Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Minimum shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop tells a specific story about where the bottleneck sits. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER produces 107.2 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same High preset, that figure falls to 71.7 FPS, a reduction of roughly 33%. Stepping up again to 3840x2160 High yields 40.3 FPS, which is another 44% drop from the 1440p result.

The pattern across all four settings presets is consistent. With Low settings, the frame rate goes from 168.4 FPS at 1080p to 109.5 FPS at 1440p, then down to 57.8 FPS at 4K. Medium settings show 132.4 FPS at 1080p, 84.6 FPS at 1440p, and 42.8 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce 81.4 FPS at 1080p, 51.4 FPS at 1440p, and exactly 30 FPS at 4K.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is notably steeper than the scaling from 1080p to 1440p in every preset. This suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER's pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint at higher resolutions. The GPU's pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s are being pushed harder as the pixel count doubles from 1440p to 4K, while the 1080p to 1440p transition is less punishing because the GPU still has headroom. The data indicates that Minimum is a GPU-bound title at 4K regardless of settings, whereas at 1080p the CPU's capability is more relevant to the upper frame rate ceiling.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060 SUPER is the decisive component in Minimum's performance profile, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth appears sufficient for the game's demands at all tested settings. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective data rate, which supports the texture streaming and draw call throughput that a third-person shooter of this era requires.

The GPU's core configuration includes 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with a base clock of 1470 MHz and a boost clock of 1650 MHz. This translates to 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 14.36 TFLOPS of FP16 performance at a 2:1 ratio. The Turing architecture also brings 34 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores, though Minimum's release in 2014 predates ray tracing as a mainstream feature, so these units are unlikely to be heavily utilized by the game engine.

The benchmark data shows the GPU sitting at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN with a score of 19706, a delta of only 0.3%. The RTX 2070 scores 19680, which is 0.5% lower, and the Quadro K5200 trails by 0.8% at 19623. This clustering indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER is performing right at the expected level for its class, and the measured FPS in Minimum aligns with that positioning.

The 4K Ultra result of exactly 30 FPS is a hard indicator that the GPU is maxed out at that configuration. The fact that dropping from Ultra to High at 4K only recovers 10.3 FPS, while going from High to Medium adds just 2.5 FPS more, shows diminishing returns from settings adjustments at the highest resolution. At 1080p, however, the same settings changes yield much larger swings — from 81.4 FPS at Ultra to 107.2 at High (25.8 FPS gained), then to 132.4 at Medium (another 25.2 FPS gained). This suggests the GPU has ample headroom at 1080p and responds strongly to settings reductions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Minimum?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the most comfortable resolution, with all four settings presets delivering above 80 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium settings exceed 84 FPS, while High sits at 71.7 FPS. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only reach 57.8 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its closest rival in raw benchmark terms?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 19774, which is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN at 19706. It also leads the RTX 2070 by 0.5% (19680) and the Quadro K5200 by 0.8% (19623).

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM on the RTX 2060 SUPER sufficient for Minimum?

A: Given that the game released in 2014 and the benchmark rows show playable frame rates at 1440p and even 4K on lower presets, the 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth appears adequate. No memory-related performance collapse is visible in the measured data.

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

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 168.4 FPS while Ultra produces 81.4 FPS. That is a difference of 87 FPS, or roughly 107% more performance from the Low preset. The gap narrows at higher resolutions, with a 27.8 FPS difference at 1440p and a 27.8 FPS difference at 4K as well.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark ranking affect gameplay in Minimum?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 sits at the 84th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 27220. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-9900K, scores 27043, which is 0.7% lower. This high ranking suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor in most Minimum configurations, particularly at 1080p where the GPU is more likely to be the constraint.

Q: Does the RTX 2060 SUPER's 175 W TDP indicate thermal throttling potential?

A: The TDP of 175 W with a suggested PSU of 450 W is within normal range for this class of GPU. The dual-slot cooler and 229 mm length suggest adequate cooling hardware, though the benchmark data does not include thermal measurements to confirm sustained clock behavior.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows a wide performance envelope. Low settings deliver 168.4 FPS average, which is the highest measured result across all resolutions and presets in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce 132.4 FPS, High settings yield 107.2 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 81.4 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent step-down of roughly 36 FPS, then 25 FPS, then 26 FPS for each successive preset increase.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same settings hierarchy holds but the absolute numbers compress. Low settings average 109.5 FPS, Medium drops to 84.6 FPS, High falls to 71.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 51.4 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 58.1 FPS, compared to 87 FPS at 1080p. This compression indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput is becoming more significant as resolution increases, reducing the relative impact of settings changes.

At 3840x2160, the performance picture becomes more constrained. Low settings produce 57.8 FPS, Medium yields 42.8 FPS, High manages 40.3 FPS, and Ultra drops to exactly 30 FPS. Notably, the difference between Medium and High at 4K is only 2.5 FPS, which is the smallest gap between any two adjacent presets in the entire dataset. This suggests that the Medium and High presets at 4K are both limited by the same GPU resource, likely pixel fill rate, rather than by distinct settings-specific costs.

The combo's overall ranking in Minimum is 1273 out of 1733 tested combinations, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all tested hardware pairings for this game. This mid-pack ranking reflects the GPU's 63rd percentile standing among all GPUs, tempered by the CPU's stronger 84th percentile position.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset at 81.4 FPS is the best experience if visual fidelity is the priority, as it remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. However, the High preset at 107.2 FPS offers a significant frame rate advantage — roughly 32% more FPS — while presumably sacrificing only a moderate amount of visual quality. The data suggests that High at 1080p is the sweet spot for balancing smoothness and image quality, as it clears the 100 FPS mark without the steep cost of Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 84.6 FPS appears to be the optimal choice. It delivers a smooth experience above 60 FPS while retaining more visual detail than Low. The High preset at 71.7 FPS is also viable, but the 12.9 FPS penalty compared to Medium may not justify the visual upgrade for players who prioritize frame rate consistency. Ultra at 51.4 FPS dips below the 60 FPS threshold, which could introduce perceptible stutter in a fast-paced third-person shooter.

For 3840x2160, the Low preset at 57.8 FPS is the only configuration that approaches playability, yet it still falls short of 60 FPS. Medium at 42.8 FPS and High at 40.3 FPS are marginal, while Ultra at exactly 30 FPS is only suitable for cinematic viewing rather than competitive play. The recommendation for 4K is to accept Low settings or reduce the resolution to 1440p for a more responsive experience.

The measured data indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER's performance ceiling in Minimum is around 168 FPS at 1080p Low, and its practical limit for sustained 60 FPS gameplay is 1440p Medium or 1080p Ultra. The GPU's benchmark percentile of 63% aligns with this mid-range capability, reinforcing that it is a solid 1080p and entry-level 1440p card for this title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 provides substantial compute headroom for Minimum, and the measured frame rates suggest that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor in this pairing. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, the CPU has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The 65 W TDP on the AMD Socket AM4 platform is efficient for the performance delivered.

Benchmark results place the Ryzen 7 5700 at the 84th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27220. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-9900K, scores 27043, a delta of 0.7%. The Intel Core i7-12700H follows at 27006 with a 0.8% delta, and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 trails by 1.2% at 26909. This tight grouping around the 27000 score mark shows that the Ryzen 7 5700 is competitively positioned in its performance class.

In multi-threaded workloads, the CPU demonstrates strong scaling. The 3DMark 16-thread score is 6628, while the max-thread score is 6617, indicating near-perfect scaling beyond 16 threads. Single-thread performance is also solid, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 901 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2916. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20655 confirms that the CPU can handle heavy threaded loads, though Minimum's 2014 engine is unlikely to utilize all 16 threads effectively.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a 16 MB L3 cache. Memory bandwidth is rated at 51.2 GB/s over dual-channel DDR4. For a game like Minimum, which released in 2014, the CPU's single-thread performance and memory latency are more important than raw multi-core throughput. The PassMark single-thread score of 3296 and the 3DMark 2-thread score of 1762 suggest that the CPU handles the lightly-threaded workloads typical of older game engines with ease.

The fact that frame rates scale consistently with GPU settings changes across all resolutions — rather than plateauing at a CPU-imposed ceiling — indicates that the Ryzen 7 5700 is not the bottleneck. Even at 1080p Low with 168.4 FPS, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU without constraint. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking, combined with the GPU's 63rd percentile, supports the conclusion that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the performance limiter in Minimum, not the Ryzen 7 5700.