Minimum

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combo a strong performer for Minimum?

A: Yes. The combo ranks 343rd out of 2,939 tested combinations, placing it in the top 12% of all systems tested for this game. The CPU itself sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, indicating a high-end pairing.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve a high refresh rate experience?

A: At 2560x1440, the combo delivers 211 FPS on Low settings and 161 FPS on Medium, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. Even at 3840x2160, it manages 113 FPS on Low, making 4K playable at competitive settings.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K on Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 160 at 1920x1080 to 56 at 3840x2160 on Ultra, a reduction of 65%. This indicates a significant GPU bottleneck at the highest resolution and settings combination.

Q: Does the Medium preset offer a better experience than High for this combo?

A: Yes, in terms of smoothness. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 161 FPS with a minimum of 137 FPS, while High averages 135 FPS with no recorded minimum. The Medium preset provides a higher average and a guaranteed floor above 144 FPS, which is preferable for competitive play.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69,996, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875) and 0.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515). It trails the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163) by 0.2% and the Intel Core i7-14700K (69,355) leads by 0.9%.

Q: Is the GPU's performance close to any mobile or workstation parts?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti's average benchmark score of 44,795 is 0.8% lower than the RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152) and 1.6% higher than the RTX A6000 (44,075). It also trails the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (45,384) by 1.3% and the Intel Arc A730M (45,592) by 1.7%.

Settings Recommendations

The data reveals a clear hierarchy across presets, with the Medium setting offering the most balanced experience for this specific pairing. While Low settings produce the highest raw frame rates, Medium provides a substantial visual upgrade at a moderate performance cost that remains well within playable territory.

At 3840x2160, Medium averages 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. This is a playable 4K experience, especially considering the High preset drops to 73 FPS and Ultra falls to 56 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 26 FPS (from 113 to 87), but the visual fidelity gain is significant, making Medium the sweet spot for 4K displays.

For 2560x1440, Medium delivers 161 FPS on average with a 137 FPS minimum, which comfortably exceeds the 144 Hz refresh rate threshold. High drops to 135 FPS, just below that marker, while Low reaches 211 FPS. The Medium preset is the recommended choice here because it maintains a competitive frame rate while offering better visuals than Low.

At 1920x1080, the story is similar. Medium produces 250 FPS average with a 212 FPS minimum, while High averages 210 FPS. Low hits 326 FPS, but such high frame rates are unnecessary for most displays. Medium is again the optimal preset, as it provides a massive performance buffer over the 144 Hz standard and even supports 240 Hz displays with room to spare.

The Ultra preset is the only one that struggles, with averages of 160 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, and 56 FPS at 4K. While playable at 1080p and 1440p, the 4K result falls below the 60 FPS threshold. For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, Ultra is viable at 1440p but not at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor built on the Zen 5 architecture using TSMC's 4 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache, along with dual-channel DDR5 memory support and 89.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

In Minimum, a third-person shooter originally released in 2014, the CPU's single-thread performance is particularly relevant. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,691 places this processor among the top tier for gaming workloads, which typically rely heavily on a few cores. The multithread score of 36,470 further indicates strong overall throughput, though the game's age suggests it may not fully utilize all 16 threads.

The CPU's benchmark results show a balanced profile: integer math scores 120,788, floating-point math scores 77,955, and extended instructions score 33,688. Data compression scores 421,988, while encryption scores 21,488. Physics processing, which can be relevant in shooter games, scores 2,122. These figures suggest the processor is well-equipped to handle both the game simulation and any background tasks.

The Ryzen 7 9700F's nearest rivals in general benchmarks are the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.2% higher score), Intel Core i7-14700KF (0.2% lower score), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (0.7% higher score), and Intel Core i7-14700K (0.9% higher score). This tight grouping indicates the 9700F is competitive with high-end desktop and mobile parts, though the game's measured FPS suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck in most scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination ranks 343rd out of 2,939 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the 88th percentile of all systems tested. This is a strong result, though not at the very top tier, which suggests there are more powerful combinations available for this title.

The ranking reflects the balance between CPU and GPU performance. The CPU's 94th percentile standing and the GPU's 84th percentile standing are both high, but the combination's rank of 343 out of 2,939 indicates that many other pairings achieve better FPS results. This could be due to the game's age and its potential to favor certain hardware configurations.

Given that the game was released in 2014, it likely has a lower thread count requirement, meaning the 8-core, 16-thread CPU may not be fully utilized. The GPU, while powerful, is not the absolute fastest available, and the measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 326 FPS, which is excellent but not record-breaking.

The combo's rank suggests it outperforms the majority of systems tested, but there are 342 other combinations that deliver better performance in Minimum. This places it in the top tier of gaming systems, capable of handling the game at high settings across all resolutions, but not at the absolute pinnacle of performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring the AD104 chip with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. It operates at a base clock of 2,310 MHz and a boost clock of 2,610 MHz, with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's memory configuration is more than sufficient for Minimum, which likely has modest VRAM requirements given its 2014 release. The 12 GB capacity ensures no memory-related bottlenecks at any resolution or settings combination tested. The memory clock runs at 1,313 MHz, equating to 21 Gbps effective, which is typical for this class of card.

The GPU's shading units number 7,680, with 240 texture mapping units and 80 render output units. It includes 60 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The texture rate of 626.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s indicate high fill rates that benefit the game's rendering.

In general benchmarks, the RTX 4070 Ti scores 31,624 in PassMark G3D and 18,396 in PassMark GPU Compute. Its nearest rivals show a tight performance spread: the RTX 5090 Mobile is 0.8% higher, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is 1.3% higher, the RTX A6000 is 1.6% lower, and the Intel Arc A730M is 1.7% higher. This suggests the 4070 Ti is competitive with these parts, though the measured FPS in Minimum indicates it is the primary performance driver.

The GPU's role in Minimum is substantial, as the FPS scaling across resolutions shows. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 326 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 56 FPS, a 83% reduction. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings, while the CPU is sufficient to feed the GPU at lower settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 326 FPS, while Medium averages 250 FPS with a minimum of 212 FPS and a maximum of 287 FPS. High settings reach 210 FPS, and Ultra drops to 160 FPS. These results show that even at the highest settings, the combo maintains a frame rate above 144 Hz, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate gaming.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong. Low settings average 211 FPS, Medium averages 161 FPS with a minimum of 137 FPS and a maximum of 185 FPS, High averages 135 FPS, and Ultra drops to 103 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one that maintains an average above 144 FPS, while High and Ultra fall below that threshold. This resolution is well-suited for competitive play at Medium settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. Low settings average 113 FPS, Medium averages 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS, High averages 73 FPS, and Ultra drops to 56 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one that maintains an average above 60 FPS, while Ultra falls below the 60 FPS mark, making it less ideal for smooth gameplay.

The FPS scaling across resolutions shows a consistent pattern: Low settings provide the highest frame rates, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra in descending order. The gap between Low and Ultra widens with resolution, from a 166 FPS difference at 1080p to a 57 FPS difference at 4K. The Medium preset's minimum FPS figures at each resolution (212 at 1080p, 137 at 1440p, 74 at 4K) indicate that frame pacing remains consistent, avoiding severe drops during gameplay.

The data confirms that this combo is capable of running Minimum at high frame rates across all tested resolutions, with the sweet spot being 1440p Medium for a balance of visual quality and performance, or 1080p Ultra for maximum fidelity at a still-excellent 160 FPS.