Minimum

# Minimum with AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a playable experience in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released in 2014. The measured data shows a combination that ranks 2064th out of 2939 tested combos for this game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field. The CPU is a Zen 5 (Granite Ridge) part with 8 cores and 16 threads, boosting to 5.50 GHz, while the GPU is a RDNA 2.0 Navi 23 chip with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. Together, they produce frame rates that range from a minimum of 29 FPS at 4K Ultra to a maximum of 170 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that the experience is heavily dependent on resolution and quality settings.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Minimum?*

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 delivers the highest frame rates across all settings, with averages ranging from 83 FPS at Ultra to 170 FPS at Low. At 2560x1440, averages drop to between 54 FPS (Ultra) and 110 FPS (Low). At 3840x2160, the combo struggles, with averages between 29 FPS (Ultra) and 59 FPS (Low).

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875), 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163), 0.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515), and 0.9% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700K (69355). These are all extremely close scores, indicating near-parity with those high-end parts.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT sits at the 70th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24442. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (0.7% higher score), Intel Arc A350M (0.8% lower), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (0.8% higher), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (1.1% higher).

*Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in Minimum?*

A: The data indicates that at 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 59 FPS at Low, 45 FPS at Medium, 38 FPS at High, and 29 FPS at Ultra. While the game runs, the performance is marginal at best — the 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be a limiting factor at this resolution.

*Q: How does the combo rank specifically for Minimum?*

A: The combo ranks 2064th out of 2939 tested combinations for this game, which places it in the 70th percentile of all combos tested. This suggests that while it is not a top-tier performer in this title, it is far from the bottom of the pack.

Q: What are the CPU's clock speeds and how do they influence performance?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The high boost clock likely helps maintain frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios, but the measured data shows that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of which preset delivers the best experience. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves an average of 130 FPS with a minimum of 111 FPS and a maximum of 150 FPS. This is a strong result, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and providing headroom for smooth gameplay. The High preset at the same resolution drops to 109 FPS average, which is still excellent, but the Medium preset offers a better balance of visual quality and performance headroom.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. This is playable, but the frame time variance is more noticeable than at 1080p. The Low preset at 1440p averages 110 FPS, which would be preferable for competitive play, but the visual compromise is significant. The High preset at 1440p averages 70 FPS, which is borderline for a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets deliver a truly smooth experience. The Low preset averages 59 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS target, while Medium drops to 45 FPS and High to 38 FPS. Ultra is effectively unplayable at 29 FPS. For 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option, and even then, it is marginal.

The data suggests that the optimal experience is at 1920x1080 with the Medium preset, which provides 130 FPS average and a minimum of 111 FPS, ensuring consistent frame times. For users willing to accept lower visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1080p offers 170 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. At higher resolutions, the Medium preset at 1440p is the best compromise, but the 4K results indicate that this combo is not suited for that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 2064th out of 2939 tested combos for Minimum. This places it at roughly the 70th percentile of all tested combinations — a position that reflects the GPU's mid-range standing rather than the CPU's high-end capability. The CPU alone sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 70th percentile among all GPUs. This discrepancy suggests that the GPU is the performance limiter in this pairing.

The rank of 2064 out of 2939 means there are 875 combos that perform worse and 2063 that perform better. For a game released in 2014, this combo is not a top performer, but it is also not at the bottom. The data implies that many older or lower-end GPUs, when paired with high-end CPUs, can achieve better results in this title. The RX 6600 XT's nearest rivals — the GTX 1630, Arc A350M, GTX 780 Ti, and RTX 2080 SUPER — all have nearly identical average benchmark scores, which suggests that this GPU is in a crowded performance tier.

The rank also indicates that the combo is more than capable of running the game at acceptable frame rates at lower resolutions, but it falls short at 4K. The 1080p and 1440p results are solid, with the Medium preset at 1080p delivering 130 FPS, which would rank well against other combos in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured data shows a clear progression across settings. The Low preset delivers an average of 170 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combo. The Medium preset averages 130 FPS, with a minimum of 111 FPS and a maximum of 150 FPS. The High preset averages 109 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 83 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 40 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 21 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 26 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the same progression holds but with lower absolute values. Low averages 110 FPS, Medium averages 84 FPS (with a minimum of 71 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS), High averages 70 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 26 FPS, between Medium and High is 14 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 16 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the results become marginal. Low averages 59 FPS, Medium averages 45 FPS (with a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 52 FPS), High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 29 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 14 FPS, between Medium and High is 7 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 9 FPS. This compression of frame rates at 4K indicates that the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling.

The data shows that the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly linear, with about a 35-38% drop in frame rates across all settings. However, the scaling from 1440p to 4K is more severe, with a 46-52% drop, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being saturated.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the primary performance limiter in this combo. The GPU has a base clock of 1968 MHz, a game clock of 2359 MHz, and a boost clock of 2589 MHz. It features 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with 32 ray tracing cores. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a mixed picture. Its Passmark G3D score is 16461, which is respectable, but its DirectX 11 score is 163 and its DirectX 12 score is 61. These API-specific scores suggest that the GPU performs better in older APIs, which aligns with the game's 2014 release date. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1804, indicating moderate performance in modern workloads.

The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p in this game, as evidenced by the playable frame rates. However, at 4K, the 128-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth become bottlenecks. The measured data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo only manages 29 FPS, which is below playable thresholds. The GPU's 70th percentile ranking among all GPUs reinforces that this is a mid-range part, and the 4K results reflect that positioning.

The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, has a nearly identical average benchmark score (24170 vs 24442 for the RX 6600 XT), yet the RTX 2080 SUPER was a high-end part in its generation. This suggests that the RX 6600 XT's performance is competitive with older high-end parts, but it lacks the memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity to excel at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a high-end CPU that is largely underutilized in this combo for Minimum. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, it has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU features 32 MB of shared L3 cache, with 1 MB L2 and 80 KB L1 per core. It supports DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s.

The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive. Its Passmark single-thread score is 4691, and its multithread score is 36470. It scores 120788 in integer math and 77955 in floating point math. The CPU is at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69996. Its nearest rivals are all high-end parts: the Ryzen 9 7940HX, Core i7-14700KF, Ryzen 9 7950X, and Core i7-14700K, all within 1% of its score.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. At 1080p, the CPU is capable of delivering 170 FPS at Low settings, which suggests it is not a bottleneck at that resolution. However, at 4K, the frame rates drop to 29-59 FPS, which is clearly GPU-limited. The data implies that the CPU has significant headroom, as the frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution and GPU workload.

The CPU's 5.50 GHz boost clock is likely beneficial for this game, as third-person shooters often have a single-threaded component. The high single-thread score of 4691 in Passmark supports this. The 8 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for a 2014 title, meaning the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor in any scenario.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern in resolution scaling. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average frame rates drop by approximately 35-38% across all settings. For example, at Low settings, the drop is from 170 FPS to 110 FPS, a 35% reduction. At Medium, the drop is from 130 FPS to 84 FPS, a 35% reduction. At High, the drop is from 109 FPS to 70 FPS, a 36% reduction. At Ultra, the drop is from 83 FPS to 54 FPS, a 35% reduction.

From 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more severe. At Low settings, the drop is from 110 FPS to 59 FPS, a 46% reduction. At Medium, the drop is from 84 FPS to 45 FPS, a 46% reduction. At High, the drop is from 70 FPS to 38 FPS, a 46% reduction. At Ultra, the drop is from 54 FPS to 29 FPS, a 46% reduction.

The consistent 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p indicates that the GPU is scaling in a predictable manner, likely due to the increase in pixel count. The 46% drop from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced, suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s) and 8 GB VRAM are becoming limiting factors. The 4K resolution requires 8.3 million pixels, which is 2.25 times the pixel count of 1440p, but the frame rate drops by less than that ratio, indicating some inefficiency.

This scaling pattern strongly suggests that the GPU is the limiting component throughout the resolution range. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a smaller drop in frame rates at higher resolutions, as the CPU workload remains constant while the GPU workload increases. Instead, the frame rates drop proportionally with resolution, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's high benchmark scores and percentile ranking further confirm that it is not the constraint in this pairing.