Minimum

Minimum, the 2014 third-person shooter, shows a wide performance envelope on the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination. The measured frames per second (FPS) across resolutions and presets indicate a system capable of high refresh-rate play at 1080p and solid 4K performance, with the CPU’s 10 cores and the GPU’s Ada Lovelace architecture both contributing to the results.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combo reveals a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 158.2 FPS, which is a strong result for a third-person shooter, but the High preset at 208.2 FPS offers a more significant performance headroom. The Medium preset reaches 249.8 FPS, and Low peaks at 327.2 FPS. For competitive play, the Low preset’s 327.2 FPS provides the maximum frame rate, but the High preset is the optimal balance for most users, offering over 200 FPS while maintaining better visual fidelity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 137 FPS, which is still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset drops to 103.2 FPS, which remains playable but sacrifices some of the frame-rate cushion. The Medium preset at 163.3 FPS is notably strong for this resolution, suggesting that the GPU has ample headroom to handle increased graphical loads without significant drops. At 4K (3840x2160), the High preset yields 72.6 FPS, which is the recommended target for a high-resolution experience, as it stays above 60 FPS while the Ultra preset falls to 53.9 FPS, which is below that mark.

The data indicates that the High preset is the sweet spot across all three resolutions. At 1080p, it provides 208.2 FPS, which is 50 FPS higher than Ultra. At 1440p, it delivers 137 FPS, and at 4K, it maintains 72.6 FPS. The scaling from High to Medium yields substantial gains (from 208.2 to 249.8 FPS at 1080p), but the visual quality trade-off may not be worth it for most players. The Ultra preset is only advisable for 1080p or 1440p use where the frame rate remains above 100 FPS, but at 4K, it compromises performance too heavily.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The High preset at 3840x2160 delivers an average of 72.6 FPS, which is the only 4K option that stays above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset reaches 86.8 FPS, but this requires dropping visual quality, while the Ultra preset falls to 53.9 FPS, which is below the smooth-playability line.

Q: How does the CPU’s core count affect performance in Minimum?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This configuration supports high frame rates, as evidenced by the 327.2 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti capable of 1440p high-refresh-rate gaming?

A: Yes, the data shows the combo achieves 137 FPS at 2560x1440 on High settings and 211.2 FPS on Low settings. Even the Ultra preset at 1440p reaches 103.2 FPS, which is well above the 100 FPS mark for high-refresh displays.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 208.2 at 1920x1080 to 137 at 2560x1440 and finally to 72.6 at 3840x2160. This represents a 65.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating a strong GPU-bound scaling pattern.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a consistent experience across resolutions?

A: No, the Ultra preset shows significant variance. At 1080p, it delivers 158.2 FPS, and at 1440p, it drops to 103.2 FPS, but at 4K, it falls to 53.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard. This makes Ultra viable only at lower resolutions.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested configurations in Minimum?

A: The combo ranks 217th out of 1733 tested combinations, placing it in the top 12.5% of all configurations, which indicates it is a high-performing setup for this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide a solid foundation for gaming workloads. In Minimum, the CPU’s role is evident in the high frame rates achieved at lower resolutions, where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 327.2 FPS, which suggests that the CPU can feed frames to the RTX 4070 Ti without becoming a limiting factor.

The processor’s single-thread performance, as measured by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3093, is crucial for a third-person shooter like Minimum, which often relies on a few primary threads for game logic. The multi-core score of 21914 in the same test indicates that the 10 cores are also capable of handling background tasks without impacting gameplay. The CPU’s 88th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32508, places it close to rivals like the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513) and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446), with a delta of 0% and 0.2%, respectively.

In the context of this game, the CPU’s performance is more than adequate. The data shows that at 1080p, the frame rate scales from 158.2 FPS at Ultra to 327.2 FPS at Low, indicating that the GPU is the primary driver of performance differences. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.70 GHz ensures that it can maintain high single-thread performance, which is essential for maintaining consistent frame times in fast-paced action sequences.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ranks 217th out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the top 12.5% of all configurations, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU’s 10-core design and the GPU’s 7680 shading units, which together deliver the measured frame rates across all resolutions.

The RTX 4070 Ti, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, is a capable partner for the i5-14400F. The GPU’s 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44900, is slightly higher than the CPU’s 88th percentile, but the delta between them is small. In terms of nearest rivals, the RTX 4070 Ti’s average score of 44900 is within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44195) and 1.5% of the Intel Arc A730M (45592), indicating that the GPU is well-positioned in the market.

The combo’s rank of 217 suggests that while it is not the absolute top-tier setup, it outperforms the vast majority of systems. For a game released in 2014, this configuration provides a future-proof experience, as the data shows it can handle even the most demanding settings at 1440p with ease. The rank reflects the synergy between the CPU’s high boost clock and the GPU’s raw compute power, which together achieve the high FPS figures seen in the benchmark results.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 208.2 at 1080p to 137 at 1440p, a 34.2% reduction, and then to 72.6 at 4K, a further 47.0% reduction from 1440p. This total drop of 65.1% from 1080p to 4K indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the frame rate scales inversely with the pixel count.

The Low preset shows a similar trend, with 327.2 FPS at 1080p, 211.2 FPS at 1440p, and 114.4 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 65.0%, which is nearly identical to the High preset, suggesting that the scaling is consistent regardless of graphical load. This consistency points to a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 4070 Ti’s 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are the primary factors determining frame rates.

The Ultra preset exhibits a slightly different scaling pattern, with 158.2 FPS at 1080p, 103.2 FPS at 1440p, and 53.9 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 65.9%, which is marginally higher than the other presets, indicating that the additional graphical features at Ultra place more strain on the GPU. The data supports the conclusion that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration, as the frame rates at 1080p are exceptionally high, and the scaling is smooth and predictable across resolutions. For users targeting 4K, the High preset at 72.6 FPS is the recommended choice, as it maintains playability while the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold.