Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combination delivers a highly capable experience in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter from 2014. The measured data reveals a system that excels at high refresh rates at mainstream resolutions and remains playable at 4K, with the GPU clearly acting as the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. The data places this combo in the 639th position out of 1733 tested combinations, indicating a solidly above-average pairing for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The performance trajectory from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the shifting workload between the CPU and GPU. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system produces 161.5 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops the frame rate to 102.9 FPS, a reduction of approximately 36%. The jump to 3840x2160 further reduces the average to 57.3 FPS, which is about 44% lower than the 1440p result and roughly 65% lower than the 1080p figure. This steep decline with each resolution step is a hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario at higher pixel counts.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets. At Low settings, the frame rate goes from 251.4 FPS at 1080p, to 160.1 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 88 FPS at 4K. Similarly, on the Ultra preset, the system delivers 120.8 FPS at 1080p, 81.9 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 4K. The consistent, significant drops at each stage indicate that the RX 7800 XT’s rendering throughput is the limiting factor as the pixel count increases. The CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions, but its influence wanes as the GPU becomes saturated.

Notably, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution decreases. At 4K, the difference between the Low preset (88 FPS) and Ultra (44 FPS) is exactly 44 FPS. At 1080p, this gap expands to 130.6 FPS (251.4 vs 120.8). This widening delta suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to fully utilize the graphics card, making the preset’s visual load the dominant factor. At 4K, the GPU's raw pixel-pushing capability is the primary constraint, compressing the performance difference between presets.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting a 60 FPS experience, the data shows that the High preset at 4K is marginal, averaging 57.3 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K provides a more comfortable margin over 60 FPS with an average of 68.1 FPS, making it the optimal choice for 4K displays. While the visual fidelity is lower than High or Ultra, the performance gain from Medium to High at this resolution is an 11 FPS difference, whereas the jump from Medium to Low yields a 19.9 FPS increase, indicating diminishing returns on the High preset at 4K.

At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers an excellent balance, achieving 102.9 FPS. This is a substantial 21 FPS improvement over the Medium preset (123.9 FPS) and a 21 FPS step down from Low (160.1 FPS), but the visual upgrade from Medium to High is generally worth the performance cost. The Ultra preset at 1440p, averaging 81.9 FPS, still clears high refresh rate thresholds but sacrifices 21 FPS compared to High for what is often a marginal visual gain in a game from this era.

For 1920x1080, the High preset is the clear sweet spot. The 161.5 FPS average is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset, at 120.8 FPS, still provides a fluid experience and could be chosen by users prioritizing image quality above all else. The Low preset’s 251.4 FPS is only relevant for competitive play at extremely high refresh rates, but the visual compromise is significant. The Medium preset at 191.2 FPS is a viable alternative, but High offers a better balance of fidelity and speed.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, running on the AMD Socket AM5 platform. Its base clock is 4.20 GHz with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, its multi-threaded performance is substantial, scoring 20,851 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,943 in single-core. This strong single-thread performance is critical for older game engines like the one powering Minimum, which often rely heavily on a few cores.

The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game at lower resolutions. The jump from 1080p High (161.5 FPS) to 1080p Low (251.4 FPS) demonstrates that the processor can push frame rates far beyond what the GPU can render at higher settings. The 3DMark scores further illustrate this capability, with a single-thread score of 951 and a 2-thread score of 1,874. The scaling from 2 to 4 threads (3,563) and then to 8 threads (5,275) shows good multi-threading scaling, though the game’s engine may not fully utilize all 12 threads.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 8400F holds its own. Its average benchmark score of 25,064 places it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. It performs essentially identically to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, with a delta of 0%, and is only 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F. This indicates that for this game, the 8400F’s architecture and clock speeds provide ample compute headroom, ensuring that frame rates are dictated by the graphics card, not the processor. The 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s of DDR5 memory bandwidth provide sufficient data throughput for the game’s demands.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Minimum at 4K with a smooth 60 FPS experience?*

A: Yes, but not on the highest settings. The data shows that the Medium preset at 3840x2160 averages 68.1 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target. The High preset at 4K falls just short at 57.3 FPS, while Ultra drops to 44 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for maximizing the refresh rate on a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset achieves 161.5 FPS, which exceeds a 144Hz refresh rate. At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 102.9 FPS, which is suitable for a 100Hz monitor but not a 144Hz one. To hit 144Hz at 1440p, you would need to use the Low preset, which averages 160.1 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops significantly from 1080p to 4K across all settings, indicating the RX 7800 XT’s rendering limits. The CPU’s strong single-thread performance allows it to keep up with the GPU at 1080p, as evidenced by the very high frame rates on Low settings.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F compare to the Ryzen 7 2700X in overall performance?

A: The data shows they are effectively tied. The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25,064, while the Ryzen 7 2700X scores 25,057, resulting in a delta of 0%. This means there is no meaningful performance difference between the two for this game.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The difference is substantial. The Low preset averages 251.4 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 120.8 FPS. This is a 130.6 FPS difference, highlighting the significant GPU workload increase from the Ultra preset’s visual effects.

Q: Is the RX 7800 XT’s 16 GB of VRAM a factor in this game?

A: Given that this is a 2014 title, the VRAM capacity is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any of the tested settings. The performance scaling is more closely tied to the GPU’s compute power and memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for the game's textures and geometry.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture and the Navi 32 chip, is the undisputed performance driver in this pairing. Its specifications are robust: 3,840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. The GPU operates at a boost clock of 2430 MHz and a game clock of 2124 MHz, with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. Its compute capabilities include 37.32 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

The GPU’s role is evident in the resolution scaling data. The RX 7800 XT’s performance is the primary reason the frame rate drops so precipitously as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU’s raw speed is enough to render frames faster than many displays can show, but the sheer pixel count at 4K overwhelms its fill rate. The pixel rate of 233.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 583.2 GTexel/s are the metrics most relevant to this workload, and they are taxed heavily at 3840x2160.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 32,619 places it in the 76th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals show it is a competitive mid-range to high-end part; it is 0.2% ahead of the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 and 0.7% ahead of the AMD FirePro S10000. The data shows that for this specific title, the RX 7800 XT provides a performance ceiling that is more than adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but requires settings adjustments to maintain high frame rates at 4K. The GPU’s 16 GB VRAM buffer ensures that memory capacity is not a concern, even at Ultra settings, leaving the core clock speed and architecture to do the heavy lifting.