Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a robust performance profile in Minimum, a third-person shooter released in 2014. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s 8-core, 16-thread architecture proves sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p. The data shows a clear scaling pattern that favors high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming, with 4K Ultra remaining the only configuration that strains the combo below the 60 FPS threshold.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, but the pattern is consistent across all settings, indicating a predictable shift in bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 261.1 at 1920x1080 to 166.4 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 36.3% as pixel count increases by 78%. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops to 88.7, which is 46.7% lower than the 1440p result. This steep decline at 4K Low suggests that even with minimal graphical load, the GPU’s raw throughput becomes the primary constraint, as the Ryzen 7 3700X’s single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2694) is not the limiting factor.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. The 1080p average of 124.6 FPS falls to 79.9 at 1440p (a 35.9% drop) and then to 42.8 at 4K (a 46.4% drop from 1440p). The gap between 1080p and 4K Ultra is 65.7%, which is larger than the Low setting’s 66.1% drop, but the absolute numbers show that the GPU is working at its limit. The RX 6800 XT’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K, but the 20.74 TFLOPS FP32 compute is what drives the frame rate down at Ultra. The fact that the 4K High result (59.2 FPS) is barely above 60 FPS while 4K Ultra (42.8 FPS) falls well below indicates a steep performance cliff as shader complexity increases.

The resolution scaling data suggests that the combo is balanced for 1440p, where the GPU can stretch its legs without being bottlenecked by the CPU. At 1080p Low, the 261.1 FPS average shows that the Ryzen 7 3700X can push frames far beyond what most monitors can display, but the marginal difference between 1080p High (163.4 FPS) and 1440p High (109.2 FPS) shows a 33.2% drop that is entirely attributable to the GPU’s pixel fill rate. There is no evidence of CPU limitation at any resolution, as the FPS scaling is purely a function of resolution and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 618th out of 1733 tested combinations in Minimum, placing it in the 64.3rd percentile of all tested systems. This is a solid mid-to-upper tier position, but it is not exceptional for a GPU that sits at the 87th percentile of all GPUs and a CPU at the 85th percentile of all CPUs. The data suggests that the game’s engine is not fully utilizing the hardware’s potential, as the ranking lags behind what the individual components’ benchmark scores would predict.

Relative to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 3700X’s average benchmark score of 28631 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i5-12600 (28654, deltaPct -0.1) and the Intel Core i5-12600H (28666, deltaPct -0.1). This means that the CPU is performing exactly as expected in general compute tasks, but the game’s FPS results are not limited by these processor scores. The GPU’s nearest rivals show that the RX 6800 XT’s average benchmark score of 49982 is 0.5% higher than the Intel Arc A550M (49737), but 1.7% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (50826). This close grouping indicates that the GPU is well-matched to its peers in raw compute, yet the in-game ranking suggests that Minimum may favor NVIDIA or Intel architectures in specific shader paths.

The 618th rank out of 1733 combos means that roughly 64% of tested systems outperform this configuration in Minimum. Given that the CPU and GPU are both above the 85th percentile in their respective benchmark pools, this ranking implies that the game is not heavily multithreaded or that it has a specific bottleneck that the Ryzen 7 3700X’s 8 cores and 16 threads do not address. The data shows that the combo is more than capable of high frame rates, but the ranking reflects that many other hardware pairings achieve even higher averages, likely due to higher single-thread performance or better GPU driver optimization.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly indicates that Medium settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 197.7 FPS, which is 21.0% higher than High (163.4 FPS) and 58.6% higher than Ultra (124.6 FPS). The jump from Medium to High costs 17.4% of the frame rate, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 23.7% more. This non-linear scaling suggests that Ultra settings introduce effects that are disproportionately expensive, likely related to shadow quality or post-processing.

At 1440p, Medium settings yield 127.4 FPS, which is a 16.7% improvement over High (109.2 FPS) and a 59.4% improvement over Ultra (79.9 FPS). The Medium result at 1440p is still well above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended setting for high-refresh-rate monitors. For 4K, Medium produces 68.8 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target, while High drops to 59.2 FPS and Ultra falls to 42.8 FPS. The data shows that Medium is the only setting that maintains playable frame rates at 4K without sacrificing too much visual fidelity.

Low settings offer the highest performance at every resolution, but the gains over Medium are marginal at 1080p (32.1% faster) and 1440p (30.6% faster), while at 4K the gain is 28.9%. Given that Medium already provides smooth frame rates at 1440p and playable rates at 4K, Low settings are only recommended for competitive play where maximum FPS is prioritized over visuals. The drop from Medium to Low at 1080p from 197.7 to 261.1 FPS is significant, but it is unlikely to be perceptible on most 144Hz monitors, which cap at 144 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces an average of 261.1 FPS on Low, 197.7 FPS on Medium, 163.4 FPS on High, and 124.6 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 52.3%, indicating that the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution, as even the most demanding settings stay well above 120 FPS. The 1080p results show that the RX 6800 XT is capable of feeding a 240Hz monitor at Medium settings or lower, but Ultra settings would cap out at 124.6 FPS, which is still respectable.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 166.4 FPS on Low, 127.4 FPS on Medium, 109.2 FPS on High, and 79.9 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p Ultra result is 35.9% lower than the 1080p Ultra, which is a proportional drop given the 78% increase in pixel count. The 1440p Medium result of 127.4 FPS is the sweet spot, offering a 16.7% improvement over High while maintaining a 59.4% margin over Ultra. This resolution is where the combo performs most efficiently, as the GPU is fully utilized without being overburdened.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 88.7 FPS on Low, 68.8 FPS on Medium, 59.2 FPS on High, and 42.8 FPS on Ultra. The 4K results show a clear hierarchy: Low and Medium are playable, High is borderline, and Ultra is not recommended for smooth gameplay. The drop from 1440p Medium (127.4 FPS) to 4K Medium (68.8 FPS) is 46.0%, which is consistent with the pixel count increase. The 4K Ultra result of 42.8 FPS is the only configuration that falls below the 30 FPS minimum for console-like performance, but it is still above the 40 FPS threshold for playable frame pacing.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is more than sufficient for Minimum, which was released in 2014 and does not have demanding texture requirements. The memory clock of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth are not bottlenecks at any setting, as the game’s asset streaming is unlikely to exceed 8 GB of VRAM usage. The GPU’s 128 ROPs and 288 TMUs provide ample pixel and texture throughput, which is why the FPS scales linearly with resolution.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also relevant to the results. The base clock of 1825 MHz and boost clock of 2250 MHz mean that the card can dynamically adjust its performance based on thermal and power headroom. The game clock of 2015 MHz is the typical sustained frequency during gaming, and the measured FPS suggests that the card is hitting this target consistently. The 20.74 TFLOPS FP32 compute is the key metric for this game, as Minimum likely relies on traditional rasterization rather than ray tracing (the GPU has 72 RT cores but the game predates widespread RT adoption). The GPU’s 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms its high-end status, and the 4K Ultra result of 42.8 FPS reflects the compute limit at maximum settings.

The GPU’s transistor count of 26,800 million on a 7 nm TSMC process node (die size 520 mm²) gives it a raw compute advantage, but the game’s engine does not appear to leverage this fully, as the combo’s 618th rank out of 1733 suggests. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A1000, has a 1.7% higher average benchmark score, but the in-game results may differ due to driver optimizations. The data shows that the RX 6800 XT is the main driver of performance, and its 300 W TDP is a reasonable trade-off for the frame rates observed. The GPU’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is not a bottleneck, as the Ryzen 7 3700X supports Gen 4 with 24 lanes, ensuring full bandwidth to the graphics card.