Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers exceptional frame rates in Minimum, ranking in the top 1.3% of all tested combinations. The data indicates a system capable of obliterating this 2014 third-person shooter at any setting, with the primary decision being whether to prioritize maximum visual fidelity or push for the highest possible refresh rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data shows that the Ultra preset is the only setting tier that presents any challenge to this hardware, yet even it remains highly playable. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 210 FPS, which drops to 136 FPS at 2560x1440 and 73 FPS at 3840x2160. While these numbers are all playable, the High preset offers a more compelling balance for most users. The High preset provides a substantial performance uplift over Ultra across all resolutions—a 31% increase at 1080p (276 FPS vs 210 FPS), a 31% increase at 1440p (178 FPS vs 136 FPS), and a 32% increase at 4K (96 FPS vs 73 FPS).

For users with high-refresh-rate displays, the Medium preset is the optimal choice. At 1920x1080, Medium achieves 329 FPS average with a minimum of 280 FPS, ensuring smooth frame pacing even in demanding scenes. At 2560x1440, Medium still delivers 212 FPS average with a 180 FPS minimum. The Medium preset's consistency is notable; it is the only settings tier with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values that show a tight range, suggesting stable performance without significant dips.

The Low preset, while offering the highest frame rates (371 FPS at 1080p, 277 FPS at 1440p, 149 FPS at 4K), does not provide enough of an advantage over Medium to justify the visual compromise. The gap between Low and Medium is 13% at 1080p, 23% at 1440p, and 23% at 4K, which is relatively modest compared to the visual quality difference typically expected between these tiers. Therefore, the recommendation is to use the Medium preset for competitive play or high-refresh displays, and the High preset for a balanced experience with superior visuals. Ultra should only be selected when visual quality is paramount and the frame rate sacrifice is acceptable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, and the benchmark data reflects its massive capabilities. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This memory configuration is far beyond what Minimum requires, ensuring that texture streaming and memory allocation are never bottlenecks. The GPU's 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs provide immense raw compute power, and the 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores offer additional specialized processing capabilities.

The clock speeds of 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost are substantial, but the GPU's true strength lies in its massive parallel processing array. The FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s indicate that the RTX 5090 D can handle any graphical workload Minimum can present. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s is particularly relevant for a game like this, as it determines the speed at which the GPU can fill the screen with rendered pixels.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. The PassMark G3D score of 44065 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14326 place the RTX 5090 D in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 376915 and OpenCL score of 310674 further demonstrate its compute capabilities. Interestingly, the nearest rivals listed are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% higher avg score), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% lower), NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (2.1% lower), and Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (2.4% lower). This proximity in aggregate scores is misleading, as the RTX 5090 D's gaming-specific architecture and drivers clearly excel in real-world gaming scenarios like Minimum, where it achieves frame rates that these rivals cannot match in gaming workloads.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X provides a formidable foundation for this GPU. With 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer), this processor offers exceptional multi-threaded performance that ensures the GPU is never starved of data. The base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz provide strong single-threaded performance, which is often critical for game logic and physics calculations in titles like Minimum.

The CPU's cache hierarchy is substantial: 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a massive 64 MB of L3 cache. This large L3 cache is particularly beneficial for gaming, as it allows frequently accessed game data to reside close to the cores, reducing memory latency. The dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for this game, though it is the system's most modest specification.

The Ryzen 9 5950X's benchmark scores demonstrate its capability. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 26017 and single-core score of 1614 show strong performance in both threaded and single-threaded workloads. The PassMark multi-thread score of 45424 and single-thread score of 3470 further confirm its balance. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 10810 and max-thread score of 11597 indicate that the CPU can handle heavily threaded workloads without significant scaling issues.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 91 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 51947, places it slightly below the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX (0.2% higher avg score) and AMD EPYC 8124P (0.3% higher), while being slightly above the Intel Core i9-13900F (0.4% lower) and Intel Core i7-14700 (0.7% lower). This positioning shows that while the 5950X is not the absolute fastest CPU available, it is more than sufficient for Minimum, where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 37th out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 1.3% of all configurations. This ranking confirms the sheer power of the RTX 5090 D, which drives this 2014 title to frame rates that are only achievable with the most modern and expensive hardware.

The ranking indicates that there are 36 combinations that perform better, which likely include newer CPUs with faster single-threaded performance or more optimized memory configurations. However, for a game released in 2014, the fact that this combination ranks so highly suggests that the game's engine is either well-optimized for modern hardware or that the RTX 5090 D's raw power simply overwhelms any potential bottlenecks.

The data shows that this combo is not held back by CPU limitations in most scenarios. The Ryzen 9 5950X's strong single-threaded performance (3DMark single-thread score of 944, Cinebench R23 single-core of 1614) ensures that the CPU can feed the GPU at the frame rates observed. The ranking of 37th out of 2939 is particularly impressive given that the CPU is from the 5000 series (released in 2020) and uses DDR4 memory, while many newer platforms offer DDR5. This suggests that Minimum does not heavily penalize the older memory architecture, and the GPU's massive bandwidth compensates for any system-level limitations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo achieves 276 FPS, which drops to 178 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 35.5% decrease) and further to 96 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 65.2% decrease from 1080p). This pattern is consistent across all settings tiers, indicating that the GPU's rendering workload is the primary factor limiting performance as resolution increases.

The scaling factor between 1080p and 1440p is approximately 0.65 across all settings (276 to 178 FPS for High, 371 to 277 FPS for Low, 329 to 212 FPS for Medium, and 210 to 136 FPS for Ultra). The scaling between 1440p and 4K is also consistent at approximately 0.54 (178 to 96 FPS for High, 277 to 149 FPS for Low, 212 to 114 FPS for Medium, and 136 to 73 FPS for Ultra). This consistency suggests that the game's rendering pipeline scales predictably with pixel count, and there are no unexpected bottlenecks or optimizations that kick in at specific resolutions.

The 4K to 1080p FPS ratio of approximately 0.35 (96/276 for High) indicates that 4K requires roughly 2.9 times the GPU resources of 1080p. This is close to the theoretical pixel count difference (3840x2160 = 8.3 million pixels vs 1920x1080 = 2.1 million pixels, a 4x difference), but the game appears to have some efficiency gains at higher resolutions, possibly due to reduced CPU overhead per pixel or more efficient memory access patterns. The fact that the CPU is not the bottleneck is confirmed by the consistent scaling; if the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between resolutions, particularly at lower settings where the GPU has less work to do.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for competitive play?

A: The Medium preset offers the best balance of high frame rates and consistency. At 1920x1080, it delivers an average of 329 FPS with a minimum of 280 FPS, while at 2560x1440 it maintains a 212 FPS average with a 180 FPS minimum. These minimum FPS values are the highest among all presets, ensuring smooth frame pacing.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D's memory configuration impact performance?

A: The GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is far more than Minimum requires, eliminating any possibility of memory bandwidth or capacity bottlenecks. The high memory bandwidth ensures that textures and geometry can be streamed to the GPU cores without delay.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 5950X a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 D in this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would see smaller FPS differences between resolutions, particularly at lower settings.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combination delivers an average of 73 FPS. This is the most demanding configuration tested and represents the lower bound of playable performance for this hardware. For higher frame rates at 4K, the High preset offers 96 FPS, and the Medium preset provides 114 FPS.

Q: How does this combo's ranking compare to other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 37th out of 2939 tested combos, placing it in the top 1.3% of all configurations. This indicates that only a small number of systems can outperform it in Minimum, and these are likely to feature even more recent CPUs with faster single-threaded performance.

Q: Does the game benefit more from CPU or GPU improvements?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary driver of performance. The RTX 5090 D's massive compute resources (104.8 TFLOPS FP32, 21760 shading units) enable the high frame rates observed. The CPU's strong but not top-tier benchmark scores (91st percentile) suggest that upgrading the CPU would yield minimal gains, while the GPU's performance is the key differentiator.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table presents all measured average FPS values from the FACT PACK, organized by resolution and settings preset.

1920x1080:

• Low: 371 FPS average
• Medium: 329 FPS average (minimum 280 FPS, maximum 379 FPS)
• High: 276 FPS average
• Ultra: 210 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 277 FPS average
• Medium: 212 FPS average (minimum 180 FPS, maximum 244 FPS)
• High: 178 FPS average
• Ultra: 136 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 149 FPS average
• Medium: 114 FPS average (minimum 97 FPS, maximum 131 FPS)
• High: 96 FPS average
• Ultra: 73 FPS average

The Medium preset is the only one with complete minimum and maximum data across all resolutions. The minimum FPS values for Medium (280 at 1080p, 180 at 1440p, 97 at 4K) indicate that even the lowest frame rates remain highly playable. The maximum FPS values (379 at 1080p, 244 at 1440p, 131 at 4K) show the upper ceiling of performance. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS is relatively tight, with the 1080p Medium preset showing a 99 FPS range, which suggests consistent frame delivery without major stutters or drops.

The performance deltas between presets are consistent across resolutions. Moving from Low to Medium costs approximately 11% at 1080p (371 to 329 FPS), 23% at 1440p (277 to 212 FPS), and 23% at 4K (149 to 114 FPS). Moving from Medium to High costs 16% at 1080p (329 to 276 FPS), 16% at 1440p (212 to 178 FPS), and 16% at 4K (114 to 96 FPS). The largest performance impact comes from moving from High to Ultra, which costs 24% at 1080p (276 to 210 FPS), 24% at 1440p (178 to 136 FPS), and 24% at 4K (96 to 73 FPS). This consistency across resolutions suggests that the settings presets impose proportional workload increases regardless of pixel count.