Minimum

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a smooth 1080p experience in Minimum, but the performance curve reveals a system that is firmly GPU-limited as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 170 FPS average. Moving to High settings at the same resolution drops that to 109 FPS, while Ultra yields 83 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 51% performance penalty, which is substantial but expected for a title from this era.

Stepping up to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain highly playable. Low settings deliver 110 FPS average, High settings produce 70 FPS, and Ultra drops to 54 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings costs roughly 36% of the frame rate, indicating that pixel throughput is becoming a primary constraint. At 4K (3840x2160), the picture changes dramatically. Low settings barely hold at 59 FPS average, High settings fall to 38 FPS, and Ultra sinks to 29 FPS. The gap between 1440p and 4K at High settings is a 46% reduction, confirming that the Radeon RX 6600 XT's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are stretched thin at ultra-high resolutions.

The data suggests that the limiting component at 4K is unequivocally the GPU. The CPU has ample headroom, as evidenced by its strong synthetic scores, but the GPU's pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s cannot sustain high frame rates when pushing over 8 million pixels. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are likely adequate, but the GPU still dictates the ceiling. The measured FPS rows show a clear pattern: every resolution jump incurs a larger relative penalty at higher settings, which is classic GPU-bound behavior.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 170 FPS at 1080p to 110 FPS at 1440p, then to 59 FPS at 4K. That is a cumulative 65% reduction from the lowest to highest resolution tested. At High settings, the sequence is 109 FPS, 70 FPS, and 38 FPS, respectively — a 65% drop as well. Ultra settings show the most dramatic falloff: 83 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K, a 65% decrease overall. The uniformity of these percentages across presets strongly indicates that the bottleneck is resolution-dependent, not settings-dependent.

This behavior points to the GPU's memory subsystem as the critical factor. The RX 6600 XT has a 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. At 4K, the frame buffer requirements exceed what this configuration can efficiently deliver, leading to the sub-60 FPS results at every preset except Low, which barely crests 59 FPS. The 4K Medium preset provides the only min/max data at that resolution, showing a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 52 FPS, averaging 45 FPS — a narrow band that suggests consistent frame pacing but insufficient raw throughput.

In contrast, the 1080p results show that the combo is well-balanced for that resolution. The 1080p Medium preset reports a minimum of 111 FPS and a maximum of 150 FPS, averaging 130 FPS. The 1440p Medium preset shows a minimum of 71 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS, averaging 84 FPS. These figures indicate that the system can maintain playable frame rates up to 1440p with medium settings, but 4K is only viable for Low or Medium presets, and even then, the experience is marginal. The data suggests that users targeting 4K would need to significantly lower settings or accept frame rates below 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Minimum, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 2635 out of 3712 combos. That places it in the 29th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 71% of other combinations deliver higher average frame rates in this specific title. This rank reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning more than the CPU's capabilities. The GPU itself sits at the 70th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, so the combo underperforms relative to what each component's individual percentile might suggest.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks provide context. The AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 19047 (a 0% delta), the Intel Core 3 201E scores 19056 (-0.1%), the Intel Core i5-1335U scores 18982 (0.3%), and the AMD EPYC 7773X scores 18979 (0.3%). These are all within a fraction of a percent of the i5-12400F's average benchmark score of 19039, indicating that the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo's ranking. The GPU's nearest rivals tell a similar story: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 is 0.7% ahead (24277 vs 24442 average), the Intel Arc A350M is 0.8% behind (24647), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti is 0.8% ahead (24236), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is 1.1% ahead (24170). These deltas are small, confirming that the RX 6600 XT is competitive with its direct peers but not a standout performer.

The rank of 2635 out of 3712 suggests that while the combo is functional and capable at 1080p, it is not optimized for the highest frame rates in Minimum. The game's release date of 2014-06-25 means it is not particularly demanding by modern standards, yet the RX 6600 XT's 4K performance lags behind what higher-tier GPUs would deliver. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming, where it can achieve frame rates well above 60 FPS at most settings. At 4K, the combo falls into the lower quartile of tested systems, which aligns with its overall rank.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combo depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 83 FPS average, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings yield 109 FPS, and Medium produces 130 FPS. For users with a 144Hz or higher refresh rate monitor, the Medium preset at 1080p is the best balance, as the 130 FPS average with a minimum of 111 FPS ensures no significant dips below the refresh rate. The Low preset at 170 FPS is only recommended for competitive play where maximum frame rate trumps visual fidelity, as the visual downgrade is substantial.

At 2560x1440, the High preset provides 70 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh displays. The Medium preset at 84 FPS average (min 71, max 97) is the sweet spot, offering a solid balance of visual quality and frame rate. Ultra at 54 FPS is borderline, as it falls below 60 FPS and may exhibit noticeable stutter on standard 60Hz displays. Low at 110 FPS is viable but sacrifices too much visual detail for the modest resolution gain over 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the options are limited. Low settings produce 59 FPS average, which is just shy of 60 FPS and may result in occasional dips below the target. Medium settings drop to 45 FPS average with a minimum of 38 FPS, which is not smooth. High and Ultra are not recommended, as they produce 38 FPS and 29 FPS respectively, both well below playable thresholds. For 4K users, the Low preset is the only viable option, and even then, the experience is marginal. The data clearly shows that this combo is not designed for 4K gaming in Minimum, and users should stick to 1440p or lower for a consistent experience.

FAQ

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

A: The 1920x1080 resolution with Medium settings is optimal, delivering 130 FPS average with a minimum of 111 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium settings at 84 FPS average is also viable, while 3840x2160 only achieves playable frame rates on Low settings at 59 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 6600 XT compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 24442. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 scores 24277 (0.7% higher), the Intel Arc A350M scores 24647 (0.8% lower), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti scores 24236 (0.8% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER scores 24170 (1.1% higher). All rivals are within 1.1% of the RX 6600 XT's score.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: No. The Intel Core i5-12400F has 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, and its benchmark scores place it in the 73rd percentile. The FPS drops from 1440p to 4K are consistent across all settings, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 83 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold but not sufficient for 120Hz displays. The 1080p Medium preset provides 130 FPS average, which is better suited for high-refresh monitors.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems in Minimum?*

A: It ranks 2635 out of 3712 total combinations, placing it in the lower 29% of tested systems. This rank is driven by the GPU's mid-range performance rather than the CPU, which scores near its direct rivals in synthetic tests.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K?

A: The data suggests yes. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only reach 59 FPS average, and Medium drops to 45 FPS. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory with a 128-bit bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for high-resolution textures and frame buffers.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the primary performance driver in this combo, and its specifications explain the observed frame rates. The GPU is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process node, featuring 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. Its base clock is 1968 MHz, with a game clock of 2359 MHz and a boost clock of 2589 MHz. These clocks are relatively high for a mid-range card, but the 128-bit memory bus limits the effective bandwidth to 256.0 GB/s, which becomes a bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory operates at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), and the card supports PCIe 4.0 x8. The pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s are respectable for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results show that the card struggles to fill the additional pixels. The FP32 performance of 10.60 TFLOPS and FP16 of 21.21 TFLOPS (2:1) are adequate for this 2014 title, which does not leverage modern ray tracing or compute-heavy effects. The GPU's benchmark scores are consistent with its 70th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1804 and PassMark G3D score of 16461.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's performance scales predictably with settings. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 87 FPS (170 vs 83), which indicates that the GPU has headroom at lower resolutions. At 4K, the same settings gap is only 30 FPS (59 vs 29), showing that the GPU is saturated and cannot compensate for higher settings. The 4K Medium preset's minimum of 38 FPS and maximum of 52 FPS around a 45 FPS average suggests that the GPU is consistently near its limit, with no bursts of extra performance available.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F plays a supporting role in this combo, and its specifications are more than sufficient for Minimum. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It is built on the Alder Lake-S architecture using a 10 nm process node, with an 18 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and its 65 W TDP indicates efficient power draw. The L1 cache is 80 KB per core, and the total die size is 163 mm².

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's strengths. The Cinebench R23 multicore score is 12380, while the single-core score is 1680. Geekbench multicore reaches 9472 and single-core 1964. The PassMark multithread score is 19433, with a single-thread score of 3481. These scores place the CPU in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 19039 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5895 and max-thread score of 5912 indicate that the CPU scales well with multi-threaded workloads, though Minimum is unlikely to utilize all 12 threads.

In terms of gaming performance, the CPU's single-thread performance is more relevant. The 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and Cinebench R20 single-core score of 985 suggest that the CPU can handle the game's main thread without becoming a bottleneck. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 170 FPS, which indicates that the CPU is not limiting the frame rate even at high FPS values. The CPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19047 average score) and Intel Core i5-1335U (18982), show that the i5-12400F is competitive but not exceptional. The 0% to 0.3% deltas between these CPUs mean that swapping the i5-12400F for any of these rivals would not meaningfully change the gaming performance in Minimum. The CPU's role is to feed the GPU with enough data to keep it busy, and the data shows it does so effectively up to 1440p, where the GPU becomes the limiting factor.