Minimum

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT delivers a highly capable 1080p and 1440p experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. Benchmark data for this combination shows a clear scaling pattern where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at 4K, while the CPU's strong single-thread performance keeps frame rates high at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all settings and resolutions, contextualizes the hardware's synthetic benchmarks, and provides actionable settings recommendations based on observed data.

FAQ

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

A: At 1440p, all tested settings except Ultra maintain an average of 74 FPS or higher, with Low reaching 115 FPS. At 4K, only the Low preset achieves an average above 60 FPS, hitting 62 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 7600 XT compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 7600 XT has an average benchmark score of 17083, which places it 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 and 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690. Its percentile rank is 60 among all GPUs.

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

A: The i5-12400F scores 909 in 3DMark single-thread, 244 in Cinebench R15 single-core, and 1680 in Cinebench R23 single-core. Its Passmark single-thread score is 3481, indicating strong per-core performance for gaming workloads.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM on the GPU influence 4K performance?

A: The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. While the large VRAM capacity is present, 4K performance at High (40 FPS) and Ultra (30 FPS) suggests that raw compute limits are more impactful than memory capacity in this title.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 2343 out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database's measured configurations.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded score compare to its rivals?

A: The i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19039, which is statistically matched with the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19047, 0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-1335U (18982, 0.3% delta). It is also 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7773X.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT occupies the 2343rd position out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum. This rank places it in the 63rd percentile of all configurations, indicating that while it is not a top-tier setup, it outperforms a majority of tested hardware pairings in this specific game. The rank reflects a balance between the CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all CPUs and the GPU's 60th percentile among all GPUs.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 19039 puts it in a tight competitive cluster, with its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, scoring 19047—a negligible 0% difference. This suggests that the i5-12400F's processing power is not a limiting factor in the combo's overall rank. Conversely, the GPU's average score of 17083 places it just below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, which scores 17208, a 0.7% advantage for the NVIDIA card. This marginal difference in synthetic benchmarks does not translate into a significant FPS disadvantage in Minimum, as the measured results show playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p.

The combo's mid-pack ranking is primarily driven by the GPU's performance ceiling at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the setup achieves excellent frame rates across all settings, but the 4K results show a dramatic drop, with even the High preset only reaching 40 FPS. This indicates that the RX 7600 XT, while competent for 1440p gaming, does not have the raw compute power to maintain high frame rates at 4K in this title, which drags the overall combo rank down relative to configurations with more powerful GPUs.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, the Medium preset at 1440p is the optimal choice for this combo. The measured data shows an average of 88 FPS at this setting, with minimum and maximum values of 75 and 101 FPS respectively. This provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while offering better visual quality than the Low preset, which achieves 115 FPS but with reduced graphical detail.

At 1080p, the High preset delivers 115 FPS on average, making it the recommended setting for users with high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1080p still provides a playable 88 FPS, but the visual improvement over High may not justify the 27 FPS drop. For 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option, achieving 62 FPS, while Medium drops to 48 FPS—below the ideal smoothness threshold.

For users prioritizing frame rate above all else, the Low preset at 1080p yields an impressive 179 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play. However, for a typical gaming experience, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best compromise, as it maintains high frame rates while utilizing the GPU's 16 GB VRAM more effectively than lower settings. The data suggests avoiding Ultra at 1440p (56 FPS) and 4K (30 FPS) unless visual fidelity is the absolute priority and frame rate is secondary.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a clear gradient across settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 179 FPS, representing the maximum performance ceiling for this resolution. Medium reduces the average to 137 FPS, with a range between 116 and 157 FPS. High delivers 115 FPS on average, and Ultra drops to 88 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 51% performance decrease, indicating that each settings tier imposes a significant rendering load.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages scale down predictably. Low produces 115 FPS, which matches the 1080p High result. Medium achieves 88 FPS with a range of 75 to 101 FPS, while High delivers 74 FPS. Ultra falls to 56 FPS, marking the first setting where the average dips below the 60 FPS threshold. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings is substantial: Low loses 64 FPS, Medium loses 49 FPS, High loses 41 FPS, and Ultra loses 32 FPS.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes increasingly constrained. Low still manages an average of 62 FPS, barely above the 60 FPS target. Medium drops to 48 FPS with a range of 40 to 55 FPS, and High falls to 40 FPS. Ultra bottoms out at 30 FPS, which is the lowest measured average across all resolutions and settings. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 32 FPS, which is nearly identical to the absolute FPS drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low (117 FPS difference).

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 33 chip manufactured on a 6 nm process at TSMC. It features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, with 32 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz, a game clock of 2470 MHz, and a boost clock of 2755 MHz. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 2250 MHz with an 18 Gbps effective rate across a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Minimum, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully saturated, as evidenced by the high frame rates across all settings. However, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p and 4K shows that the GPU's compute capacity is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The FP32 performance of 22.57 TFLOPS and texture rate of 352.6 GTexel/s are sufficient for 1440p Medium and High, but the 4K results indicate that the GPU cannot maintain high frame rates when pixel count quadruples.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is noteworthy, as it exceeds what is typically required for a 2014 title, even at 4K. The measured data suggests that memory bandwidth (288.0 GB/s) and pixel rate (176.3 GPixel/s) are more relevant constraints. The GPU's percentile rank of 60 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17083, positions it as a mid-range performer. Its nearest rival, the RTX 3070, outperforms it by 0.7% in synthetic tests, which aligns with the observed FPS differences at 4K where the RTX 3070 would likely maintain a slight edge.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured 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 hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory and has 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes.

The CPU's single-thread performance is particularly relevant for Minimum, a third-person shooter where frame pacing often depends on per-core speed. The 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1680 indicate strong per-core capability. This is reflected in the 1080p Low result of 179 FPS, where the CPU is likely the primary bottleneck, as the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can issue draw calls.

Multi-threaded performance, while not as critical for this title, is still solid. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380 and Passmark multi-thread score of 19433 demonstrate that the CPU can handle background tasks without impacting gameplay. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19039, shows it is well above the median. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, scores nearly identically (19047, 0% delta), confirming that the i5-12400F's processing power is competitive with modern mobile and desktop parts.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the 179 FPS average exceeds what the GPU could theoretically deliver if it were the sole constraint. This indicates that at lower resolutions and settings, the i5-12400F is sufficient to feed the RX 7600 XT, but at 4K, the GPU's limitations become the dominant factor, and the CPU's role diminishes.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable pattern of GPU-bound performance. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 179 at 1080p to 115 at 1440p (a 36% decrease) and then to 62 at 4K (a 65% decrease from 1440p). The pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K is 4x, and the FPS drop of 117 FPS (from 179 to 62) represents a 65% reduction, which is less than the 75% reduction that would occur if performance scaled perfectly with pixel count.

This suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is partially limiting performance, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential. As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU becomes fully saturated, and the FPS drop aligns more closely with pixel count expectations. At High settings, the scaling is steeper: 115 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and 40 FPS at 4K (46% drop from 1440p). The 4K High result of 40 FPS indicates that the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as the CPU's performance is sufficient to handle the lower frame rate.

The Medium settings show intermediate scaling, with 137 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p, and 48 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings (116 at 1080p, 75 at 1440p, 40 at 4K) demonstrate that frame pacing remains consistent even as resolution increases. Overall, the data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K only viable at Low settings. The limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p Low to the GPU at 4K, with the crossover point occurring around 1440p Medium, where both components are balanced.