Minimum

# Minimum Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 7700

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 delivers a solid, well-rounded experience in Minimum, a 2014-released Third-Person Shooter. Benchmark data shows this combination ranks 1298 out of 2939 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. The measured FPS results reveal a system that can handle the game comfortably at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K requiring more careful settings choices. The CPU, with 6 cores and 12 threads, boosts up to 4.40 GHz, while the GPU offers 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing substantial headroom for this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data offers a clear picture of which preset provides the best experience per settings tier. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 214 FPS, which is exceptionally high and far beyond what most displays can show. The Medium preset delivers 164 FPS average with a minimum of 139 FPS and maximum of 188 FPS, making it a strong choice for smooth, consistent gameplay. High settings at 1080p drop to 137 FPS average, still very playable, while Ultra yields 105 FPS average. Given that Minimum is a third-person shooter where visual clarity matters, the High preset at 137 FPS offers an excellent balance—it maintains high frame rates while providing better visual fidelity than Medium or Low.

At 2560x1440, the story shifts slightly. Low settings produce 138 FPS average, Medium yields 106 FPS average with a minimum of 90 FPS, High drops to 89 FPS, and Ultra falls to 68 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p stands out because its 90 FPS minimum ensures the frame rate rarely dips below the 90 FPS threshold, providing a consistent experience. High at 89 FPS is nearly identical in average, but the lack of a reported minimum makes Medium the safer recommendation for competitive play. For gamers prioritizing visual quality over raw speed, High at 1440p remains viable, but the data suggests Medium offers the best measured consistency.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low settings produce 74 FPS average, Medium drops to 57 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS, High falls to 48 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 36 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K provides the best experience—its 57 FPS average is playable, and the 48 FPS minimum is acceptable for slower-paced moments. High at 48 FPS average is too close to the edge of playability, and Ultra at 36 FPS is not recommended for any serious gaming session. The data strongly suggests that for 4K, Medium is the sweet spot, offering a playable frame rate without sacrificing the visual improvements that make the game more immersive.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines. The GPU's base clock runs at 1900 MHz, with a boost clock reaching 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz. Memory operates at 2438 MHz, translating to 19.5 Gbps effective speed across a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is substantial for a game released in 2014, providing far more capacity than Minimum likely requires, which means texture loading and memory allocation should never bottleneck performance.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2865 and PassMark G3D score of 20974 place it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals show how tightly grouped this performance tier is: the AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862 (a -0.1% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 scores 16014 (-1.0%), the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 15679 (+1.1%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129 (-1.7%). This clustering suggests the RX 7700 sits in a highly competitive segment where small differences in synthetic benchmarks may not translate to noticeable gaming differences.

In Minimum, the GPU's role becomes evident when examining the 4K results. The drop from 74 FPS at Low to 36 FPS at Ultra at 3840x2160 demonstrates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution, as the increased pixel count and settings load directly impact frame rates. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient, so the performance dip is likely due to compute load rather than memory capacity. The GPU's FP32 performance of 25.18 TFLOPS and texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s indicate strong raw compute capability, yet the 4K Ultra results suggest the architecture struggles with the combined load of high resolution and maximum settings in this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It belongs to the Alder Lake-S architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process with a die size of 163 mm². The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration provides strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257 and Geekbench single-core score of 1848. Multi-threaded performance is respectable too, with Cinebench R23 multi-core scoring 15989 and PassMark multithread scoring 18747.

The CPU's benchmark percentile of 72 vs all CPUs places it in the upper quartile of processors. Its nearest rivals show the competitive landscape: the AMD EPYC 7643 scores 18697 (-0.1% delta), the Intel Core i7-1355U scores 18730 (-0.3%), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 scores 18811 (-0.7%), and the Intel Core i3-14100F scores 18519 (+0.9%). This grouping indicates that the i5-12400 performs nearly identically to much more expensive server-class processors in synthetic workloads, highlighting its efficiency for gaming applications.

In Minimum, the CPU's role appears less critical than the GPU, particularly at higher resolutions. The 1080p Low result of 214 FPS shows that the CPU can drive extremely high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor. However, as resolution increases, the gap between settings narrows, suggesting the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at 1440p or 4K. The CPU's 12 threads handle the game's logic and physics without issue, and the 4.40 GHz boost clock ensures responsive gameplay. The fact that 1080p Medium (164 FPS) and 1080p High (137 FPS) scale predictably indicates the CPU maintains its performance headroom even when GPU load increases.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 ranks 1298 out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum. This placement puts it in the 56th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it outperforms a slight majority of systems while trailing the top-tier combinations. The rank is influenced by a balanced pairing—the CPU and GPU are well-matched, with neither component dramatically outperforming the other in a way that would skew the overall score.

The CPU's 72nd percentile ranking and GPU's 58th percentile ranking suggest that the processor is relatively stronger than the graphics card in synthetic benchmarks. However, in Minimum, the gaming results show that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K, while the CPU can push frame rates high at 1080p. This dynamic creates a system that performs admirably across a range of resolutions, though it does not reach the heights of top-tier combos that likely feature more powerful GPUs. The rank of 1298 indicates this is a mainstream gaming setup, capable of smooth gameplay but not at the extreme high end of the database.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component at each resolution. At 1080p Low, the system produces 214 FPS; at 1440p Low, it drops to 138 FPS (a 35.5% decrease); and at 4K Low, it falls to 74 FPS (a 46.4% decrease from 1440p). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-limited scenario, where each doubling of pixel count significantly reduces frame rates. The CPU is clearly not the bottleneck at 1080p, as the 214 FPS result is far beyond what most games can utilize.

Moving to Medium settings, the same pattern holds: 1080p yields 164 FPS, 1440p yields 106 FPS, and 4K yields 57 FPS. The percentage drops are 35.4% from 1080p to 1440p and 46.2% from 1440p to 4K, showing consistent GPU scaling. At High settings, 1080p produces 137 FPS, 1440p produces 89 FPS, and 4K produces 48 FPS, with drops of 35.0% and 46.1% respectively. Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling: 105 FPS at 1080p, 68 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K, with drops of 35.2% and 47.1%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at every resolution above 1080p. The CPU's performance headroom is sufficient to maintain frame rates at 1080p without becoming a bottleneck, but the GPU's compute capabilities are exhausted as pixel count increases. This data suggests that users seeking higher frame rates at 4K would need a more powerful GPU, while the CPU would remain adequate for the task.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming?

A: The High preset at 1920x1080 delivers 137 FPS average, offering a strong balance between visual quality and performance. Medium produces 164 FPS with a minimum of 139 FPS, while Low reaches 214 FPS. For most players, High provides the best visual experience without sacrificing smoothness.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 4K Medium, the system achieves 57 FPS average with a 48 FPS minimum, which is playable. High drops to 48 FPS and Ultra to 36 FPS. The GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K, so Medium is the recommended preset for this resolution.

Q: How does the RX 7700 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 7700 scores 20974 in PassMark G3D, placing it in the 58th percentile. It is nearly identical to the Radeon R9 370X (15862, -0.1%), slightly behind the Radeon RX 9060 (16014, -1.0%) and RTX 3060 Ti (16129, -1.7%), and slightly ahead of the Radeon Pro W5500 (15679, +1.1%).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck at resolutions above 1080p. The CPU maintains high frame rates at 1080p (214 FPS at Low), but as resolution increases, frame rates drop consistently across all settings, indicating the GPU's compute limits are reached.

Q: What is the CPU's performance ranking relative to other processors?

A: The i5-12400 ranks in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 18683. It performs nearly identically to the AMD EPYC 7643 (18697, -0.1%) and Intel Core i7-1355U (18730, -0.3%), while slightly outperforming the Intel Core i3-14100F (18519, +0.9%).

Q: What memory configuration does this system use?

A: The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In Minimum, the 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient, and memory bandwidth does not appear to be a limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS across settings are as follows: Low produces 214 FPS, Medium produces 164 FPS with a minimum of 139 FPS and maximum of 188 FPS, High produces 137 FPS, and Ultra produces 105 FPS. The Medium preset's reported minimum of 139 FPS and maximum of 188 FPS show a frame time variance that remains well within playable territory.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low produces 138 FPS, Medium produces 106 FPS with a minimum of 90 FPS and maximum of 121 FPS, High produces 89 FPS, and Ultra produces 68 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution maintains a minimum above 90 FPS, ensuring consistent gameplay without noticeable stutters.

At 3840x2160, the results show: Low produces 74 FPS, Medium produces 57 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS and maximum of 65 FPS, High produces 48 FPS, and Ultra produces 36 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K is the only one with a reported minimum, and its 48 FPS floor is acceptable for the game's pacing, though High and Ultra fall below playable thresholds.