Minimum

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is an 8-core, 16-thread desktop processor built on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture at TSMC’s 5 nm node. It runs at a 4.20 GHz base clock and boosts to 5.00 GHz, with a 120 W TDP. Its cache hierarchy is notable: 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and a shared 96 MB L3 cache, which is unusually large for a mainstream desktop part. This large L3 pool matters in a third-person shooter like Minimum, where draw calls, physics ticks, and AI updates can stress memory latency-sensitive workloads.

The CPU’s benchmark profile reinforces its multi-threaded capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 16817 multicore and 1713 single-core. In Geekbench, it hits 15610 multicore and 2426 single-core. PassMark multithread score is 34293, and single-thread is 3759. The 3DMark thread scaling tests show a clear pattern: 2-thread score is 1887, 4-thread is 3684, 8-thread is 6539, and max-thread is 7967, nearly identical to the 16-thread score of 7980. This indicates that the processor scales almost linearly up to 8 threads, then plateaus—suggesting that beyond 8 threads, additional workload parallelism yields minimal gains in this benchmark suite. For a 2014-era shooter, that plateau is unlikely to be a bottleneck, as most game logic threads number well under 8.

The CPU sits at the 83rd percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33079. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Intel Core i7-13650HX both score 33089 (0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX scores 33091 (0% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H scores 33201 (-0.4% delta). This means the 7800X3D is effectively performance-equivalent to those parts in aggregate benchmarks, despite its larger L3 cache. In Minimum, the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings suggests the CPU is rarely the limiting factor; even at 1080p Low, where the CPU has the least GPU work to hide behind, the 7800X3D delivers 187 FPS average, which is well above typical display refresh rates.

The processor’s memory bandwidth is 83.2 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5, and it supports ECC memory. Its PCIe Gen 5 interface with 24 lanes (CPU only) provides ample bandwidth for the Radeon RX 9060, which uses PCIe 5.0 x16. The integrated Radeon Graphics are present but irrelevant for gaming with a discrete GPU. The 7800X3D’s launch MSRP is $449, though that figure is not analyzed further here.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Across the three resolutions tested, the Medium preset consistently offers the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1920x1080, Medium averages 143 FPS with a minimum of 122 and maximum of 165. That is 23 FPS higher than High (120 FPS) and 51 FPS above Ultra (92 FPS). The jump from Medium to High costs 23 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 28 FPS. Meanwhile, the gap from Low (187 FPS) to Medium is 44 FPS, meaning Medium retains most of the smoothness while adding substantial graphical detail.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats. Medium delivers 92 FPS average (79 min, 106 max), which clears the 60 FPS threshold comfortably. High drops to 78 FPS, and Ultra falls to 59 FPS—right at the edge of playability. Low runs at 121 FPS, but for a third-person shooter, the visual trade-off from dropping to Low is rarely worth 29 FPS over Medium. The 1440p Medium preset is the sweet spot: it stays above 90 FPS average, with a minimum that never dips below 79.

At 3840x2160, Medium averages 50 FPS (42 min, 57 max), which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced shooting. High runs at 42 FPS, and Ultra drops to 32 FPS. Low at 65 FPS is the only preset that maintains a consistent 60+ FPS at 4K. For 4K users, the recommendation is either Low for smoothness or Medium if the player accepts sub-60 FPS. The measured data shows no preset at 4K that combines high visual quality with a 60 FPS floor. Given that the game is a third-person shooter, where target acquisition and reaction time matter, the 1440p Medium preset appears to be the best overall experience—it holds above 90 FPS average with a minimum of 79, which is comfortably within the range of high-refresh monitors.

Ultra is consistently the worst performer: 92 FPS at 1080p, 59 at 1440p, and 32 at 4K. The step from Medium to Ultra costs 51 FPS at 1080p, 33 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. The diminishing returns are steep, and the data does not support Ultra as a viable preset for this combination unless the player prioritizes absolute image quality over frame rate stability.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS scaling across resolutions reveals where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p High, the combo averages 120 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, that drops to 78 FPS—a 35% reduction. At 4K High, it falls to 42 FPS—another 46% reduction from 1440p. This steep, consistent decline as pixel count rises indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. The CPU’s strong single-thread and multi-thread scores (Cinebench R23 1713 single-core, 16817 multi-core) are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p, but the Radeon RX 9060’s render throughput cannot keep pace with the increased pixel workload.

The pattern holds across all settings. At Low, 1080p delivers 187 FPS, 1440p delivers 121 FPS (35% drop), and 4K delivers 65 FPS (46% drop). At Medium, the progression is 143 → 92 → 50 (36% and 46% drops, respectively). At Ultra, it’s 92 → 59 → 32 (36% and 46% drops). The consistency of these percentages—roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 46% from 1440p to 4K—strongly suggests a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the limit, we would expect the FPS to plateau at lower resolutions, but instead it scales nearly linearly with resolution.

At 1080p Low, the 187 FPS figure is the highest measured in the entire dataset. Even at that extreme, the CPU does not appear to cap performance—the GPU is still the limiting factor. The RX 9060’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is modest for 4K workloads, which explains the steep drop at 3840x2160. The GPU’s pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s are competitive for 1080p and 1440p, but 4K demands more than double the pixels of 1440p, and the data shows the card cannot sustain playable frame rates at that resolution on higher presets.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1677 out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum. That places it in the 57th percentile of all tested configurations—slightly above the median, but far from top-tier. Given that the CPU alone sits at the 83rd percentile versus all CPUs, the combo’s middling rank is clearly dragged down by the GPU. The RX 9060’s percentile versus all GPUs is 59, which is closer to the combo’s overall rank. This suggests that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing.

The CPU’s nearest rivals—the Ryzen 7 8700G, Core i7-13650HX, and Ryzen 7 7745HX—all have nearly identical average benchmark scores (33089–33091, 0% delta). If those CPUs were paired with the same GPU, the combo rank would likely be similar, since the CPU is not the bottleneck. The GPU’s nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (avg score 16129, -0.7% delta), AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862, +1%), AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852, +1%), and AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679, +2.1%). The RX 9060’s average benchmark score is 16014, which is slightly below the RTX 3060 Ti and just above the RX 7700. In Minimum, a combo with an RTX 3060 Ti would likely rank slightly higher, while one with an RX 7700 would rank slightly lower.

The rank of 1677 out of 2939 means there are 1262 combos that perform worse and 1676 that perform better. The large number of better-performing combos likely includes configurations with higher-end GPUs (e.g., RTX 4070-class or above) paired with mid-range CPUs, since the GPU is the primary driver of Minimum’s performance at higher resolutions. At 1080p, this combo is strong—187 FPS at Low and 143 FPS at Medium—but at 4K, it falls to 65 FPS at Low and 42 FPS at High, which explains why it doesn’t crack the top half of the rankings.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the Navi 44 chip, using RDNA 4.0 architecture at TSMC’s 4 nm process. It has 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, plus 28 ray tracing cores. Its clock speeds are 1700 MHz base, 2400 MHz game clock, and 2990 MHz boost. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective), yielding 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU’s pixel rate is 191.4 GPixel/s, texture rate is 334.9 GTexel/s, and FP32 throughput is 21.43 TFLOPS.

In Minimum, the GPU’s role is decisive. At 1080p, the card has enough headroom to push 187 FPS at Low settings and 143 FPS at Medium. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient at 1080p and 1440p for this 2014 title, as evidenced by the playable frame rates. However, at 4K, the card struggles—42 FPS at High and 32 FPS at Ultra. The VRAM capacity is not necessarily the issue; rather, the 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth limit the pixel fill rate at high resolutions. The transistor count of 29,700 million on a 199 mm² die gives a density of 149.2M transistors per mm², which is high, but that efficiency doesn’t translate to 4K dominance in this game.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its mid-range positioning. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 3322. PassMark G3D score is 17631, and DirectX 11 score is 182. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 88183, and Vulkan is 39476. These numbers place it at the 59th percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rivals are tightly grouped: RTX 3060 Ti at 16129 (-0.7%), R9 370X at 15862 (+1%), RX 7700 at 15852 (+1%), and Pro W5500 at 15679 (+2.1%). The RX 9060’s performance is essentially on par with an RTX 3060 Ti in aggregate benchmarks, which aligns with the measured FPS in Minimum—both would produce similar frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, with the RX 9060 slightly behind at 4K due to its narrower memory bus.

The GPU’s TDP is 132 W, with a single 8-pin power connector and a suggested PSU of 300 W. It uses PCIe 5.0 x16, which is more than adequate for this workload. The display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1b, 2x DisplayPort 2.1a) support modern monitors, but the card’s 4K performance in Minimum is limited to Low or Medium presets for playable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

1920x1080:

• Low: 187 FPS average (highest measured in the dataset).
• Medium: 143 FPS average, 122 min, 165 max.
• High: 120 FPS average.
• Ultra: 92 FPS average.

At 1080p, the combo is overwhelmingly GPU-bound, and the CPU’s 8 cores and 96 MB L3 cache provide ample headroom. The difference between Low and Ultra is 95 FPS, a 51% reduction, indicating that the GPU’s shading units and ROPs are taxed heavily by Ultra settings. The Medium preset’s minimum of 122 FPS means even the worst-case frame time stays above 120 FPS, making it ideal for high-refresh 1080p displays.

2560x1440:

• Low: 121 FPS average.
• Medium: 92 FPS average, 79 min, 106 max.
• High: 78 FPS average.
• Ultra: 59 FPS average.

At 1440p, the GPU begins to feel the load. The step from Low to Medium costs 29 FPS, and Medium to High costs 14 FPS. The Ultra preset barely clears 60 FPS, and its average of 59 FPS means occasional dips below 60 are likely. The Medium preset’s minimum of 79 FPS is still well above 60, making it the safest choice for consistent gameplay. The data shows a 51% drop from Low to Ultra (121 to 59 FPS), which is similar to the 1080p scaling, confirming the GPU is the limiting factor.

3840x2160:

• Low: 65 FPS average.
• Medium: 50 FPS average, 42 min, 57 max.
• High: 42 FPS average.
• Ultra: 32 FPS average.

At 4K, the RX 9060 is clearly out of its depth. Even Low settings only produce 65 FPS, and Medium drops to 50 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS—noticeably below the 60 FPS target. High and Ultra are effectively unplayable for a fast-paced shooter, with averages of 42 and 32 FPS, respectively. The 4K data shows a 51% drop from Low to Ultra, identical to the percentage seen at 1080p and 1440p, which reinforces the GPU-bound nature of the bottleneck. The only way to achieve 60+ FPS at 4K is to use Low settings, and even then, the margin is slim.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset offers the most consistent experience relative to visual quality. At 1080p, it delivers 143 FPS with a 122 FPS minimum; at 1440p, 92 FPS with a 79 FPS minimum; at 4K, 50 FPS with a 42 FPS minimum. The frame time consistency, as indicated by the min/max values, shows that the combo is stable even when the average FPS is modest.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D a bottleneck for the Radeon RX 9060 in Minimum?

A: No. The CPU’s benchmark scores (Cinebench R23 16817 multicore, 1713 single-core) and its 83rd percentile ranking versus all CPUs indicate it is far more capable than the GPU. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 187 FPS, and the consistent FPS scaling across resolutions points to the GPU as the limiting component.

Q: What is the best preset to use at 1440p?

A: Medium is the recommended preset at 2560x1440. It delivers 92 FPS average with a minimum of 79 FPS, while High drops to 78 FPS and Ultra falls to 59 FPS. Medium provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Minimum?

A: Only at Low settings, which achieves 65 FPS average. Medium drops to 50 FPS (42 min), High to 42 FPS, and Ultra to 32 FPS. For consistent 60+ FPS gameplay at 4K, Low is the only viable preset.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 9060’s average benchmark score is 16014. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129 (-0.7% delta), the AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862 (+1%), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 scores 15852 (+1%), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 15679 (+2.1%). The RX 9060 is essentially on par with these parts.

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

A: The combo ranks 1677 out of 2939 tested combinations in Minimum. This places it in the upper-middle tier, with the CPU’s strong performance (83rd percentile) offset by the GPU’s more modest standing (59th percentile).

Q: Does the CPU’s 96 MB L3 cache provide any measurable benefit in this game?

A: The measured FPS does not show a clear advantage over CPUs with similar benchmark scores. The 7800X3D’s nearest rivals all have average benchmark scores within 0.4% (33089–33201), and the combo’s performance in Minimum is primarily GPU-limited. The cache’s benefit would likely appear in CPU-bound scenarios, but at the tested settings, the GPU is the constraint.