Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a highly capable 1080p and 1440p experience in Minimum, a third-person shooter from 2014. The measured data shows that the Ultra preset is the only setting tier that dips below the 60 FPS threshold at 4K, while lower presets provide substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. For most users, the High preset at 1440p represents the optimal balance, offering an average frame rate of 102.3 FPS while maintaining a significant visual uplift over Medium settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows indicate that the Ultra preset is the most demanding configuration, yielding 116.8 FPS at 1080p, 75.3 FPS at 1440p, and 40 FPS at 4K. While the 1080p and 1440p results are playable, the 4K figure falls below the standard 60 FPS target for smooth action in a shooter. The High preset, by contrast, provides a substantial performance boost across all resolutions: 152.5 FPS at 1080p, 102.3 FPS at 1440p, and 51.8 FPS at 4K. Given that High typically retains most of the visual fidelity of Ultra in this era of game, the data suggests High as the recommended preset for the best overall experience, particularly for 1440p gaming.

For players prioritizing maximum frame rates on high-refresh-rate monitors, the Medium preset at 1080p delivers 182.4 FPS, which is a 25% improvement over High. The Low preset pushes even further to 243.5 FPS at 1080p, but the visual compromise is severe. At 1440p, Medium achieves 122 FPS, which still comfortably exceeds 100 FPS for most displays. The 4K Medium result of 62.7 FPS is the only sub-4K resolution where Medium crosses the 60 FPS line, making it a viable option for 4K users who want a balance between visual quality and smoothness. Ultimately, the High preset at 1440p offers the strongest combination of visual fidelity and performance headroom, with the 102.3 FPS average leaving room for occasional dips without dropping below the 60 FPS threshold.

GPU Role

The RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Minimum’s 2014-era assets. The GPU’s Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm Samsung process, features a base clock of 1575 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz. With 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, the card is well-equipped to handle the game’s rendering workload. The data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance differences between settings, as the CPU’s 3DMark scores (9824 for 16 threads and 9771 for max threads) indicate ample processing headroom.

The GPU’s 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30849, places it in the mid-to-upper tier of graphics cards. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (0.3% higher average score) and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (0.8% lower average score). In Minimum, the RTX 3070 Ti’s performance scales predictably with resolution and settings, suggesting that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the 40 FPS result is a clear indication of the GPU being pushed to its limits, while the CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1280 suggests it is not a bottleneck at any resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 702nd out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 40% of all system configurations. The CPU itself performs in the 89th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 36029, while the GPU sits in the 74th percentile. This disparity suggests that the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in this pairing, which is reflected in the measured FPS data.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14500HX (0.2% higher average score), the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (0.4% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (0.6% higher). The GPU’s nearest rivals are clustered closely, with the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME at 0.3% higher and the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 at 0.9% lower. The combo’s rank of 702 indicates that while this configuration is not at the top of the charts, it provides solid performance for Minimum, particularly at 1080p and 1440p where the measured FPS exceeds 100 on High settings. For a game from 2014, this pairing is more than adequate, and the data suggests that the RTX 3070 Ti is the component holding back the overall ranking rather than the Ryzen 7 9700X.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS ranges from 243.5 on Low to 116.8 on Ultra. The Medium preset delivers 182.4 FPS, while High achieves 152.5 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra is 126.7 FPS, representing a 52% reduction in frame rate from the lowest to the highest settings. The step from Medium to High costs 29.9 FPS (16.4%), while the step from High to Ultra costs 35.7 FPS (23.4%).

At 2560x1440, the data shows 154.4 FPS on Low, 122 FPS on Medium, 102.3 FPS on High, and 75.3 FPS on Ultra. The relative scaling is more pronounced at this resolution, with Ultra delivering only 48.8% of the Low preset’s frame rate. The gap between High and Ultra is 27 FPS (26.4%), while the gap between Medium and High is 19.7 FPS (16.1%). The 1440p results indicate that the GPU is beginning to feel the load, but the High preset still provides a comfortable 102.3 FPS average.

At 3840x2160, the measured results are 85.8 FPS on Low, 62.7 FPS on Medium, 51.8 FPS on High, and 40 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration that falls below 60 FPS, while the High preset also struggles to maintain a smooth experience. The Low preset at 4K delivers 85.8 FPS, which is playable but requires significant visual compromises. The data shows a consistent pattern: each settings tier at 4K reduces the frame rate by roughly 10-20 FPS, with the most severe drop occurring between Low and Medium (23.1 FPS or 26.9%).

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the system scales from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 152.5 at 1080p to 102.3 at 1440p (a 32.9% reduction) and further to 51.8 at 4K (a 66% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K but the frame rate does not drop by the same factor, indicating that other factors such as memory bandwidth and shading overhead play a role.

At Medium settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 60.4 FPS (33.1%), and the drop from 1440p to 4K is 59.3 FPS (48.6%). The Low preset shows a similar trend: 243.5 FPS at 1080p, 154.4 FPS at 1440p (36.6% reduction), and 85.8 FPS at 4K (44.4% reduction from 1440p). The Ultra preset exhibits the most severe scaling, with a 41.5 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p (35.5%) and a 35.3 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K (46.9%).

The data indicates that the limiting component is the GPU, particularly at higher resolutions. The CPU’s 3DMark scores suggest it can handle the game’s physics and logic without bottlenecking, but the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB memory buffer and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth become strained at 4K Ultra. The 40 FPS result at 4K Ultra is the clearest evidence of this limitation, as the GPU is unable to maintain the 60 FPS target even with the Ryzen 7 9700X providing ample processing power. For players targeting 4K, the Low preset at 85.8 FPS is the only configuration that provides a consistently smooth experience, while 1440p High at 102.3 FPS offers the best balance of resolution and performance.