Minimum

The pairing of the Intel Core i3-12100F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 represents an extreme mismatch of component tiers, and the measured frame rates in Minimum reflect this imbalance clearly. This combination ranks 159th out of 3712 tested combos in this title, placing it in the top 4.3% of all configurations tested, which is a remarkable result for a CPU that costs a fraction of what the GPU commands. The data shows a system that can deliver playable and often exceptionally high frame rates, but the pattern of scaling across resolutions and settings reveals exactly where the bottleneck lies.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and tells a clear story about which component is doing the heavy lifting. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 253 FPS at 1920x1080 to 163 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 90 FPS or roughly 35.6%. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average drops to 88 FPS, which is a 65.2% decrease from the 1080p result. This pattern of substantial losses at every resolution step indicates that the GPU is being increasingly taxed as pixel count rises, which is expected for a game from 2014 running on modern hardware.

However, the more revealing comparison comes at Low settings. At 1080p Low, the system produces 367 FPS, which drops to 254 FPS at 1440p (a 30.8% reduction) and then to 137 FPS at 4K (a 62.7% reduction from 1080p). The fact that Low settings at 1080p cannot exceed 367 FPS is a strong indicator of CPU limitation at that resolution and preset combination. A GPU as powerful as the RTX 4090 would typically push far beyond that figure if it were the sole limiting factor, but the Core i3-12100F with its 4 cores and 8 threads caps the frame rate. This is classic CPU-bound behavior: at lower resolutions and settings, the GPU has spare capacity, but the processor cannot feed it data fast enough.

At 4K, the situation flips. The average FPS at Ultra is 67, which is only 76% of the High setting score of 88, and the gap between Low (137 FPS) and Ultra (67 FPS) at 4K is a massive 70 FPS. This widening gap as settings increase at 4K demonstrates that the RTX 4090 becomes the limiting component at this resolution. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are being fully utilized, and the CPU has enough headroom to keep up with the GPU's demands at these heavier loads. The data suggests that 4K is where this combo finally balances out, with the GPU becoming the primary constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 16,384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units. Its boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz are exceptionally high, and the memory subsystem consists of 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. These specifications translate into a GPU that sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 60,347.

In Minimum, the GPU's raw power is evident in the high frame rates achieved even at demanding settings. At 1440p Ultra, the combo still produces 124 FPS, and at 4K High it manages 88 FPS. These are strong numbers for a game released in 2014, and they show that the RTX 4090 is not struggling with the graphical workload. The GPU's performance is further contextualized by its nearest rivals: the Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60,326 (a 0% delta), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 60,140 (0.3% higher), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 scores 58,657 (2.9% lower). The RTX 4090 sits essentially tied with the Arc Pro A60, which is a professional workstation card, highlighting that raw compute scores do not always translate directly to gaming frame rates.

The VRAM capacity of 24 GB is far more than Minimum requires, and the measured results show no signs of memory capacity being a limiting factor. The game's textures and geometry from 2014 are easily accommodated, and the GPU's memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming is not a bottleneck even at 4K Ultra settings. The FP32 compute of 82.58 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s provide ample headroom for this older title, meaning the GPU is rarely working at full capacity except at the highest resolution and settings combinations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and frame rate stability across all three resolutions. At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 105, with a minimum of 89 and a maximum of 120, which provides a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate displays. The min FPS of 89 is particularly important because it indicates that the frame time consistency is good enough to avoid noticeable stutters. At 1440p Medium, the average jumps to 194 FPS with a min of 165 and max of 223, which is excellent for competitive play. At 1080p Medium, the average is 301 FPS with a min of 256 and max of 347, making this preset ideal for esports-style gaming where high and consistent frame rates matter most.

High settings are a viable alternative but with a noticeable cost. At 4K High, the average drops to 88 FPS, which is still playable but close to the edge of what most 60 Hz displays need. At 1440p High, the average of 163 FPS is still very good, but the 31 FPS drop from Medium at the same resolution is significant. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 4K Ultra producing only 67 FPS and 1440p Ultra dropping to 124 FPS. These numbers suggest that Ultra should only be used if visual fidelity is the absolute priority and the user has a display that can take advantage of the lower frame rates.

The Low preset produces the highest frame rates but sacrifices visual quality. At 4K Low, the average is 137 FPS, which is a 30.5% improvement over Medium, but the visual downgrade is substantial. For users with high-refresh-rate 4K displays, the Medium preset at 105 FPS is the recommended starting point, as it offers a 17.6% improvement over High and maintains a minimum of 89 FPS. The data clearly indicates that Medium is the sweet spot for this combo, balancing the GPU's capabilities with the CPU's limitations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 159 out of 3712 tested combos places this system in the 95.7th percentile of all configurations tested in Minimum. This is an impressive ranking that reflects the raw power of the RTX 4090, even when paired with a relatively modest CPU. The ranking is particularly notable because the Core i3-12100F is a budget-oriented processor that sits in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13,494. The combination of a top-tier GPU with a mid-tier CPU still achieves a top-5% ranking in this game.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the overall benchmark database are the Intel Core 3 N355 (score 13,492, 0% delta), Intel Core i5-9500 (score 13,452, 0.3% delta), Intel Core 5 120UL (score 13,594, -0.7% delta), and Intel Core i7-1250U (score 13,351, 1.1% delta). These rivals are all in the same performance class as the i3-12100F, and the small deltas indicate that the processor's overall compute capability is not dramatically different from these alternatives. However, in Minimum, the GPU is the dominant factor in determining the final ranking, and the RTX 4090's 88th percentile standing among all GPUs ensures that this combo outperforms the vast majority of systems.

The ranking of 159 means that there are 158 other combos that achieve higher frame rates in this game, and these are almost certainly systems with equally powerful GPUs paired with stronger CPUs. The gap between this combo and the top-ranked systems is likely due to CPU limitations at lower resolutions, where the i3-12100F's 4 cores and 8 threads cannot deliver the same frame rates as higher-core-count processors. At 4K, the ranking would be much higher because the GPU becomes the limiting factor, but the overall combo rank reflects performance across all measured scenarios.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, along with 80 KB of L1 cache per core. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and it connects to the GPU via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes. These specifications place it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13,494.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system produces 367 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame rate capability for this game. The fact that the same GPU can produce 137 FPS at 4K Low, which is only 37.3% of the 1080p result, suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at 4K. The 3DMark benchmark scores provide additional context: the 4-thread score is 2,859, the 8-thread score is 4,026, and the max-thread score is 4,023. These scores indicate that the CPU's multi-threaded performance is modest, but its single-thread performance (893 in 3DMark single-thread) is relatively strong for a budget chip.

The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11,860 and single-core score of 1,674 show that the CPU can handle modern workloads, but in gaming, the 4-core design can become a bottleneck when frame rates are very high. The PassMark single-thread score of 3,444 and multithread score of 14,015 further confirm that this is a capable but not exceptional processor. In Minimum, the CPU's 4 cores are sufficient to maintain high frame rates at 1440p and 4K, but at 1080p with low settings, the CPU's limits are reached, and the GPU's potential is left untapped.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 367 FPS, which is the peak measured result across all configurations. Medium settings yield 301 FPS with a minimum of 256 and a maximum of 347, providing a wide and stable frame rate range. High settings reduce the average to 253 FPS, while Ultra drops to 193 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 174 FPS, which is a substantial 47.4% reduction, indicating that the GPU is being taxed more as settings increase, but the CPU still has headroom at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down significantly. Low settings average 254 FPS, which is a 30.8% drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 194 FPS with a minimum of 165 and a maximum of 223, showing that the frame rate range narrows as the GPU works harder. High settings average 163 FPS, and Ultra drops to 124 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 130 FPS, a 51.2% reduction, which is a larger percentage drop than at 1080p. This indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the highest resolution tested, the frame rates are the lowest but still playable. Low settings average 137 FPS, Medium settings average 105 FPS with a minimum of 89 and a maximum of 120, High settings average 88 FPS, and Ultra drops to 67 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 70 FPS, a 51.1% reduction, similar to the percentage drop at 1440p. The minimum FPS of 89 at 4K Medium is noteworthy because it suggests that the system can maintain a playable frame rate even during demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 67 FPS, is the only configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold that many users consider the minimum for smooth gameplay, but it still remains playable on most displays. The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: Medium settings provide the best combination of high average FPS and stable minimums, making it the recommended preset for this combination of CPU and GPU.