Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination delivers a commanding performance profile in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released on 2014-06-25. The data shows this pairing ranks 599th out of 2939 tested combos in this specific title, placing it in the top 20% of all system configurations. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS results, the division of labor between the CPU and GPU, and how the system scales across resolutions and settings.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread mobile processor built 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, which is a substantial frequency range for a mobile part. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a 64 MB L3 cache, all feeding a dual-channel DDR5 memory interface with 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The processor is manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC, containing 13,140 million transistors across a die size of 2x 71 mm².

In synthetic benchmarks, the 8945HX posts strong numbers that contextualize its gaming behavior. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 42713, with a single-core score of 6030, indicating excellent multi-threaded throughput and solid single-thread performance. PassMark’s multithread score of 51405 and single-thread score of 3907 reinforce this profile. The processor sits at the 95th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 76212. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (avg score 76155, delta 0.1%), the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (76492, -0.4%), the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (76513, -0.4%), and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (75779, 0.6%). These delta percentages are tiny, meaning the 8945HX is effectively performance-equivalent to its closest competitors in aggregate compute tasks.

For Minimum, which is not a modern title, the CPU’s role is primarily about maintaining high frame rates without bottlenecking the GPU. The high boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensures that single-threaded game logic and draw call processing are handled efficiently. The 16-core design provides headroom for background tasks and any multi-threaded game systems, though the benchmark results suggest the game is not heavily CPU-limited at most settings. The data indicates that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 280 FPS average, which is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for frame generation in this title. The CPU’s 64 MB L3 cache and high memory bandwidth help feed the GPU with data, but the game’s age means the RTX 4090 is the primary driver of performance differences across settings.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

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

A: The two processors are nearly identical in aggregate performance. The Ryzen 9 8945HX has an average benchmark score of 76212, while the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX scores 76155, a delta of just 0.1% in favor of the AMD chip. This difference is negligible in real-world gaming scenarios.

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo in Minimum?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 280, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration to exceed 250 FPS average, with the next highest being 214 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: Does the RTX 4090 bottleneck the CPU at lower resolutions?

A: At 1080p Low, the system hits 280 FPS average, which is likely a CPU-imposed limit given the game’s age and the GPU’s capabilities. At 1080p Ultra, the average drops to 137 FPS, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor as settings increase.

Q: What is the performance delta between the RTX 4090 and its nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60?

A: The RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 60347, while the Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60326, a delta of 0%. The RTX 4090 also leads the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140, 0.3%) but trails the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61896, -2.5%).

*Q: How does the combo’s rank in Minimum compare to its overall GPU and CPU percentiles?*

A: The combo ranks 599th out of 2939 configurations (top 20%). The CPU sits at the 95th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU is at the 88th percentile among all GPUs, suggesting the rank is slightly lower than the individual component percentiles would imply, likely due to the game’s specific optimization.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only configuration with a recorded minimum FPS is 1080p Medium, which shows a min of 182 FPS and a max of 246 FPS. The 1440p Medium configuration shows a min of 117 FPS and max of 159 FPS. All other settings lack min/max data.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 180 FPS at 1080p to 116 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 62 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 46.6% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is less severe at Low settings: 280 FPS at 1080p drops to 180 FPS at 1440p (a 35.7% reduction) and then to 97 FPS at 4K (a 46.1% reduction from 1440p).

The pattern suggests the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 280 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum frame generation capability. As resolution increases, the GPU’s rendering load grows, and the FPS drops accordingly. The RTX 4090’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K, but the raw compute demand of 4K rendering—at 3840x2160, which is 8.3 million pixels versus 2.1 million at 1080p—causes the frame rate to fall from 280 to 97 FPS at Low settings.

The Medium settings data provides the only complete min/max FPS measurements. At 1080p Medium, the average is 214 FPS with a min of 182 and max of 246. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 138 FPS with a min of 117 and max of 159. At 4K Medium, the average is 74 FPS with a min of 63 and max of 86. The min-to-max variance is consistent across resolutions (about 30% of the average), indicating stable frame pacing without major spikes. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Medium shows a 35.5% FPS drop, and from 1440p to 4K a 46.4% drop, mirroring the High and Low settings closely. This consistency confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck at all resolutions above 1080p, with the CPU only limiting at the very lowest settings where frame rates exceed 250 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination achieves a rank of 599 out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum. This places the system in the 79.6th percentile of all configurations tested for this game, meaning it outperforms roughly four out of every five other combos. Given the CPU’s 95th percentile ranking and the GPU’s 88th percentile ranking, the combo’s overall rank is slightly lower than the average of its components’ percentiles. This suggests that Minimum may not fully utilize the extreme hardware, possibly due to the game’s age limiting the benefits of newer architecture features.

The top 20% placement is respectable but not elite, indicating that there are 598 configurations that perform better in this specific title. These higher-ranked combos likely include desktop-class CPUs with higher boost clocks or more aggressive power delivery, as well as potentially newer GPU architectures that handle the game’s specific rendering paths more efficiently. The RTX 4090’s nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (avg score 60326, delta 0%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140, 0.3%), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61896, -2.5%), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58657, 2.9%). Notably, the RTX 4090 has a lower average benchmark score than the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, which is a professional GPU, though the RTX 4090’s gaming-specific features likely contribute to its 88th percentile ranking.

The combo’s rank is determined by measured FPS data, not synthetic benchmarks. With a 280 FPS average at 1080p Low, the system is capable of extremely high frame rates, but the rank suggests that other configurations achieve even higher scores in this title. The 599th rank out of 2939 implies there are many systems that exceed 280 FPS at 1080p Low, which is plausible for a 2014 game that runs well on modern hardware. The data indicates that the combo is firmly in the upper tier, but not the absolute top, for Minimum performance.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a flagship Ada Lovelace architecture GPU, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. It features 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs, along with 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory is connected via a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The card has a TDP of 450 W and requires a triple-slot cooler with a 16-pin power connector, suggesting an 850 W power supply.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4090 scores 38194 in PassMark G3D and 26613 in PassMark GPU Compute. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 9223, and Geekbench scores are 255416 for OpenCL and 271631 for Vulkan. The GPU sits at the 88th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, 0%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140, 0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61896, -2.5%), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58657, 2.9%).

For Minimum, the RTX 4090’s role is to render the game at high resolutions and settings. The data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K and at high/ultra settings. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 48, which is the lowest measured value across all configurations. The GPU’s 24 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, as Minimum’s textures and assets are unlikely to exceed even a fraction of that capacity. The 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming is not a bottleneck, allowing the GPU to focus on compute and rasterization. The boost clock of 2520 MHz provides the raw processing power needed to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, though the 48 FPS at Ultra suggests that even this flagship GPU struggles with the game’s maximum settings at 4K. The RTX 4090’s performance is consistent with its 88th percentile ranking, demonstrating strong but not absolute dominance in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance across 12 configurations (4 resolutions x 3 settings, with 4K lacking a Medium settings measurement, though 4K Medium is present). The full breakdown is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average FPS 280. This is the highest frame rate recorded for the entire combo, indicating the CPU is the limiting factor at this setting.
• Medium: Average FPS 214, with a minimum of 182 and maximum of 246. This is the only 1080p configuration with min/max data.
• High: Average FPS 180. The drop from Low to High is 35.7%, showing the GPU’s increasing load.
• Ultra: Average FPS 137. This represents a 51.1% drop from Low settings at the same resolution.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average FPS 180. This is identical to the 1080p High average, indicating that resolution scaling at Low settings is roughly equivalent to a one-tier settings increase at lower resolution.
• Medium: Average FPS 138, with a minimum of 117 and maximum of 159. The min/max spread of 42 FPS indicates some frame time variance.
• High: Average FPS 116. The drop from Low to High is 35.6%, consistent with the 1080p pattern.
• Ultra: Average FPS 88. This is the lowest 1440p measurement, showing a 51.1% drop from Low settings.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average FPS 97. This is the first configuration to drop below 100 FPS average, showing the significant pixel load of 4K.
• Medium: Average FPS 74, with a minimum of 63 and maximum of 86. The min/max spread of 23 FPS is the tightest across all resolutions, suggesting more consistent frame pacing at 4K.
• High: Average FPS 62. The drop from Low to High is 36.1%, similar to other resolutions.
• Ultra: Average FPS 48. This is the lowest average FPS in the entire dataset, indicating that 4K Ultra is the most demanding configuration.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: at each resolution, the FPS drops by roughly 35% from Low to High settings, and an additional 25-30% from High to Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings results in a 35-36% FPS reduction, while the scaling from 1440p to 4K results in a 46-47% reduction. This nonlinear scaling is expected due to the quadratic increase in pixel count. The only configuration with min/max data at 1080p and 1440p Medium shows that the frame rate variance is proportionally similar, with the min being about 85% of the average and the max about 115% of the average. This stability suggests the combo handles the game’s load without major stutters or spikes, even at lower resolutions where the CPU is more heavily utilized.