Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER at 1920x1080 on Low settings in Minimum?

A: The measured average is 131.6 FPS. This is the highest result recorded across all tested settings at 1080p, indicating the combination is well-suited for high-refresh-rate play when visual fidelity is reduced.

Q: How does the configuration perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The average frame rate drops to 24.2 FPS. This is the lowest measured score in the entire dataset, showing that the GPU is heavily taxed at this resolution and settings level, falling below the 30 FPS threshold typically considered playable.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 SUPER more consistent with its closest GPU rivals than the CPU is with its rivals?

A: No. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 14286, with its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11, scoring 14314 (a delta of -0.2%). The CPU’s average score is 17181, with the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U at 17189 (a delta of 0%). Both are within 0.7% of their nearest competitors, but the CPU shows a slightly tighter clustering.

Q: What is the FPS difference between 1440p Ultra and 1440p Low?

A: The difference is 39.7 FPS. At 1440p Low, the average is 83.3 FPS, while at 1440p Ultra, it falls to 43.6 FPS. This demonstrates that settings adjustments have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution.

Q: Does the combo rank in the top half of tested configurations for this game?

A: Yes. The combo is ranked 1523 out of 1733 total combinations, placing it in the lower portion of the field. Specifically, it sits at roughly the 88th percentile of all tested combos, meaning about 12% of configurations perform worse.

Q: What is the launch MSRP for the CPU and GPU?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has a launch MSRP of $157, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER has a launch MSRP of 229 USD. These figures are listed separately in the hardware specifications.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process node from TSMC. The GPU die, designated TU116, contains 6,600 million transistors across a 284 mm² area. Its memory subsystem consists of 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is critical for Minimum, as the game’s texture-heavy environments and effects require substantial data throughput. The measured FPS data shows that at 3840x2160, the average frame rate drops from 47.5 FPS on Low to 24.2 FPS on Ultra, indicating that the memory bandwidth and capacity are saturated at higher resolutions and settings.

The GPU’s clock speeds are 1530 MHz base and 1785 MHz boost, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, produce a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 5.027 TFLOPS. In benchmark tests, the GPU scores 12699 in Passmark G3D and 1278 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its average benchmark score is 14286, placing it at the 55th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11, scores 14314, a delta of -0.2%, while the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics scores 14315 (-0.2%). This tight grouping suggests that the GTX 1660 SUPER is performance-competitive with these integrated and low-end discrete solutions, though the data shows it is not a significant outlier in either direction.

The GPU’s role in Minimum is clearly visible in the resolution scaling: as the pixel count increases, the frame rate degrades proportionally more. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 66.7 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it is 24.2 FPS, a reduction of 63.7%. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the CPU’s processing capability remains constant.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates range from 131.6 FPS on Low to 66.7 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the range shifts to 83.3 FPS on Low and 43.6 FPS on Ultra. At 3840x2160, the range compresses further to 47.5 FPS on Low and 24.2 FPS on Ultra. This progression shows that doubling the pixel count from 1080p to 4K reduces the Low-settings frame rate by 63.9% (from 131.6 to 47.5 FPS) and the Ultra-settings frame rate by 63.7% (from 66.7 to 24.2 FPS).

The scaling pattern suggests that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at higher resolutions. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is less severe: Low settings fall from 131.6 to 83.3 FPS (a 36.7% reduction), while Ultra falls from 66.7 to 43.6 FPS (a 34.6% reduction). The consistent percentage drops across settings indicate that the GPU’s rendering pipeline is being scaled uniformly, without evidence of CPU limitations emerging at lower resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates at 1080p Low would show less improvement relative to 1440p, as the CPU’s workload would remain similar. Instead, the data shows a clear GPU-bound scenario, where the 6 GB memory and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K.

The 1080p results are particularly telling: even at Ultra settings, the average of 66.7 FPS suggests that the combination is capable of smooth gameplay at this resolution. The 1440p results are playable as well, with the High setting achieving 51.8 FPS. However, 4K is only viable at Low settings (47.5 FPS), and even then, the frame rate is below what most gamers would consider optimal for a fast-paced third-person shooter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration delivers the following average frame rates: Low settings produce 131.6 FPS, Medium produces 98.6 FPS, High produces 82.5 FPS, and Ultra produces 66.7 FPS. The performance scaling from Low to Ultra is a 49.3% reduction, indicating that the graphics settings have a substantial impact on the GPU workload at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are: Low at 83.3 FPS, Medium at 66.3 FPS, High at 51.8 FPS, and Ultra at 43.6 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 47.7%, slightly less than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more saturated at this resolution and that further settings increases yield diminishing returns.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 47.5 FPS, Medium at 33.3 FPS, High at 29.9 FPS, and Ultra at 24.2 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra reduction is 49.1%, consistent with the other resolutions. However, the absolute values are much lower: the Ultra setting falls below 25 FPS, which is generally considered unplayable for a third-person shooter requiring precise aiming and quick reactions.

The data shows that the configuration is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can exceed 80 FPS on High settings and approach 130 FPS on Low. At 1440p, the High setting (51.8 FPS) is borderline playable, but the Ultra setting (43.6 FPS) may suffer from frame pacing issues. At 4K, only the Low setting provides a playable frame rate, and even that is marginal. The measured data does not include minimum or maximum FPS values, so the analysis is limited to average performance, but the averages alone indicate a clear performance envelope.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm process with a die size of 276 mm². Its base clock is 2.60 GHz, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. It connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes (CPU only). The TDP is 65 W, and it uses the Intel Socket 1200. The processor was released on 2021-03-15, and its launch MSRP is $157.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-11400F scores 14372 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2029 in single-core. Its 3DMark results are 5619 for 16 threads, 1691 for 2 threads, 3171 for 4 threads, 4691 for 8 threads, and 5652 for max threads, with a single-thread score of 868. Geekbench scores are 7579 multicore and 1979 single-core. Passmark results include 16908 for multithread and 2981 for single-thread. The average benchmark score is 17181, placing the CPU at the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, 0% delta), Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, -0.2%), Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17215, -0.2%), and Intel Core i5-1240U (17141, 0.2%). This shows the i5-11400F is statistically tied with these processors, with deltas under 1%.

In Minimum, the CPU’s role is less prominent than the GPU’s, as evidenced by the resolution scaling. The 6 cores and 12 threads provide sufficient processing power for the game’s physics and AI workloads, particularly at 1080p where the GPU can render at high frame rates. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance, which is often critical for game logic. However, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 1440p and 4K, where the frame rates drop significantly regardless of CPU capability. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 12 MB L3 cache are adequate for this title, and the benchmark results indicate that the processor is not a bottleneck at any of the tested resolutions. The data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield larger FPS gains than upgrading the CPU, particularly for users targeting 1440p or 4K gameplay.