Minimum

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Minimum reveals a steep, predictable scaling curve as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 279.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 180.1 FPS — a 35.5% reduction. The jump to 4K Low yields 95.3 FPS, which is another 47.1% cut from the 1440p figure. This pattern strongly indicates that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, with the CPU's headroom at 1080p being exposed as the resolution increases.

What is more telling is the relationship between settings and resolution. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 137.0. At 1440p Ultra, it falls to 84.6. At 4K Ultra, it bottoms out at 47.4 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K essentially halves the 1080p Ultra number. This suggests that the combination of higher pixel count and more demanding shading work overwhelms the RX 9070 XT's capabilities, even though this is a 2014 title running on modern hardware.

The scaling from Medium to High at each resolution is also instructive. At 4K, Medium produces 75.1 FPS while High produces 63.4 FPS — a difference of 15.7%. At 1440p, the same settings gap yields 135.2 vs 115.1 FPS, an 17.5% difference. At 1080p, Medium hits 213.6 while High manages 175.4, a 21.8% gap. The shrinking percentage gap as resolution rises suggests that pixel throughput, not shader complexity, is the limiting factor at 4K. The GPU's raw fillrate is being consumed by the sheer number of pixels.

The data implies that for this particular title, 1080p is where the CPU still has influence, while 4K is almost entirely GPU-bound. The 279.4 FPS at 1080p Low versus 95.3 FPS at 4K Low — a 66% drop — demonstrates how quickly the rendering load outpaces the compute capability. A 6-core, 12-thread CPU with a 5.00 GHz boost clock is clearly not the constraint at 4K; the frame rate is dictated by the graphics pipeline.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The RX 9070 XT brings a substantial memory subsystem to the table: 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. For a 2014 third-person shooter, this is abundant. The game's texture and geometry demands from that era are unlikely to stress even a fraction of that memory capacity or bandwidth. The data supports this — at 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 47.4 FPS, which is playable, and the GPU's 16 GB frame buffer is not a limiting factor in any of the measured rows.

Clock speeds tell a more nuanced story. The GPU has a base clock of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2970 MHz. The spread between base and boost is 1310 MHz — a significant dynamic range. In a lighter title like Minimum, the GPU is likely boosting to near its maximum more often than in heavier workloads, because thermal and power headroom are not exhausted. This could explain why 1080p Low reaches 279.4 FPS; the GPU is running at high clocks with minimal load per frame.

The GPU's compute specifications — 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs — are more than adequate for this game. The pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s are far beyond what a 2014 title requires. The fact that 4K Ultra still only produces 47.4 FPS suggests that either the game has inefficient draw calls or the driver overhead is substantial. The 64 RT cores are irrelevant here, as Minimum predates ray tracing, but they do not hurt performance.

The benchmark scores for the GPU reinforce its position. A Passmark G3D score of 26795 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7260 place it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (0.1% lower average score) and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (0.2% higher). These are professional or mobile parts, which underscores that the RX 9070 XT is a high-tier desktop GPU. Yet in this game, it is not delivering the kind of 4K performance that its compute density would suggest — the bottleneck is elsewhere in the pipeline.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, which is critical for older games that often rely on one or two heavily loaded threads. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3218 and multi-core score of 22799 indicate balanced capability, but the single-thread number is what matters most for Minimum's frame pacing.

The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core provide ample fast memory for game logic. The memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5 is sufficient for this workload. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 279.4 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this title. The fact that 1440p Low only drops to 180.1 FPS — a 35.5% reduction — while 4K Low falls to 95.3 FPS suggests that the CPU is not the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

The 3DMark scores show a processor that scales well with thread count: 1902 for 2 threads, 3621 for 4 threads, 5372 for 8 threads, and 6379 for max threads. The near-linear scaling from 2 to 8 threads indicates that the CPU can handle multi-threaded workloads, but the single-thread score of 974 and the 16-thread score of 6376 (which is barely above the 8-thread score) suggest diminishing returns beyond 8 threads. For a 2014 game, the engine likely uses fewer than 8 threads, so the 6-core/12-thread configuration is more than sufficient.

The CPU's percentile rank of 82 places it above most processors, with its nearest rival being the Intel Core i7-11850H at a 0.1% higher average score. The AMD Ryzen 7 2700X is 0.3% lower, and the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is 0.3% lower. This means the 7500F is competitively positioned, but not exceptional. In Minimum, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations; the data suggests it does this adequately up to 1080p, but at 4K the GPU's rendering time dominates.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 279.4 FPS, Medium drops to 213.6 FPS, High yields 175.4 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 137.0 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 142.4 FPS, or 51% of the Low figure. This is a wide spread, indicating that the game's settings have a substantial impact on GPU load even at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the numbers scale down proportionally. Low hits 180.1 FPS, Medium manages 135.2 FPS, High reaches 115.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 84.6 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 95.5 FPS, which is 53% of the Low value. Interestingly, the percentage drop from Low to Ultra is similar to 1080p, suggesting that the settings are scaling uniformly with pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more modest. Low produces 95.3 FPS, Medium delivers 75.1 FPS, High gets 63.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to 47.4 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap is 47.9 FPS, which is 50% of the Low figure. This consistency across resolutions — roughly a 50% reduction from Low to Ultra — indicates that the settings' relative cost is resolution-independent, but the absolute cost is not.

Comparing the same settings across resolutions: 1080p Low (279.4) to 1440p Low (180.1) is a 35.5% drop; 1440p Low to 4K Low (95.3) is a 47.1% drop. 1080p Ultra (137.0) to 1440p Ultra (84.6) is a 38.2% drop; 1440p Ultra to 4K Ultra (47.4) is a 44.0% drop. The larger percentage drops at 4K for both Low and Ultra confirm that the GPU is the limiting factor there.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Ryzen 5 7500F and RX 9070 XT ranks 480th out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the top 27.7% of all combinations tested. Given the hardware's modern specifications, this ranking may seem lower than expected, but the game's 2014 release date means that older, less capable hardware can also perform well.

The percentile rankings of the individual components provide context. The CPU is in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU is also in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. Yet their combined rank in this game is only in the 72nd percentile. This discrepancy suggests that Minimum is not particularly demanding on either component, so the combo's ranking is more about how well the game utilizes the hardware rather than raw capability.

The GPU's nearest rivals — the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (0.1% lower), NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (0.2% higher), and AMD Radeon Pro 575X (0.5% lower) — are all professional or mobile parts with much lower power envelopes. In a game like Minimum, these parts might perform similarly because the workload is not GPU-intensive. Similarly, the CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11850H and AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, which are older architectures but still competitive in this title.

The rank of 480 suggests that there are 479 combos that perform better, likely those with higher-end CPUs or GPUs, or perhaps combos where the game's engine favors a different balance. For a 2014 shooter, the data implies that this modern combo is overkill for most settings, but the 4K Ultra result of 47.4 FPS shows it is not always sufficient for maximum fidelity at the highest resolution.

FAQ

Q: Does the combo achieve playable frame rates at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, but just barely. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 47.4 FPS, which is above the 30 FPS console-style standard but below the 60 FPS target that many PC gamers prefer.

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Minimum?*

A: Based on the data, 1440p offers the best balance. At 1440p High, the combo delivers 115.1 FPS, which is smooth, while 4K High drops to 63.4 FPS. 1440p Low reaches 180.1 FPS, providing headroom for competitive play.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Ryzen 5 7500F has an average benchmark score of 24993, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-11850H (24974) and 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (25057 is actually 0.3% higher than the 7500F, so the 7500F is slightly behind).

Q: Is the GPU's 16 GB VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The data does not show VRAM usage, but the 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth is far more than a 2014 title requires. The bottleneck at 4K is not memory capacity but rendering throughput.

Q: What settings produce the highest FPS at 1080p?

A: Low settings yield 279.4 FPS at 1920x1080, which is the highest measured value. Medium drops to 213.6 FPS, High to 175.4 FPS, and Ultra to 137.0 FPS.

Q: Why is the combo's rank only 480th out of 1733 if the components are high-end?

A: The game is from 2014, so many older combos can also run it well. The rank reflects how this specific combo performs relative to all others tested, and the 82nd percentile components do not guarantee a top-100 rank in a title that is not demanding.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080, the data shows that High settings at 175.4 FPS provide an excellent experience for most players. Ultra at 137.0 FPS is also smooth, but the 38.4 FPS difference between High and Ultra may not justify the visual gains. Low at 279.4 FPS is only recommended for competitive play where maximum frame rate is paramount.

For 2560x1440, High at 115.1 FPS is the sweet spot. It offers a 30.9 FPS improvement over Ultra (84.6 FPS) while maintaining a high refresh rate experience. Medium at 135.2 FPS is also viable if the player prefers smoother motion over visual fidelity. Low at 180.1 FPS is excessive for most users unless they have a 144Hz or higher monitor.

For 3840x2160, High at 63.4 FPS is the recommended preset. It is above 60 FPS and provides good visual quality. Medium at 75.1 FPS is a solid alternative for those who want more headroom. Ultra at 47.4 FPS is playable but not ideal for fast-paced shooting, and Low at 95.3 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality for a 2014 title.

The overall best experience across all resolutions is 1440p High, delivering 115.1 FPS with a balance of visual fidelity and performance. The data indicates that this preset avoids the CPU bottleneck at 1080p and the GPU strain at 4K, making it the most consistent choice for this combination of hardware.