Minimum

# FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Minimum?

A: The data shows the strongest experience at 1920x1080 with Low settings, delivering an average of 90.5 FPS. This is the only settings/resolution pair where the average exceeds 90 FPS, while Medium at 1080p reaches 72.2 FPS and High at 1080p hits 60 FPS.

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D perform relative to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 7800X3D has an average benchmark score of 31580, placing it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700F (31543), 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX (31495), and 0.6% ahead of both the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G (31407) and AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX (31402). This indicates a tightly clustered group at the top of the pack.

Q: What is the GPU's standing compared to its closest competitors?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 13559, which is statistically tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, 0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (13549, 0.1% delta). It sits 1.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro 455 (13416) and 1.1% below the NVIDIA P106-090 (13716).

Q: How severe is the frame rate drop when moving from 1080p to 4K in Minimum?

A: The drop is substantial. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 90.5 at 1920x1080 to 58.8 at 2560x1440, and then to 29.1 at 3840x2160. That represents a 68% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K, indicating a heavy GPU load at higher resolutions.

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

A: This combination of AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 1622 out of 1733 tested combos, placing it in the lower percentile of all tested systems for Minimum. This suggests the GPU is the limiting factor for this game's performance.

Q: Does the CPU show any signs of bottlenecking at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary constraint. At 1080p, the RX 580 delivers 90.5 FPS on Low but only 42.9 FPS on Ultra, showing the GPU's workload scaling directly with settings. The CPU's high multi-threaded performance (29149 in Cinebench R23 multi-core) appears sufficient to feed the GPU, as the FPS changes align with GPU-side rendering demands.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580, built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, operates with a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. It features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This configuration delivers 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance, which is the raw processing power that determines how quickly the GPU can render frames in Minimum.

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern: the GPU's performance scales significantly with both resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 90.5 (Low) down to 42.9 (Ultra). Moving to 2560x1440, scores drop to between 58.8 (Low) and 27.6 (Ultra). At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles, with averages between 29.1 (Low) and 12.5 (Ultra). This scaling behavior indicates that the RX 580's 8 GB VRAM and 256-bit memory interface are sufficient for the game's demands, but the compute units (2304 shading units) become saturated at higher resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its mid-range positioning. Its Passmark G3D score of 8813 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1005 place it at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals—the GTX 570 and GTX 950—show essentially identical average scores, confirming that the RX 580 sits in a competitive but not dominant tier. The 14 nm process node and 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die explain its thermal and power profile, with a TDP of 185 W.

In Minimum, the GPU's role is decisive. The frame rate differences between Low and Ultra settings at every resolution are substantial—for instance, at 1440p, Ultra delivers 27.6 FPS versus 58.8 FPS on Low, a 2.1x difference. This indicates that Minimum's rendering pipeline is heavily GPU-bound, and the RX 580's raw fillrate (42.88 GPixel/s pixel rate) and texture throughput (193.0 GTexel/s) directly determine playability.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of playable experiences. For smooth gameplay, the 1920x1080 Low setting is the only configuration that achieves an average above 90 FPS, hitting 90.5. This should be the baseline for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, as it offers the largest margin above common 60 FPS thresholds.

For users prioritizing visual quality, 1920x1080 Medium at 72.2 FPS is a strong compromise, offering a 25% FPS reduction from Low while presumably improving visuals. At 1080p High, the average is exactly 60 FPS, which remains playable on standard 60 Hz displays. However, the Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 42.9 FPS, which may introduce perceptible stutter in a third-person shooter.

At 2560x1440, the options are more limited. Low settings produce 58.8 FPS, which is near the 60 FPS target but not above it. Medium drops to 43.1 FPS, and High to 39 FPS. Ultra at 1440p is not advisable, sitting at 27.6 FPS. For 4K, even Low settings (29.1 FPS) are below playable thresholds for an action game, and Ultra at 12.5 FPS is unplayable.

The recommendation is to use 1080p Low for the best experience, as it provides the highest frame rate of any configuration. If visual fidelity is paramount, 1080p Medium offers a balanced trade-off. The data does not support any 1440p or 4K settings as consistently playable for a shooter, given all measured averages fall below 60 FPS.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RX 580 delivers a full range of results. Low settings average 90.5 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combo. Medium reaches 72.2 FPS, High hits exactly 60 FPS, and Ultra drops to 42.9 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 52.6% reduction in average FPS, demonstrating the GPU's sensitivity to shading and post-processing effects.

At 2560x1440, the performance envelope shifts downward. Low averages 58.8 FPS, Medium 43.1 FPS, High 39 FPS, and Ultra 27.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 31.2 FPS, a smaller absolute difference than at 1080p (47.6 FPS), indicating that resolution scaling compresses the settings range as the GPU becomes more pixel-bound.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overmatched. Low averages 29.1 FPS, Medium 24.1 FPS, High 21 FPS, and Ultra 12.5 FPS. None of these are near playable for a third-person shooter, and the Ultra result is less than half of the Low result. The 4K data suggests that the RX 580's 6.175 TFLOPS of compute and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the pixel fill demands of Minimum at this resolution.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across settings. At Low, the average falls from 90.5 FPS (1080p) to 58.8 FPS (1440p) to 29.1 FPS (4K)—a 68% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Medium, the numbers are 72.2, 43.1, and 24.1, a 67% drop. At High, the sequence is 60, 39, and 21, a 65% reduction. Ultra goes from 42.9 to 27.6 to 12.5, a 71% drop.

This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the FPS drops by roughly two-thirds, which is consistent with a rendering pipeline that is fill-rate limited. The RX 580's pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s are simply not enough to sustain high frame rates at 4K.

The ratio between 1080p and 1440p FPS at each settings level is revealing. At Low, 90.5/58.8 = 1.54; at Medium, 72.2/43.1 = 1.68; at High, 60/39 = 1.54; at Ultra, 42.9/27.6 = 1.55. The consistency of this ~1.55x factor suggests a uniform GPU-bound scaling, as opposed to a CPU bottleneck that would flatten the curve at lower resolutions. The 1440p to 4K ratio is steeper (58.8/29.1 = 2.02 at Low), indicating even more severe pixel pressure at 4K.

# CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a 7000-series desktop processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture manufactured on a 5 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The CPU's cache hierarchy is notable: 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and a massive 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is designed to reduce memory latency in gaming workloads.

Benchmark results show the CPU's strength in both single and multi-threaded tasks. In Cinebench R23, it scores 4115 single-core and 29149 multi-core. The Geekbench results (2725 single-core, 15101 multi-core) and 3DMark scores (959 single-thread, 7980 16-thread) reinforce its position at the 87th percentile of all CPUs. The average benchmark score of 31580 places it just ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700F and AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX, both within 0.3%.

In Minimum, the CPU's role appears secondary. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (90.5) is high, but the sharp decline to 42.9 FPS at Ultra suggests the GPU is overwhelmed, not the CPU. The Ryzen 7's 16 threads and high boost clock of 5.00 GHz provide ample headroom for game logic and physics, but the game's frame rate is dictated by GPU rendering. The 96 MB L3 cache likely helps with data reuse in the game's scenes, but the evidence points to the RX 580 as the performance ceiling.

The CPU's 3DMark 2-thread score of 1887 and 4-thread score of 3684 show strong scaling, which is typical for a modern 8-core design. The Passmark single-thread score of 3759 is competitive, and the multithread score of 34293 indicates robust parallel performance. For Minimum, a third-person shooter that likely relies on a few primary threads, the CPU's single-core performance (4115 in Cinebench R23 single-core) is more than sufficient.

# How This Combo Ranks

This combination of AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 1622 out of 1733 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the 6th percentile of all tested systems. This is a surprisingly low ranking given the CPU's strength—the Ryzen 7 7800X3D ranks at the 87th percentile of all CPUs—which underscores the extent to which the GPU drags down overall performance.

The data suggests a significant imbalance. The CPU is a top-tier processor, sitting within 0.6% of its nearest rivals, all of which are high-end desktop or mobile parts. In contrast, the GPU ranks at the 53rd percentile, with its nearest rivals being older or lower-tier cards like the GTX 570 and GTX 950. This 34-percentile-point gap between CPU and GPU is the root cause of the low combo ranking.

In the context of Minimum, the combo ranking reflects real-world playability. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 90.5 FPS, which is playable, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 12.5 FPS. The low ranking suggests that most other tested combos—likely those with more balanced CPU-GPU pairings—deliver better average performance across the measured settings. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D's capabilities are effectively wasted in this configuration for Minimum, as the RX 580 cannot translate the CPU's computational throughput into frame rate.

The ranking also implies that users with this combo should consider lower resolutions and settings to extract acceptable performance, as the data shows no 1440p or 4K configuration reaching 60 FPS. The combo's position at 1622/1733 serves as a caution that a high-end CPU does not compensate for a mid-range GPU in GPU-bound scenarios, and that for Minimum, the RX 580 is the definitive bottleneck.