Minimum

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 240th out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 6.5% of all configurations evaluated. This is a strong result, though not a top-tier one, which makes sense given the pairing of a 10th-generation six-core CPU with a flagship Blackwell GPU. The combination lands well above the median, but the data suggests that the CPU is holding back the GPU in certain scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where the processor becomes the primary bottleneck.

Benchmark results indicate that the RTX 5090 is an exceptionally powerful GPU on its own, sitting at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs tested. Its average benchmark score of 79,842 places it just ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, a 0.3% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940, a 1.1% delta). Meanwhile, the Core i5-10400F sits at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, with an average score of 14,185. This CPU is closely matched with the Intel Xeon 6756E (14,163, a 0.2% delta) and the AMD EPYC 7552 (14,115, a 0.5% delta). The disparity in percentile rankings—92 versus 68—foreshadows the bottleneck that appears in the measured FPS data.

The rank of 240 out of 3712 combos is respectable, but it is not reflective of what the RTX 5090 could achieve with a more modern processor. In a game like Minimum, which is a third-person shooter from 2014, the engine's threading and single-core demands will inevitably favor newer CPU architectures. The data shows that while the combo is capable of high frame rates, the CPU's 68th percentile standing limits the overall potential, especially when targeting the highest refresh rates at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications bear that out. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 28 Gbps effective. These memory figures are among the highest in the database, ensuring that texture streaming and high-resolution rendering are not constrained by memory bandwidth in Minimum. The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 79,842 confirm its position as a top-tier part, rivaling professional-grade accelerators like the Tesla P100 variants.

From a compute standpoint, the RTX 5090 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC, with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. It houses 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines. The boost clock of 2407 MHz, while not the highest in the database, allows the GPU to push a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. For Minimum, which is not a graphically demanding title by modern standards, these figures are more than sufficient to maintain high frame rates at all tested resolutions.

The GPU's performance in the measured FPS data shows that it is capable of delivering 90 FPS at 4K High settings, which is a demanding workload for most hardware. At 1080p, the GPU's headroom becomes apparent: it achieves 271 FPS at Low settings, but the scaling from 1080p to 4K is not linear, suggesting that the GPU is not always the limiting factor. The RTX 5090's launch MSRP of 1,999 USD reflects its flagship status, and the data confirms that it operates at the top of the performance stack, with a 0.3% delta over the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and a 1.4% delta behind the Radeon Pro Vega 64X.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 10th-generation Comet Lake processor with 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache is modest by modern standards, but it is adequate for a game like Minimum, which was released in 2014. The 68th percentile ranking places it near the middle of the pack, with an average benchmark score of 14,185, closely matching the Intel Xeon 6756E and AMD EPYC 7552.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core at 1,451, is competent but not exceptional. The multi-threaded score of 10,283 in Cinebench R23 shows that the 6-core/12-thread configuration can handle parallel workloads, but the game's engine likely relies more on single-thread performance for its primary game logic. This is where the i5-10400F's 10th-generation architecture shows its age when paired with a 5 nm Blackwell GPU.

The data reveals that the CPU becomes a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 271 FPS, but at 4K Low settings, it drops to 140 FPS. While this drop is expected due to increased GPU load, the fact that the 1080p scores are not significantly higher—despite the GPU's massive headroom—suggests that the CPU is limiting the frame rate. The CPU's 68th percentile standing, contrasted with the GPU's 92nd percentile, indicates a mismatch that is most pronounced at 1080p. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,350 and the single-thread score of 688 in 3DMark highlight the CPU's single-thread ceiling, which is the primary constraint in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo spans three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, and 4K) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra). At 1080p, the combo delivers 271 FPS on Low, 246 FPS on Medium (with a min of 209 and max of 283), 231 FPS on High, and 197 FPS on Ultra. These numbers are all above 190 FPS, indicating that the combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, though the gap between Low and Ultra (74 FPS) shows that the GPU is still being exercised at this resolution.

Moving to 1440p, the FPS figures remain high: Low produces 234 FPS, Medium averages 199 FPS (min 169, max 229), High drops to 167 FPS, and Ultra settles at 127 FPS. The 1440p results show a more pronounced scaling with settings, as the GPU begins to take on more pixel-pushing duties. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 107 FPS, which is larger than the 74 FPS delta at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming the more significant factor.

At 4K, the FPS numbers are the lowest but still playable: Low averages 140 FPS, Medium averages 107 FPS (min 91, max 123), High drops to 90 FPS, and Ultra falls to 69 FPS. The 4K Ultra figure of 69 FPS is the only average below 70 FPS in the entire dataset, and it suggests that while the RTX 5090 is powerful, even it cannot maintain ultra-high frame rates at maximum settings in this resolution. The Medium preset at 4K offers a more comfortable 107 FPS, which is likely the sweet spot for 4K gaming with this combo.

The data shows that the combo is capable of high frame rates across all tested configurations, but the scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep. At High settings, the FPS drops from 231 at 1080p to 167 at 1440p (a 27.7% reduction) and then to 90 at 4K (a 46.1% reduction from 1440p). This progressive decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 5090's workload increases with resolution. However, the relatively small gap between 1080p Low (271 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (197 FPS) indicates that the CPU is also contributing to the frame rate ceiling at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear picture of where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 271 at 1080p to 234 at 1440p (a 13.7% reduction) and then to 140 at 4K (a 40.2% reduction from 1440p). The 1080p to 1440p drop is modest, which suggests that the CPU is still the primary limiter at 1080p Low. If the GPU were the sole constraint, the FPS would scale more proportionally with the pixel count increase (a 2.25x increase in pixels from 1080p to 1440p would result in a roughly 55% FPS drop if GPU-bound). The actual 13.7% drop indicates that the CPU is preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential at 1080p.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is more consistent with a GPU-bound workload: 197 FPS at 1080p drops to 127 FPS at 1440p (a 35.5% reduction) and then to 69 FPS at 4K (a 45.7% reduction from 1440p). The 1440p to 4K drop is similar to the Low settings drop (40.2%), but the 1080p to 1440p drop is much steeper at Ultra (35.5% vs. 13.7%). This indicates that at Ultra settings, the GPU is more engaged even at 1080p, and the CPU bottleneck is less pronounced. The data suggests that the i5-10400F can keep up with the RTX 5090 at higher settings, where the GPU's rendering workload dominates, but at lower settings, the CPU's single-thread performance becomes the limiting factor.

The Medium settings data shows a similar pattern: 246 FPS at 1080p, 199 FPS at 1440p (a 19.1% reduction), and 107 FPS at 4K (a 46.2% reduction from 1440p). The 1080p to 1440p drop at Medium (19.1%) falls between the Low (13.7%) and Ultra (35.5%) figures, confirming that the CPU bottleneck diminishes as settings increase. Overall, the resolution scaling analysis indicates that the RTX 5090 is the dominant component at 4K and at higher settings, while the i5-10400F holds back performance at 1080p and lower settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, as it delivers an average of 107 FPS with a minimum of 91 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience without dropping below 90 FPS. The High preset at 4K averages 90 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset offers a more comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 69 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced third-person shooter gameplay, as frame rate dips could occur.

For 1440p, the High preset is the best balance, delivering 167 FPS on average. This is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on 1440p monitors, and the jump to Ultra (127 FPS) is not worth the visual fidelity trade-off for most players. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 199 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play, but the visual quality difference between Medium and High is often significant in Minimum. The Low preset at 1440p (234 FPS) is unnecessary unless the player is seeking absolute maximum frame rates for esports-style play.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset is the recommended choice, as it averages 197 FPS, which is still above 144 Hz. The high frame rates at this resolution—even at Ultra—indicate that the combo is not GPU-bound, and the visual enhancements from Ultra settings come at a minimal FPS cost compared to High (231 FPS). The Low preset at 1080p (271 FPS) offers diminishing returns, as the difference between Ultra and Low (74 FPS) is less impactful than the visual fidelity loss. For players with 240 Hz monitors, the High preset (231 FPS) might be the better trade-off, as it stays above 240 FPS on average, but the Ultra preset's 197 FPS is still within a reasonable range for most displays.

In summary, the data supports the following presets: Medium at 4K, High at 1440p, and Ultra at 1080p. These selections maximize the visual experience while maintaining frame rates that are smooth and responsive for a third-person shooter. The combo performs admirably across all settings, but the CPU bottleneck at 1080p means that the RTX 5090's full potential is only realized at higher resolutions and settings.