Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X's position among all CPUs tested?

A: The Ryzen 7 5700X sits at the 83rd percentile among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26214. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i9-11900KF, scores 26196, a negligible 0.1% delta, indicating performance parity in synthetic workloads.

Q: How does the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 compare to its nearest rivals in GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3070 holds the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, averaging 28238. It trails the AMD FirePro S7150 by 0.6% (28409) and leads the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT by 0.9% (27985), showing a tightly clustered field around this performance tier.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 2560x1440 for this combo?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 112.3 FPS, while High yields 95.8 FPS. Ultra drops to 71 FPS. Medium provides the highest frame rate above 100 FPS while maintaining visual fidelity, making it the optimal choice for smooth gameplay at this resolution.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck more at 1920x1080 Ultra?

A: At 1920x1080 Ultra, the combo produces 113.4 FPS. The CPU's 16 threads and single-thread score of 921 (3dmark) suggest ample headroom, while the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are the likely limiting factors at this settings level.

Q: How much performance is lost going from Low to Ultra at 3840x2160?

A: At 4K, Low averages 81.4 FPS, but Ultra drops to 37.4 FPS—a reduction of 44 FPS. This represents a 54% decrease in frame rate, indicating that Ultra at 4K is only viable for less demanding scenes.

Q: What is the highest measured frame rate across all settings and resolutions?

A: The maximum recorded average is 227.6 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This confirms that the combo is heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions, where the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are not the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, built on the Ampere architecture with an 8 nm process from Samsung, provides the graphical horsepower for this combo. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for texture streaming in a third-person shooter like Minimum. The GPU's base clock of 1500 MHz boosts to 1725 MHz, and with 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, it can push 165.6 GPixel/s and 317.4 GTexel/s.

The measured FPS data directly reflects the GPU's workload scaling. At 1920x1080, moving from Low (227.6 FPS) to Ultra (113.4 FPS) shows a 114.2 FPS drop, with the memory bandwidth and pixel rate becoming the binding constraints. At 3840x2160, the gap widens: Low produces 81.4 FPS, but Ultra collapses to 37.4 FPS. The 44 FPS difference between these extremes at 4K highlights how the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for lower presets but insufficient for Ultra, where the higher resolution demands more texture data and fill rate.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s suggest that Medium settings at 2560x1440 (112.3 FPS) represent a balanced point where the GPU's compute resources are well-utilized without exceeding memory capacity. The data indicates that the RTX 3070 is the primary determinant of performance in this combo, as the FPS variations across settings are far more pronounced than any CPU-related scaling.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination ranks 802nd out of 1733 tested combos for Minimum. This places it in the upper-middle tier of the database, roughly at the 46th percentile of all combinations. The rank reflects a balance: the CPU's 83rd percentile standing and the GPU's 72nd percentile position do not translate into a top-tier gaming combo, as the game's engine appears to favor GPUs with higher memory bandwidth than the RTX 3070's 448.0 GB/s.

Comparatively, the CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-11900KF, scores within 0.1% of the Ryzen 7 5700X in synthetic tests, yet the combo ranking suggests that other pairings with faster GPUs would outperform this setup. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, trails by only 0.9% in GPU benchmarks, but the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM at 4K Ultra (37.4 FPS) shows that memory capacity is a limiting factor for this rank. The 802nd position indicates that while this combo is capable, it is not exceptional for Minimum, with roughly 931 other combinations achieving better measured performance.

The ranking data aligns with the FPS measurements: at 1080p, the combo can exceed 200 FPS on Low, which is competitive, but at 4K Ultra, it falls below 40 FPS, which is poor. This wide performance envelope likely contributes to the mid-tier rank, as the combo's average performance across all tested settings is dragged down by the high-resolution Ultra results.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience with this combo, the data points to Medium settings at 1920x1080 as the sweet spot. This preset yields 175 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on gaming monitors, while High (147.7 FPS) and Ultra (113.4 FPS) still offer playable frame rates. Low at 227.6 FPS provides no visual benefit for most users, so Medium is recommended for a balance of image quality and speed.

At 2560x1440, Medium (112.3 FPS) is the clear recommendation, as it maintains triple-digit frame rates. High (95.8 FPS) is acceptable, but the drop below 100 FPS might be noticeable on high-refresh displays. Ultra (71 FPS) is only suitable for slower-paced gameplay, as the frame rate is sufficient but not smooth.

For 3840x2160, only Low (81.4 FPS) and Medium (60.4 FPS) are viable options. High (48.9 FPS) and Ultra (37.4 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold, causing stutter in fast-paced third-person action. Low at 4K provides the best playability, though visual quality suffers; Medium is a compromise if the user prioritizes image fidelity over frame rate consistency.

Overall, the data shows that Medium settings are the most consistent across resolutions, offering 60 FPS or higher at all tested resolutions except 4K Ultra. Users with 1080p or 1440p displays should default to Medium for the best performance-per-frame-rate ratio.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The lowest resolution tested shows the highest frame rates. Low averages 227.6 FPS, Medium 175 FPS, High 147.7 FPS, and Ultra 113.4 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 114.2 FPS drop, with the largest single step between Low and Medium (52.6 FPS) and a more moderate 27.3 FPS drop from Medium to High. The Ultra preset's 113.4 FPS still exceeds 100 FPS, making 1080p playable at all settings.

2560x1440: At this resolution, Low delivers 148.7 FPS, Medium 112.3 FPS, High 95.8 FPS, and Ultra 71 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 36.4 FPS, from Medium to High 16.5 FPS, and from High to Ultra 24.8 FPS. The Ultra setting falls below the 100 FPS threshold, but Medium and Low remain well above 60 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay for most users.

3840x2160: The 4K results show a steep performance cliff. Low averages 81.4 FPS, Medium 60.4 FPS, High 48.9 FPS, and Ultra 37.4 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 21 FPS, Medium to High is 11.5 FPS, and High to Ultra is 11.5 FPS. Only Low and Medium maintain playable frame rates above 60 FPS, with High and Ultra falling below this threshold.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: the GPU's performance scales linearly with resolution and settings, but the 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become bottlenecks at 4K Ultra, causing a disproportionate drop from 60.4 FPS (Medium) to 37.4 FPS (Ultra). At 1080p, the CPU's 16 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the 227.6 FPS Low result.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, a Zen 3 (Vermeer) processor on the AM4 socket, provides 8 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s dual-channel memory bandwidth are key for feeding the RTX 3070 in a game like Minimum, which is a third-person shooter with potentially many on-screen entities.

The CPU's synthetic scores indicate strong multi-threaded performance: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 22620, while the single-core score is 3193. The 3dmark tests show scaling from 1821 (2 threads) to 6850 (max threads), suggesting that the 8-core design handles threaded workloads efficiently. In gaming, the single-thread score of 921 (3dmark) is more relevant, as many game engines rely on a few strong cores.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at most settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 227.6 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine limit or the GPU's maximum output. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly saturated (37.4 FPS), the CPU has ample headroom, as the frame rate is determined by GPU compute rather than CPU throughput. The 16 threads ensure that background tasks do not interfere with game performance, and the 65 W TDP means the CPU runs cool enough to sustain boost clocks.

The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-11900KF, matches its average score within 0.1%, indicating that either processor would yield similar results in this combo. However, the Ryzen 7 5700X's lower power draw (65 W vs. the Intel's higher TDP, though not specified) and 7 nm process from TSMC give it an efficiency advantage. In Minimum, the CPU's role is to maintain a stable frame delivery, which it does admirably, as no measured FPS row shows a CPU-induced cap below the GPU's capability.