Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance tier of the Intel Core i5-10400F + AMD Radeon RX 9060 combo in Minimum?

A: This combo ranks 1677th out of 2939 tested combinations. That places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, indicating it is a capable but not top-tier pairing for this third-person shooter.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14185. It sits within 0.6% of four rivals: it is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Xeon 6756E, 0.5% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7552, 0.3% behind the Intel Core 7 160UL, and 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014. It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti by 0.7%, while leading the AMD Radeon R9 370X by 1%, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 by 1%, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 by 2.1%.

Q: What is the best resolution for achieving 60+ FPS consistently?

A: At 1440p, all settings except Ultra deliver averages above 60 FPS. At 1080p, every setting including Ultra delivers above 90 FPS. The 4K resolution only achieves 60+ FPS on Low settings, with an average of 65 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at higher resolutions?

A: The data shows a consistent frame rate drop as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K across all settings. This pattern indicates the GPU is the primary scaling factor, as the CPU's workload does not increase proportionally with pixel count.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded across all measured configurations?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 42, which appears in two places: the 4K Medium preset and the 4K High preset (where it is the average). The 4K Ultra preset has an average of 32 FPS, which is the lowest average overall.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 44 chip manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It contains 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 149.2M per mm². The GPU operates with a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. Memory runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed.

The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a relatively narrow memory configuration for a modern GPU, and it has direct implications for Minimum's performance at higher resolutions. The GPU's pixel rate is 191.4 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 334.9 GTexel/s. It delivers 21.43 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 performance in a 1:1 ratio.

The GPU features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, 64 ROPs, and 28 ray tracing cores. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The card has a TDP of 132 W and uses a dual-slot design with a single 8-pin power connector, requiring a 300 W suggested PSU. It connects via PCIe 5.0 x16 and outputs through 1x HDMI 2.1b and 2x DisplayPort 2.1a.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores show a mixed profile. It scores 3322 in 3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12), 88183 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 39476 in Geekbench Vulkan. Passmark scores include 17631 for G3D and 9919 for GPU compute. The GPU sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014.

In Minimum, the GPU's role becomes evident when examining frame rates across settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 187 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 32 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at the same resolution shows the GPU's workload increasing substantially. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 95 FPS (187 to 92). At 1440p, the gap is 62 FPS (121 to 59). At 4K, the gap is 33 FPS (65 to 32).

The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s appears to be a constraint at 4K. While the GPU can push high frame rates at lower resolutions, the 128-bit memory interface struggles to feed the shading units adequately when pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear and consistent pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases. At High settings, the combo delivers 120 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 46% drop from 1440p to 4K.

At Low settings, the frame rates are 187 FPS at 1080p, 121 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 35% and 46%, respectively, mirroring the High settings pattern almost exactly. This consistency suggests that resolution scaling is uniform regardless of quality preset.

Medium settings show 143 FPS at 1080p, 92 FPS at 1440p, and 50 FPS at 4K. Again, the drops are 36% and 46%. Ultra settings produce 92 FPS at 1080p, 59 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K, with drops of 36% and 46%.

The uniformity of these percentage drops across all four settings presets is striking. It indicates that the limiting component scales linearly with pixel count, which points to the GPU as the bottleneck. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect to see smaller absolute drops at higher resolutions, as the CPU workload remains constant while the GPU workload increases.

The 4K resolution is particularly demanding. Even at Low settings, the combo only manages 65 FPS at 4K, which is barely above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At High and Ultra, 4K frame rates fall to 42 and 32 FPS respectively, which would be noticeable as stutter and lag in a fast-paced third-person shooter.

The 1440p resolution appears to be the sweet spot for this combo. At Medium settings, it delivers 92 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS, which keeps gameplay smooth even during intense action sequences. At High settings, 1440p delivers 78 FPS, still above the 60 FPS threshold.

The data strongly suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming. At 1080p, even Ultra settings deliver 92 FPS, making it possible to max out visual quality while maintaining high frame rates. At 1440p, Medium or High settings provide the best balance of visual fidelity and performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the best experience for this combo depends on the target resolution. At 1080p, Ultra settings provide 92 FPS average. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and allows for maximum visual quality. The High preset at 1080p delivers 120 FPS, which would be preferable for competitive play where higher frame rates matter.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 92 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. This provides a smooth experience with good visual quality. The High preset at 1440p delivers 78 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS and offers better visuals. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS threshold and may result in occasional stutter.

At 4K, the Low preset delivers 65 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration that exceeds 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K delivers 50 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS, which would be playable but not ideal for a fast-paced shooter. The High and Ultra presets at 4K deliver 42 and 32 FPS respectively, which are likely too low for smooth gameplay.

The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality across all resolutions. At 1080p and 1440p, it provides frame rates well above 60 FPS with minimums that stay above 79 FPS. At 4K, it provides a playable 50 FPS average, though players seeking higher frame rates would need to drop to Low.

For players with 144Hz monitors, the 1080p Low and Medium presets are the only configurations that come close to maxing out the refresh rate. The 1080p Low preset delivers 187 FPS, and the 1080p Medium preset delivers 143 FPS. At 1440p, the Low preset delivers 121 FPS, which would also work well on a 120Hz or 144Hz display.

The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p gaming, where it delivers 92 FPS. At higher resolutions, the performance cost of Ultra settings outweighs the visual benefits, as the frame rates drop below the 60 FPS threshold.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F + AMD Radeon RX 9060 combo ranks 1677th out of 2939 tested combinations in Minimum. This places it in the 57th percentile of all tested combos, meaning it outperforms roughly 57% of the database entries.

This ranking reflects the mid-range nature of both components. The CPU sits at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14185. The GPU sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. The combo's game-specific ranking of 1677 out of 2939 is slightly lower than either component's individual percentile, suggesting that the pairing may not be perfectly optimized for this particular title.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks provide context for its performance. The Intel Xeon 6756E scores 14163, which is 0.2% lower. The AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115, which is 0.5% lower. The Intel Core 7 160UL scores 14232, which is 0.3% higher. The AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277, which is 0.6% higher. These are all extremely close scores, indicating that the i5-10400F is well within the normal range for its performance class.

The GPU's nearest rivals show a similar pattern. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129, which is 0.7% higher. The AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862, which is 1% lower. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 scores 15852, which is 1% lower. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 15679, which is 2.1% lower. Again, these are all very close scores, placing the RX 9060 firmly in the mid-range GPU category.

The combo's rank of 1677 out of 2939 suggests that while neither component is exceptional on its own, the pairing delivers consistent, predictable performance in Minimum. The measured FPS data confirms this, showing solid frame rates at 1080p and 1440p across most settings, with expected degradation at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. The Low preset achieves 187 FPS average. The Medium preset achieves 143 FPS average, with a minimum of 122 FPS and a maximum of 165 FPS. The High preset achieves 120 FPS average. The Ultra preset achieves 92 FPS average. All 1080p configurations exceed 90 FPS, making this resolution the most versatile for this combo.

At 2560x1440, performance drops but remains playable. The Low preset achieves 121 FPS average. The Medium preset achieves 92 FPS average, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. The High preset achieves 78 FPS average. The Ultra preset achieves 59 FPS average. The Low, Medium, and High presets all exceed 60 FPS at 1440p, while Ultra falls just short.

At 3840x2160, performance drops significantly. The Low preset achieves 65 FPS average. The Medium preset achieves 50 FPS average, with a minimum of 42 FPS and a maximum of 57 FPS. The High preset achieves 42 FPS average. The Ultra preset achieves 32 FPS average. Only the Low preset at 4K exceeds 60 FPS, and even that is marginal.

The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p is fully playable at all settings, 1440p is playable at Low through High settings, and 4K is only playable at Low settings. The Medium preset at each resolution provides the most balanced experience, with frame rates of 143 at 1080p, 92 at 1440p, and 50 at 4K.

The minimum FPS values recorded are only available for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 122 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 79 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 42 FPS. These minimums indicate that the combo maintains relatively stable frame rates, with no severe drops or stutters in the measured data.

The maximum FPS values are also only available for the Medium preset. At 1080p Medium, the maximum is 165 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the maximum is 106 FPS. At 4K Medium, the maximum is 57 FPS. The range between minimum and maximum at each resolution is 43 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K, suggesting that frame time consistency improves as resolution increases, though overall performance decreases.