Minimum

Minimum is a 2014 third-person shooter that remains surprisingly demanding at high settings, even on modern hardware. The measured results for the Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER show a configuration that excels at high refresh rates but requires careful settings management to reach them. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and the optimal settings for this specific combination.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, the data indicates that the High preset at 2560x1440 is the sweet spot, delivering an average of 147 FPS. This provides a substantial performance buffer over the 60 FPS target often used for baseline playability, and it does so without the steep performance penalty incurred by the Ultra preset. The jump from High to Ultra at this resolution costs 35 FPS on average (from 147 down to 112), which is a 24% reduction for what is typically a marginal visual gain.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. It is the only 4K setting with a full set of measured data, showing an average of 94 FPS with a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS. This ensures the frame rate stays comfortably above 60 FPS even in the most demanding moments captured in the data. While the High preset at 4K is playable at 79 FPS average, the Medium preset's headroom makes it the more stable option. The Low preset at 4K achieves 123 FPS, but this comes with a significant graphical downgrade that undermines the visual fidelity of the game at that high resolution.

For players with high-refresh-rate 1920x1080 monitors, the High preset is the best balance, yielding 228 FPS. This is high enough to take advantage of 144Hz and even 240Hz displays. While the Low preset pushes this to 354 FPS, the visual compromise is rarely worth the extra frames at this resolution. The Medium preset, at 271 FPS, is also an option, but High offers a better quality-to-performance ratio without pushing the average below the 200 FPS mark Mend. The Ultra preset at 1080p is the least efficient, dropping to 173 FPS, a 55 FPS decrease from High.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a powerhouse, and its role in Minimum is defined by its large memory pool and high compute throughput. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. This is paired with a boost clock of 2550 MHz and a base clock of 2295 MHz. The sheer amount of memory and bandwidth ensures that texture loading and high-resolution rendering are not bottlenecks.

The benchmark data shows a clear trend: as resolution increases, average FPS drops, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p Low, the card is producing 354 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 60 FPS. This scaling shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. Its raw compute power, measured at 52.22 TFLOPS for FP32 operations, is substantial but still finite.

The GPU's performance relative to other cards is strong. It sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54209. Its nearest rivals show it is very closely matched with the standard RTX 4080, which has an average score of 54247, a delta of -0.1%. This indicates that the SUPER variant offers a marginal performance uplift over the non-SUPER model in this game, as the scores are nearly identical. The data suggests that the 16 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor at any of the tested settings, as the game runs out of raw shader performance before it runs out of memory.

FAQ

Q: What is the best 4K setting for the i5-14600K and RTX 4080 SUPER in Minimum?

A: The Medium preset is the most balanced for 4K, as it delivers an average of 94 FPS with a minimum of 80 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay. The High preset is also playable at 79 FPS average, but Medium provides more consistent frame times.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor, even at 1080p. The FPS scales significantly with settings changes (from 354 FPS on Low to 173 FPS on Ultra), which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's strong single-thread performance is sufficient to feed the GPU at these high frame rates.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to the non-SUPER RTX 4080 in this game?

A: The benchmark results show they are virtually identical. The RTX 4080 SUPER's average benchmark score is 54209, while the RTX 4080's is 54247, a difference of only -0.1%. This suggests the in-game performance will be very similar.

Q: Can this configuration run Minimum at 1440p with high refresh rates?

A: Yes. At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves an average of 147 FPS, which is suitable for a 144Hz monitor. For even higher refresh rates, the Medium preset at 175 FPS or Low at 228 FPS are viable options.

Q: What is the performance drop when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: The drop is substantial. On the High preset, the average FPS goes from 228 at 1080p to 147 at 1440p and then to 79 at 4K. This represents a 65% decrease in average FPS from 1080p to 4K, highlighting the intense load placed on the GPU at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever worth using with this hardware?

A: Only if you are prioritizing visual quality over frame rate. At 1080p, the Ultra preset still manages 173 FPS. However, at 1440p it drops to 112 FPS, and at 4K it hits exactly 60 FPS, which is the minimum for playable. The High preset offers a better balance of visuals and performance in most cases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings.

At 1920x1080, the performance is extremely high. The Low preset averages 354 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 271 FPS with a minimum of 230 FPS and a maximum of 312 FPS. The High preset averages 228 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 173 FPS. This shows that even at the highest settings, the configuration is capable of driving high-refresh-rate 1080p displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains impressive. The Low preset averages 228 FPS. Medium averages 175 FPS, with a measured range of 149 to 201 FPS. High averages 147 FPS, and Ultra drops to 112 FPS. The 1440p results show that the High preset is the best choice for a 144Hz monitor, while the Medium preset can push towards 175 FPS for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the load on the GPU becomes apparent. The Low preset averages 123 FPS. Medium is the only setting with a full data set, showing an average of 94 FPS, with a minimum of 80 and a maximum of 108. High drops to an average of 79 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with an average of exactly 60 FPS. This resolution is where the RTX 4080 SUPER's limits are clearly defined, requiring a reduction in settings to maintain high frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 311th out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum. This places it in the top 8.4% of all configurations in the database, indicating it is a very high-performing setup for this game Android.

While this specific combo's rank is strong, the CPU's overall performance provides context. The i5-14600K has an average benchmark score of 48618 and is in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, has an average score of 48698, which is a delta of -0.2%, making them effectively equal. The AMD EPYC 4345P is 0.3% behind, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is 0.8% ahead. This puts the CPU in a very competitive position, but its performance is not a differentiating factor compared to other high-end chips.

The GPU's ranking is also strong. The RTX 4080 SUPER is in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. As previously noted, it trades blows with the RTX 4080, but the data shows it is significantly ahead of older or lower-tier cards. The combination of a top-tier CPU and a top-tier GPU results in a system that is well above the average for this game, confirming that the 311th rank is a reflection of the hardware's capability.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly indicates a GPU-bound workload. On the High preset, the average FPS drops from 228 at 1080p to 147 at 1440p and further to 79 at 4K. This is a 65% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, which is a significant cost for the increased pixel count.

The scaling pattern is consistent across other settings. On the Low preset, the drop is from 354 FPS at 1080p to 228 at 1440p and 123 at 4K, a 65% drop as well. The Medium preset shows a similar trend, going from 271 FPS to 175 FPS to 94 FPS. The fact that the percentage drop is consistent across settings suggests that the game's rendering pipeline is scaling linearly with resolution, which is a hallmark of a pixel-bound workload.

This data points to the RTX 4080 SUPER as the primary limiting factor when resolution increases. The CPU's performance is not degrading with resolution; it is simply waiting for the GPU to finish rendering each frame. The i5-14600K’s high boost clock of 5.30 GHz and 14 cores are more than sufficient to handle the game's logic and draw calls at these frame ratesikuha. The bottleneck is squarely on the GPU's ability to fill pixels, which is why reducing resolution or settings yields such large FPS gains.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K plays a supporting role in Minimum, but a critical one. With 14 cores, 20 threads, and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, it has more than enough processing power to keep the RTX 4080 SUPER fed with data. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by a Cinebench R23 score of 2064, is excellent and is often the most important factor for gaming.

The L3 cache is 24 MB shared, which helps with data locality and reduces latency when accessing frequently used game assets. The CPU's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 allows for flexibility, though the performance benefits of DDR5 are not detailed in this data. The CPU is not the bottleneck at any tested resolution, as evidenced by the consistent FPS scaling with GPU load.

The benchmark data for the CPU shows it is a top-tier performer. Its multi-core performance is strong, with a Cinebench R23 score of 24491)Skip, but for a game like Minimum, the single-core strength is more relevant. The i5-14600K's performance is so high that it effectively removes the CPU from the equation, allowing the RTX 4080 SUPER to be the sole determinant of frame rate. This is the ideal scenario for a gaming rig, as it ensures that the expensive GPU is not being held back by a weaker processor.