Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a notably GPU-bound experience in Minimum, a pattern that becomes immediately evident when tracing performance across the three primary resolutions. Starting at 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 170 FPS, but this figure drops sharply to 110.7 FPS at High and 84 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 50.6% reduction in frame rate, which is a substantial hit that points directly at the graphics card as the primary limiter. The CPU, with its 12 cores and 24 threads boosting up to 5.60 GHz, is unlikely to be the bottleneck at these settings, given that even the most demanding preset at 1080p still yields a playable 84 FPS.

Moving to 1440p, the same pattern holds but with a more pronounced impact from the resolution increase. The Low preset delivers 107.1 FPS, which is a 37% drop from the 1080p Low figure. High settings at 1440p produce 71.3 FPS, while Ultra falls to 53.3 FPS. The delta between 1080p High and 1440p High is 39.4 FPS, a significant loss that further confirms the GPU’s dominance in this configuration. At 4K, the situation becomes critical: High settings yield just 37.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to a barely playable 27.3 FPS. The Low preset at 4K manages 56.4 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that approaches smooth gameplay, but the overall trend is clear—the RTX 2060 SUPER’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus are being saturated as pixel count increases.

The resolution scaling data reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. From 1080p High to 1440p High, the FPS drops by 39.4, and from 1440p High to 4K High, it drops by another 33.4. This linear degradation suggests that the game’s rendering demands at higher resolutions are overwhelming the GPU’s 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 224.4 GTexel/s texture rate. The CPU’s 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 64 MB of shared L3 cache are sufficient to feed the GPU, but the graphics card’s 448.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes the limiting factor when pushing 2160p. The benchmark results indicate that for this specific game, the RTX 2060 SUPER is the component that dictates performance ceilings, particularly at 4K where even the Low preset cannot maintain 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of all tested combinations for Minimum, this specific pairing of the Ryzen 9 7900X and RTX 2060 SUPER holds a combo rank of 1262 out of 1733 configurations. This places it in the lower third of all tested systems, which is a somewhat surprising result given the CPU’s capabilities. The Ryzen 9 7900X itself sits in the 93rd percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 50556, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 (scoring 50598, a delta of -0.1%) and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT (scoring 50738, a delta of -0.4%). These margins are razor-thin, indicating that the CPU is not the source of this combo’s mid-pack ranking.

Instead, the ranking is dragged down by the GPU. The RTX 2060 SUPER is in the 63rd percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (scoring 19706, a delta of 0.3%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (scoring 19680, a delta of 0.5%), and the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (scoring 19623, a delta of 0.8%). The RTX 2060 SUPER actually edges out the RTX 2070 by 0.5% in average GPU benchmarks, but this advantage does not translate into a high in-game rank. The data suggests that when combined with a flagship-class CPU, the GPU’s older Turing architecture and 12 nm process node become the limiting factor, preventing the combo from climbing higher than the 72.8% mark of all tested configurations.

The rank discrepancy highlights a fundamental imbalance. The CPU is performing at a level that would support much higher frame rates in less GPU-intensive titles, but Minimum’s rendering workload keeps the RTX 2060 SUPER pinned at its performance limits. This is reflected in the measured FPS: at 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 84 FPS, which is respectable but far from the 170 FPS seen at Low settings. The gap between the CPU’s potential and the GPU’s delivery is the defining characteristic of this pairing, and it explains why the combo rank does not align with the CPU’s strong individual standing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the decisive component in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the measured FPS results. Built on the TU106 chip using a 12 nm process, the GPU features 2176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Its base clock of 1470 MHz and boost clock of 1650 MHz drive a pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory operates at 1750 MHz with a 14 Gbps effective rate, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 256-bit bus. These figures are consistent with a mid-range GPU from the GeForce 20-series, but they are clearly insufficient for the demands of Minimum at higher resolutions.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is a critical factor. At 1080p, the game’s texture and geometry loads remain within this limit, allowing the GPU to maintain frame rates above 110 FPS at High settings. However, as resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the memory footprint grows, and the 8 GB buffer becomes a constraint. The 4K High result of 37.9 FPS suggests that the GPU is not only compute-bound but also potentially memory-limited, as the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is inadequate for the increased data transfer required at 2160p. The benchmark results show a steep drop from 1440p High (71.3 FPS) to 4K High (37.9 FPS), a 46.8% reduction that underscores the bandwidth bottleneck.

The GPU’s FP32 performance of 7.181 TFLOPS and its FP16 capability of 14.36 TFLOPS (2:1) are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for a game released in 2014. The RTX 2060 SUPER’s support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 ensures broad API compatibility, yet the underlying architecture’s age shows in sustained load scenarios. The PassMark G3D score of 16462 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011 provide additional context, but the in-game data is more telling: the GPU delivers 170 FPS at 1080p Low but only 27.3 FPS at 4K Ultra. This 142.7 FPS spread across settings and resolutions is a clear indicator of a GPU that is being pushed to its absolute limits by the game’s higher-end presets.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Minimum, and at what settings?*

A: The highest average FPS is 170, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only measured scenario where the combo exceeds 150 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 2070, in average GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 19774, which is 0.5% higher than the RTX 2070’s score of 19680. This makes it the slightly faster card in aggregate testing.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1262 out of 1733 tested combos, placing it in the lower third of all configurations.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo achieves 37.9 FPS, while at Low settings it reaches 56.4 FPS. The CPU’s 12 cores and 5.60 GHz boost clock are more than capable of handling the game’s workload.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p High to 1440p High?

A: The average FPS drops from 110.7 at 1080p High to 71.3 at 1440p High, representing a loss of 39.4 FPS or a 35.6% reduction in frame rate.

Q: What is the CPU’s percentile ranking compared to all CPUs, and what does this imply?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X is in the 93rd percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 50556. This indicates it is a high-performing CPU that is not the limiting factor in this combo’s in-game results.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is the dominant processing component in this pairing, but its influence on Minimum’s frame rates is largely secondary to the GPU. With 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Raphael), the CPU operates on a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of shared L3 cache, which provides ample capacity for the game’s data. The CPU’s 170 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s bandwidth) are consistent with a high-end desktop part designed for demanding workloads.

In benchmark terms, the Ryzen 9 7900X demonstrates exceptional multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 43695 and single-core score of 6168 place it firmly in the top tier of desktop CPUs. The 3DMark max-threads score of 12536 and the Geekbench multicore score of 17830 reinforce this picture. The PassMark multithread score of 51406 and integer math score of 169273 show that the CPU can handle heavy computational loads with ease. However, these strengths do not translate into higher FPS in Minimum because the game’s engine is not demanding enough to saturate the CPU’s capabilities. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (170 FPS) is likely near the engine’s frame rate ceiling, but the GPU still prevents higher outputs at more demanding settings.

The CPU’s role is better understood through what it does not do: it does not bottleneck the GPU at any resolution or setting. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages 27.3 FPS, which is entirely attributable to the GPU’s inability to process the frame load quickly enough. The CPU’s 93rd percentile ranking against all CPUs, with nearest rivals like the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 (delta of -0.1%) and AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT (delta of -0.4%), shows that it is performing at the expected level for its class. The Ryzen 9 7900X’s 24 threads and high clock speeds ensure that even the most CPU-intensive moments in Minimum are handled without frame drops, but the overall performance ceiling is set by the RTX 2060 SUPER. The data confirms that this is a CPU with headroom to spare, paired with a GPU that is the clear limiting factor in this specific game.