Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the AMD Radeon 890M delivers a playable experience in Minimum primarily at 1080p, with the data indicating a significant performance ceiling that favors lower settings for consistent frame rates. The benchmark results show a clear progression where the integrated GPU becomes the dominant constraint as resolution and graphical fidelity increase, making preset selection critical for achieving smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combination reveals a stark trade-off between visual quality and performance, with the Low preset offering the only experience that consistently clears the 60 FPS threshold. At 1920x1080, the Low setting delivers an average of 84 FPS, which is 20 FPS higher than the High preset’s 54 FPS and 43 FPS above the Ultra preset’s 41 FPS. This suggests that for competitive play or fluid motion, the Low preset is the only viable option at this resolution, as it provides a substantial margin of headroom that the other settings cannot match.

Moving to the Medium preset at 1080p, the average drops to 64 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS and a maximum of 74 FPS. While this is technically above the 60 FPS mark on average, the minimum frame time dips suggest occasional stutter that could be noticeable in fast-paced third-person shooter scenarios. The High preset at 54 FPS and Ultra at 41 FPS both fall below the ideal smoothness threshold, making them less suitable for action-heavy gameplay despite their visual improvements.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. The Low preset averages 54 FPS, which is playable but not ideal, while Medium drops to 41 FPS and High to 35 FPS. The Ultra preset at 27 FPS is borderline unplayable for a shooter. At 3840x2160, all settings produce averages below 30 FPS, with Low at 29 FPS, Medium at 22 FPS, High at 19 FPS, and Ultra at 14 FPS. The data strongly indicates that 4K resolution is not a practical option for this hardware combination in Minimum.

The best experience per the measured rows is unequivocally the Low preset at 1920x1080, yielding 84 FPS average. This setting provides the only combination that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS, ensuring smooth camera movement and responsive aiming. For users willing to tolerate slightly lower frame rates for better visuals, Medium at 1080p with a 64 FPS average and minimum of 55 FPS is the compromise choice, but the data shows that any setting above Low at 1080p introduces frame pacing inconsistencies that could affect gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and AMD Radeon 890M ranks 3491 out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the bottom 6% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the significant bottleneck imposed by the integrated GPU, as the processor itself is a high-end mobile part with a percentile of 95 against all CPUs. The disparity between the CPU’s strong standing and the combo’s poor ranking highlights how the Radeon 890M, sitting at the 45th percentile for GPUs, holds back the overall system performance in this game.

The combo’s position near the bottom of the list suggests that most other hardware pairings, including those with discrete graphics cards or more powerful integrated solutions, will outperform it in Minimum. The data indicates that this setup is only suitable for low-resolution, low-setting gameplay, which aligns with the measured FPS results. The rank of 3491 out of 3712 means that 221 other combos perform worse, but the overwhelming majority of tested systems deliver better frame rates in this title.

When considering the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 8945HX’s average benchmark score of 76212 is nearly identical to the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX at 76155, a delta of just 0.1%. This close proximity in processing power suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo’s poor ranking. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 75779, which is 0.6% lower, while the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX are 0.4% higher. These marginal differences in CPU performance have little bearing on the game’s outcome, reinforcing that the Radeon 890M’s capabilities dictate the combo’s low rank.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is an integrated graphics processor built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture with a 4 nm process node. It features a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2900 MHz, with memory that is system shared and bandwidth that is system dependent. The GPU includes 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units, along with 16 ray tracing cores. Its compute capabilities are rated at 5.939 TFLOPS for FP32, and it has a pixel rate of 92.80 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 185.6 GTexel/s.

In Minimum, the GPU’s performance is clearly the dominant factor in determining frame rates. The measured FPS data shows a consistent decline as resolution increases, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low, the 890M achieves 84 FPS, but this drops to 54 FPS at 1440p Low and 29 FPS at 4K Low. This pattern indicates that the GPU’s rendering throughput is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at higher pixel counts, regardless of the CPU’s capabilities.

The Radeon 890M’s benchmark scores provide context for its gaming performance. It scores 8076 in Passmark G3D and 4157 in Passmark GPU Compute, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 590. Its Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores are 37254 and 40808, respectively. These numbers place the GPU at the 45th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 9210. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Vega 8 at 9221 (-0.1% delta), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 at 9273 (-0.7%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 at 9294 (-0.9%), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M at 9302 (-1%). This indicates that the 890M performs similarly to older entry-level discrete GPUs, which explains its limitations in a modern shooter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS values show a clear hierarchy across settings. The Low preset delivers an average of 84 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this resolution. The Medium preset averages 64 FPS, with a minimum of 55 FPS and a maximum of 74 FPS, indicating some frame time variance. The High preset drops to 54 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 41 FPS. This 43 FPS spread between Low and Ultra demonstrates the significant impact of graphical settings on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the performance decreases noticeably. The Low preset averages 54 FPS, which is exactly the same as the High preset at 1080p, showing that halving the pixel count compensates for the lower settings. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 FPS and maximum of 48 FPS. The High preset averages 35 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 27 FPS. None of these settings achieve 60 FPS, making 1440p a less attractive option for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, all settings produce sub-30 FPS averages, rendering the game largely unplayable. The Low preset averages 29 FPS, which is the highest at this resolution. The Medium preset averages 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS and maximum of 26 FPS. The High preset averages 19 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 14 FPS. The data consistently shows that 4K resolution exceeds the capabilities of the Radeon 890M in Minimum, regardless of the settings chosen.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and reveals the limiting component clearly. At the Low preset, the average frame rate falls from 84 FPS at 1080p to 54 FPS at 1440p and then to 29 FPS at 4K. This represents a 36% decrease from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 46% decrease from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, with the 4K resolution causing a disproportionately large drop, which is typical of a GPU that struggles with pixel throughput.

For the Medium preset, the averages are 64 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 22 FPS at 4K. This shows a 36% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 46% drop from 1440p to 4K, mirroring the Low preset’s scaling pattern. The High preset follows a similar trend with 54 FPS, 35 FPS, and 19 FPS across the three resolutions, while the Ultra preset produces 41 FPS, 27 FPS, and 14 FPS. The consistent pattern across all settings indicates that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary bottlenecks.

The resolution scaling data strongly suggests that the Radeon 890M is the limiting component in this combo. The Ryzen 9 8945HX, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, has ample processing power to handle the game’s logic, but the GPU cannot keep up with the increasing pixel counts. The fact that frame rates drop by roughly half when moving from 1080p to 4K aligns with the four-fold increase in pixel count, but the actual performance falls short of even that expectation, indicating additional inefficiencies at higher resolutions. Users should target 1080p for any playable experience, as higher resolutions will inevitably result in sub-30 FPS performance.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in Minimum?*

A: The data shows that the Low preset at 1920x1080 provides the best experience with an average of 84 FPS. This is the only measured configuration that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS, making it the most suitable for smooth gameplay.

*Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems in Minimum?*

A: This combination of AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and AMD Radeon 890M ranks 3491 out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 6% of all systems. This indicates that most other hardware pairings will deliver better performance in this game.

Q: Is the game playable at 2560x1440 with this setup?

A: At 1440p, the Low preset averages 54 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced shooter. The Medium preset averages 41 FPS with occasional dips to 35 FPS, while High and Ultra produce 35 FPS and 27 FPS respectively, making them less suitable for responsive gameplay.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K resolution in Minimum?*

A: No, the measured FPS at 3840x2160 shows all settings produce averages below 30 FPS, with the highest being 29 FPS on Low. The Ultra preset averages just 14 FPS, making 4K resolution effectively unplayable for this title.

Q: How does the Radeon 890M compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Radeon 890M has an average benchmark score of 9210, placing it at the 45th percentile. Its closest competitors are the AMD Radeon Vega 8 at 9221 (-0.1%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 at 9273 (-0.7%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 at 9294 (-0.9%), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M at 9302 (-1%).

Q: What is the CPU’s role in this combo’s performance?

A: The Ryzen 9 8945HX is a high-end processor with a 95th percentile ranking against all CPUs, but its performance is not the limiting factor. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 76212 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, and the game’s frame rates are primarily constrained by the integrated GPU’s capabilities.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread mobile processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Dragon Range. It operates with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. The CPU features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 64 MB of L3 cache. It supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s, and it is built on a 5 nm process node from TSMC.

In Minimum, the CPU’s substantial processing power appears to be underutilized given the game’s release date of 2014. The benchmark results show the CPU excels in multi-core workloads, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 51405. Its single-core performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6030 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3907. These scores indicate that the CPU can handle any modern game’s logic and physics calculations without becoming a bottleneck.

However, the measured FPS data in Minimum suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU’s percentile of 95 against all CPUs means it outperforms 95% of processors, yet the combo ranks near the bottom of all tested configurations. This discrepancy highlights that even a top-tier CPU cannot compensate for the integrated GPU’s limitations. The CPU’s nearest rivals, including the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, show only marginal differences in average benchmark scores (less than 1% delta), which would have negligible impact on game performance.

The CPU’s high clock speeds and core count are more than sufficient for Minimum, but the game’s performance is constrained by the Radeon 890M’s ability to render frames. The data indicates that users would see no meaningful improvement in FPS from upgrading the CPU alone, as the integrated GPU is the primary determinant of the frame rates measured. The CPU’s role in this combo is to ensure that it does not further limit performance, which it does admirably, but it cannot overcome the GPU’s rendering ceiling.