Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces a fascinating dataset in Minimum, revealing a classic tension between a flagship GPU and a mid-range CPU. The measured frames per second (FPS) across resolutions and settings tell a clear story about where the bottleneck lies, and the numbers are striking enough to warrant a close look.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a predictable but steep drop in average FPS as resolution increases, though the magnitude of that drop varies significantly depending on the graphics preset. At the Low preset, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 sees average FPS fall from 394 to 254, a reduction of roughly 140 FPS. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average drops again to 137 FPS, meaning the 4K result is just over one-third of the 1080p figure. This steep decline at Low settings indicates that the GPU is being taxed more heavily as pixel count rises, but the sheer headroom at 1080p suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at that resolution.

At the High preset, the scaling is less dramatic in absolute terms but still significant: 253 FPS at 1080p, 163 FPS at 1440p, and 88 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is about 35%, while the jump from 1440p to 4K is roughly 46%. This pattern implies that as settings increase, the GPU workload grows, slowly shifting the bottleneck away from the CPU and toward the RTX 4090’s rendering capabilities. The Ultra preset confirms this trend, with averages of 193 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 67 FPS at 4K—the latter being the lowest measured score in the entire set.

The Medium preset, which includes min and max FPS data, offers additional insight into consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 301 FPS with a minimum of 256 and a maximum of 347, a spread of 91 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 194 FPS with a min of 165 and max of 223, narrowing the spread to 58 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 105 FPS with a min of 89 and max of 120, a spread of just 31 FPS. This tightening of the frame time distribution at higher resolutions strongly suggests that the CPU’s role diminishes as the GPU becomes the primary constraint, leading to more stable frame pacing.

What the data implies is that at 1080p, this combo is heavily CPU-bound, particularly at Low and Medium settings where the RTX 4090 is left waiting for the Ryzen 5 7600 to feed it frames. The 394 FPS Low result is impressive but also hints at untapped GPU potential. By 4K, the tables turn, and the GPU’s raw compute power—evidenced by its 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 rating—becomes the deciding factor, with the CPU’s influence fading into the background.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090’s specifications are formidable, and the benchmark results reflect its capacity to handle heavy lifting. With 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, the card offers a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for Minimum’s demands at any resolution. The GPU’s 16384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units provide the raw throughput needed to push pixel rates of 443.5 GPixel/s, and the data shows this translates into playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra, where the average sits at 67 FPS.

The clocks are another factor to consider. The base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz are relatively high, and the GPU’s ability to maintain performance across settings suggests efficient thermal and power management, though the 450 W TDP is substantial. The measured FPS at 4K High (88 FPS) versus 4K Medium (105 FPS) shows a 17 FPS gain from dropping one preset level, which is modest compared to the jump from Medium to Low (137 FPS, a 32 FPS gain). This indicates that the GPU’s performance scaling is not linear with settings, likely due to specific effects that disproportionately impact frame times.

The GPU’s 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are present but largely irrelevant for this game, as Minimum is not a ray-tracing-heavy title based on the data. Instead, the focus is on traditional rasterization, where the RTX 4090 excels. The benchmark scores support this: a Passmark G3D score of 38194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 place it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals—like the Intel Arc Pro A60 with a score of 60326 and a deltaPct of 0—show that even close competitors are far behind in real-world gaming metrics.

At 1080p Low, the GPU’s role is almost trivial, as the 394 FPS average is likely capped by the CPU’s frame generation limit. The data suggests that the RTX 4090 is overkill for this scenario, and users would see no benefit from further GPU upgrades. At 4K Ultra, however, the GPU is fully utilized, and the 67 FPS average demonstrates that even the most powerful consumer card can be brought to its knees by resolution and settings extremes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s bandwidth) provide a solid foundation for gaming, but the data reveals its limitations when paired with an RTX 4090. At 1080p Low, the CPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the 394 FPS average is far below what the GPU could theoretically deliver. The CPU’s single-thread performance—evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 999 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1852—is strong but not enough to feed the GPU at ultra-high frame rates.

The multi-threaded capabilities of the Ryzen 5 7600 are respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 12735 and a Passmark multithread score of 27058. However, Minimum appears to be a title that relies more on single-thread performance, as the gap between 1080p Low (394 FPS) and 1440p Low (254 FPS) suggests the CPU is struggling to maintain frame generation as the GPU’s workload increases. The 12 threads are sufficient for modern games, but the 6 cores may limit performance in scenarios where the game engine can utilize more cores, though the data does not show a clear multi-thread bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 5 nm process node contribute to its efficiency, but its position in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26324, places it far below the GPU in relative performance. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (avg score 26274, deltaPct 0.2) and the Intel Core i9-11900KF (avg score 26212, deltaPct 0.4), are all close in synthetic benchmarks, yet none of them would meaningfully change the 1080p bottleneck. The data implies that the CPU is the limiting component at low resolutions, and users seeking higher FPS at 1080p would need a faster processor, though the gains would be marginal given the already high frame rates.

At 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes, as the 67 FPS Ultra result is clearly GPU-bound. This is a common pattern in high-end GPU pairings, and the Ryzen 5 7600 handles it admirably, providing enough single-thread performance to avoid stuttering or frame drops. The Medium preset’s min FPS values—89 at 4K, 165 at 1440p, and 256 at 1080p—show that the CPU maintains a stable baseline, with no signs of severe frame time spikes.

FAQ

Q: Why does the FPS drop so much from 1080p to 4K at Low settings?

A: The data shows a drop from 394 FPS at 1080p Low to 254 FPS at 1440p Low and 137 FPS at 4K Low. This steep decline indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases, even at Low settings, because the RTX 4090’s workload scales directly with resolution.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 7600 a good match for the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is the bottleneck, limiting FPS to 394 at Low settings. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes over, and the CPU provides sufficient performance, as seen in the 254 FPS and 137 FPS Low results. The match is balanced at higher resolutions but leaves GPU headroom untapped at 1080p.

Q: What do the min and max FPS values tell us about performance stability?

A: The Medium preset includes min and max FPS data. At 1080p, the spread is 91 FPS (256 to 347), at 1440p it narrows to 58 FPS (165 to 223), and at 4K it tightens to 31 FPS (89 to 120). This suggests that frame pacing becomes more consistent as the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

Q: How does the RTX 4090’s memory bandwidth affect results?

A: The GPU has 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth across a 384-bit bus with 24 GB of GDDR6X. This allows it to handle high-resolution textures without performance degradation, as evidenced by the playable 88 FPS at 4K High.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K?

A: The data shows an average of 67 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is technically playable but below the 88 FPS High preset. For smoother gameplay, the High or Medium presets are better choices, offering 88 FPS and 105 FPS respectively.

Q: What does the CPU’s single-thread performance say about its gaming capability?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 scores 999 in 3DMark single-thread and 1852 in Cinebench R23 single-core. These scores are strong, but the 1080p Low result of 394 FPS shows the CPU still limits the GPU, indicating that even high single-thread performance has its ceiling in this pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 126th out of 3712 combos in Minimum. This top 3.4% placement is impressive, but it also reveals a slight mismatch. The GPU alone sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 78th percentile of all CPUs. The combo’s rank is better than the CPU’s percentile but worse than the GPU’s, suggesting that the CPU drags the overall performance down slightly from what the GPU alone could achieve.

The nearest rivals to the CPU in synthetic benchmarks—such as the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (deltaPct 0.2) and the Intel Core i9-11900KF (deltaPct 0.4)—are all within 0.5% of the Ryzen 5 7600’s average benchmark score. This means that swapping the CPU for any of these would likely yield negligible changes in Minimum’s FPS, as the bottleneck at 1080p is not a matter of raw CPU power but rather the limitation of the 6-core, 12-thread configuration. The GPU’s nearest rivals, like the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (deltaPct -2.5) and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (deltaPct 2.9), are far less powerful in real-world gaming, so the RTX 4090’s position is secure.

The rank of 126 out of 3712 indicates that there are 125 combos that perform better, likely featuring higher-end CPUs like the Ryzen 9 or Core i9 series paired with the same GPU. However, the data suggests that the performance gap is not enormous, as the 1080p Low result of 394 FPS is already beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. The combo’s rank reflects the GPU’s dominance, but it also highlights that the CPU is the weaker link in this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p users with a 240 Hz or 360 Hz monitor, the Low preset delivers an average of 394 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play. However, the High preset still offers 253 FPS, which is above 240 Hz and provides better visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 193 FPS is also viable for high-refresh displays, but the jump from High to Ultra may not be worth the 60 FPS loss.

At 1440p, the High preset’s 163 FPS average is excellent for 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors, offering a smooth experience with good visuals. The Medium preset’s 194 FPS is even better for higher refresh rates, but the drop to Low (254 FPS) is unnecessary unless chasing maximum frame rates. The Ultra preset at 124 FPS is still playable but may not justify the visual gains over High. For 4K users, the Medium preset’s 105 FPS is the sweet spot, providing a balance between visuals and smoothness. The High preset at 88 FPS is also acceptable, but the Ultra preset’s 67 FPS is pushing the limits of playability.

The data shows that the Medium preset offers the most consistent frame times, as evidenced by the min and max FPS values across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the 301 FPS average with a 256 FPS minimum ensures no drops below 240 Hz. At 1440p Medium, the 194 FPS average with a 165 FPS minimum is safe for 144 Hz displays. At 4K Medium, the 105 FPS average with an 89 FPS minimum avoids major stutters. For the best overall experience, the Medium preset is recommended, as it delivers high frame rates while maintaining stability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 394 FPS, the Medium preset averages 301 FPS (min 256, max 347), the High preset averages 253 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 193 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the biggest drop occurring between Medium and High (48 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 254 FPS, the Medium preset averages 194 FPS (min 165, max 223), the High preset averages 163 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 124 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent, with each preset losing roughly 35-40% of its performance. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 137 FPS, the Medium preset averages 105 FPS (min 89, max 120), the High preset averages 88 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 67 FPS. The 4K results show that even the Low preset struggles to maintain 144 FPS, indicating that 4K gaming with this combo is best suited for 60-120 Hz displays.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min and max data, providing insights into frame time consistency. The 1080p Medium result has a max of 347 FPS and a min of 256 FPS, showing a wide range of frame rates. The 1440p Medium result narrows to a max of 223 FPS and a min of 165 FPS, while the 4K Medium result tightens further to a max of 120 FPS and a min of 89 FPS. This pattern confirms that higher resolutions lead to more stable performance, as the GPU’s workload becomes more predictable.