direct consequence of the GPU’s hardware limits.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with High settings, yielding a 58 FPS average. This is a sweet spot: it is smooth enough for a third-person shooter, and the High preset offers a significant visual improvement over Medium. The Medium preset at 1080p runs at 70 FPS, which is smoother but visually less detailed. The data suggests that High is the right choice because it stays above the 60 FPS target most of the time, and the game is not a competitive esports title where every frame matters.

If the player prioritizes smoothness over visuals, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 91 FPS, which is excellent for high refresh rate monitors. However, the visual downgrade from Low to High is substantial, and the performance cost of High (58 FPS) is still acceptable. For players with a 1440p monitor, the Low preset at 59 FPS is the only option that remains playable, but it is borderline. The Medium preset at 1440p drops to 45 FPS, which is a noticeable reduction in smoothness, and High drops to 38 FPS. The data indicates that 1440p is not a good fit for this GPU in this game unless you are willing to use the Low preset and accept a lower level of detail.

Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution. At 1080p, Ultra produces a 45 FPS average, which is a 13 FPS loss compared to High for marginal visual gains. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 29 FPS, and at 4K, it is unplayable at 15 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra is disproportionate to the visual improvement, and the data clearly shows that High is the most efficient preset for this hardware. For 4K, the results are simply not viable for gameplay, with the highest average being 32 FPS at Low settings. This combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can deliver a solid experience across Medium and High presets.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Minimum at 60 FPS?*

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the measured average FPS is 91. At Medium settings, the average is 70 FPS, which also exceeds 60. However, at High settings, the average drops to 58 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target.

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting component. The frame rate drops consistently from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance. The CPU’s performance is not the issue, as the relative FPS between settings remains stable across resolutions.

Q: What is the best resolution to play this game with this hardware?

A: The best resolution is 1920x1080. The measured results show that at 1440p, only the Low preset (59 FPS) is playable, while at 4K, all settings are below 32 FPS. The 1080p resolution offers the best balance of frame rate and visual quality.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rivals in raw performance?

A: The RX 580’s average benchmark score is 12928. It is 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940), 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12986), and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon 740M (12870). It is essentially on par with these GPUs.

Q: Should I use the Ultra preset in this game?

A: No. The measured data shows that Ultra preset at 1080p yields only 45 FPS, which is a significant drop from the 58 FPS at High. At higher resolutions, the Ultra preset produces unplayable frame rates (29 FPS at 1440p and 15 FPS at 4K). The High preset is the better choice.

Q: Is 8 GB of VRAM enough for this game?

A: Yes, the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on the RX 580 is sufficient for Minimum. The game is from 2014 and is not VRAM-intensive. The performance issues at higher resolutions are due to the GPU’s compute power, not memory capacity.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and the AMD Radeon RX 580 is ranked 3383 out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum. This ranking places it in the lower half of all tested systems, which is consistent with the measured FPS data. The combo is in the 9th percentile of performance, meaning that 91% of tested combos perform better in this game.

This low rank is not surprising given the hardware. The RX 580 is an end-of-life GPU from 2017, and the Ryzen 5 4600G is a budget APU from 2020. While the combination is capable of 1080p gaming, the benchmark database includes many more powerful modern GPUs and CPUs. The rank reflects the absolute performance level, not the value or efficiency of the pairing. For context, the CPU alone is in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU is in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, but the combination of the two is held back by the GPU’s performance ceiling.

The rank also indicates that this combo will struggle with more demanding modern titles, but for a 2014 game like Minimum, it is sufficient. The data confirms that this is a balanced pairing in the sense that neither component is drastically over- or under-powered for the other. The GPU is the clear bottleneck at higher resolutions, but at 1080p, the combo performs as expected. If the goal is to play this game at 1080p with Medium or High settings, this rank is acceptable. If the goal is higher resolutions or higher frame rates, the data shows that this combo is not the right choice.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Renoir. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU has a total of 8 MB of shared L3 cache, with 512 KB of L2 cache per core. It supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU is built on a 7 nm process at TSMC and is part of the Ryzen 5 4000 series, released on July 20, 2020.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The game is from 2014 and is not known for being heavily threaded, but the 6 cores and 12 threads of the 4600G are more than sufficient. The CPU’s benchmark scores confirm its capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 13593 in multi-core and 1919 in single-core. In Geekbench, it scores 6637 in multi-core and 1460 in single-core. Its average benchmark score is 17507, placing it in the 71st percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (a 0.1% difference) and the Intel Core 7 150U (a 0.6% difference), showing it is a solid mid-range performer.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 91 FPS, which is a high enough frame rate that the CPU could potentially become a bottleneck if the GPU were more powerful. However, in the measured results, the frame rate scales consistently with resolution and settings, which indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU’s single-thread performance of 1919 in Cinebench R23 is adequate for the game’s logic, and its multi-thread performance ensures that any background tasks do not interfere with gameplay.

The CPU’s 12 threads are also useful for modern system overhead, but for this game, the utilization is likely low. The memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s is also not a concern, as the game is not memory-bandwidth sensitive. The 4600G’s integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics are irrelevant in this pairing, as the discrete RX 580 handles all rendering duties. The CPU’s performance is sufficient to avoid holding back the RX 580 in this game, and the measured FPS is a direct reflection of the GPU’s capabilities. The CPU serves its role effectively as a capable partner, ensuring that the RX 580 is the only thing limiting the frame rate.