Minimum

# Minimum with AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers strong performance in Minimum, a third-person shooter released in 2014. The measured data places this combo at rank 349 out of 3,712 tested combinations, which puts it in the top 10% of all systems tested. The pairing shows a clear pattern: at 1080p the CPU becomes the limiting factor, while at 4K the GPU workload dominates, and the system maintains playable frame rates across all tested settings and resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 349 out of 3,712 tested combinations indicates this system sits comfortably in the upper tier of configurations. This ranking reflects the substantial GPU horsepower of the RTX 4080, which alone ranks in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, paired with a mid-range CPU that ranks in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs. The ranking also benefits from the age of Minimum relative to the hardware; the game's 2014 release means it is not particularly demanding by modern standards, allowing the RTX 4080 to stretch its legs even at higher resolutions.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 19,593 places it nearly level with its nearest rivals. The AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 scores 19,617, a delta of -0.1%, while the Intel Core i5-12500 scores 19,668, a delta of -0.4%. The Intel Core i7-10700F scores 19,499, putting it 0.5% behind, and the Intel Core i5-11600KF scores 19,723, which is 0.7% ahead. This tight cluster means the Ryzen 5 5500's performance is essentially on par with these alternatives in general compute workloads. For Minimum, however, the GPU is the dominant factor in determining frame rates, especially as resolution increases.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 54,247 sits within a narrow band of its nearest rivals. The RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54,209, a delta of 0.1%, which is effectively identical. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54,828, a delta of -1.1%, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55,698, a delta of -2.6%, and the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55,757, a delta of -2.7%. This indicates that the RTX 4080 is a high-end GPU whose performance is closely matched only by the very latest or most expensive alternatives.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved with this combo in Minimum?*

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 327 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is a very high frame rate, indicating the combo is far from being stressed at this resolution and settings level.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K with maximum settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 61 FPS. This is the lowest measured average, but it remains above the 60 FPS threshold typically considered the baseline for smooth gameplay.

*Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in this system for Minimum?*

A: The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU becomes the limiting factor. For example, dropping from Medium to Low settings only increases the average FPS from 273 to 327, a gain of 19.8%. At 4K, the GPU dominates, as evidenced by the larger relative gains when lowering settings.

Q: What is the difference in performance between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 176 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 112 FPS. This is a decrease of 36.4% when moving from Medium to Ultra, which is a substantial trade-off for visual fidelity.

Q: Does the combo maintain consistent frame times at higher settings?

A: The measured data includes min and max FPS values for Medium settings at all three resolutions. At 4K Medium, the range is 80 to 109 FPS around an average of 95. At 1440p Medium, the range is 149 to 202 FPS around an average of 176. At 1080p Medium, the range is 232 to 313 FPS around an average of 273. This suggests reasonably consistent performance, though the spread widens at lower resolutions.

*Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested systems in Minimum?*

A: The combo ranks 349th out of 3,712 tested combinations. This places it in the top 9.4% of all systems, which is a strong result given the mid-range CPU in the pairing.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, built on a 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The CPU has a 16 MB L3 cache, with 64 KB of L1 and 512 KB of L2 cache per core. It supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and connects to the system via PCIe Gen 3.

For Minimum, the CPU's role becomes more evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves 327 FPS on Low settings, which is an extremely high frame rate. However, when moving from Low to Medium at 1080p, the average drops to 273 FPS, and at High it drops further to 229 FPS. This scaling suggests that the GPU is still capable of producing more frames, but the CPU's single-thread performance begins to limit the system as settings increase. The CPU's single-thread benchmark scores — 836 in 3DMark, 233 in Cinebench R15, 973 in Cinebench R20, and 2,319 in Cinebench R23 — are moderate for a desktop processor, and they align with this interpretation.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also relevant, as Minimum may utilize multiple cores. The CPU scores 5,386 in 3DMark with 16 threads and 5,411 with max threads, indicating that scaling beyond 16 threads is minimal. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16,429 and Geekbench multi-core score of 7,976 show that the CPU can handle multi-threaded workloads competently, but it is not a top-tier performer. In the context of Minimum, the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to avoid becoming a severe bottleneck, but the data indicates it does cap performance at 1080p where the GPU's headroom is maximal.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are 327 FPS on Low, 273 FPS on Medium, 229 FPS on High, and 174 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting has a min of 232 FPS and a max of 313 FPS. These numbers show a clear downward trend as settings increase, with a 46.8% drop from Low to Ultra. Even at Ultra, the frame rate is far above the 60 FPS baseline, making any preset at this resolution highly playable.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 230 FPS on Low, 176 FPS on Medium, 148 FPS on High, and 112 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting has a min of 149 FPS and a max of 202 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 51.3% decrease in performance. At this resolution, the system still delivers frame rates well above 100 FPS even on Ultra, which is excellent for a high-refresh-rate monitor.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 124 FPS on Low, 95 FPS on Medium, 79 FPS on High, and 61 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting has a min of 80 FPS and a max of 109 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 50.8%. This is the first resolution where the Ultra preset dips to near the 60 FPS threshold, though it does not go below it. The scaling from High to Ultra at 4K is particularly steep, a 22.8% decrease, which is a significant cost for the highest visual quality.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component at each resolution. At 1080p Low, the system produces 327 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 230 FPS, a 29.7% decrease. Moving to 4K Low, the frame rate drops to 124 FPS, a 46.1% decrease from 1440p. The total drop from 1080p to 4K on Low settings is 62.1%. This large percentage drop indicates that the GPU is increasingly stressed as resolution increases, which is expected since the GPU must render more pixels.

However, the pattern changes when looking at higher settings. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 174 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 112 FPS, a 35.6% decrease. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 61 FPS, a 45.5% decrease from 1440p. The total drop from 1080p to 4K on Ultra is 64.9%. This is a slightly larger total drop than on Low settings, which suggests that the combination of higher resolution and higher settings compounds the GPU workload.

The data also shows the CPU's influence at 1080p. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 153 FPS (327 vs 174), while at 4K the difference is 63 FPS (124 vs 61). The smaller absolute difference at 4K indicates that the GPU is fully saturated at that resolution, and changing settings has a proportionally larger effect on the GPU's workload. In contrast, at 1080p, the CPU's limitations prevent the GPU from fully expressing its capabilities, particularly at lower settings where the GPU could otherwise produce even higher frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the most balanced performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium averages 273 FPS with a min of 232 FPS, ensuring no noticeable frame drops. At 1440p, Medium averages 176 FPS with a min of 149 FPS, which remains comfortably above 144 Hz for high-refresh-rate displays. At 4K, Medium averages 95 FPS with a min of 80 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a smooth experience.

The High preset is a reasonable alternative for those prioritizing visual quality over maximum frame rates. At 1080p, High averages 229 FPS; at 1440p, it averages 148 FPS; and at 4K, it averages 79 FPS. These numbers are still very playable, but the 4K High result is notably lower than Medium. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p or 1440p use, where it delivers 174 FPS and 112 FPS respectively. At 4K, Ultra drops to 61 FPS, which is borderline for the 60 FPS baseline, and the min FPS on Medium at 4K (80 FPS) suggests that Ultra would have a min below 60 FPS, though it was not measured.

The Low preset is not recommended for general use, as it provides the highest frame rates, but the visual compromise is unnecessary given the high performance available on Medium. The data shows that the step from Low to Medium costs 16.5% performance at 1080p (327 to 273 FPS), 23.5% at 1440p (230 to 176 FPS), and 23.4% at 4K (124 to 95 FPS), while the visual improvement is substantial. For most users, Medium at 4K or High at 1440p will provide the best experience, depending on display refresh rate and personal preference for visual quality.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. The GPU features 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. It has a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, with memory running at 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective).

The RTX 4080 is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 716.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This is a substantial amount of VRAM and bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Minimum even at 4K with Ultra settings. The GPU's pixel rate is 280.6 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 761.5 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS. These specifications place it firmly in the high-end segment, ranking in the 86th percentile among all GPUs.

In Minimum, the GPU's role is most apparent at 4K resolution. At 4K Low, the system averages 124 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it averages 61 FPS. This halving of performance indicates that the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates at this resolution. The GPU's high memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory-intensive operations do not become a bottleneck. The RTX 4080's performance is closely matched by its immediate successor, the RTX 4080 SUPER, which scores only 0.1% higher on average, and it outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.1% in average benchmark score. This confirms that the GPU is a top-tier component capable of handling Minimum with ease at all but the most demanding settings.