Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile combination in Minimum show a clear and expected progression as resolution increases. At 1080p, the system achieves high triple-digit frame rates, but the transition to 1440p and 4K reveals a steep performance curve that is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher pixel counts.

At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average frame rate is 130 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same High preset drops the average to 84 FPS, a reduction of 46 FPS. This represents a 35.4% performance loss from 1080p to 1440p. The scaling continues aggressively at 4K, where the 3840x2160 High preset yields an average of 45 FPS, which is 46.4% lower than the 1440p result and 65.4% lower than the 1080p result. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component as resolution climbs.

The data across all settings presets reinforces this finding. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 202 FPS at 1080p to 130 FPS at 1440p (a 35.6% decrease) and then to 70 FPS at 4K (a 46.2% decrease from 1440p). The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 154 FPS at 1080p, 100 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with average scores of 99 FPS at 1080p, 64 FPS at 1440p, and 34 FPS at 4K.

The relative drop from 1440p to 4K is consistently larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p across all settings. For example, in High settings, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 46 FPS, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 39 FPS, but the percentage loss is steeper at higher resolutions. This is typical of a GPU that has a fixed memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory; the pixel throughput demand at 4K exceeds what the RTX 4070 Mobile can efficiently sustain.

Notably, the frame rate variance, where available, also increases with resolution. At Medium settings, the spread between min and max FPS is 47 FPS at 1080p (131 to 178), 30 FPS at 1440p (85 to 115), and 16 FPS at 4K (46 to 62). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the system is hitting a hard performance ceiling imposed by the GPU, rather than fluctuating due to CPU or memory bottlenecks.

The scaling behavior indicates that 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo, with headroom to spare. The 1440p results are playable for most presets, but 4K requires significant settings compromises, as even Low settings only reach 70 FPS average.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 202 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 154 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 130 FPS at both 1080p High and 1440p Low.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile the bottleneck at 4K?

A: The data points to the GPU as the limiting factor at 4K. At 3840x2160, the average frame rates across presets range from 34 FPS (Ultra) to 70 FPS (Low), while the CPU is capable of much higher throughput, evidenced by its strong multi-threaded benchmark scores. The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads are not saturated at these frame rates.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Mobile's performance compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT?

A: The two GPUs are statistically identical in average benchmark score. The RTX 4070 Mobile has an average score of 27435, while the RX 6700 XT has 27425, a delta of 0%. In-game performance is therefore expected to be similar, although the RTX 4070 Mobile has a lower TDP of 115 W compared to what a desktop card would use.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce an average of 130 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 64 FPS. This is a 66 FPS difference, meaning Ultra is roughly half the frame rate of Low. The Medium and High presets fall in between at 100 FPS and 84 FPS, respectively.

Q: Does the CPU's single-core performance matter for this game?

A: The Ryzen 9 8945HX has a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6030 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3907. Given that the frame rates scale so heavily with resolution and settings, the game appears to be GPU-limited at higher loads. The CPU's high single-core performance is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking even at 1080p Low, where the system reaches 202 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for Minimum?

A: The combo ranks 2029 out of 3712 tested combinations, placing it in the 54.6th percentile. This means it outperforms slightly more than half of all recorded systems, but it is not near the top tier, which is consistent with a mid-range mobile GPU paired with a high-end mobile CPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread 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. This is a high-end mobile CPU, evident from its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and single-core score of 6030.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at most settings. The frame rate data shows a consistent decline as resolution increases, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p Low, the CPU must work to feed the GPU enough frames to reach 202 FPS, but it clearly manages this without becoming a bottleneck, as the frame rates are high and the scaling to 1440p Low (130 FPS) is still substantial.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are reflected in its Passmark multithread score of 51405 and its Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 17939. These numbers suggest that even in CPU-intensive scenarios, such as physics calculations or AI-driven enemy behavior in a third-person shooter, the 8945HX has ample headroom. The Passmark physics score of 2168 further indicates strong compute performance for game logic.

The processor's 64 MB of L3 cache is also advantageous for gaming, as it reduces memory latency and improves data access patterns. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s ensures that the CPU can quickly feed data to the GPU, although the GPU's own 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is the more critical path for rendering.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 8945HX is nearly identical in average benchmark score to the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, with a delta of 0.1%. It also edges out the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D by 0.6% in average score, although the 9950X3D has a 3D V-Cache variant that is not present here. The EPYC Embedded 8224P and Threadripper PRO 9945WX are both within 0.4% of the 8945HX's score, indicating that this mobile chip performs on par with some server and workstation parts in synthetic benchmarks.

For Minimum, the CPU is not the limiting factor. The benchmark data shows that even at 4K Ultra, where the average frame rate drops to 34 FPS, the CPU is likely idle waiting for the GPU to complete rendering tasks. The high core count and boost clock ensure that the CPU can handle any frame rate the GPU can produce, making the GPU the sole focus for performance tuning.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo provide a complete picture across three resolutions and four settings presets. The data is presented as average FPS, with min and max values recorded only for the Medium preset at each resolution.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: 202 FPS average
• Medium: 154 FPS average, with a min of 131 and a max of 178
• High: 130 FPS average
• Ultra: 99 FPS average

The 1080p results show that the RTX 4070 Mobile is capable of high refresh rate gaming, even at High settings. The gap between Low and Ultra is 103 FPS, which shows that the settings preset has a significant impact on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are:

• Low: 130 FPS average
• Medium: 100 FPS average, with a min of 85 and a max of 115
• High: 84 FPS average
• Ultra: 64 FPS average

The 1440p results indicate that the system can still drive a 144Hz monitor at Low settings, but High and Ultra require a 60Hz panel for a consistent experience. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is substantial, with the High preset losing 46 FPS and the Low preset losing 72 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are:

• Low: 70 FPS average
• Medium: 54 FPS average, with a min of 46 and a max of 62
• High: 45 FPS average
• Ultra: 34 FPS average

The 4K results reveal the GPU's limitations. Only the Low preset manages to stay above 60 FPS, while Ultra dips to 34 FPS, which is not ideal for a fast-paced third-person shooter. The Medium preset's min frame rate of 46 FPS suggests potential stuttering in demanding scenes.

The data shows that the Medium preset consistently provides the most balanced performance across all resolutions, with the only recorded min/max values in the entire dataset. At 1080p Medium, the min of 131 FPS is still higher than the average of any other preset at that resolution except Low. At 1440p Medium, the min of 85 FPS is close to the High preset's average of 84 FPS. At 4K Medium, the min of 46 FPS is just above the High preset's average of 45 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD106 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 4608 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1395 MHz and a boost clock of 1695 MHz, drawing up to 115 W.

The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is a critical factor in the game's performance at higher resolutions. The 128-bit bus is relatively narrow, which limits memory bandwidth compared to wider-bus desktop cards. This is reflected in the steep performance drop from 1440p to 4K, where the fill rate demand exceeds what the memory can efficiently supply.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 36 ray tracing cores and 144 tensor cores, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The FP32 performance is rated at 15.62 TFLOPS, which is sufficient for modern games but not top-tier. In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4070 Mobile achieves a Passmark G3D score of 19587 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 109197.

The GPU's performance percentile of 73 places it above the majority of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, has an identical average benchmark score of 27425 versus 27435, a delta of 0%. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is only 0.5% higher in score, indicating that the mobile 4070 performs close to a previous-generation desktop flagship. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell is 1.1% lower, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 is 1.5% lower.

In Minimum, the GPU's role is dominant. The frame rate data shows that lowering settings has a direct and predictable effect on performance, which is typical of a GPU-bound game. At 1080p, the GPU can push over 200 FPS at Low settings, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 34 FPS. This 168 FPS swing across the settings and resolution matrix is entirely attributable to the GPU's rendering workload.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this 2014 title, as even at 4K Ultra, the game likely does not exceed this allocation. However, the memory bandwidth is a more pressing concern. The 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is the same as the desktop RTX 4060 Ti's lower-tier configuration, and it proves to be a limiting factor at 4K, where the pixel throughput demands are high.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset for this combo depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. The data provides clear guidance for each resolution tier.

For 1920x1080, the High preset at 130 FPS is the best choice for most users, as it offers a significant visual improvement over Medium (154 FPS) while still maintaining a frame rate that exceeds 120 Hz. The Ultra preset at 99 FPS is acceptable for those with a 100Hz monitor, but the 31 FPS drop from High to Ultra is substantial for the marginal visual gains. For competitive play, the Low preset at 202 FPS is ideal for 240Hz displays, but the visual quality loss is noticeable.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 100 FPS is the recommended balance. It provides a smooth experience on 100Hz or 144Hz displays and has a recorded min of 85 FPS, which keeps frame times consistent. The High preset at 84 FPS is playable but may require a 75Hz or 60Hz monitor to avoid tearing. The Low preset at 130 FPS is the best option for high refresh rate gaming at this resolution, but the visual downgrade is significant. The Ultra preset at 64 FPS is not recommended for a fast-paced shooter, as the lower frame rate can impact responsiveness.

For 3840x2160, the Low preset at 70 FPS is the only viable option for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 54 FPS is borderline, with a min of 46 FPS that could cause stutters. The High preset at 45 FPS and Ultra at 34 FPS are sub-optimal for this genre. If 4K is a priority, lowering to Low settings is necessary to maintain a playable frame rate.

The Medium preset consistently offers the best balance of performance and visual quality across all resolutions. At 1080p, it delivers 154 FPS; at 1440p, 100 FPS; and at 4K, 54 FPS. The recorded min and max values for Medium also show that frame pacing is stable, with the spread between min and max being the tightest of any preset at a given resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile combination ranks 2029 out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the 54.6th percentile. This is a mid-pack ranking, which may seem surprising given the high-end CPU and capable GPU, but it is consistent with the game's age and the wide variety of desktop configurations that dominate the top rankings.

The CPU's individual performance is elite, with a 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 76212 places it within 0.4% of the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX, and it is 0.1% above the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX. This indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in the combo's ranking.

The GPU's individual performance is above average, with a 73rd percentile ranking. Its average score of 27435 is statistically tied with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (0% delta) and within 0.5% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. However, in the context of Minimum, the GPU's mobile form factor and 115 W TDP limit its sustained performance compared to desktop cards with higher power budgets.

The combo's ranking of 2029 suggests that while this system is capable of excellent performance at 1080p and good performance at 1440p, it falls behind many desktop configurations in the 4K tier. The data shows that the system's frame rates at 4K are moderate, with the best case being 70 FPS at Low settings. This places it in the middle of the pack, where it is beaten by systems with higher-end desktop GPUs that can maintain higher frame rates at 4K.

The ranking also reflects the game's age. Released in 2014, Minimum is not particularly demanding by modern standards, so even mid-range hardware from recent generations can achieve high frame rates. The fact that this combo only reaches the 54.6th percentile indicates that many tested systems, likely with desktop GPUs, can match or exceed its performance at lower resolutions. For a mobile setup, however, this combo delivers strong results, with 1080p High at 130 FPS being a particularly notable achievement.