Minimum

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti places at rank 511 out of 3712 tested combinations for Minimum. This puts the pairing in the top 14% of all tested setups, a strong result for a game that launched in 2014. The CPU's own benchmark standing reinforces this: it sits at the 92nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 57498. That score places it nearly even with the AMD EPYC 9015, which scores 57555, a delta of only -0.1%. It is also within 1.1% of the Intel Core i9-14900's 58115 score. The GPU, meanwhile, holds an 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44795. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile, scores 45152, a delta of -0.8%, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT sits 1.3% higher at 45384. This combination of a top-decile CPU with a high-octile GPU explains the strong overall placement—the system is well balanced for a shooter that rewards both high frame rates and consistent frame pacing.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using the AD104 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. Its memory configuration is a key asset: 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, which translates to 21 Gbps effective. These specs are directly relevant to Minimum because the game's texture-heavy environments and particle effects demand both capacity and throughput. At 4K Ultra settings, the measured average FPS drops to 56, which suggests the GPU's 12 GB frame buffer is being taxed heavily at that resolution and preset combination. The base clock of 2310 MHz and boost clock of 2610 MHz provide the raw compute headroom, with 7680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs handling the geometry and pixel work. The FP32 throughput of 40.09 TFLOPS is ample for a 2014 title, but the data shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and quality settings. The pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s and texture rate of 626.4 GTexel/s are more than sufficient for 1080p and 1440p workloads, where the combo delivers well above 100 FPS on most presets. The RTX 4070 Ti also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which is relevant since Minimum can leverage modern API features even though it predates them.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 326 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 211 FPS, a reduction of 115 FPS or roughly 35%. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 113 FPS, which is still very playable but represents a 65% drop from the 1080p figure. The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 250 FPS at 1080p, 161 FPS at 1440p, and 87 FPS at 4K. The High preset goes from 210 FPS at 1080p to 135 FPS at 1440p, then 73 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most demanding: 160 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, and 56 FPS at 4K. This scaling behavior indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is likely the primary driver—the 326 FPS ceiling on Low suggests the Ryzen 9 9900X's 12 cores and 24 threads are keeping up with the GPU's output. As resolution climbs, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck. The drop from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep across all presets, with roughly a 45-48% reduction in average FPS. This is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario where pixel count doubles and the RTX 4070 Ti's 504.2 GB/s bandwidth and 12 GB VRAM start to feel the strain. For competitive play at high refresh rates, 1080p is clearly the sweet spot, but 1440p remains viable for most presets if you can tolerate frame rates in the 100-160 range.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear picture of which preset delivers the best experience. For 1080p, the Ultra preset at 160 FPS average is the optimal choice—it offers the highest visual fidelity while still maintaining a frame rate well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that most competitive monitors support. The Medium preset at 250 FPS is overkill for most displays and sacrifices visual quality for headroom that few monitors can use. At 1440p, the High preset at 135 FPS is the balanced recommendation. It delivers smooth gameplay on 120 Hz and 144 Hz panels, and the 73 FPS gap to the Ultra preset's 103 FPS is a meaningful visual improvement that justifies the trade-off. The Low preset at 211 FPS is unnecessary unless you are chasing maximum refresh rates, but the Medium preset at 161 FPS is also a solid option if you prefer higher frame consistency. At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset at 113 FPS is the only option that clears the 100 FPS threshold, making it the default choice for 4K gaming. The Medium preset at 87 FPS is playable but will show occasional dips to 74 FPS in the minimum frame data, which could be noticeable in fast-action sequences. The High preset at 73 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 56 FPS is too low for a third-person shooter where quick camera movements demand higher frame rates. For the best balance of visuals and performance across all resolutions, the High preset at 1440p is the standout choice—it offers 135 FPS average with no reported minimum frame drops, indicating stable performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 326 FPS, which is the fastest measured configuration across all resolutions and settings. The Medium preset averages 250 FPS with a minimum of 212 FPS and a maximum of 287 FPS, showing a tight frame distribution. The High preset averages 210 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 160 FPS. All four presets at 1080p exceed the 144 Hz threshold, making this resolution the clear choice for high-refresh-rate displays. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 211 FPS, still comfortably above 144 Hz. The Medium preset averages 161 FPS with a minimum of 137 FPS and a maximum of 185 FPS. The High preset averages 135 FPS, which is just below the 144 Hz mark but still smooth on most displays. The Ultra preset averages 103 FPS, which is adequate for 100 Hz panels but not ideal for competitive play. At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. The Low preset averages 113 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration above 100 FPS. The Medium preset averages 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS—the minimum frame rate is the lowest recorded across all measurements. The High preset averages 73 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 56 FPS. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset is the only one with full min-max data, showing consistent frame delivery with a 26 FPS spread at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K. The lack of min-max data for other presets prevents a full frame-time analysis, but the averages alone tell a clear story of diminishing returns as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It operates on a 4 nm process at TSMC, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of L3 cache, totaling a substantial 64 MB across the chip. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, which is critical for feeding the GPU in a frame-unlimited scenario like Minimum at 1080p Low. The CPU's benchmark results are telling: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 32172, while single-core scores 2253. Geekbench multi-core reaches 22174 with single-core at 3010. These numbers indicate strong multi-threaded performance, but for a 2014 shooter, the single-core results matter more. The 3DMark tests show a scaling pattern: 2-thread score of 2519, 4-thread score of 4886, 8-thread score of 9114, and 16-thread score of 12552, with max threads at 13929. This scaling suggests that the game benefits from up to 8 cores but sees diminishing returns beyond that. The CPU's percentile ranking at 92% among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 57498, places it just 0.1% below the AMD EPYC 9015 and 0.2% above the AMD EPYC 7313. The boost clock of 5.60 GHz is the key factor for Minimum's frame rates at 1080p, where the measured 326 FPS on Low settings indicates the CPU is not the bottleneck at that resolution. The passmark single-thread score of 4672 confirms this—the Ryzen 9 9900X has more than enough single-core throughput for a game from 2014. The CPU's 120 W TDP and AM5 socket are standard for the platform, and the unlocked multiplier allows for overclocking headroom, though the stock boost clock already delivers excellent results. The data indicates that the CPU's role is to provide a high ceiling that the GPU can exploit at lower resolutions, while at 4K the GPU becomes the limiting factor regardless of CPU performance.