Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 produces a severely constrained gaming experience in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released in 2014. The data shows that this combination ranks 2837 out of 2939 tested combos in this specific game, placing it in the bottom 3.5% of all configurations. This pairing is heavily bottlenecked by the GPU, which struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions and settings. While the CPU provides ample processing power, the GTX 1650's 4 GB of VRAM and modest compute capabilities limit the system to 1080p gaming with significant compromises in visual quality.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, the Low preset at 1920x1080 is the only viable option for smooth gameplay. The data shows an average of 81 FPS at this combination, which is the highest frame rate recorded across all tested configurations. This represents a 31% improvement over the High preset at the same resolution, which yields 52 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 19 FPS (from 81 to 62), a 23% performance penalty that may not justify the visual upgrade given the already modest frame rate headroom.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 52 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less smooth than the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset at 1440p drops to 40 FPS, and the High preset falls to 34 FPS, both of which approach the threshold where stutter becomes noticeable in a fast-paced Third-Person Shooter. The Ultra preset at 1440p is not viable at 26 FPS. At 3840x2160, all settings produce unplayable results, with the best case being Low at 28 FPS and the worst being Ultra at 14 FPS.

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset at 1080p provides a reasonable middle ground with 62 FPS, which is 76% higher than the 40 FPS Ultra result at the same resolution. However, the min FPS of 53 for Medium 1080p suggests occasional dips that could affect gameplay. The Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, making it the clear recommendation for users prioritizing frame rate stability over visual fidelity.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a high-end desktop processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus providing 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth. This processor sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is far more powerful than the typical processor used in gaming systems.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU's capabilities are largely irrelevant to the final frame rates because the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The data shows that the Ryzen 7 9700F achieves a Passmark single-thread score of 4691 and a multithread score of 36470, placing it just 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700KF in average benchmark scores. This level of processing power is sufficient to handle the game's physics and AI calculations without bottlenecking, but the GTX 1650 cannot translate this headroom into higher frame rates.

The game's 2014 release date means it was designed for hardware from that era, and the Ryzen 7 9700F's modern architecture with 32 MB of shared L3 cache and PCIe Gen 5 support provides far more bandwidth and compute capability than the game can utilize. The CPU's Passmark physics score of 2122 and floating point math score of 77955 indicate it can handle complex simulation workloads, but the measured FPS data shows that frame rates scale almost entirely with GPU settings and resolution rather than CPU performance. This is a clear case where the processor is overqualified for the task at hand.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the primary constraint in this system, and the benchmark data reflects its limitations. This GPU is based on the TU117 chip using the Turing architecture on a 12 nm process, with 896 shading units and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus providing 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 1485 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, with a 75 W TDP that requires no additional power connectors. It ranks in the 40th percentile of all GPUs, placing it just 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 8850M and 1% behind the Intel Arc A310 in average benchmark scores.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity is the most critical limitation for Minimum. At 3840x2160, the GPU produces only 18 FPS on High settings and 14 FPS on Ultra, indicating that it cannot handle the memory bandwidth requirements of higher resolutions. The measured FPS data shows a clear scaling pattern: at 1080p, the GPU manages 52 FPS on High and 40 FPS on Ultra, but at 1440p, these numbers drop to 34 FPS and 26 FPS respectively. This represents a 35% performance loss from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, and a similar 35% loss from 1440p to 2160p at Low settings.

The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 7880 and DirectX 11 score of 58 reflect its mid-range positioning, but the game's demanding nature at higher presets overwhelms its capabilities. The GTX 1650's 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 53.28 GPixel/s pixel rate are insufficient for smooth gameplay at resolutions above 1080p in this title. The data confirms that the GPU is the sole bottleneck, as the Ryzen 7 9700F's performance headroom cannot compensate for the GPU's inability to render frames at higher resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2837 out of 2939 tested combinations places this system in the bottom 3.5% of all configurations tested in Minimum. This ranking reflects the severe mismatch between the high-end CPU and the low-end GPU. The Ryzen 7 9700F sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the GTX 1650 only reaches the 40th percentile of all GPUs. This pairing creates a situation where the CPU's potential is wasted because the GPU cannot keep up with the processing demands.

The data shows that the GPU's nearest rivals include the Intel UHD Graphics 750, which scores 0.4% lower, and the AMD Radeon R7 350, which scores 0.6% lower. This means the GTX 1650 is barely better than integrated graphics solutions in some cases, yet it is paired with a processor that outperforms 94% of all CPUs. The ranking of 2837 out of 2939 indicates that the vast majority of tested combos achieve better frame rates in this game, regardless of their CPU specifications.

The measured FPS data confirms this poor ranking. Even at the most favorable settings (1080p Low), the system only achieves 81 FPS, which is far below what higher-ranked combos would deliver. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields just 40 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold considered necessary for smooth gameplay in modern standards. The GPU's 4 GB VRAM is particularly problematic, as the game's texture requirements at higher settings likely exceed this capacity, causing stuttering and reduced performance that the benchmark averages do not fully capture.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings provides the highest average FPS of 81. This is the only tested configuration that exceeds 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p achieves 62 FPS, which is also playable but with a minimum FPS of 53.

Q: Can this system handle 1440p gaming in this title?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 52 FPS, which is marginally playable. The Medium preset drops to 40 FPS, and the High preset falls to 34 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p is not viable at 26 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1650 has an average benchmark score of 7472, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon HD 8850M and 0.4% higher than the Intel UHD Graphics 750. It is 1% lower than the Intel Arc A310's score of 7550.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 9700F a bottleneck in this game?

A: No, the CPU is not the limiting factor. The Ryzen 7 9700F ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs and scores 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700KF. The GPU is the sole bottleneck, as frame rates scale with GPU settings rather than CPU performance.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings achieve 81 FPS while Ultra settings achieve 40 FPS. This represents a 51% performance decrease when moving from Low to Ultra, making the visual upgrade cost more than half the frame rate.

Q: What is the highest resolution that remains playable?

A: The highest resolution with playable frame rates is 2560x1440 at Low settings, which produces 52 FPS. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only achieve 28 FPS, which is not sufficient for smooth gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 81 FPS, which is the only result above 60 FPS in the entire dataset. The Medium preset produces 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS, providing a playable experience with some headroom. The High preset drops to 52 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 40 FPS. These results show a clear linear degradation from Low to Ultra, with each preset tier costing approximately 10 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance drops significantly across all settings. The Low preset achieves 52 FPS, which matches the High preset result at 1080p. The Medium preset produces 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS, indicating noticeable stutter during intense scenes. The High preset falls to 34 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 26 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings results in a 35% performance decrease, from 62 FPS to 40 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system is incapable of delivering playable frame rates. The Low preset achieves 28 FPS, which is below the minimum threshold for acceptable gameplay. The Medium preset produces 22 FPS with a minimum of 18 FPS and a maximum of 25 FPS, while the High preset drops to 18 FPS. The Ultra preset is the worst performer at 14 FPS. The data shows that the GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s memory bandwidth are simply insufficient for 4K rendering in this game, even at the lowest settings.