Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti delivers a unique performance profile in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released on 2014-06-25. This combination of a modern high-end CPU with an older enthusiast GPU produces results that are heavily dictated by resolution and settings, showing a clear transition from CPU-bound to GPU-bound behavior. The measured data provides a detailed look at how this pairing handles the game across three resolutions and four quality presets.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves in Minimum?*

A: The highest average frame rate is 193.9 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Can this combination handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with significant compromises. At 3840x2160, the average frame rate ranges from 32.3 FPS on Ultra to 66 FPS on Low settings, indicating that playable frame rates are only possible at lower quality presets.

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

A: The Ryzen 7 9800X3D has an average benchmark score of 37780, placing it 0.1% behind the Intel Xeon 6353P and 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-13600KF. It is 90th percentile among all CPUs tested.

Q: How does the GPU stack up against its direct competitors?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti's average benchmark score is 19402, which is statistically identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (0% delta) and 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN Xp. It ranks in the 61st percentile among all GPUs.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 124.8 FPS on Low to 62.7 FPS on Ultra, representing a significant 49.8% reduction in performance when moving to the highest quality preset.

Q: Is the combo better suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080, the combination exceeds 144 FPS on Low (193.9 FPS) and Medium (147.4 FPS) settings, and maintains 126.8 FPS on High, making it viable for high-refresh-rate displays at this resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a desktop processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture (codenamed Granite Ridge) using a 4 nm process at TSMC. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. The CPU includes 96 MB of shared L3 cache, alongside 80 KB of L1 and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. This processor supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes.

In Minimum, the CPU's role becomes apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average frame rate reaches 193.9 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combo. This suggests that at this resolution, the game's frame rate is likely constrained by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1212 and a cinebench_r23_singlecore score of 4800, likely contributes to maintaining high frame rates in this scenario.

However, the data indicates that the CPU's advantage diminishes as resolution and settings increase. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 32.3 FPS. This dramatic reduction is not due to the CPU, but rather the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a passmark_multithread score of 40009 and a geekbench_multicore score of 18413, demonstrate its overall capability, but in Minimum, these resources are underutilized at higher graphics loads.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's average benchmark score of 37780 is nearly identical to the Intel Xeon 6353P (37811) and Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (37831), with delta percentages of -0.1%. It trails the Intel Core i9-13900HK (38020) by 0.6% and the Intel Core i5-13600KF (38028) by 0.7%. These minor differences in synthetic benchmarks do not translate into meaningful gameplay differences in Minimum, as the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is an end-of-life graphics card from the GeForce 10-series, based on the GP102 chip using the Pascal architecture. It operates at a base clock of 1481 MHz and a boost clock of 1582 MHz, with memory running at 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective). The card features 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 484.4 GB/s. It has 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 88 raster operations pipelines, delivering a pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s.

The GPU's role in Minimum is clearly demonstrated by the FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 193.9 FPS (Low), 147.4 FPS (Medium), 126.8 FPS (High), and 97 FPS (Ultra). Moving to 2560x1440, these figures drop to 124.8 FPS, 95.2 FPS, 81.2 FPS, and 62.7 FPS, respectively. At 3840x2160, the averages fall further to 66 FPS (Low), 53.4 FPS (Medium), 43.9 FPS (High), and 32.3 FPS (Ultra). This consistent decline with increasing resolution indicates that the GTX 1080 Ti is the primary performance limiter at higher pixel counts.

The GTX 1080 Ti's average benchmark score is 19402, placing it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (score 19405, 0% delta), AMD Radeon Pro 560X (score 19426, -0.1% delta), and NVIDIA TITAN Xp (score 19184, 1.1% delta). These rival comparisons show that the GTX 1080 Ti's synthetic performance is closely matched with older and lower-tier cards, which is reflected in its inability to maintain high frame rates at 4K in Minimum.

The data suggests that the GTX 1080 Ti's 11 GB of VRAM is sufficient for Minimum, as the game is from 2014 and likely does not exceed this capacity at the tested settings. However, the card's raw compute power, rated at 11.34 TFLOPS FP32, is what limits performance at higher resolutions. The transition from 66 FPS at 4K Low to 32.3 FPS at 4K Ultra shows how the GPU's fill rate and shading capabilities become the bottleneck as graphics load increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti combination in Minimum reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling.

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 193.9 FPS, which is 31.5% higher than Medium (147.4 FPS) and 53.0% higher than High (126.8 FPS). Ultra settings yield 97 FPS, which is 49.9% lower than Low. The differences between presets are substantial, indicating that the game is both CPU and GPU sensitive at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. Low settings average 124.8 FPS, Medium averages 95.2 FPS, High averages 81.2 FPS, and Ultra averages 62.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 49.8%, similar to the 1080p scenario, but the absolute numbers are lower. Compared to 1080p, the 1440p results are 35.6% lower on Low, 35.4% lower on Medium, 36.0% lower on High, and 35.4% lower on Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings average 66 FPS, Medium averages 53.4 FPS, High averages 43.9 FPS, and Ultra averages 32.3 FPS. The performance drop from 1440p to 4K is significant: Low decreases by 47.1%, Medium by 43.9%, High by 45.9%, and Ultra by 48.5%. This indicates that the GTX 1080 Ti becomes the dominant bottleneck at 4K, with the CPU's capabilities being largely irrelevant at this resolution.

The FPS scaling across settings is consistent, with Low being faster than Medium by roughly 20-25%, Medium faster than High by 15-18%, and High faster than Ultra by 25-30% at each resolution. This suggests that Minimum's graphics settings have a predictable impact on performance, with the largest gain coming from dropping from High to Low settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti combination ranks 1010 out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 58.3rd percentile of all configurations. This mid-tier ranking reflects the balanced but not exceptional performance of this pairing in this specific game.

The ranking indicates that there are 723 combos that perform better and 1010 that perform worse. Given the CPU's high percentile ranking (90th among all CPUs) and the GPU's lower percentile (61st among all GPUs), the overall combo ranking is dragged down by the graphics card. This is consistent with the FPS data, which shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

In the context of Minimum, this combo is positioned as a capable 1080p performer that can handle high refresh rates on lower settings, but it falls short at 4K where the GTX 1080 Ti's age becomes apparent. The combo's rank of 1010 suggests that while the CPU is more than sufficient for this game, the GPU prevents it from achieving top-tier status. For players targeting 1080p or 1440p with mid-to-high settings, this combination offers a viable experience, but those seeking 4K Ultra performance would need a more powerful GPU to move up the rankings.