Minimum

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Minimum with the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT shows that the High preset delivers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, High produces 159.5 average FPS, which is well above the 144Hz refresh rate threshold for smooth competitive play. The Low preset reaches 249.3 FPS at 1080p, but the visual fidelity loss is substantial for a third-person shooter where environmental readability matters. Medium at 1080p offers 189.8 FPS, a 19% improvement over High, but the gap narrows considerably at higher resolutions.

At 2560x1440, High maintains 104.4 FPS, which remains playable on standard 60Hz displays and adequate for 100Hz panels. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 124.1 FPS, providing a meaningful 19% uplift over High while retaining most visual quality. For 3840x2160, High drops to 54.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Medium at 4K produces 68.5 FPS, making it the only preset at this resolution that clears 60 FPS while keeping reasonable visual settings. Ultra at 4K falls to 44.2 FPS, which is too low for consistent play.

The data suggests that Medium is the optimal preset for 4K, High is the sweet spot for 1440p, and High or Medium both work well at 1080p depending on refresh rate priorities. The Ultra preset provides diminishing returns: at 1080p it drops to 119.5 FPS (25% below High), at 1440p to 79.5 FPS (24% below High), and at 4K to 44.2 FPS (19% below High). These reductions are substantial for what is typically a marginal visual improvement over High in most titles.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: Medium is the only preset at 3840x2160 that exceeds 60 FPS, producing 68.5 average FPS. High falls short at 54.8 FPS, while Ultra drops to 44.2 FPS.

Q: How does the i3-12100F compare to its nearest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i3-12100F scores 13516 on average, placing it 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462). It leads the Intel Core i3-10105 by 0.6% and the Intel Core i7-7700K by 1.8%.

Q: What GPU benchmark scores does the RX 7800 XT achieve?

A: The RX 7800 XT scores 24176 in Passmark G3D, 139381 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 143060 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its Passmark DirectX 11 score is 249, while DirectX 12 scores 93.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to limit performance at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the FPS spread between Low (249.3) and Ultra (119.5) indicates the GPU is the primary limiter, since the CPU can push frame rates above 240 FPS at Low settings. The i3-12100F's 4 cores and 8 threads with 4.30 GHz boost clock handle the lower-resolution workload capably.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Minimum?

A: The combination ranks 667th out of 1733 tested combos, placing it in the 61st percentile of all tested configurations for this game.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the RX 7800 XT provide for texture-heavy scenes?

A: The GPU offers 624.1 GB/s bandwidth via 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with memory clocks running at 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective).

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals how workload shifts between components. At High settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces average FPS from 159.5 to 104.4, a 35% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K further drops to 54.8, another 48% reduction. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K at High is 66%, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where pixel count quadruples.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern differs. The 1080p result of 249.3 FPS drops to 161.4 at 1440p (35% decrease), then to 84 at 4K (48% decrease). The similar percentage drops across settings suggest the RX 7800 XT remains the bottleneck even at Low, though the absolute headroom at 1080p indicates the i3-12100F can feed frames well above 240 FPS when the GPU workload is minimal.

The Medium preset shows 189.8 FPS at 1080p, 124.1 at 1440p, and 68.5 at 4K. The 4K Medium result is notable: it outperforms 4K High by 25% while still maintaining 60+ FPS. This suggests the GPU's 16 GB VRAM and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth handle the higher resolution textures adequately, but the shading workload at High and Ultra pushes the 3840 shading units too hard. The scaling behavior indicates that resolution is the dominant factor for this combo, with the GPU's 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 throughput being the limiting resource rather than memory capacity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 249.3 FPS on Low, 189.8 on Medium, 159.5 on High, and 119.5 on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 59.5 FPS (24%), while Medium to High drops 30.3 FPS (16%), and High to Ultra drops 40 FPS (25%). The 1080p results show that even Ultra maintains above 100 FPS, making this resolution entirely playable across all presets.

At 2560x1440, Low produces 161.4 FPS, Medium reaches 124.1, High hits 104.4, and Ultra falls to 79.5. The percentage drops between presets are 23% (Low to Medium), 16% (Medium to High), and 24% (High to Ultra). The 1440p Ultra result of 79.5 FPS remains above 60, making every preset viable at this resolution for standard refresh rates.

At 3840x2160, Low achieves 84 FPS, Medium reaches 68.5, High drops to 54.8, and Ultra falls to 44.2. The Low to Medium drop is 18%, Medium to High is 20%, and High to Ultra is 19%. The 4K results show that only Low and Medium clear the 60 FPS threshold, with High and Ultra falling short. The min FPS values are not provided, so the consistency of these averages cannot be assessed, but the average FPS pattern is clear.

The overall FPS hierarchy across all resolutions and settings shows a consistent pattern: Low > Medium > High > Ultra, with the relative gaps remaining fairly stable. The largest absolute differences occur at 1080p, where the GPU has headroom to express larger swings between presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT ranks 667th out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 38% of all configurations tested. This position reflects a pairing where the GPU is substantially more powerful than the CPU in relative benchmark terms. The RX 7800 XT sits at the 76th percentile among all GPUs, while the i3-12100F sits at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs, indicating a reasonably balanced pairing by percentile.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 32619 places it 0.2% ahead of the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 (32540) and 0.7% ahead of the AMD FirePro S10000 (32388). It trails the NVIDIA P104-100 by 0.4% (32747) and the NVIDIA T600 Mobile by 0.7% (32849). The CPU's average score of 13516 puts it in close competition with its nearest rivals, all within a 1.8% band. This combination of a mid-pack CPU and an above-average GPU produces the 667th overall ranking, suggesting that the combo performs roughly where component percentiles would predict.

The rank of 667 out of 1733 indicates that 1066 tested combos perform worse and 666 perform better. Given the game's 2014 release date and third-person shooter genre, the measured FPS results suggest this combo is well-suited for high-refresh 1080p and smooth 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring settings compromises.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F provides 4 cores and 8 threads based on Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core support the thread management required by Minimum's engine. The CPU's single-thread performance is strong for its class: Geekbench single-core scores 2224, Cinebench R23 single-core scores 1681, and 3DMark single-thread scores 893. These scores translate to the 1080p Low result of 249.3 FPS, which indicates the CPU can feed the GPU well above typical 144Hz display rates.

The multi-threaded results show 4051 in 3DMark 16-thread, 4026 in 8-thread, and 4023 in max-thread tests, with Cinebench R23 multi-core at 11912. The 4-core/8-thread configuration shows scaling from 2859 in 4-thread 3DMark to 4026 in 8-thread, indicating that the additional threads provide meaningful uplift in multi-threaded workloads. For Minimum, a 2014 title, the CPU's 4.30 GHz boost clock and strong single-thread scores are more relevant than core count, as older game engines typically favor higher clocks over additional cores.

The CPU's 72nd percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 13516 place it in the upper-mid range of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, scores nearly identically (13534, 0.1% higher), despite having vastly more cores, which underscores the i3-12100F's efficiency in per-core performance. The 58W TDP and 10nm Intel process contribute to this efficiency, though the socket 1700 platform limits upgrade paths compared to newer sockets.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT brings 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth. Its 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs deliver 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 performance, with boost clocks reaching 2430 MHz and game clocks at 2124 MHz. The 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die using TSMC's 5nm process provide substantial compute density. These specifications drive the measured results: the GPU's 76th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 32619 place it above most competing cards.

The memory configuration is particularly relevant for Minimum at higher resolutions. The 16 GB VRAM capacity ensures texture data at 4K Ultra fits comfortably, yet the FPS drops from 68.5 (Medium) to 44.2 (Ultra) at 4K indicate that compute throughput, not memory capacity, is the limiting factor. The 624.1 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for the game's asset streaming, but the 3840 shading units struggle with the combined load of high-resolution rendering and Ultra effects.

The GPU's DirectX 12 benchmark score of 93 (Passmark) is notably lower than DirectX 11's 249, which could reflect driver optimization or workload differences. For Minimum, a 2014 release, DirectX 11 performance is more relevant, and the 249 score aligns with the strong 1080p results. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 143060 and OpenCL score of 139381 indicate strong compute capability that benefits the game's physics and particle effects. The GPU's 263W TDP and suggested 600W PSU requirement make it a power-hungry component, but the performance per watt remains competitive given the 5nm process and RDNA 3.0 architecture.