Minimum

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a playable experience in Minimum across most settings, but the data clearly indicates a GPU-bound system at higher resolutions. The measured frames per second (FPS) across the 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions show a consistent pattern where the Ultra preset consistently drops below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the least viable option for smooth gameplay. For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the High preset at 1920x1080 is the standout choice, delivering an average of 109.2 FPS, which is more than sufficient for a third-person shooter. The Medium preset at 1080p offers a slight bump to 127.8 FPS, but the visual gains from High are typically negligible for a game of this era, making High the recommended starting point for most users.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combination reveals a clear hierarchy in performance across the four tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 172.4 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays, but the jump to Medium yields 127.8 FPS and High yields 109.2 FPS, both of which remain comfortably above the 60 FPS standard. The Ultra preset, however, sees a significant drop to 81.7 FPS at this resolution, indicating the first major performance penalty. Given that the High preset maintains a substantial lead over Ultra while offering most of the visual features players expect, it is the optimal choice for a balanced experience at 1080p. The data shows that the gap between High and Ultra is approximately 27.5 FPS at this resolution, a substantial difference that suggests the Ultra preset's additional effects are disproportionately taxing on the RTX 2060 SUPER.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more demanding. The High preset averages 71.8 FPS, which is still playable, while Medium achieves 81.8 FPS and Low reaches 109.5 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 53.8 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for a smooth shooter experience. For 1440p gaming, the Medium preset appears to be the best compromise, as it maintains a frame rate above 60 FPS while providing a noticeable improvement over Low. Moving to 3840x2160, the data shows that even the Low preset only manages 56.7 FPS, and High drops to 38.7 FPS, with Ultra at a mere 27.7 FPS. At this resolution, no preset achieves a playable 60 FPS average, indicating that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting factor and users should either reduce resolution or accept lower settings. The overall recommendation is to prioritize High at 1080p for the best experience, with Medium as a fallback for 1440p if higher fidelity is desired.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a desktop processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It features 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, paired with a 120 W TDP. This high core count and thread count are generally overkill for a game like Minimum, which is a third-person shooter from 2014. However, the benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration. The processor's single-threaded performance, as measured by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1286, is strong, and its multi-threaded capabilities are evident in the 3dmark_max_threads score of 13929. In the context of this game, the CPU provides ample headroom, allowing the GPU to be the primary determinant of frame rates, especially as resolution increases.

The Ryzen 9 9900X's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 64 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps with data access efficiency. In a title like Minimum, which is not heavily threaded, the processor's 24 threads are largely underutilized, but the high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that single-core performance is excellent for game logic and draw calls. The data shows that the CPU's performance percentile is 94th among all CPUs, indicating it is a top-tier part, but its role here is to support the GPU without introducing frame pacing issues. The measured FPS at 1080p, where CPU load is highest relative to GPU, shows that the system can achieve 172.4 FPS on Low, suggesting that the CPU does not impose a hard limit on frame rates. Therefore, the CPU is a capable partner for the RTX 2060 SUPER, but it is not the component driving performance in this specific benchmark.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1470 MHz with a boost clock of 1650 MHz, and it features 2176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The GPU also includes 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, which are not heavily utilized in a 2014 title but add to its feature set. The GPU's VRAM capacity of 8 GB is sufficient for Minimum at all tested settings, as the game's age means it does not have high memory requirements. The performance data shows that the GPU is the clear bottleneck, particularly at higher resolutions. The 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 2011 and a passmark_g3d score of 16462 indicate that this is a mid-range GPU, and its percentile of 63rd among all GPUs places it in the lower half of modern parts.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is adequate for the game's textures, but the compute throughput of 7.181 TFLOPS (FP32) is the limiting factor when pushing higher settings. At 1080p, the GPU can handle the load, with the Ultra preset producing 81.7 FPS, but at 4K, the same preset drops to 27.7 FPS, a 66% reduction in performance. This demonstrates that the RTX 2060 SUPER's raw compute power is insufficient for 4K Ultra settings in this title. The GPU's boost clock of 1650 MHz is relatively modest by modern standards, and the data suggests that it is the primary reason for the frame rate drops when transitioning from 1440p to 4K. For users with a 1080p or 1440p monitor, the GPU performs admirably, but it is not designed for 4K gaming without significant compromises.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1289th out of 1733 tested combinations for Minimum, placing it in the lower 25th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the fact that the RTX 2060 SUPER is an older, end-of-life GPU, while the CPU is a modern, high-end part. The GPU's average benchmark score is 19774, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN with a deltaPct of 0.3, the RTX 2070 with a deltaPct of 0.5, and the Quadro K5200 with a deltaPct of 0.8. These deltaPct values indicate that the RTX 2060 SUPER is nearly identical in performance to the GTX TITAN and RTX 2070, with the latter being only 0.5% faster in synthetic benchmarks. This places the GPU in a performance tier that is below the median for modern gaming, which is reflected in the combo's overall rank.

The CPU, by contrast, is a top-tier part with a percentile of 94th among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the Ryzen 9 9900X3D with a deltaPct of -0.4 (meaning the 9900X is slightly faster), and the Intel Core i7-14700F with a deltaPct of 0.7 (meaning the 9900X is slightly slower). The disparity between the CPU's high ranking and the GPU's mid-range ranking explains why the combo sits at 1289th overall. The data shows that the system is heavily GPU-limited, and the CPU's potential is largely untapped in this game. If the GPU were upgraded, the combo's rank would improve significantly, but as tested, the RTX 2060 SUPER holds the system back from achieving higher frame rates, especially at higher resolutions. The measured FPS at 1080p High (109.2 FPS) is respectable, but the overall rank indicates that many other combinations with similar CPUs and more powerful GPUs would outperform this setup.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the GPU bottleneck in this system. At 1920x1080 with the High preset, the average FPS is 109.2, which drops to 71.8 FPS at 2560x1440, a 34.2% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160, the average FPS falls to 38.7, which is a 64.5% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is consistent across all presets, with the Low preset showing the largest absolute drop from 172.4 FPS at 1080p to 56.7 FPS at 4K, a 67.1% reduction. The Ultra preset shows a similar proportional decline, from 81.7 FPS at 1080p to 27.7 FPS at 4K, a 66.1% reduction. These numbers indicate that the GPU's rendering capabilities are the limiting factor, as the resolution increase directly impacts the pixel count and fill rate requirements.

The data suggests that the CPU's role in resolution scaling is minimal, as the frame rate drops are consistent with what would be expected from a GPU-bound system. At 1080p, the CPU has more headroom, but even at this resolution, the GPU is still the primary constraint, as evidenced by the significant drop from Low to Ultra settings. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, with the High preset falling from 71.8 FPS to 38.7 FPS, a 46.1% reduction. This indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER's memory bandwidth and compute throughput are insufficient for 4K gaming in this title, regardless of settings. For users seeking higher resolutions, the data recommends that they remain at 1440p or below, as the 4K results are consistently below playable thresholds. The limiting component is unequivocally the GPU, and the CPU's high performance does not compensate for the GPU's inability to maintain frame rates at higher pixel counts.