Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER pairing presents a classic bottleneck scenario in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The data shows a CPU that is far more capable than the GPU it is paired with, resulting in performance that is heavily dictated by graphics settings and resolution. This combination ranks 1514th out of 1733 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower percentile of all possible pairings, primarily due to the GPU's limitations at higher graphical presets.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this CPU and GPU in Minimum?*

A: The data indicates that 1920x1080 with Low settings is the most effective, achieving an average of 128.6 FPS. This is the only tested configuration that pushes performance well past the 120 FPS mark, providing a significantly smoother experience than other options.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600X has an average benchmark score of 26272. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U, has a nearly identical score of 26262, with a 0% delta. The Ryzen 7 5700X is also very close, scoring 26214, which is only 0.2% behind.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 SUPER a strong performer relative to other GPUs?

A: Its average benchmark score is 14286, placing it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs. It is slightly ahead of its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14314, -0.2% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (14389, -0.7% delta), though the differences are minimal.

Q: How much of a performance drop is seen when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average frame rate falls from 85.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 55.3 FPS at 2560x1440, and then drops significantly to 28.5 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 67% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What is the impact of switching from Low to Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The performance is halved. At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 84.8 FPS on Low settings to 41.6 FPS on Ultra settings. This shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and smoothness.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 7600X have integrated graphics?

A: Yes, it includes Radeon Graphics. However, this is not relevant for gaming performance when a discrete GPU like the GTX 1660 SUPER is installed, as the system will use the dedicated graphics card.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary limiting factor in this pairing. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. This is a capable amount for a game from 2014, but the GPU's compute capabilities are the main constraint. With 1408 shading units and a boost clock of 1785 MHz, it delivers 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The data shows this is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at higher resolutions and settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overwhelmed. Even on Low settings, the average FPS is just 47.5, which is below the 60 FPS target many players prefer. The situation worsens dramatically as settings increase, with the average FPS falling to 20.5 on Ultra. This pattern is a classic sign of a GPU that has run out of pixel-pushing power. The GTX 1660 SUPER's 48 ROPs and 85.68 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply not enough to handle the 8.3 million pixels at 4K, especially with more complex shading.

In contrast, the GPU has a much easier time at 1920x1080. The pixel count is a quarter of 4K, allowing the card to perform much more effectively. The 157.1 GTexel/s texture rate is sufficient to keep up at this resolution, as evidenced by the high average frame rates. This indicates that the GPU is suited for 1080p gaming in this title, but its architecture, based on the 12 nm Turing process, is not designed for the demands of higher resolutions in more demanding scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent scaling pattern that highlights the GPU as the bottleneck. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings results in a drop from 85.8 FPS to 55.3 FPS, a 36% reduction. The subsequent jump to 3840x2160 is even more punishing, cutting the average FPS nearly in half to 28.5.

This scaling is typical for a system where the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU, with its high single-thread performance, can feed frames to the GPU quickly, but the GPU cannot render them fast enough at higher resolutions. The frame rate drop is not linear with the pixel count increase; it is more severe, which points to the GPU's memory bandwidth and fillrate being saturated.

The data at 1080p reinforces this. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low (128.6 FPS) and Ultra (66.8 FPS) settings is roughly a 2x performance swing. At 4K, the swing from Low (47.5 FPS) to Ultra (20.5 FPS) is a 2.3x swing. This shows that as the resolution increases, the GPU's performance becomes even more sensitive to settings changes, as it has less headroom to work with. The system is clearly optimized for 1080p gameplay, with performance degrading rapidly as the resolution is scaled up.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ranks 1514th out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the bottom 13% of all pairings, which is a surprisingly low rank given the capabilities of the CPU. The ranking is a direct result of the performance being capped by the GPU.

The Ryzen 5 7600X is a top-tier processor, as evidenced by its 83rd percentile ranking among all CPUs and its strong benchmark scores like 24128 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 3406 in single-core. It is not the source of the bottleneck. The GTX 1660 SUPER, on the other hand, sits in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, making it a mid-range card. When paired with a much more powerful CPU, the overall system performance is dragged down to the level of the weakest link.

The ranking reflects this imbalance. A system with a more balanced pairing, such as the GTX 1660 SUPER with a mid-range CPU, would likely rank higher because the CPU wouldn't be as underutilized. Conversely, pairing the Ryzen 5 7600X with a high-end GPU would result in a much higher rank. This combo's low rank is not indicative of poor individual component quality, but rather a poor match for achieving top-tier performance in this game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a powerful 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture. It has a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, which explains its excellent single-threaded performance in benchmarks like Geekbench single-core (2892) and Passmark single-thread (4135). This strength is critical for gaming, as many titles, including Minimum, are heavily reliant on single-core performance.

The CPU's role in this pairing is to provide a high frame rate ceiling. The data suggests it does its job admirably. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 128.6 FPS, a frame rate that is likely at or near the limit of what the game engine can produce. The CPU is not holding the system back at this resolution.

However, its potential is wasted at higher resolutions. The 3DMark scores, such as 1060 for single-thread and 6879 for 16 threads, show a processor with immense processing power. Yet, in Minimum, this power is only fully utilized at 1080p. At 3840x2160, the CPU is likely waiting idly for the GPU to complete its rendering tasks. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache is more than sufficient for this game, and the 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth on the DDR5 platform ensures the CPU is never starved for data. The CPU is simply too fast for the GPU, creating a significant bottleneck that limits overall system performance in this specific configuration.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data presents the average FPS for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination in Minimum.

1920x1080:

• Low: 128.6 FPS
• Medium: 98.6 FPS
• High: 85.8 FPS
• Ultra: 66.8 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 84.8 FPS
• Medium: 65.8 FPS
• High: 55.3 FPS
• Ultra: 41.6 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 47.5 FPS
• Medium: 38.1 FPS
• High: 28.5 FPS
• Ultra: 20.5 FPS

The data shows that only the 1080p Low and Medium settings achieve an average FPS above 90. For a smooth 60 FPS experience, players are limited to 1080p Ultra, 1440p Medium, or 1440p High. The 4K resolution is not viable at any setting for a consistent 60 FPS, with the best result being 47.5 FPS on Low. This breakdown confirms that for this combination, 1080p is the primary target resolution, with 1440p being possible with some compromises. The performance gap between Low and Ultra settings is consistent across resolutions, indicating a predictable scaling of GPU load.