Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti in Minimum reveals a clear pattern: this combination scales predictably with resolution, but the degree of performance loss between 1080p and 4K indicates a shift in the limiting component. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces 210 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 135 FPS, a reduction of 75 FPS. At 4K High, the average falls further to 73 FPS. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 137 FPS, or roughly 65% lower performance.

This scaling behavior is typical for a system where the CPU is strong enough to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. The Ryzen 7 7700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, has a single-thread benchmark score of 1090 in 3DMark and 1987 in Cinebench R23. These strong single-thread results allow the CPU to push very high frame rates at 1080p, as evidenced by the 326 FPS average at Low settings. At that resolution and settings level, the GPU is clearly the dominant factor, but the CPU is not holding back the frame rate.

As resolution increases to 4K, the pixel count quadruples, placing a much heavier load on the GPU's memory subsystem. The RTX 4070 Ti's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. At 4K Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 56. This is the lowest measured result across all configurations. The gap between 1080p Ultra (160 FPS) and 4K Ultra (56 FPS) is 104 FPS. This steep decline confirms that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions.

Interestingly, the scaling from Medium to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent pattern. At 1080p, the difference between Medium (250 FPS) and Ultra (160 FPS) is 90 FPS. At 1440p, that gap narrows to 58 FPS (161 vs 103). At 4K, the gap between Medium (87 FPS) and Ultra (56 FPS) is just 31 FPS. This compression of performance differences at higher resolutions further demonstrates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases, since the relative cost of each additional quality setting grows with pixel count.

The data suggests that for competitive play at lower resolutions, this combo is heavily GPU-bound at Low settings, but the CPU's headroom is sufficient. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Users targeting 4K should expect a substantial performance hit compared to 1440p, with the average FPS at 4K High (73) being roughly half of that at 1440p High (135). This is a significant gap that indicates the RTX 4070 Ti is more suited to high-refresh 1440p gaming than to 4K gaming in this title.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to use with this CPU-GPU combo in Minimum?*

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At High settings, the combo achieves 135 FPS average at 1440p, which is well above the 73 FPS at 4K High. The 1440p results are also high enough to take advantage of high-refresh-rate monitors, with Medium settings reaching 161 FPS and Low reaching 211 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 210 at 1080p to 135 at 1440p, and then to 73 at 4K. This represents a 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 160 FPS at 1080p to 56 FPS at 4K, a 65% reduction as well. The consistent percentage loss across settings indicates a predictable scaling pattern.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low settings, the combo produces 326 FPS average. This very high frame rate suggests the GPU is still the primary limiter, but the CPU's strong single-thread performance (1090 in 3DMark single-thread) is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking. The fact that the frame rate increases from Low to Medium (326 to 250 FPS) and then to High (210 FPS) shows that the GPU is the component that scales with settings.

Q: What settings preset provides the most consistent frame pacing at 4K?

A: The only 4K configuration with measured minimum and maximum FPS data is Medium, which shows an average of 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. This 26 FPS spread between min and max is relatively narrow, suggesting stable frame pacing. The other 4K presets lack this data, but the Medium preset appears to offer a balanced experience.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 511th out of 3712 tested combinations in Minimum. This places it in the top 14% of all tested combos. This ranking reflects the strong performance of both the CPU and GPU, but also indicates that there are faster configurations available for this game.

Q: Can this combo handle high-refresh 1440p gaming?

A: Yes. At 1440p High settings, the combo achieves 135 FPS average. At Medium settings, it reaches 161 FPS. These results are well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on many gaming monitors. The Low setting pushes even higher to 211 FPS, which would suit 240 Hz displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti achieves a rank of 511 out of 3712 tested combinations in Minimum. This places the combo in the upper tier of all tested configurations, specifically in the top 13.8% of the field. This ranking is impressive given the game's release date in 2014, but the data shows that modern hardware still has a wide performance spread.

Looking at the individual components, the CPU sits at the 85th percentile compared to all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35909. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (average score 35802, deltaPct 0.3), the Intel Core 7 250H (average score 35728, deltaPct 0.5), and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (average score 35719, deltaPct 0.5). The 7700X leads all of these by a narrow margin, with only a 0.3% advantage over the closest competitor. This indicates that the CPU is performing at the expected level for its class.

The GPU ranks at the 84th percentile compared to all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44795. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (average score 45152, deltaPct -0.8), the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (average score 45384, deltaPct -1.3), and the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (average score 44075, deltaPct 1.6). The RTX 4070 Ti trails the RTX 5090 Mobile by 0.8% and the Radeon Pro 5500 XT by 1.3%, but it leads the RTX A6000 by 1.6%. This places the GPU in a competitive position relative to its peers.

The overall combo rank of 511 out of 3712 suggests that while both components are strong individually, the combination does not reach the absolute top tier. The measured FPS data supports this, as the combo achieves 210 FPS at 1080p High, which is very good but not the highest possible result. The rank reflects the balance of the two components, with neither being a weak link that drags down overall performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 326 FPS. Medium settings reduce this to 250 FPS, with a minimum of 212 FPS and a maximum of 287 FPS. High settings yield 210 FPS average. Ultra settings produce 160 FPS average. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 166 FPS drop, which is the largest range across any resolution.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings average 211 FPS. Medium settings average 161 FPS, with a minimum of 137 FPS and a maximum of 185 FPS. High settings average 135 FPS. Ultra settings average 103 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 108 FPS. This reduction in the performance range compared to 1080p (166 FPS) confirms that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly. Low settings produce an average of 113 FPS. Medium settings average 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. High settings average 73 FPS. Ultra settings average 56 FPS. The range from Low to Ultra is 57 FPS, which is the smallest of all three resolutions. This compression of the performance range at 4K clearly demonstrates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the settings adjustments have less impact on overall frame rate.

The Medium settings at each resolution provide the most complete data, with minimum and maximum FPS values reported. At 1080p Medium, the spread is 75 FPS (212 to 287). At 1440p Medium, the spread is 48 FPS (137 to 185). At 4K Medium, the spread is 26 FPS (74 to 100). This narrowing of the frame time variance at higher resolutions is another indicator of GPU-bound performance, as the frame rate becomes more consistent when the GPU is fully saturated.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti plays a critical role in determining Minimum's performance at higher resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The memory operates at 1313 MHz, or 21 Gbps effective. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game's demands at 1080p and 1440p, where the measured frame rates are high. At 4K, the 12 GB capacity and bandwidth become more important, as the game requires more memory for higher resolution textures and effects.

The GPU's clock speeds are 2310 MHz base and 2610 MHz boost. These clocks, combined with the 7680 shading units and 240 texture mapping units, deliver the computational throughput needed for high frame rates. The pixel rate is 208.8 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 626.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 40.09 TFLOPS. These specifications translate into the measured performance, with the GPU capable of pushing 326 FPS at 1080p Low but dropping to 56 FPS at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's architecture is Ada Lovelace, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. It has 60 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores. While these features are not directly measured in the Minimum benchmark data, they contribute to the GPU's overall capability. The GPU's percentile rank of 84 places it above the majority of tested GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 44795 is competitive with its nearest rivals.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 56, which is the lowest result across all configurations. The gap between 4K Medium (87 FPS) and 4K Ultra (56 FPS) is 31 FPS, while the gap between 1080p Medium (250 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (160 FPS) is 90 FPS. This indicates that the GPU's performance headroom shrinks as resolution increases, which is expected given the fixed memory bandwidth and compute resources.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, all settings presets deliver playable frame rates. The Ultra preset averages 160 FPS, which is suitable for high-refresh gaming. The High preset averages 210 FPS, providing an even smoother experience. For competitive play, the Low preset at 326 FPS offers the highest possible frame rate, though the visual quality is reduced. The Medium preset at 250 FPS provides a good balance between visual fidelity and performance.

At 1440p, the recommended preset is High, which averages 135 FPS. This is above the 120 Hz threshold commonly found on 1440p monitors and provides a good visual experience. The Medium preset at 161 FPS is also viable, offering a higher frame rate with slightly reduced visual quality. The Ultra preset at 103 FPS is playable, but it falls below the 120 FPS threshold that many gamers prefer. The Low preset at 211 FPS is suitable for competitive play but sacrifices too much visual quality for most users.

At 4K, the measured results show that the Medium preset is the best option. It averages 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. This provides a playable experience, though not at high refresh rates. The High preset averages 73 FPS, which is still playable but with less headroom. The Ultra preset at 56 FPS is borderline playable, but the frame rate is too low for smooth gameplay. The Low preset at 113 FPS is the only 4K option that exceeds 100 FPS, but the visual quality is significantly reduced.

The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the most consistent frame pacing, as it is the only preset with reported minimum and maximum FPS values across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the range is 212 to 287 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 137 to 185 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range is 74 to 100 FPS. This consistency makes Medium a safe choice for users who prioritize smoothness over maximum visual quality. For users with high-refresh 1440p monitors, the High preset is recommended as the best overall balance of quality and performance.