Minimum

The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is an extreme example of a high-end GPU being paired with a mid-range CPU. In the 2014 third-person shooter Minimum, this combination produces a wide spread of performance that clearly illustrates where the bottleneck shifts across resolutions and settings. The data indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU becomes the primary limiter, while at 4K, the GPU is allowed to stretch its legs, though the older CPU still caps the ultimate headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is not linear and reveals a significant shift in system balance. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 327 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 277 FPS, a reduction of 50 FPS or roughly 15%. The jump to 4K Low yields 149 FPS, which is a massive 54% drop from the 1440p figure. This steep decline at 4K is typical of a scenario where the GPU is finally becoming the limiting factor, as the pixel count quadruples from 1440p to 4K, demanding far more from the RTX 5090 D's rendering pipeline.

However, the scaling pattern changes when looking at higher settings. With High settings, the 1080p average is 276 FPS, while 1440p is 178 FPS (a 36% drop), and 4K is 96 FPS (a 46% drop from 1440p). The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is larger for High settings than for Low, which suggests that at 1080p High, the system is still heavily CPU-bound, and the additional graphical load at 1440p is partially absorbed by the idle GPU headroom. The 4K High result of 96 FPS indicates a more balanced load, but the CPU still prevents the GPU from hitting its full potential.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p, it averages 210 FPS, which is actually lower than the 1440p High result. This suggests that even at 1080p Ultra, the game's effects are demanding enough to engage the GPU more, but the CPU is still holding back higher frame rates. At 1440p Ultra, the average is 136 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it plummets to 73 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration where the system dips below the 100 FPS mark, indicating that this is the point where the combined load of the CPU's game logic and the GPU's extreme pixel work creates a hard ceiling. The data shows that the RTX 5090 D is massively overprovisioned for this game at 1080p, as the Ryzen 5 5500's 6 cores and 12 threads become the sole arbiter of performance there.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear picture of which preset provides the best experience. For players targeting a high-refresh-rate 1080p monitor, the Low preset at 327 FPS and the Medium preset at 296 FPS are both far beyond what any standard 144Hz or 240Hz display can use. The Medium preset, with a minimum FPS of 252 and a maximum of 341, provides a more stable frame time than Low, which lacks min/max data but likely fluctuates more due to the CPU bottleneck. There is no reason to use Low when Medium provides nearly the same average FPS with presumably better visual fidelity.

For 1440p, the High preset at 178 FPS is the sweet spot. It is 58 FPS ahead of Ultra (136 FPS) and only 34 FPS behind Medium (212 FPS). The jump from Medium to High is a modest 34 FPS, but the jump from High to Ultra costs 42 FPS, which is a 24% performance hit. Since the game is a fast-paced third-person shooter, the smoother frame pacing of High over Ultra is more valuable than the incremental visual improvements. The Medium preset at 1440p also shows a wide min/max spread (180-244 FPS), which can feel less consistent than High's average of 178 FPS.

At 4K, the situation is more nuanced. The Low preset at 149 FPS is the only way to get a truly high-refresh experience, but it will look sparse. The Medium preset at 114 FPS, with a minimum of 97 FPS and maximum of 131 FPS, is the best balance for a 60Hz to 120Hz display. It provides a 41 FPS advantage over High (96 FPS) and a 41 FPS advantage over Ultra (73 FPS). The Ultra preset at 73 FPS is playable on a 60Hz screen but will feel sluggish for competitive play. The data suggests that for this specific CPU-GPU combo, the Medium preset at 4K is the highest quality setting that keeps the average comfortably above 100 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, based on the Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne) on a 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with 16 MB of L3 cache. Its synthetic benchmark scores are modest: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16429 and a single-core score of 2319. In the context of Minimum, this CPU's role is to feed the RTX 5090 D with draw calls and game state updates.

The benchmark results show a classic CPU bottleneck at 1080p. The difference between Low (327 FPS) and Medium (296 FPS) at 1080p is only 31 FPS, while the difference between Medium and Ultra (210 FPS) is 86 FPS. This indicates that at Low and Medium, the CPU is maxed out, and the GPU is waiting. The fact that 1080p Low (327 FPS) is only 50 FPS higher than 1440p Low (277 FPS) is another sign of the CPU limit—the GPU has plenty of headroom to render more pixels, but the CPU cannot generate frames any faster.

The Ryzen 5 5500's 3.60 GHz base clock and 4.20 GHz boost clock are moderate by current standards. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i5-12500 (avg score 19668, -0.4% delta) and the Intel Core i7-10700F (avg score 19499, +0.5% delta). These comparisons show that the Ryzen 5 5500 is roughly equivalent to a mid-range 12th-gen Intel chip, which is adequate for modern games but not for feeding a flagship GPU at low resolutions. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 73 indicates it beats 73% of all tested CPUs, but that still leaves it in the bottom quartile for high-end gaming. For Minimum, the CPU's 12 threads are sufficient for the game's logic, but the per-core performance caps the maximum frame rate. The data shows that the CPU becomes less of a bottleneck as resolution rises, but it never fully gets out of the GPU's way, as evidenced by the 4K Low result of 149 FPS, which is still far below what the RTX 5090 D alone could produce.

How This Combo Ranks

In the combined CPU-GPU ranking for Minimum, this specific pairing of the Ryzen 5 5500 and RTX 5090 D holds a rank of 69 out of 2939 tested combinations. This places it in the top 2.3% of all combos, which is impressive at first glance. However, the interpretation of this rank requires context. The rank is likely determined by an aggregate score across all settings and resolutions, which means the strong 4K results (where the GPU matters more) pull the rank up, despite the poor 1080p scaling.

The rank of 69 out of 2939 suggests that this combo outperforms the vast majority of systems. This is primarily due to the RTX 5090 D's raw power, which is in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (avg score 78940, -1.6%) and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (avg score 79605, -2.4%), which are high-end cards but not in the same tier as the 5090 D. The CPU's rank is lower, but the overall combo rank benefits from the GPU's dominance.

When comparing to other combos, a rank of 69 means that there are only 68 other CPU-GPU pairings that achieve higher aggregate scores in Minimum. This is a strong showing, but it is important to note that many of those higher-ranked combos likely feature newer, faster CPUs that can better utilize the RTX 5090 D at lower resolutions. The gap between this combo and the top-ranked ones is likely concentrated in the 1080p and 1440p results, where the Ryzen 5 5500 is the limiting factor. For a player using a 4K display, this combo's rank would be much higher in practice, as the GPU's power is fully utilized. For a 1080p esports player, this combo would be a waste of the GPU's potential, and the rank would be misleadingly high.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 a good match for the RTX 5090 D in this game?

A: At 4K, the match is acceptable, as the GPU becomes the primary driver. However, at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is a clear bottleneck, limiting frame rates far below what the RTX 5090 D is capable of, as shown by the 327 FPS Low cap at 1080p.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combo for maximum visual quality?

A: The data shows that 4K with the Medium preset (114 FPS) offers the highest fidelity while maintaining a playable frame rate above 100 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset (73 FPS) is the only setting that drops below 100 FPS and may feel less responsive.

Q: Why is the FPS difference between 1080p and 1440p so small on Low settings?

A: At 1080p Low (327 FPS) and 1440p Low (277 FPS), the system is CPU-bound. The Ryzen 5 5500's 6 cores and 12 threads cannot generate frames faster than roughly 327 FPS, and the GPU has enough headroom to handle the extra pixels at 1440p without dropping the frame rate dramatically.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 69th out of 2939 combos, placing it in the top 2.3% of all tested pairings. This rank is heavily influenced by the RTX 5090 D's strong 4K performance, which offsets the CPU's weaker 1080p results.

Q: Should I use the Medium or High preset at 1440p?

A: The High preset (178 FPS) is the better choice for competitive play, as it offers a 42 FPS advantage over Ultra (136 FPS) while only lagging 34 FPS behind Medium (212 FPS). The visual difference between Medium and High is worth the small performance trade-off.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of memory useful for this game?

A: The memory size is not a factor in the measured FPS results, as Minimum is a 2014 title that does not require large memory pools. The 32 GB GDDR7 memory is overkill for this game's textures and geometry, but it does not hurt performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average FPS, minimum FPS, and maximum FPS recorded for each resolution and settings combination.

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: Average 327 FPS. No min/max data provided.
• Medium: Average 296 FPS, minimum 252 FPS, maximum 341 FPS.
• High: Average 276 FPS. No min/max data provided.
• Ultra: Average 210 FPS. No min/max data provided.

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: Average 277 FPS. No min/max data provided.
• Medium: Average 212 FPS, minimum 180 FPS, maximum 244 FPS.
• High: Average 178 FPS. No min/max data provided.
• Ultra: Average 136 FPS. No min/max data provided.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: Average 149 FPS. No min/max data provided.
• Medium: Average 114 FPS, minimum 97 FPS, maximum 131 FPS.
• High: Average 96 FPS. No min/max data provided.
• Ultra: Average 73 FPS. No min/max data provided.

The data is measured and shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p Low is the fastest (327 FPS), while 4K Ultra is the slowest (73 FPS). The Medium settings consistently provide the only min/max data, suggesting that this preset exhibits the most variable frame times, particularly at 1080p (252-341 FPS) and 1440p (180-244 FPS). For all other presets, the average FPS is the only metric, which may hide potential stutters. The 4K Medium result (114 FPS) is the highest average at 4K and remains above the 100 FPS threshold, making it the recommended target for that resolution.