Minimum

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT delivers a solid, if not spectacular, experience in Minimum, a 2014 Third-Person Shooter. The data shows a system that is clearly capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p, but which begins to buckle under the demands of 4K Ultra settings. The benchmark results indicate that this combination ranks in the 71st percentile (rank 1237 out of 1733 combos) in this specific title, positioning it as a mid-to-upper tier pairing that excels at lower resolutions but requires careful settings management at higher ones.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable but steep performance curve as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 110 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same High preset, the average drops to 69.7 FPS, a significant 36.6% reduction. Pushing further to 3840x2160 at High settings yields only 38.8 FPS, which is a 64.7% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern strongly suggests that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises, with the CPU having ample headroom at higher resolutions.

The scaling from Low to Ultra settings at each resolution reinforces this conclusion. At 1080p, the spread between Low (170.1 FPS) and Ultra (84.1 FPS) is a massive 86 FPS, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed by the graphical workload. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 57.7 FPS (110 FPS Low vs. 52.3 FPS Ultra), and at 4K it narrows further to 28 FPS (58.3 FPS Low vs. 30.3 FPS Ultra). This tightening gap at higher resolutions confirms that the rendering pipeline is saturated, and the RX 5700 XT's compute resources are the bottleneck.

The data indicates that 4K gaming is only viable at Low settings, where the system achieves 58.3 FPS, just shy of a smooth 60 FPS target. Medium settings at 4K drop to 44.1 FPS, and High/Ultra fall below 40 FPS, which is generally considered the threshold for playable but not smooth gameplay. The 1440p resolution presents a more balanced picture, with High settings hitting 69.7 FPS, suggesting that this is the sweet spot for balancing visual fidelity and performance for this hardware combination.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture with a 7 nm process, is the workhorse of this pairing. Its specifications—8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth—provide a substantial foundation for handling modern textures and geometry. The GPU's base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1905 MHz, with a game clock of 1755 MHz, dictate its raw processing throughput. The shading units (2560), texture mapping units (160), and render output units (64) combine to deliver a pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s.

In the context of Minimum, the GPU's role is most evident in the resolution scaling analysis. The fact that performance degrades sharply from 1080p to 4K points to the GPU's fillrate and memory bandwidth being exhausted. The 8 GB VRAM buffer is sufficient for this title, as we do not see a catastrophic performance cliff that would indicate memory swapping. The GPU's percentile rank of 68 vs all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24731, places it in a competitive position, closely matching the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (deltaPct -0.1) and slightly ahead of the Intel Arc A350M (deltaPct 0.3).

The data shows that the RX 5700 XT is most comfortable at 1080p, where it can push frame rates well above 100 FPS on High settings. At 1440p, it still delivers a playable experience, but the user must be mindful of the settings preset. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 52.3 FPS, which is acceptable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The GPU's compute performance, as measured by the PassMark G3D score of 16277, supports its ability to handle the DirectX 11 and 12 workloads that Minimum likely utilizes, given its 2014 release date.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F provides a competent foundation for this gaming system. With 6 cores and 12 threads, it offers sufficient parallel processing capability for modern game engines. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, combined with a 12 MB shared L3 cache, ensure that it can feed the GPU with data without becoming a significant bottleneck in most scenarios. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 interface is adequate for the demands of this title.

The CPU's benchmark scores are informative. In Cinebench R23, it scores 14372 multi-core and 2029 single-core, indicating strong multithreaded performance for its class. Its PassMark single-thread score of 2981 is notable, as many games, including those from 2014, rely heavily on single-core performance. The CPU's percentile rank of 75 vs all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17181, places it near the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (deltaPct 0) and Intel Core i7-1260P (deltaPct -0.2), showing that it is a competitive mid-range processor.

In Minimum, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 170.1 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that would stress the CPU's ability to process game logic and draw calls. However, the fact that the frame rate scales down proportionally with resolution increases suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The 3DMark scores, such as 1691 for 2 threads and 5652 for max threads, demonstrate the CPU's ability to handle both lightly threaded and heavily threaded workloads, which is beneficial for a game that may use multiple cores for physics and AI.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve 60+ FPS?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with High settings yields 69.7 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1920x1080, even Ultra settings produce 84.1 FPS, making 1080p the safest bet for high refresh rate monitors.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, only Low settings achieve a playable average of 58.3 FPS. Medium settings drop to 44.1 FPS, and High/Ultra fall to 38.8/30.3 FPS respectively, which is below the smooth gameplay threshold.

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

A: The RX 5700 XT has an average benchmark score of 24731, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (24763, deltaPct -0.1) and slightly higher than the Intel Arc A350M (24647, deltaPct 0.3).

Q: What is the CPU's single-threaded performance like?

A: The i5-11400F scores 2029 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 2981 in PassMark single-thread, indicating strong performance for older titles that may not utilize many cores.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have and is it sufficient?

A: The RX 5700 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. Given the measured FPS data, this appears sufficient for Minimum at all tested settings, as there is no evidence of a memory-related performance cliff.

Q: Is this CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the system hits 170.1 FPS, which suggests the CPU is being pushed. However, since the GPU is clearly the limiting factor at higher resolutions, the CPU is likely the primary limiter only at very high frame rates in lighter scenes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo is as follows:

• 3840x2160: Ultra: 30.3 FPS; High: 38.8 FPS; Medium: 44.1 FPS; Low: 58.3 FPS.
• 2560x1440: Ultra: 52.3 FPS; High: 69.7 FPS; Medium: 83.2 FPS; Low: 110 FPS.
• 1920x1080: Ultra: 84.1 FPS; High: 110 FPS; Medium: 131.9 FPS; Low: 170.1 FPS.

These numbers show a clear hierarchy. At 1080p, the system is capable of high refresh rate gaming, with every setting preset exceeding 84 FPS. The jump from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 50.6% performance reduction, which is a typical cost for maximum visual fidelity. At 1440p, the system remains playable, but the Ultra preset dips below 60 FPS, signaling that users should stick to High or Medium for a smooth experience. At 4K, the system is only viable on Low settings, and even then, it barely reaches 60 FPS.

The frame rate deltas between settings are consistent across resolutions. The difference between High and Ultra ranges from 12.7 FPS at 4K to 25.9 FPS at 1080p. The difference between Low and Medium is also significant, ranging from 14.2 FPS at 4K to 38.1 FPS at 1080p. This indicates that the game's settings have a substantial impact on GPU load, and the RX 5700 XT's performance scales predictably with these changes.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT combination ranks 1237 out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the 71st percentile, meaning it outperforms approximately 71% of all other tested system configurations. This is a respectable position, indicating that this pairing is well-matched for the game's requirements, though it is not at the top tier of performance.

The ranking suggests that while this system is capable, there are 496 other combinations that deliver higher average FPS in this title. This is likely due to the RX 5700 XT's age and the fact that newer GPUs with more advanced architectures can push higher frame rates at the same settings. However, the combo's percentile rank of 68 for the GPU and 75 for the CPU individually suggests that both components are above average in their respective categories.

The fact that the combo ranks in the 71st percentile for this specific game, while the GPU ranks in the 68th percentile globally, indicates that the pairing is slightly more effective in Minimum than the GPU's average performance would suggest. This could be due to the game's optimization for the GCN/RDNA architecture or the CPU's ability to keep up with the GPU's output. Overall, the data shows a balanced system that is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming but falls short of 4K Ultra requirements.