Minimum

The Intel Core i5-14600K and Intel Arc B570 combination delivers a playable but uneven experience in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter from 2014. The measured data shows that this pairing is heavily dependent on resolution and settings, with 1080p offering strong frame rates that degrade sharply as resolution climbs. For most users, the best balance of visual quality and performance is the Medium preset, which provides a consistent frame rate at all three tested resolutions while avoiding the steep performance penalties of Ultra settings.

Settings Recommendations

The data clearly indicates that Medium is the optimal settings preset for this combo. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset produces an average of 111 FPS with a minimum of 95 FPS and a maximum of 128 FPS. This is a substantial improvement over the High preset’s 93 FPS average, and it remains well above the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider the baseline for smooth gameplay. The Low preset at 1080p does push performance higher to 145 FPS, but the visual downgrade is unnecessary given that Medium already delivers a high frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out. The average FPS here is 72, with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 82 FPS. This is comfortably playable, and the minimum frame rate staying above 60 means there are no noticeable hitches during demanding scenes. High settings at 1440p drop to an average of 60 FPS, which is still playable but leaves no headroom for dips. Low settings at 1440p yield 94 FPS, but again, the visual compromise is not worth the extra performance when Medium is already smooth.

The 4K results are the weakest for this combo. At 3840x2160, Medium produces an average of 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS target, and the minimum frame rate of 33 FPS indicates noticeable stuttering. High settings at 4K drop to 32 FPS, while Low settings only reach 50 FPS. Ultra is the worst performer across all resolutions, with an average of just 25 FPS at 4K, 46 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 1080p. The Ultra preset’s gains in visual fidelity do not justify the massive frame rate cost, especially when Medium offers a much better experience for the majority of players.

The recommendation is therefore straightforward: use Medium settings. At 1080p and 1440p, this preset provides a smooth, responsive experience with average frame rates well above 60. At 4K, Medium is the only preset that comes close to playability, though even it falls short of the ideal target. Players with 4K displays should consider dropping to Low settings for a playable 50 FPS, but the trade-off in visual quality is significant.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the primary bottleneck in this system, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, with a memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. Its base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, and the memory runs at 2375 MHz with an effective speed of 19 Gbps. The card has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. It also includes 18 ray tracing cores, though Minimum is a 2014 title that likely does not utilize ray tracing.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are modest for modern standards, with an FP32 performance of 11.52 TFLOPS and a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s. The texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s. These specifications place the Arc B570 in the mid-range segment, and the benchmark results from the data confirm this. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score is 14195, which puts it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 20556, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with a score of 20534 (0.1% difference), the Intel Arc A750 with a score of 20582 (-0.1% difference), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X with a score of 20662 (-0.5% difference). This means the Arc B570 performs almost identically to a laptop RTX 3070 in synthetic benchmarks, which is a strong result for a desktop card at this level.

In Minimum, the GPU’s role is evident when comparing the Low and Ultra presets. At 1080p, Low settings produce 145 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 71 FPS. This halving of frame rates shows that the GPU is being pushed hard by the higher settings, even at the lowest resolution. The gap widens at 4K, where Low produces 50 FPS and Ultra produces 25 FPS. The memory size and bandwidth are sufficient for this game, as Minimum is not a particularly demanding title by modern standards. The 10 GB VRAM is more than enough for the game’s textures, so the performance drop at higher settings is due to the GPU’s raw compute limits rather than memory constraints.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 111 at 1080p to 72 at 1440p, a reduction of 35%. Moving further to 4K at Medium settings, the average FPS falls to 39, which is a 65% drop from 1080p. This steep decline indicates that the Arc B570 is the limiting component, as the CPU’s performance does not degrade with resolution.

Looking at Low settings, the scaling is similar. At 1080p, Low produces 145 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 94 FPS (a 35% reduction), and at 4K it falls to 50 FPS (a 66% reduction from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings confirms that resolution scaling is purely a GPU workload increase. The CPU, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, is not the bottleneck at any resolution.

High settings show the same pattern. At 1080p, the average is 93 FPS, dropping to 60 FPS at 1440p (a 35% reduction) and 32 FPS at 4K (a 66% reduction). Ultra settings follow suit, with 71 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p (a 35% reduction), and 25 FPS at 4K (a 65% reduction). The uniformity of these drops—roughly a 35% penalty from 1080p to 1440p and another 35% from 1440p to 4K—is a textbook sign of GPU-bound performance. If the CPU were the limiter, the frame rates would not scale so predictably with resolution.

For players using a 1080p or 1440p monitor, this scaling is favorable. The combo handles 1440p Medium well, and even 1440p High is playable at 60 FPS. However, 4K is not a realistic target for this pairing. The 4K Medium result of 39 FPS is below the playable threshold, and the minimum frame rate of 33 FPS would cause noticeable stutter. The data suggests that this system is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K only viable at Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rate results are strong across all presets. Low settings average 145 FPS, which is excellent for fast-paced gameplay. Medium settings average 111 FPS, with a minimum of 95 FPS and a maximum of 128 FPS. High settings average 93 FPS, while Ultra settings average 71 FPS. The minimum frame rates are only recorded for Medium, but the 95 FPS floor indicates that this preset maintains consistent performance without significant drops. The gap between Low and Medium is 34 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 18 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 22 FPS. This shows diminishing returns as settings increase, with the biggest jump being from Low to Medium.

At 2560x1440, the results are still playable but with more variation. Low settings average 94 FPS, which is just 51 FPS below the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 72 FPS, with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 82 FPS. This is the sweet spot for 1440p, as the minimum frame rate stays above 60. High settings average 60 FPS, which is exactly at the playable threshold but leaves no room for drops. Ultra settings average 46 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and would feel less smooth. The minimum frame rate for Medium at 1440p is 61 FPS, which is reassuring, but the fact that it is so close to the average suggests some frame time variance.

At 3840x2160, the performance is marginal. Low settings average 50 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Medium settings average 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS. The minimum frame rate is particularly concerning, as 33 FPS would be noticeable in a fast-paced shooter. High settings average 32 FPS, and Ultra settings average 25 FPS. None of these results are suitable for competitive play, and even casual play at 4K would be frustrating due to the low frame rates. The 4K Medium minimum of 33 FPS represents a 47% drop from the 1440p Medium minimum of 61 FPS, highlighting how quickly the GPU is overwhelmed at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600K and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2336 out of 2939 combos for Minimum. This places it in the bottom 21% of all tested systems, which is a surprisingly low position given the individual component specifications. The CPU alone is in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48618, while the GPU is in the 65th percentile with an average score of 20556. Yet, when combined for this specific game, the performance is below average.

The reason for this poor ranking is likely the GPU’s relative weakness in this title. The Arc B570’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% difference), the Intel Arc A750 (-0.1% difference), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (-0.5% difference). These are all mid-range or older mobile/desktop parts, and their performance in Minimum would likely be similar to what the data shows. The combo rank reflects the fact that this GPU is not sufficient for high-refresh-rate or high-resolution gaming in this title, despite the CPU being more than capable.

The CPU’s own nearest rivals provide context for its strength. The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H has an average score of 48698 (-0.2% difference), the AMD EPYC 4345P has a score of 48470 (0.3% difference), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX has a score of 48287 (0.7% difference). These are all powerful processors, and the i5-14600K’s performance is competitive with them. However, in Minimum, the CPU is not the limiting factor, so this strong CPU performance does not translate into a high combo rank. The rank is a reflection of the GPU’s limitations, and users should be aware that this system will not compete with higher-end GPU pairings in this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, specifically the Raptor Lake-R refresh. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a TDP of 125 watts. The CPU features a cache hierarchy of 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it includes integrated UHD Graphics 770, though the Arc B570 handles all rendering in this setup.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-14600K demonstrates strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 24491, and its single-core score is 2064. The Geekbench multi-core score is 16673, and the single-core score is 2491. PassMark results show a multi-thread score of 38682 and a single-thread score of 4270. These numbers place the CPU in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48618. This is a high-end desktop processor that can handle any modern workload, including gaming.

For Minimum, the CPU’s role is to feed frames to the GPU, and the data shows that it does this without becoming a bottleneck. At 1080p Low settings, the average FPS is 145, which is well above the refresh rate of most monitors. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see frame rates plateau at a certain level regardless of resolution or settings. Instead, the frame rates scale down consistently as the GPU workload increases, proving that the CPU has headroom to spare.

The CPU’s high boost clock of 5.30 GHz is beneficial for gaming, as many titles are sensitive to single-threaded performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 4270 is strong, and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2064 is equally impressive. In Minimum, which is an older title from 2014, the CPU’s single-threaded performance is more than sufficient. The game likely uses only a few threads, and the i5-14600K’s high clock speeds ensure that those threads are processed quickly.

The multi-threaded performance is also noteworthy, though less relevant for this game. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and the Geekbench multi-core score of 16673 indicate that the CPU can handle heavy multitasking and productivity workloads. In gaming, this extra capacity means that background applications, such as streaming or recording software, will not interfere with frame rates. However, the combo rank of 2336 out of 2939 shows that the CPU’s strength is not enough to overcome the GPU’s limitations in this title.

The data indicates that the i5-14600K is not the bottleneck in Minimum. The frame rates are entirely dependent on the GPU’s capabilities, and the CPU provides a stable foundation with plenty of headroom. For users who upgrade the GPU in the future, the CPU will not hold back performance. The Arc B570 is the component that limits the overall experience, and its mid-range positioning is reflected in the measured frame rates and the combo rank. This pairing is suitable for 1080p gaming at medium to high settings and 1440p gaming at medium settings, but it falls short at 4K and high refresh rates.