Minimum

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a desktop processor built on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge codename), manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The chip carries 96 MB of shared L3 cache, alongside 80 KB of L1 cache per core and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. The processor supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, delivering 89.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and includes 24 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. Its 120 W TDP places it as a high-power desktop part, and the integrated Radeon Graphics provide a fallback display option, though the discrete GPU handles rendering in this test.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22,807 and a single-core score of 2,228. The PassMark multithread score is 41,318, with a single-thread score of 4,704. The processor's average benchmark score is 58,386, which places it in the 92nd percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in aggregate performance include the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (average score 58,323, deltaPct 0.1), Intel Xeon w5-2545 (58,504, deltaPct -0.2), Intel Core i9-14900 (58,115, deltaPct 0.5), and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 (58,826, deltaPct -0.7). These deltas are all within 0.7% of the 9850X3D, meaning its raw compute capability is statistically indistinguishable from these competing parts in general workloads.

For a game like Minimum, released in 2014, the CPU demands are modest by modern standards. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D's 8-core/16-thread configuration and high boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide far more headroom than the title requires. The benchmark results support this: at 1080p with Low settings, the combination reaches 82 FPS average, which is the highest measured FPS in the entire dataset. The fact that the CPU's single-core Cinebench R15 score is 343 and multi-core is 3,551 suggests strong per-thread performance, which matters for older game engines that rely on fewer threads. However, the data here shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution or settings level—the bottleneck consistently shifts to the GPU as resolution increases. The 96 MB L3 cache helps with data locality, but in a 2014 third-person shooter, the working set likely fits within smaller caches, so the 9850X3D's advantage is more about avoiding CPU-side frame drops rather than pushing higher peak FPS.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a Polaris 20 chip based on GCN 4.0 architecture, built on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process with 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die. It operates at a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective). The GPU has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its compute resources include 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, delivering a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is 5.095 TFLOPS, with a 1:1 FP16 ratio. The card's TDP is 150 W, requiring a single 6-pin power connector and a suggested 450 W PSU. It connects via PCIe 3.0 x16 and supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3.

In GPU benchmarks, the RX 570 scores 880 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 39,349 in Geekbench Metal, 32,084 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 42,752 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its average benchmark score is 28,766, placing it in the 74th percentile among all GPUs. Nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (average score 28,874, deltaPct -0.4), AMD Radeon R9 M295X (28,580, deltaPct 0.7), AMD Radeon RX 470 (28,996, deltaPct -0.8), and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (28,421, deltaPct 1.2). These deltas are all within 1.2%, indicating that the RX 570's aggregate compute performance is comparable to these parts, though the RX 6800M is a mobile part and the Quadro RTX 8000 is a workstation card.

For Minimum, the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM is a critical constraint. At 4K Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 14, which is the lowest measured value in the dataset. Even at 4K Low, the average FPS is only 28, and at 4K Medium it reaches 22 with a minimum of 19 and maximum of 25. The 4 GB memory capacity is likely exhausted at higher resolutions and settings, causing texture thrashing or reduced fill rates. The GPU's 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is also modest for 4K workloads, as the pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s struggles to fill 8.3 million pixels per frame at acceptable frame times. The boost clock of 1244 MHz provides some headroom, but the GCN 4.0 architecture from 2017 is not optimized for modern rendering pipelines, particularly at high resolutions. The data shows that the RX 570 becomes the primary bottleneck above 1080p, with FPS dropping roughly linearly as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data across resolutions reveals a clear scaling pattern. At 1080p High settings, the average FPS is 53. Moving to 1440p High drops this to 34 FPS, a 35.8% reduction. At 4K High, the average FPS falls to 18, a 66.0% reduction from 1080p High. The Low settings show a similar trend: 1080p Low averages 82 FPS, 1440p Low averages 53 FPS (35.4% drop), and 4K Low averages 28 FPS (65.9% drop from 1080p). Medium settings follow the pattern: 1080p Medium averages 63 FPS, 1440p Medium averages 40 FPS (36.5% drop), and 4K Medium averages 22 FPS (65.1% drop from 1080p). Ultra settings show the most severe scaling: 1080p Ultra averages 40 FPS, 1440p Ultra averages 26 FPS (35.0% drop), and 4K Ultra averages 14 FPS (65.0% drop from 1080p).

The consistent ~35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~65% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. The pixel count increases by 1.78x from 1080p to 1440p, and 4x from 1080p to 4K. The measured FPS drops are roughly proportional to the pixel count increases, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS drop would be less severe because the CPU workload does not scale with resolution. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D's strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R15 single-core score of 343) ensures that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU has the least work relative to the GPU, the system achieves 82 FPS—likely a frame rate cap or a GPU limit rather than a CPU limit.

The data also shows that the scaling factor is nearly identical across settings: the ratio of 4K to 1080p FPS is roughly 0.34-0.35 for all settings. This uniformity strongly suggests that the RX 570's raw pixel throughput is the constraint, not any specific setting or memory capacity issue. The 4 GB VRAM may exacerbate the problem at 4K Ultra (14 FPS), but the consistent percentage drops indicate that the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are the primary limiting factors, not the CPU or system memory.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 3840x2160 (4K), the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings yield 28 FPS, Medium settings yield 22 FPS (with a minimum of 19 and maximum of 25), High settings yield 18 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 14 FPS. The Medium setting is the only one at 4K that includes min/max values, showing a 6 FPS range between the 19 FPS minimum and 25 FPS maximum. This suggests that even within a single run, frame times are inconsistent, which is typical for a GPU that is heavily loaded.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the average FPS values are: Low settings yield 53 FPS, Medium settings yield 40 FPS (with a minimum of 34 and maximum of 46), High settings yield 34 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 26 FPS. The Medium setting at 1440p shows a 12 FPS range, indicating more variance than at 4K Medium, but still within a playable window for some users. The step from Low to Medium is 13 FPS, from Medium to High is 6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 8 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the average FPS values are: Low settings yield 82 FPS, Medium settings yield 63 FPS (with a minimum of 53 and maximum of 72), High settings yield 53 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 40 FPS. The Medium setting at 1080p shows a 19 FPS range, which is the widest variance in the dataset. The step from Low to Medium is 19 FPS, from Medium to High is 10 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 13 FPS. At 1080p, even Ultra settings hit 40 FPS, which is above the 4K Low result of 28 FPS, highlighting the resolution's impact.

Across all resolutions, the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings is consistent: 54 FPS at 1080p (82 minus 40), 27 FPS at 1440p (53 minus 26), and 14 FPS at 4K (28 minus 14). This halving pattern (54, 27, 14) further confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck, as the absolute FPS headroom shrinks with resolution.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D + AMD Radeon RX 570 combination ranks 2,814 out of 2,939 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the bottom 4.3% of all tested configurations, which is a low rank for a system that features a high-end 2026 processor. The rank reflects the GPU's limitations more than the CPU's capabilities, as the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and GCN 4.0 architecture are dated for this title's demands at higher resolutions.

In the context of the combo's components, the CPU is in the 92nd percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 74th percentile among all GPUs. The massive gap between the CPU's high percentile and the GPU's lower percentile means the combo's overall rank is dragged down by the graphics card. For a game like Minimum that is GPU-bound at most settings, the combo rank of 2,814 suggests that many other systems with more balanced or GPU-focused configurations outperform this pairing. The rank also implies that the 9850X3D's compute power is largely wasted in this specific combination, as the RX 570 cannot translate the CPU's headroom into higher frame rates.

Comparatively, the GPU's nearest rivals—the RX 6800M, R9 M295X, RX 470, and Quadro RTX 8000—all have average scores within 1.2% of the RX 570, so swapping to any of these would not meaningfully change the combo's rank. The bottleneck is architectural: the RX 570's 5.095 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are simply insufficient for 4K gameplay, as evidenced by the 14 FPS Ultra result. The combo rank would likely improve at 1080p, where the system achieves 82 FPS on Low, but the overall rank is a single aggregate metric across all measured configurations, and the 4K results pull it down.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Minimum?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 82, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average FPS of 14, which is the lowest measured value in the dataset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are roughly proportional to pixel count increases (e.g., 82 FPS at 1080p Low vs. 28 FPS at 4K Low), which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2,814 out of 2,939 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 4.3% of all configurations.

Q: Does the CPU's performance help at any resolution?

A: The CPU's strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R15 single-core score of 343) ensures that it does not bottleneck the GPU, but it does not raise FPS because the GPU is the constraint at all resolutions above 1080p Low.

Q: How much FPS is gained by dropping from Ultra to Low settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, dropping from Ultra (40 FPS) to Low (82 FPS) yields a 42 FPS gain, which is a 105% increase in average frame rate.

Settings Recommendations

For the best measured experience, 1080p Low settings provide the highest average FPS of 82, which is the smoothest result in the dataset. This setting avoids the GPU bottleneck that becomes severe at higher resolutions. If visual quality is a priority, 1080p Medium offers 63 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS, which remains playable and provides a 19 FPS improvement over High settings (53 FPS). At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS drops to 40, which is still above the 30 FPS threshold for basic playability, but the frame pacing may be inconsistent given the 13 FPS drop from High to Ultra.

At 1440p, Low settings (53 FPS) are the only option that maintains a comfortable frame rate above 50 FPS. Medium settings at 1440p yield 40 FPS, which is borderline, and High (34 FPS) and Ultra (26 FPS) are below smooth-playable thresholds. At 4K, all settings produce average FPS below 30, with Low at 28 FPS being the only near-playable option, though the 19 FPS minimum at Medium indicates potential stutter. The data strongly suggests that 1080p is the intended resolution for this combo, with Low or Medium settings offering the best balance of performance and visual fidelity. The 4K results (14-28 FPS) are not recommended for gameplay, as even the lowest settings cannot maintain a consistent 30 FPS. The RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for this title's 4K demands, making 1080p the optimal choice for this configuration.