Minimum

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a remarkably smooth experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The measured frame rates across all settings and resolutions indicate that this combination is overkill for the game’s engine, consistently pushing well beyond the refresh rates of standard monitors. The data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance scaling, though the CPU’s four cores prove sufficient to feed the graphics card without becoming a bottleneck at any tested configuration.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gaming, the Ultra preset is the clear choice despite being the most demanding. The measured average of 149.6 FPS at 1920x2160 with Ultra settings is the lowest of the four presets at this resolution, yet it remains exceptionally high and well above the threshold for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate displays. The transition from High to Ultra costs about 51.6 FPS on average, dropping from 201.2 FPS to 149.6 FPS, but the visual fidelity gains are typical of the setting’s increased draw distances and effects. Given the sheer headroom, there is no reason to sacrifice image quality for performance at this resolution.

Moving to 1440p, the Ultra preset still delivers a playable 96.8 FPS average. This is a substantial drop from the High preset’s 128.1 FPS, but it remains comfortably above 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 153.3 FPS offers a balanced alternative for those who prioritize frame rate above all else, but the data indicates that the hardware can handle the full visual experience. The 1440p Ultra figure of 96.8 FPS suggests that users with 144Hz monitors would still see a tangible benefit from dropping to High, which yields a 31.3 FPS increase to 128.1 FPS.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts decisively toward High settings. The Ultra preset’s average of 51.7 FPS at 3840x2160 is below the ideal threshold for fast-paced shooters, whereas High maintains a solid 68 FPS. The Medium preset at 83.7 FPS offers a more significant performance buffer, but the jump from Medium to High only costs 15.7 FPS, making High the superior compromise for visual quality and responsiveness. The Low preset at 106.6 FPS is available for those seeking maximum frame rates, but the visual degradation is unnecessary given the High preset’s playability. For the best overall experience across all resolutions, High settings provide the most consistent balance of fidelity and performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why the frame rates are so high. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for a game from 2014, which is unlikely to stress the frame buffer even at 4K resolution. The 12 GB capacity ensures that texture streaming and high-resolution assets present no challenge, allowing the card to operate without memory-related stutters.

The clock speeds are equally impressive. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1980 MHz and boosts up to 2475 MHz, which directly contributes to its raw compute throughput of 35.48 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. This processing power is the reason the card achieves such high frame rates even at lower resolutions. The benchmark results confirm this: the PassMark G3D score of 29995 places the GPU in the 84th percentile of all graphics cards, and its average benchmark score of 42576 is nearly identical to that of the NVIDIA RTX A6000, which scores 42653 with a deltaPct of -0.2%. In Minimum, the GPU’s capability is so far beyond the game’s requirements that it never becomes a limiting factor until 4K Ultra settings are applied.

The GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, ensuring full compatibility with the game’s rendering paths. The architecture, Ada Lovelace, is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, which contributes to its efficiency and high clock speeds. The 220 W TDP is a minor consideration for this class of card, but the performance delivered per watt is exceptional in this context. The data shows that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the engine of this combo, with its memory bandwidth and shading units providing the headroom necessary for high-refresh-rate gaming.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p with High settings, the combo achieves 201.2 FPS. Dropping to 1440p reduces this to 128.1 FPS, a 36.3% decrease. Moving further to 4K High yields 68 FPS, which is a 46.9% drop from the 1440p figure. This scaling is consistent with the GPU’s rendering load increasing exponentially with pixel count, confirming that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary component determining frame rates in this game.

The scaling is even more pronounced at the Ultra preset. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS falls from 149.6 to 96.8, a 35.3% reduction. The jump from 1440p to 4K Ultra is steeper, with the average dropping to 51.7 FPS, a 46.6% decline. This pattern indicates that the game’s Ultra settings introduce additional pixel shading and post-processing effects that disproportionately impact higher resolutions. The Low preset shows a similar trend, with 307.4 FPS at 1080p dropping to 197.5 FPS at 1440p and 106.6 FPS at 4K, representing a 45.8% and 46.0% drop respectively.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in these scenarios. The consistent percentage drops across all settings point to the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth as the bottlenecks at higher resolutions. The fact that the 4K Low preset still achieves 106.6 FPS indicates that the GPU has ample headroom to handle the game’s geometry and draw calls. The limiting component at 4K Ultra is clearly the GPU’s compute units, as the game’s shader complexity scales with resolution. For users targeting 4K, the High preset is the sweet spot, as it maintains a playable frame rate while avoiding the steep performance penalty of Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s overall ranking in the database is strong, though not elite. With a comboRankInGame of 305 out of 1733 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the top 17.6% of all systems tested in Minimum. This is a solid result, but it reflects the fact that the game is older and many high-end CPUs paired with top-tier GPUs achieve higher frame rates. The ranking is influenced by the CPU’s relatively modest specifications compared to the GPU, as the i3-12100F is a budget-oriented processor.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 13516 places it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, which is respectable but not outstanding. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, scores 13534 with a deltaPct of -0.1%, meaning the Intel chip is essentially tied with a professional-grade workstation processor in synthetic benchmarks. This is surprising given the Threadripper’s much higher core count, but it highlights the i3-12100F’s strong single-threaded performance. The CPU also edges out the Intel Core i7-7700K, which scores 13280 with a deltaPct of 1.8%, indicating that the newer architecture provides a significant per-core advantage.

In the context of this game, the combo’s ranking is more reflective of the GPU’s dominance. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s average benchmark score of 42576 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA RTX A6000, which scores 42653 with a deltaPct of -0.2%. This places the GPU in the 84th percentile, and its performance in Minimum is likely constrained by the game’s engine rather than the hardware’s capabilities. The combo ranks high because the GPU is powerful enough to overcome any CPU limitations, but the 305th position suggests that other combinations with even faster CPUs achieve slightly higher frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F plays a supporting role in this combo, but its specifications are adequate for the task. The CPU features 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This is a modest configuration by modern standards, but the Alder Lake architecture and 10 nm process node provide strong single-threaded performance. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps reduce memory latency in gaming workloads.

The benchmark results show that the CPU’s single-threaded performance is its strength. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681 and the Geekbench single-core score of 2224 are competitive figures for a desktop processor. The multi-threaded scores are less impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11912, but this is expected given the 4-core, 8-thread configuration. In Minimum, which likely does not scale well beyond a few threads, the CPU’s single-threaded power is more relevant than its multi-core throughput.

The data confirms that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this game. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 307.4 FPS, which is an extreme frame rate that would require a capable CPU to maintain. The fact that the i3-12100F can sustain this performance indicates that its 4.30 GHz boost clock is sufficient for the game’s physics and game logic. However, the CPU’s limited core count could become a factor in more modern, heavily threaded titles. In this specific game, the CPU’s role is simply to keep up with the GPU’s rendering output, and the benchmark results show that it does so without issue. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 72nd out of all CPUs is lower than the GPU’s 84th percentile, but the gap does not translate into a meaningful performance deficit in Minimum.