Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Minimum reveals a predictable but instructive scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination delivers 204.4 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that figure to 128.5 FPS, a reduction of roughly 37%. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 71.9 FPS, representing a 44% decline from the 1440p result. This scaling curve indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises.

The High settings tier tells a similar story with slightly different magnitudes. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 132.2 FPS. At 1440p High, the average is 81.7 FPS, a 38% reduction. At 4K High, the system produces 46 FPS, a 44% drop from 1440p. The consistency of these percentage declines across settings tiers suggests the rendering pipeline scales linearly with resolution, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload at these higher pixel counts.

Ultra settings exhibit the steepest absolute declines. The 1080p Ultra result of 98.7 FPS falls to 64.5 FPS at 1440p Ultra, then to 31.7 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra figure is less than one-third of the 1080p Ultra result, indicating that the combination of maximum graphical fidelity and 4K resolution pushes the RTX 4060 well beyond its comfortable operating range. The data suggests that for Ultra settings, 1440p represents a practical ceiling for maintaining playable frame rates, while 1080p Ultra remains fluid.

The Medium settings tier occupies the expected middle ground. At 1080p Medium, the average is 157.3 FPS. At 1440p Medium, it drops to 101 FPS, a 36% reduction. At 4K Medium, the result is 53.4 FPS, a 47% decline from 1440p. The slightly larger percentage drop at 4K Medium compared to other tiers hints that memory bandwidth constraints begin to manifest at this resolution, given the RTX 4060's 128-bit memory bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060's specifications directly explain several observed performance characteristics. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, the card provides 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 31.7 FPS suggests that both memory capacity and bandwidth are stretched thin at this configuration. The boost clock of 2460 MHz, combined with 3072 shading units, delivers 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which proves sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but inadequate for 4K Ultra in this title.

The card's Ada Lovelace architecture includes 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores, though the measured FPS data does not separately isolate ray tracing or DLSS performance. The pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s provide theoretical ceilings that align with the observed scaling. At 4K Ultra, the combination of 48 ROPs and 8 GB memory appears to bottleneck, producing the lowest measured result of 31.7 FPS.

The CPU's role in this pairing is largely supportive. The Ryzen 9 9900X, with 12 cores and 24 threads based on Zen 5 architecture, provides ample headroom at all tested resolutions. The CPU's 64 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensure that frame delivery is not constrained by processor throughput. Even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would typically matter most, the 204.4 FPS result indicates the GPU remains the limiting component. The RTX 4060's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface could theoretically limit data transfer, but the measured results show no evidence of such a constraint in this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this pairing in Minimum?

A: Based on the measured data, 1080p High at 132.2 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and smoothness. For competitive play, 1080p Low at 204.4 FPS provides the highest frame rates. At 1440p, High settings at 81.7 FPS remain playable, while 4K requires Low settings at 71.9 FPS for acceptable performance.

Q: How does the RTX 4060's memory configuration affect 4K performance?

A: The 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth appears insufficient for Ultra settings at 4K, where the average FPS drops to 31.7. At 4K Low, the same memory configuration yields 71.9 FPS, showing that reduced texture and effect loads alleviate memory pressure.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X holding back the RTX 4060 in this game?

A: The data does not indicate CPU limitation. At 1080p Low, where CPU bottlenecks typically appear first, the combo still achieves 204.4 FPS. The CPU's 24 threads and high single-thread performance (3dmark single thread score of 1286) provide sufficient headroom across all tested resolutions and settings.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured average is 101 FPS at 1440p Medium. This represents a 36% reduction from the 1080p Medium result of 157.3 FPS, indicating a smooth scaling curve without unexpected performance cliffs.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra result compare to the 1080p Ultra result?

A: The 4K Ultra average of 31.7 FPS is approximately 68% lower than the 1080p Ultra average of 98.7 FPS. This dramatic drop suggests that the GPU's compute and memory resources are overwhelmed at the combination of maximum settings and 4K resolution.

Q: Does the RTX 4060's 115 W TDP limit sustained performance?

A: The measured FPS data does not reveal thermal or power throttling. The consistent scaling pattern across resolutions suggests the card maintains its boost clock of 2460 MHz during testing. The 300 W suggested PSU provides adequate headroom for the card's power requirements.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4060 demonstrates strong performance across all settings tiers. Low settings produce 204.4 FPS, Medium delivers 157.3 FPS, High reaches 132.2 FPS, and Ultra manages 98.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 105.7 FPS, representing a 52% reduction from the lowest to highest settings tier. This spread indicates that Minimum's Ultra preset imposes significant additional rendering load compared to Low.

At 2560x1440, the performance hierarchy remains consistent but compressed. Low settings yield 128.5 FPS, Medium produces 101 FPS, High achieves 81.7 FPS, and Ultra delivers 64.5 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 64 FPS, or exactly 50% of the Low figure. Notably, the 1440p Ultra result of 64.5 FPS is still comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that this resolution and settings combination is viable for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals significant strain. Low settings produce 71.9 FPS, Medium drops to 53.4 FPS, High falls to 46 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 31.7 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K represents a 56% performance loss. The 4K Medium result of 53.4 FPS falls below the 60 FPS mark, and 4K High at 46 FPS further degrades the experience. The 4K Ultra figure of 31.7 FPS is the only measured result below 45 FPS across all configurations.

Comparing across resolutions at each settings tier provides additional context. At Low settings, the 1080p result of 204.4 FPS drops to 128.5 FPS at 1440p (-37%) and 71.9 FPS at 4K (-44% from 1440p). At Medium, the progression is 157.3 to 101 to 53.4 FPS, with percentage drops of 36% and 47%. At High, the figures are 132.2, 81.7, and 46 FPS, representing drops of 38% and 44%. At Ultra, the results are 98.7, 64.5, and 31.7 FPS, with reductions of 35% and 51%.

The data shows that the 1440p to 4K transition consistently produces larger percentage drops than the 1080p to 1440p transition. This pattern holds across all settings tiers, confirming that 4K resolution imposes a disproportionately heavy load on the RTX 4060's 8 GB memory buffer and 128-bit memory interface.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 986 out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum. This places the pairing in the 57th percentile of all configurations tested for this game. The ranking reflects the RTX 4060's mid-range positioning; the GPU's percentile vs all GPUs is 66, while the CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 94. The substantial gap between CPU and GPU percentiles indicates that the graphics card is the limiting factor in this pairing.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its contribution. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 54681 in average benchmarks, a 0.4% delta above the 9900X's 54450 average score. The Intel Core i7-14700F trails by 0.7% with a score of 54097. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and 245KF exceed the 9900X by 1.5% and 1.8% respectively, with scores of 55304 and 55421. These small deltas confirm that the 9900X is competitive with its immediate peers, though not the top performer in its class.

The GPU's nearest rivals show a similarly tight grouping. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M scores 23321, a 0.6% delta above the RTX 4060's 23181 average. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti scores 23338, 0.7% higher. The Intel Arc B580 scores 23021, 0.7% lower, while the AMD Radeon 760M scores 22999, 0.8% lower. This cluster of rivals within 1% of each other underscores the RTX 4060's position in a densely packed performance tier.

The combo rank of 986 out of 1733 indicates that while this pairing is not among the top performers in Minimum, it sits above the median configuration. The measured FPS data supports this conclusion: the pairing delivers smooth 1080p gameplay at all settings (98.7 to 204.4 FPS), solid 1440p performance at most settings (64.5 to 128.5 FPS), and only marginal 4K performance at Low settings (71.9 FPS) with playable results at Medium (53.4 FPS) and below-average results at High and Ultra. Given the CPU's high percentile ranking and the GPU's mid-range ranking, the overall combo rank reflects the GPU's dominant influence on gaming performance in this title.