Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a robust experience in Minimum, a 2014 Third-Person Shooter. Benchmark data shows this combination ranks 1228th out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all systems. The measured frame rates reveal a configuration that scales predictably with resolution and settings, though the data suggests the balance between CPU and GPU shifts significantly as workload increases.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 123 FPS at 1920x1080 to 99 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 24 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 73 FPS, representing a 50 FPS decline from the 1080p baseline. This 40.7% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K at High settings demonstrates that the rendering workload scales heavily with pixel count.

The scaling pattern is even more pronounced at Low settings. The average frame rate at 1080p is 211 FPS, which drops to 170 FPS at 1440p and then to 125 FPS at 4K. The total decrease from 1080p to 4K is 86 FPS, a 40.8% reduction. This consistent percentage drop across settings suggests that the RTX 4080's pixel throughput capabilities are the dominant factor, as the CPU overhead remains relatively constant while the GPU workload increases with resolution.

At Medium settings, the measured data includes min and max frame rates, providing additional insight into scaling behavior. At 1080p, the average is 164 FPS with a range of 139-188 FPS. At 1440p, the average drops to 132 FPS with a range of 112-152 FPS, and at 4K, the average falls to 97 FPS with a range of 83-112 FPS. The frame time consistency appears to hold across resolutions, as the spread between min and max remains roughly proportional to the average.

The Ultra settings row follows the same trend, with averages of 117 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K. The difference between High and Ultra is relatively small at each resolution, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds visual features that require additional GPU resources but do not fundamentally alter the workload balance. Overall, the data indicates that users targeting 4K will need to compromise on settings to maintain high frame rates, while 1080p and 1440p offer more headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 7700X and RTX 4080 achieves a rank of 1228 out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 66.9th percentile of all tested systems. This rank reflects the balance between the CPU's processing power and the GPU's rendering capability for this specific title. The combo sits well above the median, indicating that it outperforms the majority of systems tested in this game.

The CPU's individual performance contributes to this ranking. The Ryzen 7 7700X has an average benchmark score of 35909 and sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 with an average score of 35802 (0.3% lower), the Intel Core 7 250H at 35728 (0.5% lower), and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 at 35719 (0.5% lower). The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H trails at 35670, which is 0.7% lower. This tight grouping indicates that the 7700X is competitive with other high-end processors, though the differences are marginal.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247 and ranks in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the RTX 4080 SUPER with a score of 54209, which is 0.1% lower. Interestingly, the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (1.1% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (2.6% higher). The AMD Radeon 8060S leads this group at 55757, which is 2.7% higher than the 4080. These deltas are small, suggesting that the 4080 performs at a similar level to its immediate competitors despite the ranking difference.

The combo's rank of 1228 likely reflects that while both components are individually strong, the game's engine may not fully utilize the available hardware. The measured frame rates at 1080p are high but not extreme, indicating that the CPU may not be the bottleneck at lower resolutions, while the GPU takes over at 4K. The overall rank suggests a well-balanced system that delivers consistent performance across typical gaming scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The memory operates at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed. These specifications are relevant to Minimum because the game's texture and geometry demands at higher resolutions will benefit from the large memory pool and high bandwidth. The 16 GB capacity ensures that even at 4K Ultra settings, the GPU is unlikely to run out of memory, as evidenced by the measured 70 FPS average at that configuration.

The GPU's clock speeds are 2205 MHz base and 2505 MHz boost, with a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s. These figures translate to a raw throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 performance. In Minimum, the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K suggests that the GPU's fillrate and shading capabilities are the primary determinants of performance at higher resolutions. The 40% drop in FPS from 1080p to 4K across all settings aligns with the quadratic increase in pixel count, indicating that the GPU is operating near its expected efficiency.

The RTX 4080's benchmark scores reinforce its capability. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 6567, and in Geekbench Vulkan, it reaches 263779. The Passmark G3D score is 34457, while GPU compute scores 20671. These synthetic benchmarks are consistent with the measured in-game performance, showing that the GPU can handle both rasterization and compute workloads effectively. The RTX 4080's 9728 shading units and 112 ROPs provide ample resources for the game's rendering pipeline, and the 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores, while not directly relevant to Minimum's likely non-ray-traced rendering, contribute to the overall architecture's efficiency.

The GPU's power characteristics, with a TDP of 320 W and a suggested PSU of 700 W, are consistent with its performance class. The triple-slot design and 310 mm length indicate a substantial cooling solution, which is necessary to maintain boost clocks during extended gaming sessions. The 1x 16-pin power connector reflects the modern power delivery standard, and the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides sufficient bandwidth for the GPU's data transfer needs.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average frame rate at 2560x1440 with High settings is 99 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54247 on average, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER's 54209, but 1.1% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X's 54828.

Q: What is the minimum measured frame rate at 4K Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the minimum frame rate is 83 FPS, with an average of 97 FPS and a maximum of 112 FPS.

Q: How many frames per second does the combo achieve at 1080p Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average frame rate is 211 FPS.

Q: What percentile does the Ryzen 7 7700X rank in among all CPUs?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700X ranks in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35909.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield 99 FPS average, while Ultra settings yield 95 FPS average, a difference of 4 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

For users prioritizing high frame rates in Minimum, the Low preset at 1080p delivers the highest measured average at 211 FPS, which is suitable for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays. At 1440p, Low still offers a strong 170 FPS average, while Medium provides 132 FPS with a min of 112 FPS, ensuring smoother frame pacing. For 4K, Low is the only setting that breaks 120 FPS, achieving 125 FPS average, whereas Medium drops to 97 FPS and High falls to 73 FPS.

The data suggests that Medium settings offer the best balance between visual quality and performance for most users. At 1080p, Medium averages 164 FPS with a tight range of 139-188 FPS, which is only 47 FPS lower than Low but likely provides noticeably better visuals. At 1440p, Medium averages 132 FPS, which remains above the 120 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 4K, Medium's 97 FPS average is playable but may not satisfy users with 120 Hz or higher refresh rate monitors.

High settings provide a marginal visual upgrade over Medium but at a significant performance cost. The average frame rate drops by 41 FPS at 1080p (from 164 to 123 FPS) and by 33 FPS at 1440p (from 132 to 99 FPS). The Ultra preset offers even less value, with only a 6 FPS difference from High at 1080p (117 vs 123 FPS) and a 4 FPS difference at 1440p (95 vs 99 FPS). Given this small gap, Ultra is not recommended unless users have spare GPU headroom.

For 4K gaming, users should consider Medium as the practical ceiling, as the 97 FPS average provides a good experience without the visual compromises of Low. The High and Ultra presets at 4K (73 and 70 FPS respectively) fall below the 75 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for a responsive experience. The Low preset at 4K (125 FPS) is the only option that fully utilizes high-refresh-rate displays at this resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Raphael. It operates with a base clock of 4.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, providing strong single-threaded performance that is critical for games like Minimum that may not fully utilize all available cores. The CPU has a 32 MB shared L3 cache, along with 1 MB L2 per core and 64 KB L1 per core, which helps reduce memory latency and improve game performance.

The CPU's benchmark results show a significant scaling from single-core to multi-core workloads. In 3DMark, it scores 1090 in single-thread, 2112 in 2-thread, 4074 in 4-thread, 7057 in 8-thread, and 8859 in 16-thread tests, with a max-thread score of 8852. This scaling indicates that the CPU can efficiently utilize additional threads, which is beneficial for games that support multi-threading. The Cinebench R23 scores are 1987 for single-core and 19088 for multi-core, while Geekbench shows 2289 single-core and 12451 multi-core.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is likely more prominent at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is not fully saturated. At 1080p Low, the average frame rate of 211 FPS suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to achieve high frame rates. The fact that the frame rate drops to 125 FPS at 4K Low indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU can still maintain high throughput.

The CPU's memory support includes DDR5 with a dual-channel bus and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth, which provides ample memory bandwidth for game data. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 24 lanes ensures that the GPU and other peripherals have sufficient bandwidth. The CPU's 105 W TDP is moderate, and the 5 nm process node from TSMC allows for efficient power delivery, which is reflected in the 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die.

The Ryzen 7 7700X's performance relative to its rivals is consistent across benchmarks. It leads the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 by 0.3%, the Intel Core 7 250H by 0.5%, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 by 0.5%. This small margin suggests that the 7700X is well-positioned among modern processors, though users upgrading from a previous generation may see more significant gains.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo in Minimum are as follows:

At 1920x1080:

• Low: 211 FPS average
• Medium: 164 FPS average, with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 188 FPS
• High: 123 FPS average
• Ultra: 117 FPS average

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 170 FPS average
• Medium: 132 FPS average, with a minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 152 FPS
• High: 99 FPS average
• Ultra: 95 FPS average

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 125 FPS average
• Medium: 97 FPS average, with a minimum of 83 FPS and a maximum of 112 FPS
• High: 73 FPS average
• Ultra: 70 FPS average

The data reveals a consistent pattern where each resolution step down - from 4K to 1440p to 1080p - provides a substantial performance uplift. The largest absolute gains are seen when moving from 4K to 1440p, where the average FPS increases by 45 FPS at Low (from 125 to 170), 35 FPS at Medium (from 97 to 132), 26 FPS at High (from 73 to 99), and 25 FPS at Ultra (from 70 to 95). Moving from 1440p to 1080p yields additional gains of 41 FPS at Low, 32 FPS at Medium, 24 FPS at High, and 22 FPS at Ultra.

The settings impact is also consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 94 FPS, representing a 44.5% drop. At 1440p, the gap is 75 FPS (44.1% drop), and at 4K, the gap is 55 FPS (44.0% drop). This consistent percentage drop indicates that the settings presets scale uniformly regardless of resolution, which is helpful for users predicting performance across different configurations.

The Medium preset's min and max frame rates provide additional insight into frame pacing. At 1080p, the range is 49 FPS (139 to 188), at 1440p it is 40 FPS (112 to 152), and at 4K it is 29 FPS (83 to 112). The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the frame time variance decreases as the GPU becomes more saturated, potentially leading to smoother experiences at 4K despite the lower average frame rate.