Minimum

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT delivers a robust 1080p and 1440p experience in Minimum, but the data reveals a clear performance ceiling at 4K. This combination ranks 641st out of 1733 tested combos in this game, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the benchmark database. The measured frame rates show that this pairing is well-balanced for high-refresh-rate gaming at lower resolutions, while the 4K Ultra results indicate that the GPU is heavily taxed by the most demanding settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates where the system's bottleneck lies. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo produces an average of 124.2 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings, the average drops to 81.3 FPS, a reduction of approximately 34.5%. The scaling continues at 3840x2160, where the average falls to 43.1 FPS, another 47% decrease from the 1440p figure. This steep decline indicates that the RX 7800 XT is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU at lower pixel counts.

The Low settings data reinforces this analysis. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 251.4 FPS, which suggests the CPU is still capable of pushing very high frame rates. At 1440p Low, the average is 160.7 FPS, and at 4K Low, it drops to 86.1 FPS. The relative consistency of the scaling pattern, roughly a 36% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 46% drop from 1440p to 4K, points to a GPU-bound scenario across all settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would plateau at higher resolutions, which is not observed in this data.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution also highlights the GPU's workload. At 1080p, the difference between Low (251.4 FPS) and Ultra (124.2 FPS) is 127.2 FPS, a 102% increase in performance from lowering settings. At 4K, the same comparison shows 86.1 FPS versus 43.1 FPS, a 43 FPS difference. This suggests that while the GPU scales well with resolution, the Ultra preset's additional effects, likely including higher-quality shadows, textures, and post-processing, consume a substantial portion of the graphics card's resources, particularly at 4K where the pixel fill rate becomes critical.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to run Minimum with this CPU and GPU combo for high frame rates?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the combo averages 190.4 FPS, while High settings yield 160.4 FPS. For the smoothest experience, 1080p Low provides 251.4 FPS, but Medium offers a better balance of visual quality and performance.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Minimum?

A: The data shows 4K Ultra averages 43.1 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. Dropping to 4K High improves this to 58.5 FPS, and 4K Low reaches 86.1 FPS, making 4K viable with reduced settings.

Q: How does the RX 7800 XT's VRAM capacity affect Minimum at high resolutions?

A: The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit bus and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth. This capacity is sufficient for the game's 4K Ultra preset, as evidenced by the measurable frame rates, though the Ultra preset's demands still limit performance to 43.1 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-10400F a bottleneck for this GPU in Minimum?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 251.4 FPS, suggesting the CPU can drive very high frame rates. The consistent frame rate drops across resolutions indicate the GPU becomes the limiting factor, not the CPU.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings average 105.9 FPS, while Ultra drops to 81.3 FPS. The 24.6 FPS difference represents a 23% performance penalty for the highest preset, which may not justify the visual improvement for all users.

Q: How does this combo's performance at 1080p Medium compare to 1440p High?

A: At 1080p Medium, the average is 190.4 FPS, while 1440p High averages 105.9 FPS. The 84.5 FPS gap shows that increasing resolution has a more significant impact on frame rate than moving from Medium to High settings at the same resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 641 out of 1733 tested configurations places it in the 63rd percentile of all systems tested in Minimum. This positioning suggests that while the i5-10400F and RX 7800 XT are not top-tier components individually, their combination offers competitive performance for this title. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 73 indicates it outperforms 73% of all tested processors, while the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 76 shows similar relative standing.

The nearest rival CPUs provide context for the i5-10400F's performance. The AMD EPYC 7552 has an average score of 14115, which is 0.4% lower than the i5's 14168 average. The AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277, 0.8% higher, and the Intel Core i5-8500 scores 14332, 1.1% higher. These small deltas indicate that the i5-10400F's CPU performance is tightly clustered with these alternatives, meaning the choice between them would have minimal impact on Minimum's frame rates.

For the GPU, the RX 7800 XT's nearest rivals show similar clustering. The AMD FirePro S9300 X2 scores 32540, which is 0.2% lower than the RX 7800 XT's 32619 average. The NVIDIA P104-100 scores 32747, 0.4% higher, and the NVIDIA T600 Mobile scores 32849, 0.7% higher. These marginal differences reinforce that the RX 7800 XT is well-positioned among its peers, though none of these rivals are direct gaming-focused comparisons.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset reveals a consistent pattern across all 12 measured configurations. At 1920x1080, the lowest average is 124.2 FPS (Ultra) and the highest is 251.4 FPS (Low). Medium settings produce 190.4 FPS, while High delivers 160.4 FPS. This resolution clearly offers the best performance headroom, with even the most demanding preset maintaining above 120 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages range from 81.3 FPS (Ultra) to 160.7 FPS (Low). Medium achieves 122.5 FPS, and High produces 105.9 FPS. The 1440p results show that High and Ultra settings still provide smooth gameplay for most displays, though the Ultra preset approaches the 60 FPS threshold for 4K displays.

The 3840x2160 results show the most significant strain on the system. Ultra averages 43.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for most gamers. High settings improve this to 58.5 FPS, nearly reaching that threshold. Medium yields 65.3 FPS, and Low achieves 86.1 FPS. These figures indicate that 4K gaming is possible but requires careful setting adjustments to maintain acceptable performance.

The incremental steps between settings at each resolution show diminishing returns. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 61 FPS, from Medium to High costs 30 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 36.2 FPS. At 1440p, the drops are 38.2 FPS, 16.6 FPS, and 24.6 FPS respectively. At 4K, the drops are 20.8 FPS, 6.8 FPS, and 15.4 FPS. This pattern suggests that the relative cost of higher settings decreases as resolution increases in absolute terms, but the percentage impact remains significant.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the primary driver of frame rates in Minimum, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory provides ample capacity for the game's textures, even at 4K Ultra, where the average of 43.1 FPS indicates the GPU is compute-bound rather than memory-constrained. The 624.1 GB/s memory bandwidth supports the high pixel throughput required at 3840x2160, but the card's 96 ROPs and 240 TMUs ultimately limit fill rate performance.

The GPU's clock behavior is notable: the base clock of 1295 MHz, game clock of 2124 MHz, and boost clock of 2430 MHz show a significant dynamic range. The measured frame rates suggest that the card operates closer to its boost clock at lower resolutions, where thermal and power headroom allow for higher frequencies. At 4K, the sustained workload likely causes the card to settle near its game clock, contributing to the performance drop.

The 5 nm process node and RDNA 3.0 architecture provide the efficiency required for the card's 263 W TDP. The 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 performance is substantial, but Minimum's Ultra preset at 4K demands more than raw compute, the pixel rate of 233.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 583.2 GTexel/s become limiting factors. The 60 RT cores are not directly relevant to this game's rasterization workload, but their presence indicates the GPU's modern feature set.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its in-game performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4157 and the Passmark G3D score of 24176 place it in the 76th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival comparisons, 0.2% above the FirePro S9300 X2 and 0.4% below the P104-100, show that the RX 7800 XT's synthetic performance aligns closely with its measured gaming results in Minimum. The GPU's launch MSRP is 499 USD, which positions it as a high-end option, but the benchmark data shows that its 4K Ultra performance in this specific title is limited, making 1440p the practical ceiling for maximum settings.