Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Minimum with the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti show a clear and consistent scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the system delivers 244.1 FPS, but dropping to 1440p reduces that to 155.2 FPS, and at 4K it falls further to 80.4 FPS. This represents a 67.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU becomes progressively more constrained as pixel count rises.

The trend is even more pronounced at higher quality presets. With Ultra settings, the frame rate falls from 120.6 FPS at 1080p to 79.1 FPS at 1440p, then to 38.9 FPS at 4K — a 67.7% drop across the resolution range. The High preset follows a similar trajectory: 155.3 FPS at 1080p, 102.1 FPS at 1440p, and 51.6 FPS at 4K. Medium settings show 187.4 FPS, 116.3 FPS, and 62.2 FPS respectively.

The scaling pattern reveals that at 1080p, the system is likely CPU-bound or at least balanced, since the jump from Low to Ultra only costs 123.5 FPS (from 244.1 to 120.6). At 4K, the same settings spread costs 41.5 FPS (from 80.4 to 38.9), a much narrower relative gap. This behavior suggests the RTX 3070 Ti becomes the limiting component at higher resolutions, while the i5-12600KF has enough headroom to keep pace at 1080p. The data indicates that 1440p represents a middle ground where the GPU begins to assert dominance, but the CPU still contributes meaningfully to overall throughput.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, with a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². The GPU operates at a base clock of 1575 MHz and boosts to 1770 MHz, while memory runs at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed. The 8 GB of GDDR6X memory sits on a 256-bit bus, providing 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's compute resources include 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units. It also features 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The pixel rate reaches 169.9 GPixel/s, while texture rate hits 339.8 GTexel/s. FP32 and FP16 performance both measure 21.75 TFLOPS, with a 1:1 ratio between them.

In Minimum, the 8 GB VRAM capacity proves sufficient across all tested configurations, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings. The memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s appears adequate for the game's demands at 4K Ultra, where the 38.9 FPS result indicates compute limits rather than memory starvation. The GPU's percentile ranking against all GPUs is 74, with an average benchmark score of 30849. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (0.3% higher score), AMD Radeon RX 6700 (-0.8%), NVIDIA Quadro M5000 (-0.9%), and NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q (-1.2%).

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on target frame rates and resolution. At 1080p, all presets deliver playable performance, with Low hitting 244.1 FPS, Medium at 187.4 FPS, High at 155.3 FPS, and Ultra at 120.6 FPS. For competitive play prioritizing maximum frame rates, Low settings at 1080p offer the highest headroom. However, the jump from Low to Medium costs only 56.7 FPS while likely providing substantial visual improvements, making Medium a reasonable compromise.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 102.1 FPS, which remains comfortably above 100 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 79.1 FPS, still playable but with less margin. Medium at 116.3 FPS and Low at 155.2 FPS round out the options. For most users, High at 1440p appears to be the sweet spot, balancing visual quality with frame rate sustainability.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. High settings produce 51.6 FPS, Medium 62.2 FPS, and Low 80.4 FPS. Ultra falls to 38.9 FPS, which may be below the threshold for smooth gameplay in a third-person shooter. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combination requires dropping to Low or Medium settings to maintain acceptable frame rates. Low at 80.4 FPS provides the most headroom, while Medium at 62.2 FPS offers a better visual experience at a moderate performance cost.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 244.1 FPS average, which is the peak measured performance in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 187.4 FPS, then High at 155.3 FPS, and Ultra at 120.6 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 123.5 FPS, indicating that each settings tier extracts a measurable cost from the GPU.

At 2560x1440, frame rates remain solid but show the expected decline. Low settings deliver 155.2 FPS, Medium 116.3 FPS, High 102.1 FPS, and Ultra 79.1 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra narrows to 76.1 FPS compared to 1080p, reflecting the increased pixel workload. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 36-41% of frame rate depending on settings, with Low dropping 88.9 FPS, Medium 71.1 FPS, High 53.2 FPS, and Ultra 41.5 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. Low settings produce 80.4 FPS, Medium 62.2 FPS, High 51.6 FPS, and Ultra 38.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra shrinks to 41.5 FPS, demonstrating that resolution scaling overwhelms settings-based performance differentiation. From 1440p to 4K, frame rates drop by roughly 48-51% across all presets, with Low falling 74.8 FPS, Medium 54.1 FPS, High 50.5 FPS, and Ultra 40.2 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination in Minimum?

A: The data shows 1440p with High settings delivers 102.1 FPS, which provides a strong balance between visual fidelity and smooth gameplay. At 1080p, all presets exceed 120 FPS, while 4K requires Low settings to maintain 80.4 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 4K Ultra, the system achieves 38.9 FPS average. This is below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for smooth third-person shooter gameplay, suggesting that Ultra settings at 4K are not recommended with this hardware.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low settings produce 244.1 FPS while Ultra produces 120.6 FPS, a difference of 123.5 FPS. This indicates the GPU has significant headroom at 1080p, and the CPU may be limiting maximum frame rates.

Q: Does the i5-12600KF bottleneck the RTX 3070 Ti in Minimum?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not a significant bottleneck at higher resolutions, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution. However, at 1080p Low (244.1 FPS), the CPU's performance may cap the frame rate, given the CPU's 84th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 27827.

Q: Which settings provide the most consistent experience at 1440p?

A: High settings at 1440p deliver 102.1 FPS, which offers a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining visual quality. Medium at 116.3 FPS provides additional headroom, while Ultra drops to 79.1 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's memory configuration affect 4K performance?

A: The 8 GB GDDR6X memory with 608.3 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for Minimum at 4K, as frame rates decline smoothly with settings rather than showing sudden drops that would indicate memory capacity issues.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosts up to 4.90 GHz, with a 125W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes from the CPU.

In Minimum, the CPU's role appears most significant at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 244.1 FPS, which approaches the practical limits of the CPU's single-thread performance. The CPU's single-thread benchmark scores include 1016 in 3DMark, 333 in Cinebench R15, 1389 in R20, 3309 in R23, and 3925 in PassMark. These scores indicate strong single-thread capability that supports high frame rates in less demanding scenarios.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is equally robust, with Cinebench R23 multicore scoring 23444 and PassMark multithread at 27575. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 7956 and max-thread score of 7952 show consistent scaling across thread counts. The CPU ranks in the 84th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27827. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-10900K (0% delta), Intel Core i5-12600K (-0.1%), Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (-0.2%), and Intel Core i7-13700H (0.4%).

The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU's capabilities are sufficient to feed the GPU up to approximately 244 FPS, but the gap between Low (244.1 FPS) and Medium (187.4 FPS) suggests the GPU becomes more involved as settings increase. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU has ample headroom, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling with resolution. The combination ranks 695th out of 1733 tested combinations in Minimum, placing it in the upper portion of the distribution for this game.