Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread mobile processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This high core count and boost capability position it as a top-tier mobile CPU, yet the measured frame rates in Minimum at lower resolutions indicate that the game’s performance ceiling is not dictated by this processor. For instance, at 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 229 FPS, which is a very high frame rate but still below what the CPU’s compute potential might suggest. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 76212 places it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores 76155, a negligible 0.1% difference. This parity suggests that in a scenario where the CPU is the bottleneck, the 8945HX would perform nearly identically to its closest competitor, but the data in this game shows that the GPU takes over as the limiting factor well before the CPU’s potential is exhausted.

The processor’s 64 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth provide a robust foundation for feeding the Radeon RX 7900M. However, the fact that average FPS scales almost linearly with resolution changes—from 147 FPS at 1080p High to 95 FPS at 1440p High and then 51 FPS at 4K High—points to a classic GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the primary constraint, the frame rate would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU’s workload per frame does not change significantly with resolution. Instead, we see a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 46% drop from 1440p to 4K, which correlates strongly with the increasing pixel count and the GPU’s rendering load. The CPU’s 95th percentile ranking and its 16 cores are more than sufficient for a third-person shooter from 2014, meaning that the 8945HX is effectively idle overhead in most of the measured scenarios, with its power only being tapped at the very high frame rates seen at 1080p Low.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for this combo provides a clear hierarchy of settings presets, with the most balanced experience found at the Medium preset. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 175 FPS, with a recorded minimum of 149 FPS and a maximum of 201 FPS. This is a substantial 28 FPS improvement over the High preset’s 147 FPS average, while still maintaining a frame rate that is far above the refresh rate of most displays. The Low preset pushes the average to 229 FPS, but this comes at the cost of visual fidelity, and the jump from Medium to Low only yields a 54 FPS increase, which is proportionally less impactful than the drop from High to Medium. For a smooth and visually pleasing experience, Medium is the sweet spot, as it offers a 49% higher average FPS than Ultra at the same resolution, while retaining more graphical details than Low.

At 1440p, the Medium preset continues to be the recommended choice, delivering an average of 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and is only 34 FPS lower than the Low preset’s 147 FPS average. The High preset at 1440p produces 95 FPS, which is still playable but shows a 16% decrease from Medium, making Medium the better trade-off between performance and image quality. At 4K, the situation changes, as the GPU becomes heavily loaded. The Medium preset here yields 61 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS playability line, but the High preset drops to 51 FPS, and Ultra falls to 39 FPS. For 4K, the Low preset is the only option that provides a significant margin, averaging 79 FPS, but this sacrifices most graphical enhancements. Therefore, for the best overall experience across all resolutions, Medium is the recommended preset, as it consistently provides the highest frame rate that still maintains a playable and visually coherent image, especially when compared to the steep performance penalties of High and Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K in Minimum reveals a textbook GPU-bound scenario for this combination. At 1080p with High settings, the average FPS is 147. Moving to 1440p High, the average drops to 95 FPS, a decrease of 52 FPS or 35%. Scaling further to 4K High, the average plunges to 51 FPS, a 46% drop from the 1440p figure. This pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For example, on Medium, the averages are 175 FPS at 1080p, 113 FPS at 1440p, and 61 FPS at 4K. The consistent proportional decreases—roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and another 46% from 1440p to 4K—are indicative of a system where the graphics card’s pixel throughput is the primary bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting component, the FPS would not degrade so steeply with resolution, as the CPU’s workload is largely independent of resolution.

This scaling behavior suggests that the AMD Radeon RX 7900M’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth are being fully utilized at higher resolutions, but its compute units are struggling to keep up with the increasing pixel count. The GPU has a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost clock of 2090 MHz, with a peak FP32 performance of 38.52 TFLOPS. The 4K Ultra preset, which averages only 39 FPS, illustrates the extreme load placed on the GPU, as it must render four times the pixels of 1080p while also applying the most demanding visual effects. The data indicates that for this game, the RX 7900M is the definitive limiting component at all resolutions above 1080p, as the CPU’s high core count and clock speeds are more than capable of handling the game’s logic and draw calls. The 1080p Low result of 229 FPS shows the upper bound of what the CPU can feed, but even that is not a CPU limit, as the GPU is still rendering at a high rate.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this CPU and GPU combo in Minimum?*

A: The highest average frame rate is 229 FPS, which is achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution with Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 39 FPS, which is below the standard 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as frame rates drop significantly with increasing resolution. For example, High settings yield 147 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K, showing a strong correlation with pixel count.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: The minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is 96 FPS, with an average of 113 FPS and a maximum of 130 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 8945HX compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX?

A: The Ryzen 9 8945HX has an average benchmark score of 76212, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX’s score of 76155. This difference is negligible.

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

A: The combo ranks 1224 out of 2939 total tested combinations, placing it in the upper half of all systems tested.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900M is a mobile GPU based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, featuring the Navi 31 chip with 4608 shading units and 192 ROPs. Its memory subsystem consists of 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s. The GPU’s boost clock is 2090 MHz, which enables a peak FP32 throughput of 38.52 TFLOPS. In the context of Minimum, this GPU is the dominant performance driver, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 97487, placing it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro VII, scores 97131, a 0.4% difference, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 is 4.3% faster with a score of 101872.

The GPU’s 16 GB of VRAM is a significant asset, as it ensures that memory capacity is not a limiting factor even at 4K Ultra settings, where the average FPS drops to 39. This low frame rate is not due to memory exhaustion but rather the raw compute load of rendering at that resolution with high detail. The fact that the GPU’s performance scales so predictably with resolution—from 229 FPS at 1080p Low to 39 FPS at 4K Ultra—demonstrates that its compute units and texture units are the primary constraint. The GPU’s texture rate of 601.9 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 401.3 GPixel/s are high, but the demands of 4K rendering with Ultra settings overwhelm them. The 180 W TDP of the GPU also indicates a high-power design that prioritizes performance, which is reflected in its ability to maintain 175 FPS at 1080p Medium, a feat that requires substantial and sustained throughput.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo delivers a wide range of frame rates. With Low settings, the average FPS is 229. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 175 FPS, with a minimum of 149 FPS and a maximum of 201 FPS. The High preset yields 147 FPS on average, and the Ultra preset brings the average down to 112 FPS. This shows a clear step-down in performance as graphical fidelity increases, with a 51% reduction in FPS from Low to Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. The Low preset achieves an average of 147 FPS, which matches the 1080p High result. The Medium preset averages 113 FPS, with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 130 FPS. High settings produce 95 FPS, and Ultra drops to 72 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 75 FPS, or a 51% reduction, mirroring the percentage drop seen at 1080p. At 3840x2160, the highest resolution, the GPU is heavily taxed. Low settings average 79 FPS. Medium settings average 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. High settings average 51 FPS, and Ultra settings average only 39 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at 4K is 40 FPS, or a 51% reduction, consistent with the other resolutions.

The data also shows that the Medium preset has the only recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, with the other presets having null values. For the Medium preset, the minimum FPS scales from 149 at 1080p to 96 at 1440p and then to 52 at 4K. The maximum FPS scales similarly, from 201 at 1080p to 130 at 1440p and 70 at 4K. This indicates that the frame time variance increases with resolution, as the minimum FPS drops by 65% from 1080p to 4K, while the average FPS drops by 65% as well, suggesting a consistent level of performance stability relative to the average.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global ranking of tested CPU and GPU combinations for Minimum, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and the AMD Radeon RX 7900M holds the 1224th position out of 2939 total combinations. This places the combo in the 58th percentile of all tested systems, meaning that it outperforms more than half of the tested configurations but is still outclassed by a significant number of others. Given the high individual rankings of the components—the CPU at the 95th percentile and the GPU at the 94th percentile—one might expect a higher combined rank. However, the game’s release date from 2014 and its relatively modest system requirements mean that many older or more specialized hardware combinations can achieve very high frame rates, potentially skewing the ranking.

The combo’s rank is likely influenced by the fact that Minimum is not a particularly demanding title, and thus a wide array of hardware can run it at high speeds. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, has nearly identical benchmark scores, suggesting that the CPU choice has minimal impact on the game’s performance. Similarly, the GPU’s rivals, such as the AMD Radeon Pro VII, are close in score, but the RX 7900M’s 4.3% deficit to the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 could account for some variance in frame rates. The data shows that the combo is capable of producing very high frame rates, especially at 1080p, but its 1224th rank indicates that there are many other combinations that can produce even higher numbers, likely due to the game’s low system requirements and the potential for desktop-class components to dominate. The ranking serves as a relative measure, and while this mobile combo is strong, it does not reach the top tiers of the leaderboard for this specific title.