Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 presents a striking case study in system bottlenecking within the 2014 third-person shooter Minimum. The data shows a combination capable of extreme frame rates, yet the scaling patterns across resolutions and settings reveal a complex interaction where the CPU's Zen 3 architecture and the GPU's Blackwell 2.0 design each take turns dictating performance. This pairing ranks 31st out of 1733 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 1.8% of all configurations, a position that underscores its raw potential while the internal benchmark numbers hint at untapped headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals the classic signature of a CPU-bound system at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves a towering 349.2 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops this to 261.9 FPS, a 25% reduction, and then to 141.6 FPS at 3840x2160 Low, another 46% reduction. This steep decline at higher pixel counts indicates that the RTX 5090's rendering workload is scaling with resolution, while the CPU is no longer the primary constraint at 4K.

The story inverts when examining the performance ceiling at each resolution. At 1080p Ultra, the system delivers 201.4 FPS, which is only 42% lower than the 1080p Low result. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 68.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically as resolution increases: a 2.5x difference at 1080p (349.2 vs 201.4) becomes a 2.1x difference at 4K (141.6 vs 68.1). This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU's 8-core, 16-thread configuration with a 4.60 GHz boost clock is hitting its limit, preventing the GPU from fully flexing its 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power.

The most telling data point comes from the High preset. At 1080p High, the system produces 263.4 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 168.3 FPS, a 36% decrease. But at 4K High, the average falls to 88.9 FPS, a 47% drop from 1440p. The non-linear scaling, where the 1080p to 1440p transition is smaller than the 1440p to 4K transition, implies that the GPU is progressively becoming the limiting factor as pixel count rises, but the CPU still holds back performance at the lowest resolution.

FAQ

*Q: How does the RTX 5090 perform at 4K Ultra in Minimum?*

A: The average frame rate is 68.1 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the lowest measured result in the dataset, indicating that the combination of 4K resolution and maximum graphical fidelity creates a substantial rendering load that even the 32 GB GDDR7 memory buffer and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth cannot fully overcome.

Q: What is the best performance the CPU-GPU combo achieves?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 349.2, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This result demonstrates the system's ability to push well beyond high-refresh-rate territory when the GPU is not heavily taxed, suggesting the Ryzen 7 5700's 16 threads can feed the RTX 5090 effectively at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700 a bottleneck for the RTX 5090?

A: The evidence points to yes, particularly at 1080p. The difference between 1080p Low (349.2 FPS) and 1440p Low (261.9 FPS) is 87.3 FPS, a 25% drop. If the GPU were the sole limiter, this scaling would be more uniform across all resolutions. The data suggests the CPU's performance ceiling is reached around 350 FPS, which is below what the RTX 5090 could theoretically output at 1080p in a lighter title.

Q: How does the combo rank against other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 31st out of 1733 tested configurations in Minimum. This places it in the 98th percentile of all tested combos, indicating that while this pairing is exceptionally fast, there are 30 other system configurations in the database that produce higher average frame rates in this specific game.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 261.9 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 126.5 FPS. The 135.4 FPS gap represents a 52% reduction in performance, showing that the Ultra preset nearly halves the frame rate compared to Low at this resolution.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM make a difference in this game?

A: The data does not show any VRAM capacity limits being reached, as the game is from 2014 and likely has modest memory requirements. The measured frame rates are consistent with compute-bound performance rather than memory constraints, so the 32 GB capacity is not a performance factor in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The 31st place ranking out of 1733 combos in Minimum places this system in an elite tier, yet the position is arguably lower than the individual component scores would suggest. The RTX 5090 alone sits in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, while the Ryzen 7 5700 is in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. The combo's 98th percentile ranking in-game is higher than both individual percentiles, indicating that the pairing is greater than the sum of its parts for this title.

Benchmark scores reinforce this synergy. The CPU's average benchmark score of 27220 is just 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K, which scores 27043. The GPU's average score of 84306 is nearly identical to the RTX 5090 D, which scores 84241, a delta of only 0.1%. These tight margins suggest that in Minimum, the system is performing near its theoretical maximum for this hardware configuration.

The gap between the combo's 31st rank and the top 30 spots is not detailed in the data, but the measured FPS values provide context. The fact that the system reaches 349.2 FPS at 1080p Low and still ranks 31st indicates that the top 30 combos likely feature more powerful CPUs, as the GPU is already near the top of its class. This implies that the CPU, not the GPU, is what separates this system from the absolute top ranks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 349.2 FPS, Medium settings hit 313.5 FPS, High settings reach 263.4 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 201.4 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 42% reduction in performance, with each settings tier costing roughly 40-50 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a clear step down. Low settings yield 261.9 FPS, Medium produces 201.7 FPS, High achieves 168.3 FPS, and Ultra drops to 126.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 135.4 FPS, a 52% reduction, which is a larger percentage drop than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the system finally shows signs of GPU-bound stress. Low settings manage 141.6 FPS, Medium hits 110.1 FPS, High falls to 88.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 68.1 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 73.5 FPS, representing a 52% performance loss, consistent with the 1440p scaling but at much lower absolute frame rates.

The minimum and maximum FPS values are not provided, so the average figures represent the complete picture. Notably, the 4K Ultra result of 68.1 FPS is the only measurement below the 70 FPS threshold, suggesting that this is the only configuration in the dataset that might struggle on a 60 Hz display with V-sync enabled.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is a 5000-series processor built on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Cezanne, and manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The 16 MB of L3 cache and 512 KB L2 cache per core provide the memory hierarchy that games like Minimum can leverage.

Benchmark results show the CPU's strengths. In Cinebench R23, it scores 20655 in multi-core and 2916 in single-core. PassMark multi-thread tests produce 24303, while single-thread scores reach 3296. These numbers place it just ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K, which has an average score of 27043 compared to the Ryzen's 27220, a 0.7% difference.

In Minimum, the CPU's impact is most evident at 1080p. The 349.2 FPS Low result is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability for this game. The fact that 1080p Ultra (201.4 FPS) is only 42% lower than 1080p Low, while 4K Ultra (68.1 FPS) is 81% lower than 4K Low, indicates that the CPU can drive high frame rates at lower resolutions but becomes less relevant as GPU load increases. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6628 and max-thread score of 6617 show consistent multi-core performance, which aligns with the game's ability to use multiple threads.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting the highest frame rates, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers 349.2 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play on high-refresh monitors. At 1440p, Low settings still produce 261.9 FPS, offering a strong balance between visual clarity and speed for fast-paced action.

For a balanced experience, Medium settings at 1440p yield 201.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any current monitor's refresh rate while providing improved visual fidelity over Low. At 1080p, Medium hits 313.5 FPS, showing that this preset does not meaningfully tax the system at lower resolutions.

The High preset is the best choice for visual quality without sacrificing playability. At 1440p, High produces 168.3 FPS, while 1080p High reaches 263.4 FPS. The 4K High result of 88.9 FPS is the only High preset measurement above 60 FPS at 4K, making it viable for 60 Hz 4K displays.

Ultra settings should be reserved for players who prioritize visuals over frame rate. At 1080p, Ultra still achieves 201.4 FPS, which remains competitive. However, at 1440p Ultra drops to 126.5 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 68.1 FPS. For smooth 4K gaming, the Medium preset at 110.1 FPS is a safer choice than Ultra, while High at 88.9 FPS offers a middle ground.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the flagship of the GeForce 50-series, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip. It features 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with RT cores and tensor cores enabling ray tracing and AI features. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and boosts to 2407 MHz.

Memory capabilities are substantial: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is paired with a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS places it among the most powerful consumer GPUs ever produced.

In Minimum, the GPU's role becomes clear at higher resolutions. The 4K results show the RTX 5090 being pushed to its limits, with Ultra settings producing 68.1 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra shows a 66% reduction in frame rate, from 201.4 to 68.1 FPS. This aligns with the pixel count increase from 2.07 million to 8.29 million pixels, a 4x increase, indicating that the GPU's compute resources are the primary constraint at 4K.

The PassMark G3D score of 39650 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411 provide context for the GPU's raw capability. The GPU's average benchmark score of 84306 is nearly identical to the RTX 5090 D, which scores 84241, showing that this specific card performs as expected. The 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms its position near the top of the performance hierarchy, yet the Minimum results show that even this hardware has limits when faced with 4K Ultra settings.