Minimum

The data for Minimum with the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT presents a clear picture of a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but which reveals a surprisingly strong CPU headroom at 1080p. The measured frame rates across the four settings presets and three resolutions tell a consistent story about where the bottleneck shifts.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 and then to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic and predictable drop in average frame rates, confirming that the rendering load scales aggressively with pixel count. At the High preset, the system delivers 167.8 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 108.5 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 59.3 FPS, and then further drops to 58.7 FPS at 4K, a 49.8 FPS decline from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component as resolution increases, with the CPU's role diminishing.

At the Low preset, the scaling is even more pronounced in absolute terms. The system achieves 260.5 FPS at 1080p, which is an exceptionally high frame rate that suggests the CPU is still capable of pushing more. Dropping to 1440p yields 165.3 FPS, a reduction of 95.2 FPS, and at 4K the average falls to 89.1 FPS. The fact that the 4K Low setting still produces nearly 90 FPS indicates that the GPU is far from being overwhelmed by this older title, even at its highest resolution.

The most telling data point for bottleneck analysis comes from the Ultra preset. At 1080p, the system manages 125.9 FPS, which is respectable but far from the 260.5 FPS seen on Low. This gap of 134.6 FPS between Low and Ultra at the same resolution highlights how much the graphics settings, rather than the resolution itself, can tax the GPU. Moving to 1440p Ultra yields 80.2 FPS, and at 4K Ultra the average collapses to 46.1 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra represents a 63.4% drop in performance, which is nearly identical to the 65.8% drop seen at the High preset, suggesting that the GPU's workload is consistently the limiting factor across these settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a 7 nm chip based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, featuring 4608 shading units, 288 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for a game released in 2014. The GPU's boost clock is rated at 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz, and its pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s combined with a texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s explains why the card handles the higher presets so well.

The data shows that the GPU's performance scales almost linearly with the resolution drop. At 1440p High, the card produces 108.5 FPS, which is 64.6% of the 1080p High score. At 4K High, the score is 58.7 FPS, which is 35.0% of the 1080p figure. This consistent ratio across resolutions indicates that the GPU is being fully utilized and that there is no unexpected stalling or driver overhead. The 16 GB frame buffer is likely not a limitation here, as even the 4K Ultra preset, which would be the most demanding on memory, still achieves a playable 46.1 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for most users. At 1440p, the Medium preset yields 128.2 FPS, which is 19.7 FPS higher than High and 48.0 FPS higher than Ultra. This suggests that the jump from Medium to High costs more performance than the visual improvement likely justifies, especially considering that the game is from 2014 and may not have dramatically different visuals between these presets.

For users with a 1080p display, the Low preset at 260.5 FPS is the clear choice for competitive play, as it provides a frame rate that far exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors. However, the Medium preset at 200.1 FPS still offers a substantial margin over 144 Hz displays and would be preferable for those seeking better image quality. At 4K, the High preset at 58.7 FPS is the only option that approaches a smooth 60 FPS experience, as the Ultra preset drops to 46.1 FPS, which may be noticeable in a fast-paced third-person shooter. The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot across all resolutions, with the 4K Medium figure of 67.6 FPS being the only sub-100 FPS result that remains comfortably above 60.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 605th out of 1733 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the 65th percentile of all systems tested. This is a strong showing for a mid-to-high-end pairing, indicating that the system is well-balanced for this title. The CPU itself ranks in the 93rd percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49166, which is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, which scores 49062 and is only 0.2% slower. The GPU ranks in the 87th percentile against all GPUs, with an average score of 49982, putting it just 0.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A550M and 2.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER.

The combination rank of 605 out of 1733 suggests that while both components are individually strong, there are many other pairings that yield higher frame rates in this specific game. This is likely because Minimum is not particularly demanding by modern standards, and the CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient, meaning that the GPU's performance is the primary differentiator. The fact that the combo ranks in the top 35% of all tested systems reflects the RX 6800 XT's capability, but it also implies that users seeking the absolute highest frame rates in this game might benefit from a more powerful GPU.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combo in Minimum?*

A: The highest average FPS is 260.5, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the system produces an average of 46.1 FPS, which is the lowest measured score across all configurations.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p Low?

A: The data shows 260.5 FPS at 1080p Low, which is exceptionally high, suggesting the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution and settings combination. The GPU is still capable of rendering frames faster than the CPU can feed it, but the margin is small.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 165.3 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields 80.2 FPS. This represents a difference of 85.1 FPS, or a 51.5% reduction in performance from Low to Ultra.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all other tested combinations?

A: This combo ranks 605th out of 1733 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the top 35% of all systems.

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 67.6, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 260.5 FPS on Low, 200.1 FPS on Medium, 167.8 FPS on High, and 125.9 FPS on Ultra. The spread between the lowest and highest presets is 134.6 FPS, indicating that the GPU has significant headroom even at the most demanding settings. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 165.3 FPS on Low, 128.2 FPS on Medium, 108.5 FPS on High, and 80.2 FPS on Ultra. The spread narrows to 85.1 FPS, showing that the GPU's performance ceiling is being approached. At 3840x2160, the averages are 89.1 FPS on Low, 67.6 FPS on Medium, 58.7 FPS on High, and 46.1 FPS on Ultra. The spread further narrows to 43.0 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that this resolution is too demanding for the highest quality settings.

The data reveals that the transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 35-37% of performance across all presets, while the transition from 1440p to 4K costs an additional 43-46%. This non-linear scaling is typical of GPU-bound scenarios, where the pixel count increases quadratically with resolution, but the frame rate drops more gently due to other bottlenecks like memory bandwidth and geometry processing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample fast memory for game logic, and its benchmark scores are strong: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881 and a single-core score of 4642. The CPU's percentile rank of 93 against all CPUs confirms that it is a top-tier processor, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, is only 0.2% slower in average benchmark score.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is clearly secondary to the GPU. The evidence for this is the frame rate scaling: at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 134.6 FPS, which is a massive gap that can only be explained by GPU workload, not CPU limitations. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively constant regardless of graphics settings. Instead, the data shows that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at all settings, as evidenced by the 260.5 FPS score at 1080p Low. The 14 cores and 20 threads are likely overkill for a 2014 title, but they ensure that there are no frame drops due to CPU thread contention or background tasks. The boost clock of 5.30 GHz is also beneficial for single-threaded game logic, which is common in older titles, and the Cinebench R15 single-core score of 467 indicates strong per-core performance.