Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter from 2014. Benchmark results show this combination is capable of maxing out common high-refresh-rate displays at 1440p and even pushing past 200 FPS at 4K with the right settings. The data indicates a system where the CPU is the primary limiting factor at lower resolutions, while the GPU takes over the workload as resolution scales up.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets, with the Low setting providing the highest frame rates at every resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 359.5 FPS, which is 44.6 FPS higher than the High preset’s 263.9 FPS and 158.4 FPS higher than Ultra’s 201.1 FPS. This pattern persists at 2560x1440, where Low reaches 262.1 FPS, and at 3840x2160, where Low still manages an impressive 144.2 FPS.

For competitive play, the Low preset is the clear choice, as its frame rates at 1080p and 1440p exceed the refresh rates of nearly all gaming monitors. The Medium preset offers a middle ground, delivering 314.8 FPS at 1080p, 200.9 FPS at 1440p, and 105.6 FPS at 4K. Given that this is a fast-paced shooter, the frame rate advantage of Low over Medium is substantial enough to warrant its use despite the visual trade-offs.

The High preset is viable for those prioritizing visual fidelity, providing 263.9 FPS at 1080p and 166.6 FPS at 1440p—both still above 144 Hz thresholds. However, the Ultra preset shows a significant performance cost, dropping to 201.1 FPS at 1080p and 71.6 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that High is the optimal preset for a balance of visuals and performance, while Ultra should be reserved for scenarios where maximum graphical quality is paramount, as the 4K result falls below 72 FPS.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090’s specifications are formidable, featuring 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. Its boost clock is rated at 2407 MHz, with a base clock of 2017 MHz. The GPU’s 21760 shading units and 176 ROPs contribute to its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance. These specifications translate into raw compute power that is rarely stressed by a 2014 title like Minimum.

Evidence of the GPU’s headroom is visible in the 4K performance scaling. At 3840x2160, the RTX 5090 still delivers 144.2 FPS on Low settings, showing that even at the highest resolution tested, the GPU is not fully saturated. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 38.6 FPS (144.2 vs 105.6), while the gap between Medium and High is 12.9 FPS (105.6 vs 92.7). This compression of frame rates at higher settings indicates that the GPU is still capable, but the engine’s rendering load increases proportionally with settings.

The GPU’s memory bandwidth and capacity are more than sufficient for this game. With 32 GB of VRAM, there is no risk of memory capacity limiting performance. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures texture streaming and geometry processing are not bottlenecks. However, the data shows that at 1080p, the RTX 5090 is effectively idling, with frame rates primarily constrained by the CPU rather than GPU compute.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Ryzen 5 5600X and RTX 5090 ranks 26th out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum. This places the system in the top 1.5% of all tested configurations, indicating that while the CPU is older, the GPU’s dominance compensates for any potential CPU limitations. The percentile ranking for the RTX 5090 is 94, meaning it outperforms 94% of all GPUs in the database, while the Ryzen 5 5600X sits at the 78th percentile among CPUs.

The ranking suggests that the RTX 5090 is the primary driver of this combo’s high position. A 26th-place finish out of 1733 is noteworthy, especially considering the CPU’s age. This implies that in Minimum, the GPU’s capabilities are leveraged effectively even with a mid-range CPU from 2020. The combo’s rank indicates that it competes with systems featuring newer CPUs, but the GPU’s raw performance bridges the gap.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 201.1 for Ultra, 263.9 for High, 314.8 for Medium, and 359.5 for Low. The spread between Ultra and Low is 158.4 FPS, showing that settings have a profound impact on performance at this resolution. The jump from Ultra to High is 62.8 FPS, while from High to Medium is 50.9 FPS, and from Medium to Low is 44.7 FPS. These diminishing returns suggest that the High preset offers the most efficient performance gain per visual quality loss.

At 2560x1440, the results are 131 FPS for Ultra, 166.6 FPS for High, 200.9 FPS for Medium, and 262.1 FPS for Low. The relative performance scaling mirrors 1080p, with Low being exactly double the frame rate of Ultra (262.1 vs 131). The 1440p results show that the system can comfortably drive high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors even on Ultra settings, as 131 FPS exceeds 120 Hz thresholds.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Ultra averages 71.6 FPS, High averages 92.7 FPS, Medium averages 105.6 FPS, and Low averages 144.2 FPS. Only the Low preset achieves frame rates above 144 Hz at 4K, while Ultra falls below the 75 Hz threshold. This indicates that 4K gaming with this combo requires careful settings management, with High being the highest preset that maintains a smooth experience above 90 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but varies by preset. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 359.5 FPS at 1080p to 144.2 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 215.3 FPS (approximately 40% of the 1080p value). At Ultra settings, the drop is from 201.1 FPS to 71.6 FPS, a reduction of 129.5 FPS (approximately 36% of the 1080p value).

This scaling pattern reveals the bottleneck characteristics. At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5600X’s 6 cores and 12 threads are likely the limiting factor, as the GPU is not fully utilized. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.60 GHz and 32 MB of L3 cache provide solid single-thread performance, but the game’s engine appears to be CPU-bound at lower resolutions. As resolution increases, the GPU becomes more involved, and the frame rate drop is less severe in percentage terms because the CPU bottleneck is alleviated.

The fact that the Low preset at 4K (144.2 FPS) is higher than the Ultra preset at 1080p (201.1 FPS) is telling. It shows that the GPU can handle the increased pixel count of 4K more efficiently than the CPU can handle the increased draw calls at higher settings. This suggests that for this game, the CPU is the primary constraint, and the RTX 5090 has significant headroom even at 4K.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer, on a 7 nm process. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The CPU supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. In CPU benchmarks, it scores 2622 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 18578 in multi-core, with a PassMark single-thread score of 3364.

In Minimum, the CPU’s single-thread performance is crucial. The game from 2014 likely relies on fewer threads, making the 5600X’s strong single-core score (917 in 3DMark single-thread) more relevant than its multi-thread capabilities. The data supports this, as frame rates at 1080p are exceptionally high but do not scale linearly with GPU power. The 5600X’s 32 MB L3 cache helps with game data locality, but the 6-core configuration is sufficient for this title.

The CPU’s percentile ranking of 78 places it above average, but it is clearly the weaker component in this combo. The nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT with a deltaPct of -0.3, the Intel Core i7-10700 at -0.3, and the Intel Core i5-12490F at -0.5. These rivals have similar average benchmark scores, indicating that the 5600X is not uniquely positioned. However, in Minimum, the CPU’s performance is adequate to push frame rates beyond 200 FPS at 1080p, which reflects the game’s optimization for older hardware.