Minimum

The Intel Core i3-12100F pairs with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB to deliver a mid-table performance profile in "Minimum", a third-person shooter released on 2014-06-25. The combination ranks 1432 out of 3712 tested configurations, placing it better than roughly 61% of all recorded system setups. The data is measured, not extrapolated, and the raw FPS numbers show a consistent pattern: the system is capable of high refresh-rate gameplay at 1080p and remains playable at 4K with reduced settings, though the GPU becomes the primary limiter at higher resolutions and more demanding presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear grading of each preset at every resolution. Across all three tested resolutions, the "Medium" preset offers the most favorable balance between visual quality and frame rate. At 3840×2160 (4K), Medium cranks out an average of 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 and maximum of 72, which comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS target for smooth motion on most displays. Dropping to High at 4K yields 52 FPS average, crossing into the range where frame pacing becomes noticeable on typical 60 Hz panels, while Ultra plummets to 40 FPS, losing more than a quarter of the Medium output. At 2560×1440, Medium averages 115 FPS (min 98, max 133), which is more than sufficient for high-refresh monitors and leaves enough headroom for V-sync or G-Sync enabled setups. High sits at 97 FPS, still playable, but Medium provides a 18 FPS advantage over High with negligible visual degradation in a fast-paced third-person shooter. The same pattern holds at 1920×1080: Medium delivers 179 FPS (min 152, max 206), versus 150 on High and 234 on Low. Low does ensure the absolute peak frames, but the gap between Medium and Low is modest in absolute terms, while the quality jump from Low to Medium is significant, especially for a 2014 title that benefits from higher detail.

Thus, the recommendation is to run "Minimum" at Medium settings across all resolutions for the best experience. The data shows that Medium never dips below 53 FPS even at 4K, ensuring no resolutions falls into the stutter territory, while at 1440p and 1080p it provides high refresh rates (115 and 179 FPS respectively) that allow the full potential of any 1440p/1080p 144Hz panel to be exploited. For users with 144Hz+ monitors at 1080p, Low preset may be preferable if FOV and environmental detail matter less; but the measured 179 FPS on Medium already saturates most displays, and the CPU shows it can push far beyond, so the extra quality is not costing responsiveness.

GPU Role

The GPU is the determining board at the higher resolution bands, particularly under the heavier graphical presets. The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB from the GeForce 40 series carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a maximum bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. The base clock sits at 2310 MHz, boosting up to 2535 MHz. That bandwidth and memory configuration are plenty for a 2014 shooter; the 8 GB frame buffer is never the bottleneck in any of the measured settings, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K High and Ultra the average FPS is limited by raw asset complexity, not VRAM exhaustion. The GPU’s compute output is modest for a $399 launch MSRP part but still ample for this title: 4352 shading units and 22.06 TFLOPS of FP32 performance keep the pixel pipeline fed at high frame rates.

The game appears to scale between Low and Medium with a near-linear relationship across resolutions, but the step to Ultra imposes a 47% reduced average FPS compared to Low at 4K (81→40). That indicates the Ultra preset likely introduces heavy uses of draw distance, anisotropic filtering, and post-processing, all of which saturate the ROP (48 units) and texture units (136) far earlier than VRAM limits. The GPU’s 160 W TDP suggests it is a modest power investment, yet it performs well beyond the 60Hz threshold in most settings at 1440p. The GPU’s nearest-rival comparison places it within 0.2% of the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test (2913 vs 2907), which underscores that the 8 GB version is not a significant handicap for this game. However, the difference in VRAM may matter in future patches or mods; the data for "Minimum" shows no issue.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p and then to 4K is non-linear, revealing the GPU as the dominant limiter as resolution rises. At Medium settings, moving from 1080p to 1440p loses 36% of performance (from 179 to 115 FPS), then to 4K loses another 46% (from 115 to 62 FPS). That’s a cumulative reduction to 34.6% of the original 1080p frame rate. At the Low preset the drop is similar: 234 → 151 (−35.5%) then → 81 (−46.4%), ending at 34.6% of the base. This consistent rate-per-pixel decrease indicates that the game’s rendering is bound by the GPU’s pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth, not by the CPU. Even Ultra scaling follows the same pattern: from 115 to 74 to 40, each step losing ~35% and ~46% of the previous step.

The CPU role does not interfere in the scaling: the i3-12100F still has the headroom to feed the GPU at all resolutions, as shown by the fact that the 1080p Low preset reaches 234 FPS, while at 4K Low only 81 FPS — a far larger than 2× drop that would be attributed to GPU load. Therefore, the well-established 4K High and Ultra are GPU-bound, while 1080p Low and Medium are CPU-bound. The transition between the two regimes is visible in the average FPS: at 1080p Low, the Surplus is large enough to indicate the CPU is approaching its limit, but the 234 FPS figure shows it can deliver. At 4K Low, the 81 FPS is far below that ceiling, so the GPU is the sole limiter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS table gives exact values across three resolutions and four preset levels. At 1920×1080:

• Low: avg 234 FPS (no min/max provided)
• Medium: avg 179 FPS, min 152, max 206
• High: avg 150 FPS
• Ultra: avg 115 FPS

The minimum frame times at Medium (152) are still above 140 FPS, indicating excellent frame pacing. At 1080p, the lowest-preset spread is extreme: from 115 to 234 FPS, giving a ratio of 2.06×. Ultra’s 115 FPS is on par with 1440p Medium (115 FPS), suggesting that the game’s GPU load doubles the impact of resolution or preset selection.

At 2560×1440 the values drop:

• Low: 151 FPS
• Medium: 115 FPS (min 98, max 133)
• High: 97 FPS
• Ultra: 74 FPS

At Medium, the 98 FPS minimum is still above 90 FPS, qualifying for smooth “high performance” gaming. High dips to 97 average, still above 60, but the gap to Medium is nearly 18%.

At 3840×2160:

• Low: 81 FPS
• Medium: 62 FPS (min 53, max 72)
• High: 52 FPS
• Ultra: 40 FPS

Crucially, even at 4K Medium, the frame rate never goes below 50 FPS, satisfying the majority of 4K 60Hz displays with acceptable dips, though a VRR display would smooth the 62 average into a comfortable range. The Ultra preset is the only option to fall below 60 FPS at any resolution, bottoming out to 40 FPS, which is clearly not advisable for a shooter where a solid frame rate is a gameplay necessity.

The total pattern shows the system is well suited for 1080p and 1440p, and can operate at 4K only with the two lower presets. Given that the game is from 2014, the user can likely max out visuals at 4K with a 30% performance penalty compared to Low at 1.4×? No, the numbers show that the Ultra preset cap is the weakest in the string.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use at 1080p with this CPU/GPU combo?

A: The Medium preset yields 179 FPS (min 152, max 206) and is the recommended choice, as it combines robust performance with a visually richer image than Low (234 FPS) while remaining far ahead of High (150 FPS) and Ultra (115 FPS).

Q: Does the GPU hold back the CPU at any resolution?

A: Yes, at 4K the system becomes GPU‑bound. For example, from 1080p Low to 4K Low the frame rate drops from 234 to just 81 FPS, a reduction that cannot be attributed to the CPU, whose single-thread and multithread scores position it well above average (Geekbench single 1932, multithread 7252). The RTX 4060 Ti’s memory bandwidth becomes the bottleneck.

Q: Is 8 GB VRAM enough for "Minimum" at 4K?

A: The measured data shows no VRAM limitation. At 4K Ultra the average is 40 FPS, the lowest of all rows, but the loss is from compute load; the 8 GB GDDR6 with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth holds all tested presets without spikes or stutter.

Q: How does this combo compare to its closest rivals in raw benchmark?

A: The GPU’s 3Dmark Steel Nomad result (2913) is within 0.1% of the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF (2809) and 0.2% of the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (2907). The CPU’s average benchmark score is 13494, matching the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492) and beating the i5-9500 by 0.3% (13452). Neither rival has a significant edge in raw compute.

Q: At which preset/resolution does the system reach the 60 FPS barrier exactly?

A: The 4K Medium preset returns 62 FPS (min 53, max 72), clearing the 60 FPS threshold on average but dipping to 53 FPS in dips. To guarantee 60+ FPS in the worst case, 1440p Medium is the safest, with 115 FPS average and 98 FPS minimum.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: The 234 FPS measured at 1080p Low is the highest output of any test, strongly indicating the CPU is the limiting part at that point—otherwise the GPU would off cap it lower. However, 234 FPS is far beyond typical display refresh rates, so for most users the CPU bottleneck is not a practical concern.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread Alder Lake processor, clocked at a base of 3.30 GHz and boost up to 4.30 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache and stays within a 58 W TDP, consuming modest power while providing strong single-thread performance. The data shows its average benchmark score (13493) places it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, a comfortable mid-high rank. In the nearest rival list, the i3-12100F sits nearly alongside the Intel Core 3 N355 (delta 0%), the i5-9500 (0.3% faster), the Core 5 120UL (0.7% slower), and the i7-1250U (1.1% slower). These are trivial differences.

In "Minimum", the CPU’s contribution is decisive at low resolutions and presets. At 1080p Low, the measured average 234 FPS proves the i3-12100F can generate a strong instruction pipeline for a game-engine CPU requirement. Even at 1080p Medium, 179 FPS, it still delivers far beyond any 144Hz screen. At higher resolutions the CPU becomes irrelevant: the frame rate is governed by GPU limitations, as shown by the CPU’s high multithread (Cinebench R23 multicore 11860) and single-thread (1674) scores, which are more than enough for the game’s dynamic world. The game’s 2011 source might be fully threaded, but the 8 threads are more than sufficient; the physics and AI operations in "Minimum" (a Third-Person Shooter) do not present the constraint.

The combo’s overall rank 1432 out of 3712 in the game’s benchmark combination list is largely due to the GPU card, as the CPU’s percentile is fairly high. With Medium presets at 1080p, the system delivers well over double the 60 FPS mark, making it a strong performer for casual play. In a CPU-bound scenario, the i3-12100F’s boost clock of 4.30 GHz helps maintain consistent frame times, and the L3 12 MB reduces memory latency, which shows in the near parity with Rivals that are all slower than 2% difference.

The memory support includes DDR4 and DDR5, and the dual‑channel bus ensures enough bandwidth for the CPU to feed the GPU data. The fact that the GPU’s achieved frame from 1080p Low to 4K Low scales proportionally (80% reduction) indicates the CPU’s own bandwidth is not a limiting factor; the i3-12100F can move data at the required pace, as its 307PT (PCIe 5.0 16 lanes) provides a direct link to the RTX 4060 Ti. For those building a balanced mid-range system, the i3 provides a solid base that doesn’t restrict the GPU's capabilities under this test set.