Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT delivers a playable experience in Minimum, but the data clearly shows that performance is highly dependent on resolution and settings, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck at higher graphical presets. Benchmark results indicate that this combination ranks in the 36th percentile of tested combos, placing it in the lower half of the field, though it remains capable of hitting smooth frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with adjusted settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic resolution scaling curve, where the frame rate drops significantly as pixel count increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 177 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 114 FPS, representing a 35.6% decrease. At 4K Low, the average falls to 61 FPS, a 46.5% drop from 1440p and a 65.5% drop from 1080p. This steep decline suggests that the Radeon RX 6650 XT's pixel throughput is the limiting factor as resolution climbs, rather than the CPU.

The trend is consistent across all settings presets. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 114 at 1080p to 73 at 1440p (a 36.0% drop) and then to 39 at 4K (a 46.6% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling, with 87 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p (a 35.6% drop), and 30 FPS at 4K (a 46.4% drop from 1440p). The proportional drops between resolutions are remarkably consistent across all presets, indicating that the scaling behavior is resolution-driven and not significantly altered by the graphical workload.

This pattern strongly implies that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The Ryzen 7 9700F, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is likely capable of feeding frames faster than the RX 6650 XT can render them at 1440p and 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is particularly telling — the 35-36% reduction in FPS across all presets suggests the GPU is hitting its fill-rate or bandwidth ceiling. At 4K, the situation becomes more pronounced; even at Low settings, the combo only manages 61 FPS, which is below the 63 FPS threshold often considered ideal for smooth gameplay. The data indicates that the RX 6650 XT's 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K resolution demands more than this GPU can deliver.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination ranks 1895 out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the 36th percentile, meaning roughly two-thirds of all tested system configurations outperform it in this game. The ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning rather than a CPU limitation; the Ryzen 7 9700F is a high-end processor that ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the RX 6650 XT sits in the 65th percentile among all GPUs.

The combo's relative standing becomes clearer when examining the CPU's nearest rivals. The Ryzen 7 9700F's average benchmark score of 69996 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, 0.2% difference) and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163, -0.2% difference). It is also slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, 0.7%) and the Intel Core i7-14700K (69355, 0.9%). This indicates that the CPU is not holding back the system; it performs on par with some of the most powerful processors available. The GPU, however, has a different story. Its average benchmark score of 19765 is closely matched with the NVIDIA Tesla K40m (19885, -0.6%), AMD FirePro D300 (19637, 0.7%), AMD FirePro W7000 (19905, -0.7%), and NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19602, 0.8%). These are all professional or workstation-class GPUs, which underscores that the RX 6650 XT is a mid-range gaming card.

Given the CPU's strong performance and the GPU's mid-range status, the combo's 1895th rank is almost entirely attributable to the graphics card. In a game like Minimum, which is a third-person shooter that likely relies on GPU-bound rendering, the RX 6650 XT cannot keep pace with higher-tier cards. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more powerful GPU would yield a significantly higher rank, as the CPU headroom is ample. The 36th percentile ranking is a direct reflection of the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions and settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which settings presets offer the best experience for this hardware combination. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS and a maximum of 156 FPS. This is the optimal choice for most players, as it comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and provides a 21.4% improvement over High settings (114 FPS). The Low preset achieves 177 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off is substantial for a game that benefits from higher detail levels. The Ultra preset drops to 87 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 35.6% reduction from Medium, making it less desirable for competitive play.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is again the sweet spot, yielding an average of 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. This is a significant step down from 1080p but remains well above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at 1440p produce 73 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced gameplay but may feel less responsive in fast-action sequences. Low settings hit 114 FPS, but the visual downgrade is noticeable. Ultra at 1440p drops to 56 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold and should be avoided.

For 4K resolution, the data suggests that only Low settings provide a playable experience, with an average of 61 FPS. Medium settings drop to 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS, which is borderline unplayable for a third-person shooter. High and Ultra settings are not recommended, as they fall to 39 FPS and 30 FPS respectively. The recommendation is to stick with 1080p or 1440p for this combo, as the 4K experience is severely compromised. The best overall experience is achieved at 1080p Medium, which balances visual fidelity and performance, offering a 135 FPS average that is smooth and responsive.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed picture of performance across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 177 FPS on Low, 135 FPS on Medium, 114 FPS on High, and 87 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values (115 and 156 FPS respectively), indicating a stable frame time experience. The Low preset's 177 FPS average is the highest recorded across all configurations, suggesting that the GPU is not the bottleneck at this resolution and settings level.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 114 FPS on Low, 87 FPS on Medium, 73 FPS on High, and 56 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset again shows the most complete data, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent at roughly 35-36% across all presets, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor. The Low preset's 114 FPS is notable, as it matches the 1080p High preset's performance, indicating that the GPU can handle lower settings at higher resolutions without a proportional penalty.

At 3840x2160, the averages fall to 61 FPS on Low, 47 FPS on Medium, 39 FPS on High, and 30 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset is the only one with minimum and maximum values (40 and 54 FPS respectively), which highlights the instability at this resolution. The 4K results are consistently below the 60 FPS threshold for all presets except Low, which barely reaches 61 FPS. The data shows a clear trend: the RX 6650 XT is not designed for 4K gaming, and users should expect to play at 1080p or 1440p for a satisfactory experience. The Ultra preset at 4K (30 FPS) is essentially a slideshow, making it unsuitable for any form of gameplay.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT plays the dominant role in determining this combo's gaming performance. The GPU's specifications — 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 280.3 GB/s bandwidth — are the key constraints. The memory configuration is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results suggest that the 8 GB capacity and 128-bit bus are insufficient for higher resolutions. The pixel rate of 168.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s are moderate figures that align with the FPS drops observed at higher resolutions.

The GPU's clock behavior provides additional insight. The base clock is 2055 MHz, with a game clock of 2410 MHz and a boost clock of 2635 MHz. The boost clock is 28.2% higher than the base clock, indicating that the card can sustain high frequencies under load. The memory clock runs at 2190 MHz, translating to 17.5 Gbps effective. These clocks are consistent with the card's RDNA 2.0 architecture, which is designed for efficient power delivery. The 176 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU are typical for this class of GPU.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 17166 and an average benchmark score of 19765. Its nearest rivals are all professional cards, which suggests that the RX 6650 XT's gaming performance is comparable to workstation-class GPUs in synthetic tests. However, in Minimum, the GPU's limitations are exposed at 4K and at Ultra settings. The FP32 performance of 10.79 TFLOPS and FP16 of 21.59 TFLOPS are moderate, but they are not sufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K. The GPU's 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs are mid-range figures that explain the scaling behavior. The data indicates that the RX 6650 XT is a solid 1080p card with acceptable 1440p performance, but it struggles beyond that.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a high-end processor that is not the limiting factor in this combo. With 8 cores and 16 threads, it offers substantial parallel processing capability. The base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, which is crucial for gaming. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4691 is exceptional, and its multithread score of 36470 is equally impressive. These scores place the CPU in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, indicating that it outperforms the vast majority of processors on the market.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, 0.2% difference), Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163, -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, 0.7%), and Intel Core i7-14700K (69355, 0.9%). This places the Ryzen 7 9700F in the same performance tier as these flagship processors, confirming that it is not a bottleneck. The CPU's cache configuration — 80 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 32 MB shared L3 — is generous and helps reduce memory latency in gaming workloads.

The CPU's role in Minimum is to feed frames to the GPU. Given the GPU's limitations, the CPU is likely idling in many scenarios, especially at higher resolutions. The data shows that the CPU can handle 1080p Low at 177 FPS without breaking a sweat, and the frame rate drops at higher resolutions are entirely attributable to the GPU. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and DDR5 support ensure that data can be fed to the GPU quickly. The 65 W TDP is low for a processor with this level of performance, indicating high efficiency. In summary, the Ryzen 7 9700F is a powerful CPU that provides ample headroom for this GPU and would not need to be upgraded for future GPU upgrades. The bottleneck in this system is unequivocally the Radeon RX 6650 XT.