Minimum

# Minimum — AMD Ryzen 9 7900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers exceptional frame rates across all tested settings in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The combo ranks 36th out of 1,733 tested combinations, placing it in the top 2% of all systems. At 1080p Low, the setup achieves 393.7 FPS average, while even the most demanding configuration — 4K Ultra — holds at 66.4 FPS. The data indicates a system capable of maxing out high-refresh-rate displays at any resolution, with the GPU clearly serving as the primary performance driver as resolution scales upward.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable yet steep decline as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, with the magnitude of the drop varying significantly by quality preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 393.7 FPS at 1080p to 255.7 FPS at 1440p — a 35% reduction — and then to 135.6 FPS at 4K, representing another 47% drop from 1440p. This pattern indicates that even at Low settings, the RTX 4090's rendering workload scales heavily with pixel count, though the absolute numbers remain exceptionally high.

The High preset shows a similar trajectory: 253.7 FPS at 1080p, 162.2 FPS at 1440p, and 90.7 FPS at 4K. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K is 64%, which is consistent with the four-fold increase in pixel count that 4K represents versus 1080p. Notably, the gap between 1080p and 1440p High (36% drop) is larger than the gap between 1440p and 4K High (44% drop), suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources begin to saturate more uniformly at higher resolutions.

Ultra settings amplify the resolution sensitivity: 194 FPS at 1080p, 123.7 FPS at 1440p, and 66.4 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K reduction is 66%, slightly steeper than High, indicating that the additional shading and texture work at Ultra compounds the pixel-count burden. Medium sits between these extremes, with 304.6 FPS at 1080p, 195.8 FPS at 1440p, and 106 FPS at 4K.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU's 12-core, 24-thread configuration with a 5.60 GHz boost clock is sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the 393.7 FPS Low result. However, the consistent ~64-66% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across High and Ultra presets indicates that the RTX 4090 becomes the limiting component at higher resolutions, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth managing the increased pixel workload. The 4K Ultra result of 66.4 FPS confirms that this game, despite its 2014 release, still presents a meaningful challenge to even the most powerful consumer GPU when fully maxed out.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the High preset at 90.7 FPS offers the best balance between visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, as it maintains a frame rate above the 60 FPS threshold while providing substantially better image quality than Medium's 106 FPS or Low's 135.6 FPS. Ultra at 66.4 FPS is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, whereas High provides a 37% improvement over Ultra while retaining most visual quality benefits.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 195.8 FPS delivers an excellent experience for high-refresh-rate monitors, though High at 162.2 FPS also remains well above the 144 Hz mark. The 123.7 FPS Ultra result is still viable for 120 Hz panels, but the 31% jump from High to Medium — from 162.2 to 195.8 FPS — makes Medium the pragmatic choice for competitive play. Low at 255.7 FPS is reserved for esports-focused scenarios where maximum frame rates trump visuals.

For 1080p, every preset exceeds 190 FPS, making the choice purely about visual preference. Ultra at 194 FPS is fully playable on 144 Hz and even 165 Hz displays, while High at 253.7 FPS and Medium at 304.6 FPS cater to 240 Hz and 300 Hz panels respectively. Low's 393.7 FPS is the clear winner for extreme competitive scenarios, but the visual sacrifices are substantial. The data suggests that High at 253.7 FPS is the sweet spot for most 1080p users, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 240 Hz while preserving acceptable image quality.

FAQ

*Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems in Minimum?*

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination ranks 36th out of 1,733 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.1% of all systems tested.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 393.7 FPS average, which is the peak measured performance across all resolution and settings combinations.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, at 4K the combo delivers 90.7 FPS on High settings, 106 FPS on Medium, and 66.4 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low result of 135.6 FPS indicates that even the most demanding resolution is playable.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 253.7 at 1080p to 162.2 at 1440p and then to 90.7 at 4K, representing a 64% total reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark percentile ranking?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X ranks in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 50,556 across all tested workloads.

Q: What GPU memory configuration does this system use?

A: The RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth, with base and boost clocks of 2235 MHz and 2520 MHz respectively.

How This Combo Ranks

The 36th-place ranking out of 1,733 tested combinations places this system in the 98th percentile of all configurations tested in Minimum. This top-tier positioning is consistent with the CPU's 93rd percentile ranking among all processors and the GPU's 91st percentile among all graphics cards. The Ryzen 9 7900X posts an average benchmark score of 50,556, which sits within 1% of its nearest rivals: the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 (50,598, -0.1% delta), the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT (50,738, -0.4%), the Intel Core i7-13850HX (50,827, -0.5%), and the Intel Core i9-13980HX (50,944, -0.8%). This clustering indicates that the CPU is not a differentiating factor at this performance tier.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 66,473 similarly places it within 1.3% of its nearest competitors: the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66,733, -0.4%), the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (66,127, +0.5%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67,097, -0.9%), and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (67,320, -1.3%). The near-parity among these professional and workstation cards suggests that the RTX 4090's gaming performance, as measured in Minimum, is not dramatically ahead of these rivals despite its consumer-focused design.

The combination of a top-40 overall ranking with both components performing near their respective peer groups indicates that the system's 4K performance is primarily constrained by the game's engine and the GPU's architectural limits rather than any CPU bottleneck. The 36th rank out of 1,733 combos means only 35 tested systems outperformed this configuration, a remarkable result for a CPU released in 2022 and a GPU that has since been designated end-of-life.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 serves as the dominant performance component in this configuration, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, deliver the raw compute throughput necessary for the high frame rates observed. The 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate explain the system's ability to maintain 90.7 FPS at 4K High, a demanding workload by any measure.

The VRAM capacity is particularly relevant for Minimum at 4K Ultra, where the 66.4 FPS result indicates the GPU is fully utilized. The 24 GB allocation provides ample headroom for high-resolution textures and effects, meaning the frame rate drop from High to Ultra (90.7 to 66.4 FPS) is attributable to compute and shading demands rather than memory capacity limitations. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, while not directly tested in this game's benchmark data, contribute to the GPU's overall architectural efficiency.

The GPU's 450 W TDP and triple-slot design reflect its high-performance positioning, with the 1x 16-pin power connector and 850 W suggested PSU indicating substantial power delivery requirements. The 5 nm process node from TSMC, housing 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, enables the clock speeds and efficiency that allow this card to achieve a 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs. The PassMark G3D score of 38,194 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 corroborate the gaming performance observed in Minimum, confirming that the GPU is operating at its expected performance envelope.