Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is a study in contrast: a modern, high-thread-count CPU shackled to a legacy entry-level GPU. The benchmark data for Minimum shows a system that is almost entirely GPU-bound, with the CPU’s potential left largely untapped. The measured FPS reveals a combo that can handle 1080p at modest settings but falls apart quickly as resolution and graphical load increase.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the GTX 1050 Ti as the limiting component. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 45.2 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that figure to 24.4 FPS, a substantial 46% reduction. Pushing further to 4K at High settings yields just 18.1 FPS, which is a 60% decline from the 1080p baseline. This steep, linear falloff is the classic signature of a GPU that has run out of pixel-pushing capacity.

The scaling behavior across settings reinforces this conclusion. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p (62.9 FPS) to 1440p (41.6 FPS) is a 34% loss, but the jump to 4K Low (23.5 FPS) represents a 63% loss from 1080p. The GPU’s 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth are simply overwhelmed at higher resolutions. The data suggests that the Ryzen 5 8400F is not the bottleneck at any resolution; even at 4K Ultra, where the combo manages only 13 FPS, the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are likely idle, waiting on the GPU to finish each frame. The 8400F’s boost clock of 4.70 GHz is more than sufficient to feed this GPU, meaning any performance gains from resolution scaling are entirely dictated by the graphics card’s limits.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows point to a clear best experience: 1080p with Low settings. This preset delivers 62.9 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches a smooth, playable level for a third-person shooter. The step up to Medium at 1080p costs 12.1 FPS, landing at 50.8, which is still playable but begins to show the GPU’s strain. High settings at 1080p drop further to 45.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 33.1 FPS, making the game feel noticeably less responsive.

At 1440p, the choice is starker. Low settings produce 41.6 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced play, but Medium drops to 32.5 FPS and High to 24.4 FPS. The data indicates that 1440p is only viable at Low settings. At 4K, the results are uniformly poor; even Low settings only manage 23.5 FPS, rendering the resolution impractical for this hardware. The recommendation is straightforward: for a stable experience, run at 1080p Low. If visual fidelity is paramount, 1080p Medium is the highest setting that keeps the average above 50 FPS, but the gains from Low to Medium are marginal compared to the performance cost. The Ultra preset is not worth considering at any resolution, as it yields the lowest frames across the board, including a 13 FPS average at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a Zen 4 (Phoenix) part on the AM5 socket, featuring 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This is a powerful modern processor, evidenced by its 82nd percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 25064. Its synthetic test results are strong, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851 and a single-core score of 2943.

However, these capabilities are largely irrelevant in this specific game combo. The benchmark data shows that the GTX 1050 Ti is the limiting factor at every resolution and settings level. The CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, and the 8400F does this with ease. The nearest rivals in CPU benchmark scores, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (25057) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (24993), have near-identical average scores, with deltaPct values of 0 and 0.3 respectively. This indicates that the 8400F’s performance is on par with those chips, but swapping between them would yield no measurable difference in this game because the GPU is the bottleneck. The 65W TDP and 4nm process node make it an efficient choice, but that efficiency does not translate to higher FPS when the graphics card is constrained.

How This Combo Ranks

The overall combo rank in Minimum is 1700 out of 1733 tested combinations. This places it in the bottom 2% of all systems, a direct reflection of the GPU’s limitations rather than the CPU’s. The rank is a function of the combined hardware, and the GTX 1050 Ti’s percentile ranking of 30 among all GPUs drags the entire setup down. In contrast, the CPU’s percentile ranking of 82 suggests a severe imbalance: a top-tier processor paired with a bottom-tier graphics card.

This rank implies that the vast majority of other hardware combinations tested will outperform this one in Minimum. The data shows that the combo’s best result (62.9 FPS at 1080p Low) is likely below the average for most other pairings. The rank is not a measure of the CPU’s worth, but rather the system’s overall gaming capability. The Ryzen 5 8400F is a future-proof foundation, but in this configuration, it is wasted. If the GPU were upgraded, the combo rank would improve dramatically, as the CPU has ample headroom to support a much stronger graphics card.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is a Pascal-architecture card built on a 14nm process, featuring 768 shading units and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth is 112.1 GB/s, and it runs at a base clock of 1291 MHz with a boost clock of 1392 MHz. These specifications, while modest, are the primary driver of the measured FPS results. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 5316, with a percentile ranking of 30, placing it in the lower third of all graphics cards.

The data clearly shows the GPU’s role as the bottleneck. The difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is 29.8 FPS (62.9 vs 33.1), which is a 47% performance swing driven entirely by the GPU’s fill rate and texture processing capabilities. The GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce 940M (5297 score, +0.4 deltaPct) and the AMD Radeon R7 240 (5280 score, +0.7 deltaPct), are similarly weak, confirming its entry-level status. The 75W TDP and lack of power connectors mean it draws minimal power, but that efficiency does not compensate for the lack of raw performance. The GTX 1050 Ti is simply not equipped to handle modern rendering loads beyond 1080p Low or Medium, and its 4 GB VRAM is a hard limit that prevents any meaningful use of higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo shows its only playable results. Low settings produce an average of 62.9 FPS. Medium settings deliver 50.8 FPS. High settings yield 45.2 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 33.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 29.8 FPS, showing how sensitive the GPU is to shader complexity.

At 1440p, performance falls off a cliff. Low settings average 41.6 FPS. Medium settings drop to 32.5 FPS. High settings manage only 24.4 FPS. Ultra settings produce 23.3 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 18.3 FPS, but even the best case is below the 60 FPS target.

At 4K, the results are uniformly unplayable. Low settings average 23.5 FPS. Medium settings drop to 18.3 FPS. High settings yield 18.1 FPS. Ultra settings bottom out at 13 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is just 5.2 FPS, indicating the GPU is memory-bandwidth limited at this resolution. The data confirms that 4K is not a viable option, and even 1440p requires significant settings compromises. The sweet spot for this hardware is unequivocally 1080p with Low or Medium settings, where the game remains responsive enough for the third-person shooter genre.