Minimum

# Minimum with AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination delivers playable performance in Minimum, but the data reveals a system firmly bottlenecked by the GPU at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the pairing achieves strong frame rates across all settings, with Low presets hitting 140 FPS average. However, the GTX 1070's aging Pascal architecture shows its limits at 4K, where even Low settings only produce 49 FPS average. This pairing ranks 3064th out of 3712 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the lower third of all tested systems. The CPU's substantial headroom — evidenced by its 87th percentile standing among all CPUs — means the Ryzen 7 7700 is never the limiting factor in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combination in Minimum?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the clear sweet spot. At High settings, the combo delivers 90 FPS average; at Low settings it reaches 140 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 drops High settings to 58 FPS average, and 4K falls below 60 FPS even at Low settings.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 perform relative to its closest rivals in this system?

A: The GTX 1070's average benchmark score is 9780, placing it at the 47th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD FirePro W5000, scores 9803 (0.2% higher), while the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M scores 9832 (0.5% higher). The NVIDIA Tesla M10 and Tesla C2070 trail by 0.6% and 0.7% respectively.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 7700 powerful enough for this game?

A: Yes. The CPU sits at the 87th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 40081. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, scores nearly identically at 40048 (0.1% lower), confirming the 7700 has ample processing headroom. The 8-core, 16-thread configuration with boost clocks up to 5.30 GHz is more than sufficient for Minimum.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 140 FPS, while Ultra averages 68 FPS — a 72 FPS drop. Medium averages 107 FPS and High averages 90 FPS, showing a consistent performance penalty for each visual quality tier.

Q: Does the GTX 1070's 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The 8 GB GDDR5 memory with 256.3 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for this title's memory demands, but the GPU's compute power is the limiting factor. At 3840x2160, Ultra settings yield only 24 FPS average, and even Low settings manage just 49 FPS — indicating raw rendering throughput, not VRAM capacity, constrains performance.

Q: How does this combination rank among all tested systems in Minimum?

A: The combo ranks 3064th out of 3712 tested combinations. This places it in the bottom 20% of all systems tested in this game, reflecting the GTX 1070's age relative to modern GPUs.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the decisive component in this pairing's Minimum performance. Built on the 16 nm Pascal architecture with the GP104 chip, this GPU operates at a 1506 MHz base clock and 1683 MHz boost clock. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units provide the rendering throughput that directly determines frame rates in this title.

The GTX 1070's benchmark results illustrate its mid-range positioning: it scores 13498 in Passmark G3D, 44700 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 22121 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its DirectX performance varies significantly by API version — scoring 197 in Passmark DirectX 9, 100 in DirectX 11, and only 48 in DirectX 12. This DirectX 12 weakness is particularly relevant for Minimum, as the game's Ultra settings appear to stress the GPU's newer API capabilities. The GPU's 47th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 9780, confirms it sits near the median of all graphics cards.

At 1080p, the GTX 1070 delivers excellent frame rates, but the data shows a steep performance cliff as resolution increases. The GPU's FP32 compute of 6.463 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s are adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but they fall short at 4K, where the GPU becomes the undeniable bottleneck. The 150 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate this is a power-efficient card for its era, but its end-of-life production status reflects its age.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing Minimum with this hardware. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. It delivers 107 FPS average with a minimum of 91 FPS and maximum of 123 FPS, meaning the frame rate never dips below 90 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above standard 60 FPS displays while maintaining superior visuals to the Low preset.

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates at 1080p, the Low preset delivers 140 FPS average — a 33 FPS improvement over Medium. However, this comes at the cost of visual fidelity. The High preset at 1080p still achieves 90 FPS average, making it viable for 60 Hz displays, while Ultra drops to 68 FPS average, which may cause noticeable stuttering on higher refresh rate monitors.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the recommended choice. It delivers 69 FPS average with a minimum of 59 FPS, keeping gameplay fluid on most displays. The High preset at 58 FPS average approaches but does not consistently exceed 60 FPS, making it a borderline choice. Low at 90 FPS is excellent for competitive play, but Ultra at 44 FPS is too demanding for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, no preset provides an ideal experience. The Low preset at 49 FPS average is the only option above 30 FPS, but it still falls short of 60 FPS. Medium at 37 FPS and High at 31 FPS are playable but not smooth, while Ultra at 24 FPS is below acceptable standards. For 4K, users should accept the Low preset as the only playable option.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance spread across settings is substantial. The Low preset delivers 140 FPS average, establishing the GPU's maximum throughput at this resolution. Medium drops to 107 FPS average, with a minimum of 91 FPS and maximum of 123 FPS. High settings further reduce performance to 90 FPS average, while Ultra bottoms out at 68 FPS average. The 72 FPS gap between Low and Ultra represents a 51% performance penalty for maximum visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges with reduced absolute numbers. Low settings achieve 90 FPS average, exactly matching the 1080p High preset performance. Medium delivers 69 FPS average (minimum 59, maximum 79), while High drops to 58 FPS average. Ultra falls to 44 FPS average. The resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 36% performance at each settings tier.

At 3840x2160, the GTX 1070 struggles across all presets. Low settings produce 49 FPS average, Medium drops to 37 FPS average (minimum 32, maximum 43), and High manages just 31 FPS average. Ultra settings are effectively unplayable at 24 FPS average. The data shows that 4K resolution roughly halves performance compared to 1440p at the same settings tier.

The Medium preset is the only settings level with complete min/max data across all resolutions, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the 91-123 FPS range shows reasonable consistency. At 1440p Medium, the 59-79 FPS range maintains stability. At 4K Medium, the 32-43 FPS range indicates significant frame pacing challenges.

Resolution Scaling

The performance degradation from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound system. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 90 to 58 — a 35.6% reduction. This aligns closely with the pixel count increase of 77.8%, but the less-than-proportional drop suggests some headroom exists in the GPU's rendering pipeline.

The step from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 at High settings is more severe. The average FPS falls from 58 to 31, a 46.6% reduction. The pixel count increases by 125% between these resolutions, indicating the GPU is becoming saturated and efficiency is declining. This pattern is consistent across all settings tiers. At Low settings, the drop from 90 FPS at 1440p to 49 FPS at 4K represents a 45.6% reduction, while at Medium settings the drop from 69 to 37 FPS is 46.4%.

The scaling behavior identifies the GTX 1070 as the limiting component. The Ryzen 7 7700's substantial processing power — with 8 cores, 16 threads, and boost clocks reaching 5.30 GHz — means CPU overhead is not constraining frame rates. The GPU's 256.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 6.463 TFLOPS FP32 compute become increasingly inadequate as pixel counts rise. The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where this GPU can fully stretch its legs, while 4K pushes it far beyond its designed performance envelope.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 provides overwhelming processing headroom for Minimum. This 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 7000 series operates at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosts to 5.30 GHz, built on TSMC's 5 nm process with the Zen 4 Raphael architecture. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache, 1 MB L2 cache per core, and 64 KB L1 cache per core provide ample memory hierarchy for game workloads. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth, ensuring fast data access.

Benchmark results confirm the 7700's strength. It scores 18760 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 1930 in single-core, and 15371 in Geekbench multi-core with 2525 in single-core. The 3DMark tests show scaling from 1049 single-thread to 8484 at 16 threads, indicating excellent multi-threading capabilities. Passmark scores of 34470 multi-thread and 4063 single-thread place it firmly in high-end territory. The CPU's 87th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40081, demonstrates it outperforms the vast majority of processors.

The nearest rivals show how tightly grouped the 7700's performance is. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 scores 40048 (0.1% lower), the Intel Core 5 221E scores 40144 (0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen 9 270 scores 40246 (0.4% higher), and the Intel Core i9-13905H scores 40313 (0.6% higher). These negligible differences confirm that the 7700 delivers top-tier CPU performance for gaming.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is entirely secondary to the GPU. The frame rate patterns across resolutions and settings follow the GPU's capabilities precisely, with no evidence of CPU-induced stuttering or bottlenecking. The 7700's 16 threads ensure that even the most demanding game logic scenarios are handled with ease, while its high single-thread performance maintains consistent frame pacing. For this title, the Ryzen 7 7700 is effectively a non-factor — it provides all the processing power Minimum requires and never limits the GTX 1070's output.