Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Minimum?

A: The combo ranks 1547 out of 1733 tested combinations, placing it in the lower percentile of systems for this game. The GPU sits at the 55th percentile against all GPUs, while the CPU is much stronger at the 91st percentile against all CPUs, indicating a significant imbalance between the two components.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 14286, which is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 at 14314 (-0.2% delta) and the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics at 14315 (-0.2% delta). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT by only 0.7%, whose score is 14389. These are statistical ties rather than meaningful performance differences.

Q: What is the best frame rate achievable at 1080p with this hardware?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 130.8 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 98.7 FPS at Medium, 85.4 FPS at High, and 65.3 FPS at Ultra, showing a clear progression as graphical fidelity increases.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 7700 a bottleneck for the GTX 1660 SUPER in this title?

A: Benchmark data suggests the CPU is far more capable than the GPU. The Ryzen 7 7700 scores 29302 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and sits at the 91st percentile, while the GPU only reaches the 55th percentile. In a game like Minimum, the frame rate ceiling is likely set by the graphics card, not the processor.

Q: What frame rate can players expect at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the playable range is narrow. Low settings produce 45.9 FPS, Medium drops to 33.7 FPS, High falls to 27.3 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 24.7 FPS. None of these reach the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered smooth for a third-person shooter.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700 averages 40468, which is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H at 40431 and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 at 40262. It trails the Intel Core i9-13905H by 0.6% (40712) and leads the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T by 1.2% (39995). These differences are negligible in real-world terms.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It carries 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. These specifications place it as a mid-range card from the GeForce 16 series, one that is now marked as end-of-life production.

The GPU's base clock is 1530 MHz with a boost clock of 1785 MHz. It contains 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 raster operation pipelines. Its pixel rate is 85.68 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 157.1 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute performance is 5.027 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 10.05 TFLOPS. These raw numbers describe a card that is competent for 1080p gaming but will struggle at higher resolutions, which aligns with the measured FPS data in Minimum.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GTX 1660 SUPER posts an average score of 14286, putting it at the 55th percentile of all GPUs. Its DirectX 11 score is 104 and DirectX 12 score is 50, while the older DirectX 9 test yields 189. The OpenCL score from Geekbench is 62664 and Vulkan scores 59933. The Passmark G3D score is 12699 with a G2D score of 805. These figures indicate a card that handles legacy APIs better than modern ones, which matters for a 2014 release like Minimum.

The GPU sits within 0.7% of its nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11, Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics, AMD Radeon Vega 11, and AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT. This tight clustering shows that the GTX 1660 SUPER is not a standout performer in its tier; it is firmly average. The VRAM allocation of 6 GB is adequate for the game's era, but at 4K resolution the measured frame rates demonstrate that memory bandwidth and compute throughput become limiting factors.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 130.8 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops the average to 84.4 FPS, a reduction of 46.4 FPS. At 3840x2160, the frame rate falls further to 45.9 FPS, which is a 35.5% drop from the 1440p result.

The scaling pattern across all settings shows that the GPU becomes the dominant constraint at higher resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 65.3 FPS; at 1440p Ultra it drops to 38.8 FPS; at 4K Ultra it collapses to 24.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 65.5 FPS (130.8 versus 65.3). At 4K, the same comparison yields only 21.2 FPS (45.9 versus 24.7), meaning the resolution ceiling compresses the settings range.

This behavior indicates that Minimum is heavily GPU-bound at 1440p and above. The CPU's strong single-thread score of 4136 in Cinebench R23 and multi-thread score of 29302 cannot compensate for the GPU's limited fill rate at high pixel counts. The 12 nm Turing chip simply lacks the raw throughput to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, regardless of how low the graphical settings are set. At 1080p, however, the GPU has enough headroom to deliver smooth performance across all presets, with even Ultra staying above 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 130.8 FPS, Medium reaches 98.7 FPS, High achieves 85.4 FPS, and Ultra settles at 65.3 FPS. All four presets clear the 60 FPS threshold, making 1080p the only resolution where every setting is playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low averages 84.4 FPS, Medium 62.9 FPS, High 53.3 FPS, and Ultra 38.8 FPS. The Medium preset remains above 60 FPS, but High and Ultra fall below that mark. The step from Low to Medium costs 21.5 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 9.6 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 14.5 FPS. This uneven progression suggests that certain settings have disproportionate performance impacts.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal at best. Low averages 45.9 FPS, Medium 33.7 FPS, High 27.3 FPS, and Ultra 24.7 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is only 2.6 FPS, indicating that the GPU is saturated and additional settings changes have minimal effect. The spread from Low to Ultra is 21.2 FPS, which is the smallest range across all resolutions, reinforcing that 4K pushes the hardware to its absolute limit.

The data shows no minimum or maximum FPS values provided, so the analysis relies solely on averages. The gradual decline from 1080p to 4K follows an expected curve for a GPU with 6 GB of VRAM and a 192-bit memory bus. The 336.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes a bottleneck at 4K, particularly when texture detail demands exceed what the memory subsystem can supply.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a minimum, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all settings work. Ultra at 1080p delivers 65.3 FPS, which is above the threshold with a small margin. If visual fidelity is the priority, Ultra at 1080p is the best measured configuration, offering the highest quality without sacrificing playability.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the only option that maintains 60 FPS, averaging 62.9 FPS. High drops to 53.3 FPS and Ultra to 38.8 FPS, both of which may be acceptable for slower-paced games but are not ideal for a third-person shooter where responsiveness matters. Low at 1440p yields 84.4 FPS, which provides a comfortable buffer but sacrifices visual quality.

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS. The best result is Low at 45.9 FPS, which is playable but not smooth. Medium at 33.7 FPS and High at 27.3 FPS are borderline, while Ultra at 24.7 FPS is likely too sluggish for competitive play. For 4K users, the recommendation is to accept the Low preset if frame rate is the priority, or to avoid 4K entirely and step down to 1440p for a better experience.

The data suggests that the sweet spot for this hardware is 1080p with High or Ultra settings. High at 1080p averages 85.4 FPS, providing a solid balance between visual quality and performance. Ultra at 1080p is also viable at 65.3 FPS. For players who prefer higher resolutions, 1440p Medium is the only preset that preserves the 60 FPS experience, but it comes with a noticeable reduction in graphical detail compared to 1080p Ultra.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is a desktop processor from the 7000 series, built on the Zen 4 architecture with the Raphael codename. It uses a 5 nm process at TSMC and is installed in an AMD Socket AM5. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its TDP is rated at 65 W, which is modest given its performance class.

The cache hierarchy consists of 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3. Memory support is DDR5 with a dual-channel bus, delivering 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The processor also includes Radeon integrated graphics and supports ECC memory. Its release date is 2023-01-13 with a launch MSRP of $329.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 7700 achieves an average score of 40468, placing it at the 91st percentile of all CPUs. Its multi-threaded performance is strong, with Cinebench R23 multi-core scoring 29302 and single-core scoring 4136. The 3DMark results show 8484 for 16 threads, 6933 for 8 threads, 3931 for 4 threads, 2043 for 2 threads, and 1049 for single thread. Passmark multi-thread scores 34470 and single-thread scores 4063.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H at 40431 (0.1% lower), the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 at 40262 (0.5% lower), the Intel Core i9-13905H at 40712 (0.6% higher), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T at 39995 (1.2% lower). These differences are within 1.2%, making the 7700 effectively tied with these competitors in overall CPU performance.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU's capability far exceeds what the GTX 1660 SUPER can utilize. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 8484 and 8-thread score of 6933 demonstrate substantial processing headroom. The measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would have the most influence, the frame rate is 130.8 FPS. This is likely GPU-limited rather than CPU-limited, given the processor's percentile ranking of 91 versus the GPU's 55. The CPU is not a constraining factor in this combination; the GPU is the definitive bottleneck across all resolutions and settings.