Minimum

Launched in 2014, Minimum is a third-person shooter that scales surprisingly well into the modern hardware era. For this analysis, we examine the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. The measured data reveals a configuration that excels at high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming, while 4K Ultra demands more than this GPU can comfortably deliver. This benchmark set, with its twelve distinct resolution and settings combinations, provides a clear look at where this combo's strengths and limitations lie.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a predictable but steep performance cliff as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 357.2 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, that figure drops to 231.1 FPS, a substantial 35% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 123.3 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that at lower resolutions, the system is heavily CPU-limited, as the Ryzen 9 9900X’s strong single-thread performance is the primary driver of those extremely high frame rates.

When we move to the Ultra preset, the scaling behavior shifts. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 172 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 110 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it bottoms out at 61.1 FPS. The relative drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe here (44% decrease) compared to the Low preset (47% decrease), but the absolute numbers are much lower. This suggests that while the CPU is still a factor, the GPU's rendering load becomes the dominant bottleneck as pixel count and graphical complexity increase.

The transition from High to Ultra settings at each resolution is also telling. At 4K, moving from High (80.6 FPS) to Ultra (61.1 FPS) costs roughly 24% of the frame rate. This is a significant penalty for what is often a marginal visual improvement in older titles. The data implies that the RTX 4080 SUPER, with its 16 GB of VRAM, has the memory capacity but not the raw compute power to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra in Minimum. The game's age means it does not leverage modern upscaling technologies, so the raw rasterization performance of the AD103 chip is the sole determinant of these high-resolution results.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the "High" preset offers the most balanced experience, particularly for high-refresh-rate displays. At 1440p High, the combo produces 143.3 FPS, which is an excellent target for 144Hz monitors. This represents a 30% improvement over the 110 FPS seen at Ultra, while the visual difference between High and Ultra in a 2014 title is typically negligible. Pushing to Medium at 1440p yields 175.3 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High is a smaller 18% cost, making High the more desirable choice for visual fidelity.

For 4K users, the situation is more constrained. The High preset at 80.6 FPS is playable, but the Ultra preset at 61.1 FPS sits right on the edge of what many consider acceptable for a smooth experience. The Low preset at 4K (123.3 FPS) is the only way to unlock the full potential of a 120Hz+ 4K display, but it likely compromises the game's art style significantly. The data suggests that for this specific combo, 1440p High is the sweet spot. It provides a frame rate high enough to utilize a high-refresh monitor while maintaining the visual quality the developers intended.

The 1080p results are almost superfluous for this hardware. Even at Ultra, the combo achieves 172 FPS, making it viable for 165Hz panels. However, the sheer headroom at 1080p Low (357.2 FPS) indicates that this pairing is overkill for that resolution. The benchmark results indicate that the system is best utilized at 1440p, where the GPU is sufficiently challenged without the CPU bottlenecking the frame output.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 126th out of 1733 combos for Minimum. This places it in the top 7.3% of all tested systems, a strong showing that reflects the high-end nature of both components. The rank is a composite measure of performance across all tested resolutions and settings.

The CPU's own benchmark percentile reinforces this. The Ryzen 9 9900X sits in the 94th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54450. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, scores 54681, a negligible 0.4% difference. This indicates that the 9900X is performing at the very top of its class, with no meaningful performance gap to its 3D V-Cache counterpart in synthetic tests. The GPU, meanwhile, is in the 88th percentile, with an average score of 53610. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, scores 53489, showing a 0.2% difference.

The disparity in percentile rankings (94th for CPU vs. 88th for GPU) suggests that the processor is the stronger component in this pairing. In Minimum, a game that can be CPU-bound at lower resolutions, this balance favors the CPU. The 126th rank out of 1733 combos is likely influenced by systems with even more powerful GPUs, such as the RTX 4090, which would push the 4K Ultra numbers higher. However, for the vast majority of gaming scenarios, this combo's rank indicates it is a top-tier performer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a clear matrix of performance. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are: Low 357.2 FPS, Medium 269.6 FPS, High 225.5 FPS, and Ultra 172 FPS. At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 231.1 FPS, Medium 175.3 FPS, High 143.3 FPS, and Ultra 110 FPS. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 123.3 FPS, Medium 92.1 FPS, High 80.6 FPS, and Ultra 61.1 FPS.

Analyzing the deltas between settings, the cost of Ultra is most pronounced at 4K. The jump from High to Ultra at 4K (80.6 to 61.1 FPS) is a 19.5 FPS loss, the largest absolute drop between any two adjacent settings at any resolution. Conversely, the jump from Low to Medium at 4K (123.3 to 92.1 FPS) is a 31.2 FPS loss, showing that even the Medium preset carries a significant load. At 1080p, the Low to Medium drop (357.2 to 269.6 FPS) is a massive 87.6 FPS loss, but the resulting frame rate is still extraordinarily high.

These numbers reveal that Minimum's settings have a compounding effect. The difference between Low and Ultra is a 47% reduction at 1080p, 52% at 1440p, and 50% at 4K. The consistency of this percentage across resolutions suggests the settings scale uniformly, but the absolute frame rates show the GPU struggling more as resolution increases. The 110 FPS at 1440p Ultra is the first sign of strain, while the 61.1 FPS at 4K Ultra is the definitive bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. In Minimum, this memory configuration is more than sufficient. The game's textures and assets from 2014 will not come close to exhausting 16 GB, even at 4K Ultra. Therefore, the GPU's raw compute performance, specifically its 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 power, is the limiting factor at high resolutions.

The card's boost clock of 2550 MHz and its 80 RT cores and 320 Tensor cores are largely irrelevant for a game that does not use ray tracing or DLSS. The data shows that the GPU's rasterization performance is what matters. The 4K Ultra result of 61.1 FPS indicates that the card's 112 ROPs and 320 TMUs are being fully utilized, but they cannot push the frame rate higher. The performance is consistent with a card that is powerful but not purpose-built for 8K or extreme 4K workloads in older titles.

The GPU's benchmark scores are telling. Its Passmark G3D score is 34245, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6600. These place it in the 88th percentile, but its nearest rivals, like the RX 6900 XT, show only a 0.2% difference. This indicates that the 4080 SUPER is at the top of its performance tier, but it is not in a class of its own. For Minimum, the GPU is the component that determines whether 4K Ultra is playable, and the data shows it is only marginally so.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, is a processing powerhouse. Its base clock of 4.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz are critical for Minimum, which is a game from 2014 and likely relies heavily on single-thread performance. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6555 demonstrate exceptional per-core capability.

This is evident in the 1080p Low result of 357.2 FPS. Such a high frame rate is almost certainly CPU-limited, as the GPU is not being taxed at that resolution and settings level. The 24 threads are likely underutilized, but the high clock speeds ensure the game's main thread is processed as quickly as possible. The 64 MB of shared L3 cache also helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for game logic and physics calculations.

The CPU's benchmark data shows it is a top-tier part, sitting in the 94th percentile with an average score of 54450. Its nearest rival, the 9900X3D, is only 0.4% faster, suggesting that the extra 3D V-Cache does not provide a significant advantage in synthetic tests. In Minimum, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data as fast as possible. At lower resolutions, it succeeds admirably; at 4K, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, and the CPU's performance headroom is left on the table.

FAQ

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

A: The data indicates that 2560x1440 with High settings is the optimal choice, delivering 143.3 FPS. This balances high visual fidelity with a frame rate suitable for 144Hz displays, avoiding the heavy performance cost of the Ultra preset.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average frame rate falls from 225.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 143.3 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 80.6 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a total reduction of 64% when moving from 1080p High to 4K High.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of VRAM a limiting factor in this game?

A: No. The benchmark results show that the frame rate drops are consistent with compute limitations, not memory capacity. A 2014 game like Minimum will not use 16 GB of VRAM, so the 736.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth is not the bottleneck.

*Q: How does this combo rank against other systems tested for Minimum?*

A: This pairing ranks 126th out of 1733 tested combinations. This places it in the top 7.3% of systems, indicating that the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER are a high-performing duo for this title.

Q: What is the performance difference between the High and Ultra presets at 4K?

A: Moving from High to Ultra at 3840x2160 reduces the average frame rate from 80.6 FPS to 61.1 FPS. This is a 19.5 FPS loss, or roughly a 24% reduction in performance, for the increased graphical settings.

*Q: Is this system more CPU-limited or GPU-limited in Minimum?*

A: The data shows it is both, depending on the scenario. At 1080p Low, the 357.2 FPS result indicates a CPU limit, as the GPU has spare capacity. At 4K Ultra, the 61.1 FPS result shows a clear GPU limit, as the CPU cannot compensate for the rendering load. The CPU's 94th percentile rank versus the GPU's 88th percentile supports the idea that the processor is the stronger component in this pairing.