Minimum

# Minimum with AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + Intel Arc B580

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Intel Arc B580 combination delivers playable frame rates across most settings in Minimum, a third-person shooter released on 2014-06-25. The combo ranks 1345 out of 1733 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This ranking reflects a pairing of a high-end 2020 CPU with a mid-range 2024 GPU, where the graphics card becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions and quality presets.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture (codename Vermeer) using a 7 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz, with a TDP of 105 W. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it connects via PCIe Gen 4.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 5900X shows strong multi-threaded performance: it scores 33150 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 13923 in Cinebench R20 multicore, and 3341 in Cinebench R15 multicore. Single-thread results are respectable at 4680 in Cinebench R23 singlecore and 1965 in Cinebench R20 singlecore. The CPU's 3DMark scores scale from 941 in single-thread to 10075 in max-threads, indicating good scaling across its 12 cores. Its average benchmark score of 39453 places it at the 90th percentile among all CPUs.

Relative to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 5900X sits within a tight band. It is 0.2% above the AMD EPYC 4245P, 0.9% above the Intel Core i7-13700F, 0.7% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS, and 1.0% below the Intel Core i7-13700. These margins are minor, indicating the 5900X competes closely with modern mid-to-high-end CPUs.

For Minimum, a game from 2014, the CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads are more than sufficient for the game's logic and physics. At 1080p Low, the measured 163.8 FPS average suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck; rather, the GPU handles the rendering load. The CPU's strength in multi-threaded workloads provides headroom for background tasks, but the game's single-threaded demands are modest — the 5900X's 941 single-thread 3DMark score and 4680 Cinebench R23 singlecore score are ample for this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 5900X with the Intel Arc B580 ranks 1345 out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum, putting it in the 22nd percentile of all pairings. This is a low ranking, driven primarily by the GPU's mid-tier standing rather than the CPU. The CPU itself ranks at the 90th percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks at the 66th percentile among all GPUs — a mismatch that explains the combo's overall position.

The ranking suggests that many other CPU-GPU pairings outperform this one in Minimum, likely because the Arc B580's performance ceiling limits frame rates. The data shows that the combo's measured FPS values are moderate, with 1080p High reaching 102.4 FPS and 4K Ultra dropping to 28 FPS. These numbers align with a GPU that is positioned below top-tier options but above entry-level parts.

Relative to the GPU's nearest rivals, the Arc B580 is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon 760M (0.1% higher score), 0.3% above the NVIDIA P106-100, 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, and 1.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile. This narrow band indicates the Arc B580 delivers performance comparable to an RTX 4060-class GPU, yet the combo's rank in Minimum is dragged down by the game's age and the GPU's architectural characteristics.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture (Battlemage generation) with the BMG-G21 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, along with 20 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base and boost clock of 2670 MHz, with memory clocked at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

In synthetic tests, the Arc B580 scores 15748 in Passmark G3D, 3068 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, and 109672 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its compute performance is 13.67 TFLOPS FP32, with a pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s. The GPU's average benchmark score of 23021 places it at the 66th percentile, and its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, which it trails by only 0.7%.

For Minimum, the GPU's 12 GB VRAM is ample for a 2014 title, even at 4K Ultra where memory usage is unlikely to exceed the available capacity. The 456.0 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for the game's textures and geometry. The GPU's clock speed of 2670 MHz is high, but the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (28 FPS) indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at that resolution and preset. At 1080p Low (163.8 FPS), the GPU still keeps pace with the CPU, but as resolution increases, the GPU's compute throughput of 13.67 TFLOPS becomes the bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 163.8 FPS, Medium reaches 124.4 FPS, High hits 102.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 82.5 FPS. These numbers show a smooth scaling curve, with each quality tier reducing FPS by roughly 20-25% compared to the previous tier.

Moving to 1440p, the averages fall substantially. Low yields 106.4 FPS, Medium 81.7 FPS, High 66.1 FPS, and Ultra 51.8 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 35% at Low to 37% at Ultra, indicating that the GPU is increasingly stressed as pixel count rises.

At 4K, the frame rates become more constrained. Low averages 54.4 FPS, Medium 43.7 FPS, High 35.9 FPS, and Ultra 28 FPS. The 4K results show a tighter spread between presets — only 26.4 FPS separates Low from Ultra — suggesting that at this resolution, the GPU's fill rate and compute limits dominate regardless of settings.

The data shows that for playable 60+ FPS, the combo must stay at 1080p Medium or below, or 1440p Low. At 1440p High and above, frame rates fall below the 60 FPS threshold, and at 4K, even Low settings only achieve 54.4 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is significant across all settings. At Low, the average drops from 163.8 FPS at 1080p to 106.4 FPS at 1440p and 54.4 FPS at 4K — a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At High, the drop is from 102.4 FPS to 66.1 FPS to 35.9 FPS, a 65% reduction. At Ultra, the values go from 82.5 FPS to 51.8 FPS to 28 FPS, a 66% reduction.

These scaling patterns reveal that the GPU is the primary limiting component. The percentage drops are nearly uniform across settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario — the CPU's capability to feed frames is not the issue, as its 12 cores and high single-thread performance (4680 Cinebench R23 singlecore) are more than adequate for a 2014 title. The Arc B580's fill rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s determine the ceiling, and as resolution increases, the pixel throughput requirement grows proportionally.

Interestingly, the 4K results show less differentiation between Low and Ultra (54.4 vs 28 FPS) compared to 1080p (163.8 vs 82.5 FPS). This compression indicates that at 4K, the GPU's shading units and ROPs are saturated even at Low settings, so the additional work from higher presets yields diminishing returns. The 12 GB VRAM is not exhausted, but the compute pipeline becomes the bottleneck.

In summary, this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it delivers high frame rates across all presets. At 1440p, it remains playable on Low to Medium, but at 4K, it falls below the 60 FPS threshold even on Low. The CPU's high percentile ranking does not compensate for the GPU's mid-tier position, confirming that the Arc B580 is the limiting component in this pairing for Minimum.