Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Minimum with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 show a steep performance curve as resolution climbs. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 378.8 FPS, which drops to 243.6 FPS at 1440p and 130 FPS at 4K. That represents a 65.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as pixel count rises.

The High preset tells a similar story: 242.9 FPS at 1080p, 154.1 FPS at 1440p, and 85.4 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36.6%, while moving from 1440p to 4K costs another 44.6%. This accelerating decline is classic GPU-bound behavior — the CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions, but the RTX 5080's rendering workload scales directly with pixel count.

Ultra settings exaggerate the trend further. At 1080p, the combo manages 186.2 FPS, falling to 117.1 FPS at 1440p and 65.2 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is only 35% of the 1080p Low figure, underscoring how dramatically the graphics card's capabilities are taxed at maximum quality and resolution simultaneously.

The scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p, even with the demanding Ultra preset, the processor can keep the GPU fed. The Ryzen 7 7700's strong single-thread performance — evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1049 and Cinebench R23 single-core result of 4136 — ensures the frame pipeline stays saturated. However, at 4K, the RTX 5080 becomes the clear limiting component, with the CPU's role diminishing as each frame takes longer to render.

Medium settings offer the most consistent scaling across resolutions: 286.8 FPS at 1080p, 188 FPS at 1440p, and 102.6 FPS at 4K. The proportional drops are 34.5% and 45.4% respectively, mirroring the High preset's behavior. This consistency indicates that Medium and High both place similar relative loads on the GPU, while Low and Ultra represent the extremes of the performance envelope.

GPU Role

The RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves more than sufficient for Minimum's demands at all tested settings. The card's 10752 shading units and 112 ROPs drive the pixel throughput, with a pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s. These specifications translate directly to the observed frame rates: at 4K Ultra, the card produces 65.2 FPS, while at 1080p Low it reaches 378.8 FPS.

Clock behavior matters here. The GPU's base clock of 2295 MHz boosts to 2617 MHz, and the memory runs at 1875 MHz with 30 Gbps effective speed. The boost clock headroom allows the card to sustain higher frame rates at lower resolutions, where the shading units aren't the bottleneck. At 4K, the memory bandwidth and ROP throughput become more critical, as evidenced by the 130 FPS result at Low settings — still strong, but far from the 1080p ceiling.

VRAM capacity is not a concern in this title. The 16 GB frame buffer comfortably handles 4K Ultra textures, and the game's 2014 release date means asset sizes are modest by modern standards. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 56.28 TFLOPS provides ample compute for the DirectX 12 rendering path, though Minimum also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The RTX 5080's 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores are largely idle in this game, as Minimum has no significant ray tracing or DLSS implementation in the tested presets. The card's raw rasterization strength is what drives these results, and the data shows it scales predictably with resolution. The performance gap between Ultra and Low at 4K (65.2 FPS vs. 130 FPS) represents a 99.4% improvement, highlighting how much headroom exists in the graphics settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination ranks 75th out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 4.3% of all configurations. This percentile reflects the strength of both components: the CPU sits at the 91st percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks at the 89th percentile among all graphics cards.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores show how close the competition is. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940H scores 40431 with a delta of 0.1% — essentially identical performance. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 trails by 0.5%, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T is 1.2% behind. On the other side, the Intel Core i9-13905H leads by 0.6%. These tiny margins mean the 7700's placement in the combo ranking is determined more by the GPU pairing than by CPU differentiation.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals in aggregate scores are notably different hardware tiers. The Intel Arc Pro A60 leads by 1.9%, while the Intel Arc A570M trails by 1.6%, the Intel Arc A580 by 2.5%, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X by 2.6%. The RTX 5080's 89th percentile ranking among all GPUs, combined with its 59188 average benchmark score, shows it is a top-tier part, though the deltaPct values indicate the surrounding competition is tight within a few percentage points.

The combo's 75th rank out of 1733 suggests that while many configurations exist, only 74 achieve higher frame rates in Minimum. Given the game's age and the modern hardware involved, this ranking reflects the ceiling of what current components can achieve in this title. The 7700's 8 cores and 16 threads, running at up to 5.30 GHz boost, provide the single-thread performance this game favors, while the RTX 5080's raw throughput handles the rest.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Minimum?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 378.8 FPS, the highest measured result across all tested configurations.

Q: How much performance drops when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: The frame rate falls from 186.2 FPS at 1080p to 65.2 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 65% at the Ultra preset.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 4K in this game?

A: The data shows GPU-bound behavior at 4K: the RTX 5080's workload scales with pixel count, while the Ryzen 7 7700's single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 1049) keeps pace at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 75th out of 1733 combos, placing it in the top 4.3% of all tested systems for Minimum.

Q: Is the RTX 5080's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: Yes, the 16 GB GDDR7 frame buffer with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth is more than adequate for 4K Ultra settings in Minimum, given the game's 2014 asset sizes.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 7700 compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The 7700's aggregate benchmark score of 40468 is 0.1% ahead of the Ryzen 9 7940H, 0.5% ahead of the Ryzen AI 9 365, 1.2% ahead of the Core Ultra 5 235T, and 0.6% behind the Core i9-13905H.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience in Minimum. For players targeting 4K, the High preset at 85.4 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, as Ultra drops to 65.2 FPS — still playable but with less margin. At Medium, the 102.6 FPS result provides a comfortable buffer above 60 FPS, making it the safe choice for competitive play at 4K.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 154.1 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. Ultra at 117.1 FPS remains viable for those prioritizing image quality, while Medium at 188 FPS is ideal for high-refresh displays. The Low preset's 243.6 FPS is excessive for most users but useful for esports settings.

The 1080p results show this combo is overkill for standard monitors. Even Ultra runs at 186.2 FPS, and High reaches 242.9 FPS. For 240Hz displays, Medium at 286.8 FPS or Low at 378.8 FPS provides the headroom needed to maintain maximum refresh rates without dips. The data indicates that players should prioritize resolution over settings with this hardware: 4K High delivers a better experience than 1080p Ultra, given the frame rates involved.

For the best overall experience, the High preset at 1440p (154.1 FPS) offers the strongest combination of visual fidelity and performance headroom. At 4K, Medium (102.6 FPS) is the recommended sweet spot, as it maintains triple-digit frame rates while preserving most graphical features. Ultra settings are only advisable at 1080p, where the 186.2 FPS result ensures smooth gameplay despite the maximum quality load.