Minimum

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 delivers the highest frame rates across all settings, with Low reaching 202 FPS, Medium at 155 FPS, High at 130 FPS, and Ultra at 99 FPS. This resolution provides the most headroom for competitive play.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12600KF compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The processor sits within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and Intel Core i9-10900K in average benchmark scores, with a deltaPct of -0.3% for both. It is also 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE and 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Low produces 70 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 34 FPS average. That is a 36 FPS difference, meaning Ultra runs at roughly half the frame rate of Low at this resolution.

Q: Does the RTX 4060 outperform its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 4060's average benchmark score of 17,639 is 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon 780M (17,588) and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17,551). It trails the AMD Radeon HD 7790 by 0.2% (17,666).

Q: Which settings preset provides the highest minimum frame rate at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset has a minimum FPS of 85 and a maximum of 115. This is the only 1440p preset with recorded min/max data, indicating consistent frame delivery.

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

A: The combo ranks 2000th out of 3,712 tested combinations, placing it in the upper half of all systems benchmarked for this game.

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 a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support spans DDR4 and DDR5 in a dual-channel configuration, and the CPU provides PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The 3DMark benchmarks show strong scaling from 2 threads (1,995) to 8 threads (6,128), with the max-thread score of 7,952 nearly matching the 16-thread score of 7,956. This indicates the processor saturates its thread count efficiently, but the game itself does not appear to require extreme multi-threading — the difference between 8-thread and 16-thread scores is only 1,828 points.

The single-thread performance, measured at 1,016 in 3DMark and 3,302 in Cinebench R23 single-core, suggests that Minimum's engine benefits from strong per-core performance. The 4-thread score of 3,806 shows that even modest thread counts deliver meaningful throughput, which aligns with a 2014-era game that may not fully utilize modern many-core processors.

The processor's percentile ranking of 79 versus all CPUs indicates it outperforms roughly four-fifths of the tested CPU pool. Its average benchmark score of 27,799 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i9-10900K (27,872), differing by only -0.3%. This near-parity suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, the i5-12600KF holds its own against older flagship chips.

For Minimum specifically, the CPU appears sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4060 at most settings. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 202 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine ceiling or the GPU's limits at that preset. The CPU's 16 threads provide ample margin for background tasks, and the 20 MB L3 cache helps with repetitive game data access patterns common in third-person shooters.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a chip size of 159 mm² and 18,900 million transistors. It operates with a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz, with memory running at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective). The 8 GB GDDR6 memory sits on a 128-bit bus, providing 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's 3,072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs define its rasterization throughput. It also includes 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores, though Minimum's age means ray tracing and DLSS are unlikely to be utilized. The pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s give context for how quickly the card can fill frames at various resolutions.

The RTX 4060's percentile ranking of 61 versus all GPUs places it slightly above the median. Its average benchmark score of 17,639 is within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon 780M and 0.2% of the AMD Radeon HD 7790. The PassMark DirectX 11 score of 175 and DirectX 12 score of 76 indicate that the card handles modern APIs well, but the DirectX 9 score of 236 suggests strong legacy API performance — relevant for a 2014 title.

In Minimum, the GPU is the primary driver of frame rate differences across settings and resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the combo only manages 34 FPS average, while at 1080p Low it reaches 202 FPS. This 168 FPS spread across the tested configurations demonstrates that the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are adequate for lower resolutions but become limiting at 4K with high settings.

The memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s appears sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gameplay, where the card delivers 99-202 FPS and 64-130 FPS respectively. However, at 4K, the bandwidth and VRAM capacity constrain performance, with even Medium settings only achieving 54 FPS average. The GPU's 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 compute is more than enough for this game's shader complexity, but memory subsystem limitations emerge at higher pixel counts.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 202 FPS average, Medium reaches 155 FPS with a minimum of 131 and maximum of 178, High achieves 130 FPS, and Ultra drops to 99 FPS. The frame rate deltas between presets are consistent: Low-to-Medium is a 47 FPS drop, Medium-to-High is 25 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 31 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance scales down proportionally. Low yields 130 FPS average, Medium delivers 100 FPS with min/max of 85/115, High achieves 84 FPS, and Ultra falls to 64 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 30 FPS, Medium to High is 16 FPS, and High to Ultra is 20 FPS. The smaller absolute drops at 1440p compared to 1080p suggest the GPU is becoming a larger factor.

At 3840x2160, the results show significant degradation. Low manages 70 FPS average, Medium drops to 54 FPS with min/max of 46/62, High falls to 45 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 34 FPS. The differences between presets are 16 FPS (Low to Medium), 9 FPS (Medium to High), and 11 FPS (High to Ultra). At 4K, the RTX 4060 clearly struggles to maintain high frame rates, with only Low settings crossing the 60 FPS threshold.

The 1080p Medium preset's min FPS of 131 is higher than the 1440p Low average of 130, indicating that even at lower settings, resolution scaling has a notable impact. Similarly, the 4K Medium min of 46 FPS shows that frame pacing becomes inconsistent at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

Moving from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS across all settings drops by roughly 35-40%. For example, High goes from 130 FPS at 1080p to 84 FPS at 1440p, a 46 FPS reduction. Low drops from 202 to 130 FPS, a 72 FPS reduction. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as pixel count increases, since the CPU has ample headroom at 1080p.

The transition from 1440p to 4K shows even steeper declines. High settings drop from 84 FPS at 1440p to 45 FPS at 4K, a 39 FPS reduction. Low falls from 130 to 70 FPS, a 60 FPS reduction. The 4K results show that the RTX 4060's memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s and 8 GB VRAM are insufficient to maintain playable frame rates at higher quality presets.

The resolution scaling data reveals that the combo is balanced at 1080p, where CPU and GPU utilization are likely well-matched. At 1440p, the GPU begins to dominate the performance equation. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, with even Low settings only reaching 70 FPS — a 65% reduction from the 1080p Low result of 202 FPS.

The min/max data points at Medium settings illustrate this trend. At 1080p, the spread is 47 FPS (131-178). At 1440p, the spread narrows to 30 FPS (85-115). At 4K, the spread is 16 FPS (46-62). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that frame time variance decreases as the GPU becomes more saturated, but the average frame rate also drops substantially.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60+ FPS, the data suggests that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo. At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 84 FPS average, while Medium provides 100 FPS with a minimum of 85. Both options comfortably exceed the 60 FPS threshold, making High the recommended preset for visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset achieves 99 FPS average, which is suitable for most displays. However, the Medium preset at 155 FPS with a minimum of 131 offers a substantial frame rate margin for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors. The Low preset at 202 FPS is excessive for most use cases, but it demonstrates the combo's ceiling at this resolution.

At 4K, the options are limited. Low settings produce 70 FPS average, which is playable but with reduced visual fidelity. Medium falls to 54 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced segments but risks dipping below 46 FPS in demanding scenes. High and Ultra at 45 FPS and 34 FPS respectively are not recommended for smooth gameplay.

The best experience per the measured rows appears to be 1440p Medium or High. The 1440p Medium preset offers 100 FPS average with a tight min/max range of 85-115, providing consistent performance. The 1440p High preset at 84 FPS sacrifices some headroom but likely delivers noticeably better visual quality. For players prioritizing frame rate stability, 1440p Medium is the safest choice.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 2000th out of 3,712 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 54th percentile of all systems. This mid-pack ranking reflects the balanced nature of the pairing — neither component is a top-tier performer, but together they deliver respectable frame rates at mainstream resolutions.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 27,799 places it within 0.3% of the Intel Core i9-10900K (27,872) and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (27,896), indicating that the processor is not the limiting factor in this combo's ranking. The GPU's average score of 17,639 is similarly close to its nearest rivals, with the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17,666) and AMD Radeon 780M (17,588) within 0.3%.

The ranking of 2000 out of 3712 suggests that many higher-tier combinations exist, likely featuring more powerful GPUs or newer CPUs. However, the measured FPS data shows this combo achieves 130+ FPS at 1080p across all settings except Ultra, and 84+ FPS at 1440p for High and below. These results indicate that the combo delivers a smooth experience for most gaming scenarios in Minimum.

The near-parity with the Intel Core i9-10900K, a previous-generation flagship, highlights the efficiency of the Alder Lake architecture. The 10-core/16-thread configuration with a 4.90 GHz boost clock provides strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance that holds up well against older high-end parts. The RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, which aligns with the measured results showing playable frame rates at those resolutions.