Minimum

# Minimum with Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

This combo ranks 39th out of 2,939 tested configurations in Minimum, placing it in the top 1.3% of all pairings in the database. That ranking reflects a pairing of a mid-range 12th-gen Intel processor with a flagship Blackwell GPU, and the measured frame rates confirm the GPU is doing the heavy lifting across all tested resolutions. The data reveals a system that delivers playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra, though the CPU becomes an increasingly visible constraint as resolution drops.

How This Combo Ranks

A rank of 39 out of 2,939 combos puts this pairing in the 98.7th percentile of all tested configurations for Minimum. That is a strong result, but not a top-tier one — the gap between this combo and the very fastest pairings likely comes from the CPU side, since the RTX 5090 D sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs while the i5-12400 sits at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs. The combo's ranking suggests that in this game, the GPU's dominance in the pairing is partially held back by the processor's mid-range standing.

The i5-12400's average benchmark score of 18,683 places it within 0.1% of the AMD EPYC 7643 (18,697) and 0.3% of the Intel Core i7-1355U (18,730). Against the Intel Core i3-14100F (18,519), the i5-12400 is 0.9% faster on average. These are tight margins — the CPU is competitive with its immediate rivals in synthetic workloads, but none of those rivals are gaming-focused flagship parts. The GPU, meanwhile, scores 77,712 on average, sitting 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% below the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). The GPU's nearest rivals are mobile and datacenter parts, which hints at how far ahead of typical desktop competition this card sits.

What matters for Minimum is how these two components interact. At 1080p, the combo produces frame rates that exceed 300 fps in some settings, which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to keep it busy. At 4K, the frame rates drop significantly, indicating the GPU's rendering load becomes the primary bottleneck. The rank of 39 reflects a system that can brute-force this 2014 title at high frame rates, but it is not the absolute fastest pairing available.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D is a 32 GB GDDR7 card with a 512-bit memory bus delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock runs at 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and memory operates at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The card's 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs give it a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. Compute throughput is rated at 104.8 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16, reflecting a 1:1 ratio that is unusual for consumer GPUs.

In Minimum, the GPU's massive memory bandwidth and raw compute clearly drive the high frame rates at 1440p and 4K. At 4K Medium, the combo hits 114 fps average with a minimum of 97 fps and a maximum of 131 fps — a tight window suggesting the GPU is consistently delivering frames without major dips. The 32 GB VRAM is far beyond what this game requires, but the bandwidth and rasterization throughput are what matter here. The card's 176 ROPs help explain why even at 4K Ultra, the combo manages 73 fps average.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 is a modern DirectX 12 test, and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,915 indicates strong compute performance. The PassMark G3D score of 44,065 puts it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. For a game like Minimum, which was released in 2014 and likely uses older DirectX paths, the card's DirectX 11 score of 371 and DirectX 12 score of 219 are more relevant — both are strong, though the DirectX 9 score of 434 suggests the card handles legacy APIs well too.

The GPU's role in this combo is clear: it provides the headroom for high settings at high resolutions. The measured data shows that at 4K High, the combo still achieves 96 fps, which is well above the 60 fps threshold for smooth gameplay. The card's 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU indicate a power-hungry part, but the performance delivered in Minimum justifies that draw.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, frame rates drop, but the drop is not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the combo goes from 369 fps at 1080p to 277 fps at 1440p (a 25% drop) to 149 fps at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). At High settings, the progression is 276 fps at 1080p to 178 fps at 1440p (a 36% drop) to 96 fps at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). The consistency of the 4K-to-1440p drop across Low and High settings suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, regardless of settings.

At Medium settings, the data includes min and max FPS values, which provide additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 329 fps with a min of 280 and a max of 379 — a 99 fps spread indicating some frame time variance. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 212 fps with a min of 180 and a max of 244. At 4K Medium, the average is 114 fps with a min of 97 and a max of 131. The min-to-max spread narrows as resolution increases, suggesting the CPU's frame pacing becomes less of a factor at higher resolutions where the GPU takes longer to render each frame.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings shows a 65% reduction in average FPS (329 to 114). This is a substantial drop, but the 4K result remains playable. At Ultra settings, the combo delivers 210 fps at 1080p, 136 fps at 1440p, and 73 fps at 4K. The Ultra 4K result is the only sub-100 fps figure in the entire dataset, which speaks to how well this combo handles Minimum at most settings and resolutions.

The resolution scaling data implies that at 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting component — the i5-12400's six cores and 12 threads can only feed the GPU so quickly, capping frame rates below what the RTX 5090 D could theoretically deliver. At 4K, the GPU's rendering load dominates, and the CPU has enough headroom to keep up. This is a classic high-end GPU pairing with a mid-range CPU behavior.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 369 fps average, Medium produces 329 fps (min 280, max 379), High produces 276 fps, and Ultra produces 210 fps. The jump from Low to Ultra represents a 43% reduction in average FPS, which is a moderate penalty for the visual quality increase. The Medium setting's min of 280 fps is still well above any display's refresh rate, so even the lowest frame rate at 1080p is unlikely to cause visible stutter.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a steeper drop-off. Low settings average 277 fps, Medium averages 212 fps (min 180, max 244), High averages 178 fps, and Ultra averages 136 fps. The Ultra result at 1440p is the first setting where the average dips below 150 fps in this resolution. The Medium setting's min of 180 fps indicates that even worst-case frame times at 1440p are smooth on high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the combo's performance becomes more varied. Low settings average 149 fps, Medium averages 114 fps (min 97, max 131), High averages 96 fps, and Ultra averages 73 fps. The 4K Ultra result is the only measurement in the entire dataset below 90 fps, and it is still above 60 fps, so the game remains playable at maximum settings on a 4K display. The 4K Low result of 149 fps shows that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is doing substantial work at this resolution.

The Medium settings across all resolutions provide the only complete min/max data. At 1080p Medium, the min of 280 fps and max of 379 fps show a spread of 99 fps. At 1440p Medium, the spread narrows to 64 fps (180 to 244). At 4K Medium, the spread narrows further to 34 fps (97 to 131). This tightening of frame time variance as resolution increases reinforces the interpretation that the CPU is the source of frame pacing variability at lower resolutions, while the GPU's consistent rendering times dominate at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a six-core, 12-thread processor based on Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache layout includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes. The processor includes UHD Graphics 730 as integrated graphics, though this combo uses the discrete RTX 5090 D.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12400 shows a profile that is strong for its class but not exceptional. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15,989 and single-core score of 2,257 indicate solid multithreaded and single-threaded performance. The Geekbench multicore score of 8,564 and single-core score of 1,848 confirm this. The PassMark multithread score of 18,747 and single-thread score of 3,456 place it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's role in Minimum becomes apparent when examining the 1080p results. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 369 fps, but the i5-12400's single-thread performance (Cinebench R15 single-core score of 227, 3DMark single-thread score of 910) likely caps the maximum frame rate the CPU can feed to the GPU. The fact that 1080p Ultra still reaches 210 fps suggests the CPU can handle the game's simulation and draw call overhead, but the diminishing returns from Low to Ultra at 1080p (369 to 210 fps, a 43% drop) are steeper than at 4K (149 to 73 fps, a 51% drop), which hints that at 1080p the CPU is becoming a factor as the GPU finishes frames faster.

The i5-12400's 12 threads are sufficient for a 2014 title like Minimum, which likely uses only a few cores. The processor's 18 MB of L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 per core provide enough on-chip memory for game data, and the dual-channel memory support (DDR4 or DDR5) ensures adequate bandwidth. The CPU's 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs is respectable, but in a combo with the 92nd percentile GPU, the CPU is the weaker link — this is most visible at 1080p where frame rates are highest.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Minimum at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the measured data shows an average of 73 fps at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is above the 60 fps threshold for smooth gameplay, though it is the lowest average FPS in the dataset.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Minimum?

A: At 2560x1440, the combo delivers high frame rates across all settings — 277 fps at Low, 212 fps at Medium, 178 fps at High, and 136 fps at Ultra. This resolution balances visual quality with frame rates that exceed most displays' refresh rates.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 18,683, which is 0.1% below the AMD EPYC 7643 (18,697), 0.3% below the Intel Core i7-1355U (18,730), and 0.9% above the Intel Core i3-14100F (18,519).

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

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% below the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). It also sits 2.1% above the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396) and 2.4% above the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605).

Q: What settings provide the most consistent frame rates?

A: The Medium setting shows the narrowest min-to-max spread at 4K, with a min of 97 fps and a max of 131 fps (34 fps spread). At 1080p Medium, the spread is wider at 99 fps (280 to 379), suggesting more frame time variance at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo?

A: At 1080p, the CPU appears to be the limiting factor, as frame rates are very high but the scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 43% drop. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint, with frame rates dropping to 73-149 fps depending on settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that Medium settings offer the best balance of performance and consistency across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 329 fps with a min of 280 fps — the min is still far above any display's refresh rate, and the max of 379 fps shows headroom. At 1440p Medium, the average of 212 fps with a min of 180 fps provides smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors. At 4K Medium, the average of 114 fps with a min of 97 fps ensures the game remains playable even during demanding scenes.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, Ultra settings are viable at all resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 73 fps is above 60 fps, making it playable, while 1440p Ultra at 136 fps and 1080p Ultra at 210 fps offer high frame rates. The trade-off is a significant drop from Medium — a 36% reduction at 4K (114 to 73 fps) and a 36% reduction at 1440p (212 to 136 fps).

High settings provide a middle ground, but the data shows diminishing returns. At 4K High, the combo averages 96 fps, which is 18 fps lower than Medium. At 1440p High, the average is 178 fps, which is 34 fps lower than Medium. Low settings offer the highest frame rates (369 fps at 1080p, 277 fps at 1440p, 149 fps at 4K), but the visual quality loss is substantial for only marginal gains over Medium at 1080p and 1440p.

The recommendation is to use Medium settings for the most consistent experience, particularly at 4K where the min FPS of 97 ensures no dips below 60 fps. For competitive play at 1080p or 1440p, Low settings maximize frame rates, but Medium provides a better balance of visual fidelity and performance. Ultra settings are only recommended for users with 4K displays who prioritize image quality over frame rate headroom.