Minimum

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti lands at rank 1207 out of 1733 tested combos for this title. That places it in the lower third of all configurations, which is a curious result for a GPU that otherwise sits near the top of its class. The RTX 3060 Ti holds the 69th percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-10400F sits at the 73rd percentile among CPUs — both are respectable mid-pack performers individually, yet the combination underperforms its parts' standings.

This ranking suggests that something about this specific pairing or the game's engine is holding the combo back. The data shows the combo is roughly 30% behind the median tested configuration, which is a significant gap for hardware that is only about one generation old. The game itself, released in 2014, is a third-person shooter that predates both components by several years, so driver overhead or the game's single-threaded tendencies may be limiting factors. The i5-10400F's nearest CPU rivals — including the AMD EPYC 7552 and AMD Ryzen 3 7320C — show almost identical average benchmark scores, differing by less than 1.2%, which means the CPU is not an outlier in compute capability. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6600 and AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, also sit within 0.7% of its average score. Yet in this game, the combo's rank implies the actual gameplay performance diverges from what synthetic benchmarks would predict.

GPU Role

The RTX 3060 Ti brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock runs at 1410 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and the memory operates at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The GA104 chip contains 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines, with a pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s. These specifications are substantial for a 2020-era card, and the 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance places it firmly in the upper-midrange tier.

In "Minimum," the GPU's role becomes evident when examining how frame rates scale with settings. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is substantial — 172.7 FPS versus 84.9 FPS — which indicates the GPU is doing meaningful work even at lower resolutions. The card's ray tracing cores (38 RT cores) and tensor cores (152 tensor cores) are present but likely unused in this 2014 title, as it predates widespread RT adoption. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s appears sufficient for the game's demands, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution rather than hitting a bandwidth wall. However, the 8 GB VRAM capacity, while ample for this game, may be a factor at 4K Ultra where the combo drops to 30.2 FPS — though that low figure likely reflects compute limitations more than memory capacity, given the relatively modest texture sizes of a 2014 release.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings drops the average from 108.4 FPS to 67.9 FPS, a 37% reduction. Continuing to 4K High yields 38.8 FPS, another 43% drop from 1440p. This steep decline across resolutions is characteristic of a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck — if the CPU were limiting, the frame rate would plateau rather than fall so sharply.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 172.7 FPS at 1080p, 113.2 FPS at 1440p, and 59.5 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low figure is only slightly above the 1080p High result (59.5 vs. 108.4), which suggests that even at the lowest quality settings, the GPU's raw throughput at 4K is insufficient to maintain high frame rates. The 1080p-to-1440p drop at Low is 34%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 47% — the increasing penalty at higher resolutions reinforces that the RTX 3060 Ti is the limiting component. At Ultra settings, the pattern holds: 84.9 FPS at 1080p, 52.3 FPS at 1440p, and 30.2 FPS at 4K, with each step roughly halving the frame rate. These numbers indicate that for smooth 4K gameplay, even Low settings may not suffice for 60 FPS, while 1440p offers a viable middle ground for most quality presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F and RTX 3060 Ti combination ranks 1207 out of 1733 tested combos, placing it in the lower third of all systems tested.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 25120, which is within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180), AMD Radeon RX 6600 (25235), AMD Radeon 890M (25246), and AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (25287).

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at 4K in this game?

A: No. The highest 4K result is 59.5 FPS at Low settings, while Medium drops to 43.8 FPS, High to 38.8 FPS, and Ultra to 30.2 FPS. None of the 4K presets reach or exceed 60 FPS.

Q: What is the largest FPS gap between settings at any resolution?

A: At 1080p, the gap between Low (172.7 FPS) and Ultra (84.9 FPS) is 87.8 FPS. At 1440p, the gap is 60.9 FPS (113.2 vs. 52.3), and at 4K it is 29.3 FPS (59.5 vs. 30.2).

Q: How does the i5-10400F's CPU benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 14168, with the AMD EPYC 7552 scoring 14115 (0.4% lower), the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scoring 14277 (0.8% higher), the Intel Core i5-8500 scoring 14332 (1.1% higher), and the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 scoring 14336 (1.2% higher).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU, since frame rates at 1080p vary significantly with settings (84.9 to 172.7 FPS), indicating that the graphics card's workload scales with quality. If the CPU were limiting, frame rates would remain relatively constant across settings.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience measured in the data, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the most balanced result. At 86 FPS average, it provides smooth gameplay while maintaining visual quality above Low. The 1080p Medium setting reaches 129.5 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors, but 1440p Medium strikes a better resolution-to-performance ratio for users with capable displays. At 4K, no settings preset achieves 60 FPS, so users targeting 4K would need to accept 59.5 FPS on Low — barely below the threshold — or step down to 1440p for comfort.

If prioritizing frame rate above all else, 1080p Low delivers 172.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for competitive play in this third-person shooter. The 1080p High setting at 108.4 FPS remains above 100 FPS and likely provides a superior visual experience without sacrificing fluidity. For users with 144Hz displays, 1440p Low (113.2 FPS) is the only sub-4K preset that approaches refresh-rate saturation, while 1440p Medium (86 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (84.9 FPS) fall short of that target. The Ultra preset at any resolution appears to be a poor trade — at 4K it yields just 30.2 FPS, which is below playable thresholds, and even at 1440p it drops to 52.3 FPS, making it the least efficient use of the GPU's resources.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process node. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz boosts to 4.30 GHz, and it carries 12 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 64 KB of L1 and 256 KB of L2 per core. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s and connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes. Its synthetic benchmarks show strong multi-threaded performance — a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297 and a single-core score of 1453 — but in this 2014 game, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU.

The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (172.7 FPS) suggest the CPU can handle high draw calls without bottlenecking, as the game is unlikely to stress 12 threads heavily. The 3DMark scores are revealing: 16-thread performance (4748) is nearly identical to max-thread performance (4735), indicating the CPU scales well with additional threads. However, the single-thread score of 688 in 3DMark and 1453 in Cinebench R23 are modest by modern standards, and older games like "Minimum" often rely heavily on single-core performance. At 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 84.9 FPS, but this is likely due to increased GPU workload rather than CPU limitations, since the gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p (87.8 FPS) closely mirrors the GPU's capability differences. The CPU's percentile rank of 73 among all CPUs means it outperforms nearly three-quarters of processors, so it should not be the primary constraint in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 3060 Ti and i5-10400F deliver a wide range of performance across settings. Low averages 172.7 FPS, Medium 129.5 FPS, High 108.4 FPS, and Ultra 84.9 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 43.2 FPS, while Medium to High drops 21.1 FPS, and High to Ultra reduces another 23.5 FPS. These diminishing returns suggest that Medium or High offers the best visual-per-frame trade at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages decline to 113.2 FPS at Low, 86 FPS at Medium, 67.9 FPS at High, and 52.3 FPS at Ultra. The pattern remains consistent, with each settings tier reducing performance by roughly 15-27 FPS. The 1440p results are approximately 60-65% of the corresponding 1080p figures, indicating the GPU is the scaling factor.

At 3840x2160, performance drops markedly: Low averages 59.5 FPS, Medium 43.8 FPS, High 38.8 FPS, and Ultra 30.2 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only preset that approaches 60 FPS, and the Ultra setting falls below 30 FPS thresholds for smooth gameplay. The gap between 4K and 1440p is 47-54% across settings, which is consistent with the pixel count increase of 2.25x but suggests the memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is being taxed at 4K. Overall, the data indicates this combo is best suited for 1080p high-refresh or 1440p medium-quality gaming, with 4K reserved for undemanding titles or lower quality presets.