Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT combination delivers a compelling performance profile in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released in 2014. The measured data reveals a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings, with the balance between the six-core CPU and the RDNA 2 GPU shifting as the rendering load intensifies.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 206.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 71.5 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of approximately 65%. The gap narrows proportionally at Ultra settings, where the average drops from 101.1 FPS at 1080p to 36.5 FPS at 4K, a 64% decline. This consistent scaling pattern suggests the RX 6700 XT is the limiting component in 4K scenarios, regardless of the graphics preset.

The transition from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 87.7 at 2560x1440 to 46.2 at 3840x2160, a 47% reduction. This is a larger relative drop than the transition from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings, where the average declines from 132.6 to 87.7, a 34% decrease. The data implies that the RX 6700 XT's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1440p but become strained when pushing 4K pixel counts, particularly with the higher fidelity settings enabled.

At 1080p, the scaling between settings is more moderate, with only a 51% difference between Low and Ultra (206.7 vs 101.1 FPS). This suggests that at this resolution, the CPU’s capability to feed the GPU is more relevant, though the Ryzen 5 5600's 6 cores and 12 threads appear to keep pace adequately. The 4K Ultra result of 36.5 FPS is the only sub-40 FPS figure in the dataset, highlighting that this combo is not intended for maximum fidelity at 4K, while 1080p and 1440p remain viable.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 940 out of 1733 tested combinations for Minimum. This places it in the 54th percentile of tested combos, a middle-of-the-pack standing that reflects a balanced but not top-tier configuration. The rank suggests that while the combo delivers solid playable frame rates at most settings, there are numerous other pairings that achieve higher average performance in this title.

The ranking is likely influenced by the game’s age and its relative sensitivity to single-thread performance. The Ryzen 5 5600’s single-thread score of 882 in 3dmark and 2584 in Cinebench R23 are respectable, but the combo’s rank indicates that other CPUs with higher single-core clocks may edge it out in Minimum’s engine. The GPU’s percentile of 77 versus all GPUs is higher than the combo’s overall rank, suggesting that the CPU may be slightly holding back the system in this particular title, or that other combos simply feature more powerful GPUs.

The position at 940 out of 1733 also implies that approximately 45% of tested combinations perform worse, which is a relevant context for users considering this pairing. It is neither a top performer nor a weak one, but rather a dependable middle-ground configuration that will handle the game smoothly at common resolutions without being a benchmark leader.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, combined with a 32 MB shared L3 cache, provide a solid foundation for gaming workloads. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a single-thread score of 882 in 3dmark and 2584 in Cinebench R23, with a multi-thread score of 18309 in Cinebench R23.

In Minimum, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but its single-thread performance is likely a factor at 1080p. The data shows that at 1920x1080 Low, the average FPS is 206.7, which is high enough to suggest the CPU is not a significant constraint. However, the difference between 1080p High (132.6 FPS) and 1440p High (87.7 FPS) indicates that the GPU takes over as the primary limiter as resolution increases. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 4,150 million transistors on a 74 mm² die also suggest efficient power draw, though this does not directly translate to higher frame rates.

The 3dmark scores provide context: a 2-thread score of 1737 and a 4-thread score of 3313 indicate that the CPU handles lightly threaded workloads well, which is typical for games of Minimum’s era. The 16-thread score of 5641 and max-thread score of 5659 are nearly identical, showing that the 12 threads are effectively saturated without significant scaling beyond 8 threads (4798). This suggests that Minimum likely uses fewer than 8 threads efficiently, and the Ryzen 5 5600’s per-core performance is adequate for maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 206.7 FPS on Low, 156.7 FPS on Medium, 132.6 FPS on High, and 101.1 FPS on Ultra. These figures indicate that the system is highly capable at 1080p, with even the most demanding preset exceeding 100 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is roughly linear, with each preset step reducing performance by approximately 20-25%.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 132.6 on Low, 100.2 on Medium, 87.7 on High, and 66.1 on Ultra. The 1440p results show a more pronounced drop at Ultra, where the performance falls below 70 FPS, indicating that the GPU is beginning to struggle with the higher pixel count. The Low preset at 1440p matches the High preset at 1080p (132.6 FPS), demonstrating that resolution scaling has a similar impact to fidelity scaling.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops to 71.5 on Low, 56.3 on Medium, 46.2 on High, and 36.5 on Ultra. These figures are all significantly lower than their 1440p counterparts, with the Ultra preset falling below 40 FPS. The 4K results clearly show that the RX 6700 XT is the limiting factor, as even the Low preset cannot maintain 75 FPS at this resolution. The data also reveals a consistent pattern: at every resolution, the gap between Low and Ultra is substantial, ranging from 105.6 FPS at 1080p to 35.0 FPS at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 22 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm TSMC process. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2321 MHz and a boost clock of 2581 MHz, with a game clock of 2424 MHz. Its 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs contribute to a peak FP32 performance of 13.21 TFLOPS.

In Minimum, the GPU’s role is dominant at 1440p and 4K, as evidenced by the substantial frame rate drops when resolution increases. The 4K Ultra result of 36.5 FPS is particularly telling, as it represents a 64% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score of 101.1 FPS. This aligns with the GPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs, indicating it is a capable mid-to-high-end card but not a 4K powerhouse.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is unlikely to be a limiting factor in Minimum, given the game’s 2014 release date and modest texture requirements. However, the GPU’s 384.0 GB/s bandwidth and 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate are more relevant, as they directly affect fill-rate-bound scenarios at high resolutions. The benchmark results, including a Passmark G3D score of 19786 and a 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2435, suggest the GPU is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K being a stretch at higher settings. The data confirms that the RX 6700 XT provides the bulk of the performance in this combo, with the CPU’s role diminishing as resolution increases.