Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER delivers a compelling 1080p experience in Minimum, but the data suggests that dialing in the right preset is crucial for balancing visual fidelity with frame rate. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 329 FPS on Low, 252 FPS on Medium, 211 FPS on High, and 161 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium costs 77 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 41 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 50 FPS. For players prioritizing maximum competitive responsiveness, the Low preset provides the highest headroom, but Medium offers a substantial improvement in visual quality while still maintaining a 252 FPS average, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The High preset remains viable for those with 144Hz displays, but the Ultra preset, while playable, begins to dip into ranges where frame pacing could become noticeable.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows reveal a clear hierarchy in performance scaling across presets. At 1080p, the Low preset produces a staggering 329 FPS average, which is 77 FPS higher than Medium (252 FPS) and 118 FPS higher than High (211 FPS). This suggests that Low removes significant rendering overhead that the CPU can easily feed. However, the Medium preset at 252 FPS is arguably the sweet spot for 1080p gaming, as it provides a 43% performance cushion over High while presumably offering better textures and effects than Low. The High preset's 211 FPS average still exceeds 144Hz displays, but the Ultra preset's 161 FPS average is just barely above the 144Hz threshold, leaving little room for frame drops in intense combat scenarios.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds but with tighter margins. Low delivers 212 FPS, Medium drops to 162 FPS, High falls to 136 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 104 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is particularly interesting, as its 162 FPS average is close to the 144Hz target, while High at 136 FPS is more suitable for 120Hz panels. For 4K gaming, the data shows a significant compression of performance: Low hits 114 FPS, Medium averages 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS, High manages 73 FPS, and Ultra drops to 56 FPS. At this resolution, the Medium preset is the only reasonable choice for smooth gameplay, as its 87 FPS average and 74 FPS minimum stay above the 60 FPS floor, whereas High's 73 FPS average could dip below 60 in demanding scenes.

The optimal recommendation is to use Medium settings for 1080p and 1440p, as this preset provides the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate consistency. For 4K, Medium is the only acceptable preset, as it maintains a minimum of 74 FPS, which is crucial for avoiding stutter. The Low preset is only recommended for competitive play at 1080p where maximum frame rate is paramount, while Ultra should be avoided at all resolutions due to its significant performance cost relative to High.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER brings substantial hardware to this game, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus with 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 8448 shading units, 264 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units provide the raw compute necessary for high-resolution rendering. The boost clock of 2610 MHz, up from a 2340 MHz base, allows the GPU to dynamically scale performance under load. The 44.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 689.0 GTexel/s texture rate are more than sufficient for a 2014 title like Minimum, which was released well before the GPU's 2024 launch.

The GPU's role in this combo becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the CPU can easily feed the GPU, resulting in frame rates that exceed 300 FPS on Low. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the dramatic drop from 329 FPS at 1080p Low to 114 FPS at 4K Low. This 215 FPS difference is entirely attributable to the GPU's rendering load, as the CPU's workload remains constant regardless of resolution. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than adequate for Minimum, which is unlikely to exceed even 8 GB at Ultra settings, meaning the GPU is never held back by memory capacity but rather by its pixel throughput and shading rate.

The GPU's 76th percentile ranking among all GPUs, based on an average benchmark score of 31087, indicates that it sits comfortably in the upper-midrange tier. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA TITAN RTX, scores 31676, which is 1.9% higher, while the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell scores 31532 (1.4% higher). This places the 4070 Ti SUPER in a strong position for 1440p and 4K gaming, though its performance at 4K Ultra in Minimum (56 FPS) suggests that even this capable GPU struggles with the most demanding settings at that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 9700F and RTX 4070 Ti SUPER achieves a rank of 300 out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 10.2% of all configurations. This is a strong result, indicating that the pairing is well-matched for this game's requirements. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69996, is complemented by the GPU's 76th percentile ranking, creating a balanced system where neither component severely bottlenecks the other.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks provide context for its gaming performance. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 69875, just 0.2% lower, while the Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 70163, 0.2% higher. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69515 (0.7% lower) and the Intel Core i7-14700K scores 69355 (0.9% lower). These tight margins (all within 1%) suggest that the 9700F is competitive with flagship and near-flagship CPUs from the previous generation, which is impressive given its 65W TDP. For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the Quadro M5000 (31206, 0.4% higher) and the GRID M60-1Q (31220, 0.4% higher), though these are professional/workstation cards rather than direct consumer competitors.

The rank of 300 suggests that while the combo is strong, there are 299 other combinations that achieve higher performance in Minimum. This could be attributed to higher-end GPUs like the RTX 4090 or faster CPUs with more cache, but the data shows that this pairing is firmly in the upper echelon, delivering 4K Medium at 87 FPS and 1440p High at 136 FPS, which are both excellent results for a game of this era.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Minimum with this combo?*

A: The data shows that 1440p Medium provides the best balance, delivering 162 FPS average with a 138 FPS minimum, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. While 1080p Medium hits 252 FPS, the visual upgrade at 1440p is significant, and 4K Medium at 87 FPS is also playable but with less headroom.

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

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 211 at 1080p to 136 at 1440p (a 75 FPS drop) and then to 73 at 4K (a 63 FPS drop from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 138 FPS, representing a 65.4% decrease in average frame rate.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor at 4K. The CPU's performance remains constant regardless of resolution, but the GPU's workload increases dramatically. The 4K Ultra result of 56 FPS compared to 1440p Ultra at 104 FPS shows a 48 FPS drop, which is almost entirely due to GPU rendering demands.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F compare to its closest rivals?

A: The 9700F scores 69996 on average, which is 0.2% higher than the Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875) and 0.7% higher than the Ryzen 9 7950X (69515). It trails the Core i7-14700KF (70163) by 0.2% and beats the Core i7-14700K (69355) by 0.9%, making it highly competitive with previous-generation flagships.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 4K Medium, and is it stable?

A: The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 74 FPS, with an average of 87 FPS and a maximum of 101 FPS. This indicates a relatively stable frame rate with only a 13 FPS difference between the average and minimum, which is acceptable for smooth gameplay.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for this game?

A: Yes, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory, which is more than sufficient for Minimum. Even at 4K Ultra settings, the game is unlikely to exceed 8 GB of VRAM usage, so memory capacity is never a limiting factor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the system scales across resolutions, and the pattern is consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 329 at 1080p to 212 at 1440p (a 117 FPS or 35.6% decrease) and then to 114 at 4K (a 98 FPS or 46.2% decrease from 1440p). This shows a near-linear scaling with pixel count, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions, but the CPU is capable of keeping up even at 1080p Low where the frame rate exceeds 300 FPS.

At Medium settings, the scaling is less steep: 252 FPS at 1080p, 162 FPS at 1440p (a 90 FPS drop), and 87 FPS at 4K (a 75 FPS drop). The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 138, while at 4K Medium it is 74, showing that the frame time variance increases with resolution. At High settings, the scaling is 211 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p (a 75 FPS drop), and 73 FPS at 4K (a 63 FPS drop). The Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling: 161 FPS at 1080p, 104 FPS at 1440p (a 57 FPS drop), and 56 FPS at 4K (a 48 FPS drop).

The resolution scaling data strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU's workload is resolution-independent, so the consistent FPS drops across all presets as resolution increases point to GPU rendering limits. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 329 FPS shows that the CPU can feed the GPU at very high frame rates, but the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck as resolution climbs. This is typical for a modern GPU paired with a strong CPU in an older game, where the CPU is rarely taxed but the GPU must render increasingly complex frames.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a Zen 5 architecture processor (Granite Ridge codename) built on TSMC's 4 nm process, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz provide excellent single-thread performance, as evidenced by its PassMark single-thread score of 4691. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for gaming workloads. The 65W TDP and DDR5 memory support (89.6 GB/s bandwidth) round out a modern platform that is well-suited for gaming.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is to maintain high frame rates by feeding the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 329 FPS, which suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution. Even at 1440p Low (212 FPS) and 4K Low (114 FPS), the frame rates remain high, indicating that the CPU can handle the game's physics and AI calculations without limiting the GPU. The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 36470 and integer math score of 120788 demonstrate strong computational throughput, though Minimum is unlikely to stress all 8 cores heavily.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69996, places it in the top 6% of processors. Its nearest rival, the Ryzen 9 7940HX, is only 0.2% behind, while the Core i7-14700KF is 0.2% ahead. This tight grouping suggests that the 9700F is a highly capable gaming CPU, and its 5.50 GHz boost clock is particularly beneficial for single-threaded game logic. The fact that the combo ranks 300th out of 2939 in Minimum indicates that the CPU is not holding back the GPU, as many higher-ranked combos likely use more powerful GPUs rather than faster CPUs.