Minimum

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500's average benchmark score of 20875 places it nearly identically to its nearest competitors. It trails the Intel Core i5-12500 by 0.1% and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE by 0.1%, while it leads the AMD EPYC 7J13 by 0.1% and the Intel Core i5-12600T by 0.2%. This places the CPU in the 79th percentile among all processors.

Q: What is the GPU's performance standing relative to its direct rivals?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, with an average benchmark score of 28238, sits in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. It outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT by 0.9% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti by 1.0%. Conversely, it is 0.6% slower than the AMD FirePro S7150 and 1.1% slower than the AMD Radeon R9 M295X.

Q: What are the key architectural specifications of the CPU and GPU in this combo?

A: The CPU is a 6-core, 12-thread AMD Ryzen 5 5500 based on Zen 3 (Cezanne) architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The GPU is an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 built on the Ampere architecture (GA104 chip), featuring 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines.

Q: What memory configurations do these components support?

A: The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, while the GPU comes equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s.

*Q: At which resolution and settings does this combo achieve the highest and lowest frame rates in Minimum?*

A: The highest average frame rate is achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings, reaching 229.9 FPS. The lowest average frame rate is observed at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, where the combo produces 40.4 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested system configurations for this game?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 794th out of 1733 tested combinations in Minimum, placing it in the upper-middle tier of system performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 serves as the primary rendering engine in this configuration, and its memory subsystem and clock speeds are critical to understanding the game's performance profile. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1725 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). This is paired with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. For a third-person shooter released in 2014, this bandwidth is more than sufficient to feed the 5888 shading units, though the game's engine appears to scale predictably with GPU load.

The data shows that the GPU's performance ceiling is most evident at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, the frame rate drops sharply as settings increase, moving from 77.9 FPS at Low to 50 FPS at High, then to 60.5 FPS at Medium, and finally to 40.4 FPS at Ultra. The non-monotonic progression from Low to Medium to High suggests that the game's settings have varying impacts on the GPU's shading and memory loads, but the overall trend is clear: at 4K, the RTX 3070 becomes the limiting factor, especially with Ultra settings that demand more from its 8 GB frame buffer and 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities, measured at 20.31 TFLOPS for FP32 and FP16, are substantial, but the game's age means it does not leverage newer features like ray tracing cores (46 RT cores) or tensor cores (184). Instead, the benchmark results reflect traditional rasterization performance. The passmark DirectX scores—247 for DX9, 182 for DX11, and 85 for DX12—indicate that the game likely runs on an older DirectX path, which may not fully utilize the card's modern architecture. This explains why the RTX 3070's performance, while strong, is not as dominant as its raw specs might suggest in this specific title. The GPU's 72nd percentile standing and its close rivalry with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (0.9% faster) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (1.0% faster) confirm that Minimum does not heavily tax the card until resolution and settings are pushed to their extremes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 provides the computational foundation for this system, and its 6 cores and 12 threads are well-suited for a game from 2014. With a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, the CPU delivers strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2319 and 3DMark single-thread score of 836. The Zen 3 architecture, built on TSMC's 7 nm process, ensures efficient instruction handling, which is crucial for a game that likely relies heavily on a few primary threads for game logic and physics.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16429 and a 3DMark max-threads score of 5411. This suggests that the Ryzen 5 5500 can handle background tasks and any secondary threads the game might spawn, but the benchmark data indicates that the CPU is rarely the bottleneck in this combo. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 229.9 FPS, which is close to the CPU's practical limit for frame generation. In comparison, the GPU's performance at the same resolution and settings is not fully taxed, as evidenced by the significant frame rate increase from High (149.3 FPS) to Low (229.9 FPS), implying that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well beyond the point where the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s via dual-channel DDR4 is adequate for the game's data streaming needs, and its 16 MB of L3 cache helps reduce latency for frequently accessed data. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5386 and 8-thread score of 4593 show that scaling is not perfectly linear, but the processor's 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that it is a solid mid-range performer. In Minimum, the CPU's role is to maintain a high floor for frame rates, and the data shows that at 1080p, the CPU can push the system to over 200 FPS, making it a capable partner for the RTX 3070 without introducing noticeable bottlenecks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 reveals a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results: 229.9 FPS on Low, 176.8 FPS on Medium, 149.3 FPS on High, and 109.5 FPS on Ultra. These figures demonstrate that the system is well-balanced at 1080p, with even the most demanding settings yielding over 100 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play in a third-person shooter.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a more pronounced impact from settings. Low settings produce 149 FPS, Medium drops to 113.7 FPS, High yields 95.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 72.3 FPS. The 1440p results indicate that the GPU is beginning to work harder, as the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens compared to 1080p. The system still maintains playable frame rates across all settings, but Ultra settings dip below the 75 FPS threshold, which may be noticeable on high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly, and the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. Low settings yield 77.9 FPS, Medium produces 60.5 FPS, High falls to 50 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 40.4 FPS. These numbers show that while the combo can handle 4K at lower settings, it struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at higher presets. The data indicates that the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K textures at Low and Medium, but Ultra settings likely exceed the card's comfortable operating range, resulting in a 48.2% drop from Low to Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling analysis reveals how the system's performance degrades as pixel count increases, and it provides insight into the balance between CPU and GPU workloads. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the frame rate drops by 35.2% at Low settings (229.9 to 149 FPS), 35.7% at Medium (176.8 to 113.7 FPS), 36.2% at High (149.3 to 95.2 FPS), and 34% at Ultra (109.5 to 72.3 FPS). This consistent reduction of roughly 35% across all settings suggests that the system is scaling predictably with pixel count, indicating a balanced workload where neither the CPU nor GPU is drastically overburdened at 1440p.

The transition from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 shows a more severe drop, highlighting the GPU's limitations at 4K. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 149 to 77.9 FPS, a 47.7% reduction. Medium settings drop from 113.7 to 60.5 FPS, a 46.8% decrease. High settings fall from 95.2 to 50 FPS, a 47.5% reduction, and Ultra settings decline from 72.3 to 40.4 FPS, a 44.1% drop. The larger percentage decreases at 4K indicate that the GPU is now the primary limiting component, as the increased resolution demands significantly more memory bandwidth and shading power.

The data suggests that the CPU's role diminishes as resolution increases. At 1080p, the system achieves 229.9 FPS on Low, which is close to the CPU's maximum frame generation capability, given its single-thread performance. However, at 4K, even the best case of 77.9 FPS on Low is well below the CPU's ceiling, meaning the RTX 3070 is fully saturated. The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens from 120.4 FPS at 1080p to 37.5 FPS at 4K, further confirming that the GPU's workload scales more steeply with resolution than the CPU's. This analysis indicates that users targeting 4K should stick to Low or Medium settings, while 1080p and 1440p offer more headroom for higher quality presets.