Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti delivers a formidable performance profile in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released in 2014. The measured data across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a system capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p and solid 1440p performance, while 4K remains demanding. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, interprets the ranking data, and explores the roles of the CPU and GPU in shaping the experience.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combination shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate, with the most balanced experience found at the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 179 FPS, which is substantially higher than the 115 FPS average at Ultra, while still providing a significant jump in visual quality over Low. The data shows that the jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 55 FPS (from 234 to 179), while the jump from Medium to Ultra costs 64 FPS (from 179 to 115), indicating that Medium offers a more efficient use of the hardware's capabilities.

For users prioritizing smoothness at 2560x1440, the Medium preset again proves optimal, with an average of 116 FPS and a minimum of 98 FPS. This keeps the experience above the 60 FPS threshold with room to spare, whereas High drops to 97 FPS average and Ultra falls to 74 FPS. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 151 FPS, but this comes at a significant visual cost that may not be necessary given the strong performance at Medium.

The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p, where it maintains an average of 115 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 74 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 40 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay at higher resolutions. High settings at 4K produce a 52 FPS average, which is borderline playable but lacks the headroom for consistent performance.

Given the measured data, the recommended preset is Medium for the best balance of visual quality and performance. It provides the highest frame rates that remain playable across all three resolutions, with 4K Medium still achieving 62 FPS. For those with high refresh rate displays at 1080p, High at 150 FPS is also a strong choice, offering better visuals while staying well above 144 FPS for most monitors.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti ranks 1065 out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the top 36% of all combinations tested, indicating a strong but not elite performance tier. The data suggests that while this system handles the game well, many other combinations in the database achieve higher frame rates.

The CPU itself sits in the 95th percentile among all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 76212. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores 76155, a negligible 0.1% difference. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 75779, which is 0.6% lower, showing that the 8945HX is competitive with top desktop processors despite being a mobile part. This high CPU standing suggests that the combo's rank is not limited by processor performance.

The GPU, however, shows a different story. The RTX 5070 Ti sits in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 49957. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, scores 50001, a 0.1% difference, while the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT scores 50951, which is 2% higher. This places the GPU in a strong but not top-tier position, suggesting that the graphics card is the more limiting factor in achieving higher rankings.

The gap between the CPU's high percentile (95th) and the GPU's slightly lower percentile (86th) implies that the combo's rank is influenced more by the GPU's performance ceiling. The data indicates that while the CPU has headroom to support higher frame rates, the GPU's capabilities cap the overall performance in this game, particularly at higher resolutions where the graphics load increases.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: The measured data shows that all presets at 1920x1080 exceed 60 FPS, with even Ultra averaging 115 FPS. At 2560x1440, all presets also stay above 60 FPS, with Low at 151 FPS and Medium at 116 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low (81 FPS) and Medium (62 FPS) exceed 60 FPS, while High drops to 52 FPS and Ultra to 40 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 Ti compare to its nearest rival in this game?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 49957 is 0.1% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64's score of 50001. It is 2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, which scores 50951, but 3.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, which scores 48477.

*Q: Is the Ryzen 9 8945HX a bottleneck for this GPU in Minimum?*

A: The CPU's 95th percentile ranking and average score of 76212, which is 0.6% higher than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, indicate it is not a bottleneck. The GPU's lower 86th percentile suggests the graphics card limits performance more than the processor.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 151 FPS, while Ultra averages 74 FPS. This represents a 77 FPS drop, or roughly half the frame rate, when switching from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, the combo achieves 81 FPS on Low, 62 FPS on Medium, 52 FPS on High, and 40 FPS on Ultra. This indicates that 4K is playable at Medium settings, but the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the combo's rank in this game compare to its overall hardware ranking?

A: The combo ranks 1065 out of 2939 (top 36%) in Minimum. The CPU ranks in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, suggesting the game-specific rank is slightly lower than the hardware's general standing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across resolutions and settings. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 40 FPS, the High preset averages 52 FPS, the Medium preset averages 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 and maximum of 72, and the Low preset averages 81 FPS. The progression shows a consistent scaling, with each step down in settings providing roughly 10-20 FPS improvement.

At 2560x1440, the performance improves significantly. The Ultra preset averages 74 FPS, High averages 97 FPS, Medium averages 116 FPS with a minimum of 98 and maximum of 133, and Low averages 151 FPS. The gap between Ultra and Low is 77 FPS, highlighting the impact of quality settings at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers high refresh rate performance. The Ultra preset averages 115 FPS, High averages 150 FPS, Medium averages 179 FPS with a minimum of 152 and maximum of 206, and Low averages 234 FPS. The Low preset approaches the 240 Hz refresh rate territory, while Medium comfortably exceeds 144 Hz.

The Minimum and Maximum FPS data is only available for the Medium preset across all resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 152-206 FPS, a 54 FPS spread. At 1440p, the range is 98-133 FPS, a 35 FPS spread. At 4K, the range is 53-72 FPS, a 19 FPS spread. This decreasing variance at higher resolutions suggests that frame times become more consistent as the resolution increases, likely due to the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings, revealing how the system scales with resolution. At the Medium preset, the average FPS drops from 179 at 1920x1080 to 116 at 2560x1440, a 35% reduction, and then to 62 at 3840x2160, a further 47% reduction from 1440p. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 117 FPS, representing a 65% decrease.

For the Ultra preset, the scaling is more severe. The average FPS drops from 115 at 1080p to 74 at 1440p (a 36% reduction) and then to 40 at 4K (a 46% reduction from 1440p). The total drop is 75 FPS, a 65% decrease from 1080p to 4K. This consistent percentage drop across settings suggests that the scaling is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound.

The Low preset shows the largest absolute drops: from 234 FPS at 1080p to 151 FPS at 1440p (a 35% reduction) and then to 81 FPS at 4K (a 46% reduction from 1440p). The total drop is 153 FPS, a 65% decrease. The consistency of the percentage drops across all settings—approximately 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 46% from 1440p to 4K—indicates that the limiting component is the GPU.

The data shows that the pixel count increase from 1080p (2.07 million pixels) to 1440p (3.69 million pixels) is 78%, while the frame rate drops by 35%. From 1440p to 4K (8.29 million pixels), the pixel count increases by 125%, while the frame rate drops by 46%. This non-linear relationship suggests that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound, and other factors such as memory bandwidth and shading complexity play a role.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor from the 8000 series, based on the Zen 4 architecture codenamed Dragon Range. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. The processor features 64 MB of L3 cache, with 1 MB of L2 cache per core and 64 KB of L1 cache per core. It supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel interface and a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 42713 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 6030 in single-core. Its PassMark multithread score is 51405, with a single-thread score of 3907. These scores place it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 76212. The nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores 76155, just 0.1% lower, indicating that the 8945HX is at the top of the mobile CPU hierarchy.

For Minimum, a 2014 title, the CPU's performance is more than sufficient. The game is not likely to stress all 16 cores, but the high single-thread performance from the 5.40 GHz boost clock ensures that the main game thread runs efficiently. The 64 MB of L3 cache helps with data locality, reducing memory latency. The 32 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and future game updates that may utilize more cores.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 234 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that would challenge most CPUs. The fact that it sustains this performance indicates that the processor can keep up with the GPU's output. The high percentile ranking (95th) compared to the combo's overall rank (36th percentile) further confirms that the CPU has headroom to spare.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB203 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 8960 shading units, 280 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units, along with 70 ray tracing cores and 280 tensor cores. The GPU has a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2452 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective).

The 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s. This is a substantial amount of memory bandwidth that supports high resolution gaming. The GPU delivers 43.94 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and has a pixel rate of 235.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 686.6 GTexel/s. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU scores 6604 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 32974 in PassMark G3D. Its PassMark GPU compute score is 20203. These scores place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49957. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, scores 50001, just 0.1% higher, while the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT scores 50951, 2% higher.

The GPU is the primary determinant of performance in Minimum, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The 65% frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings indicates that the GPU's rendering capabilities are the bottleneck. The 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, which was released in 2014 and would not require more than a few gigabytes even at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's 86th percentile ranking, while strong, is lower than the CPU's 95th percentile, reinforcing that the graphics card limits the combo's overall performance. The data shows that the GPU can push 234 FPS at 1080p Low, but this drops to 40 FPS at 4K Ultra, demonstrating its scaling limits. The 896.0 GB/s memory bandwidth helps maintain performance at higher resolutions, but the sheer pixel count at 4K overwhelms the GPU's shading and texture units.