Minimum

# Minimum Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-14600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a robust third-person shooter experience in Minimum, a title from 2014 that still demands careful settings tuning at higher resolutions. The measured data reveals a combination that excels at 1080p and 1440p but begins to strain at 4K, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck in the most demanding configurations. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS figures, setting recommendations, and the division of labor between the 14-core CPU and the 8 GB Ampere GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows show a clear hierarchy across presets, with the optimal balance of visual quality and frame rate depending heavily on resolution. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset achieves 120.7 FPS, which is solidly playable, while the High preset reaches 152.9 FPS and Medium lands at 182.7 FPS. The Low preset hits 242.6 FPS, but given the game's age, the visual penalty is likely unnecessary at this resolution. For competitive play, Medium at 1080p offers the best headroom at 182.7 FPS, but for a balanced experience, High at 152.9 FPS provides strong quality with ample margin above 144 Hz displays.

At 2560x1440, the picture shifts. Ultra drops to 78.8 FPS, which is playable but close to the edge for smooth motion. High delivers 98.3 FPS, and Medium reaches 119.5 FPS. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot at 1440p, offering nearly 100 FPS while retaining most visual fidelity. For players prioritizing frame rate, Medium at 119.5 FPS is the better choice, as it stays well above 100 FPS without dropping to the Low preset's 156.5 FPS, which sacrifices too much detail for a marginal gain.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become apparent. Ultra manages only 40.6 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. High hits 51.5 FPS, Medium reaches 63.2 FPS, and Low achieves 81.1 FPS. The recommendation here is clear: Medium is the highest preset that maintains a playable frame rate at 4K, while High is acceptable for less demanding scenes. Low is the only preset that provides comfortable headroom above 60 FPS, but it comes at a significant visual cost. The measured data indicates that 4K Ultra is not viable with this combination, favoring Medium or Low depending on the user's tolerance for frame rate versus fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 705th out of 1,733 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the upper portion of the database. This rank of 705 out of 1,733 suggests that the pairing is competitive but not top-tier, which aligns with the GPU's 74th percentile among all GPUs and the CPU's 93rd percentile among all CPUs. The CPU is clearly the stronger component in this pairing, with an average benchmark score of 49,367, but the GPU's average score of 30,849 holds the combination back in GPU-bound scenarios.

The rank implies that many other combinations outperform this pairing in Minimum, likely due to more powerful GPUs that can handle the game's demanding 4K presets better. However, the 705th rank also means that a significant portion of tested combos—over 1,000—are slower, indicating that this setup is far from entry-level. The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in most cases, as its 93rd percentile ranking places it well above the GPU's 74th percentile, meaning the RTX 3070 Ti is the component that determines the overall performance ceiling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti features 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1575 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and the memory operates at 1188 MHz, translating to 19 Gbps effective. These specifications are critical in Minimum because the game's resolution scaling shows a strong GPU dependency, particularly at 4K where the frame rate drops dramatically across all presets.

The GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this 2014 title at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the memory bandwidth and capacity may contribute to the performance drop. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 40.6, which is a 66% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score of 120.7 FPS. This steep decline points to the GPU being the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU's performance is unlikely to degrade with resolution increases. The RTX 3070 Ti's 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 339.8 GTexel/s texture rate are strong for a card in its class, but the 8 GB memory and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth are modest by modern standards, which the 4K results reflect.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS spans from 120.7 at Ultra to 242.6 at Low. The High preset achieves 152.9 FPS, and Medium reaches 182.7 FPS. These figures show a consistent scaling pattern: dropping from Ultra to High yields a 32.2 FPS gain, from High to Medium adds 29.8 FPS, and from Medium to Low gains 59.9 FPS. The largest jump occurs between Medium and Low, indicating that the Low preset removes significant rendering workloads.

At 2560x1440, the scores are 78.8 FPS at Ultra, 98.3 FPS at High, 119.5 FPS at Medium, and 156.5 FPS at Low. The scaling from Ultra to High adds 19.5 FPS, High to Medium adds 21.2 FPS, and Medium to Low adds 37.0 FPS. The relative differences are smaller than at 1080p, but the pattern remains consistent—Low provides the biggest boost.

At 3840x2160, the results are 40.6 FPS at Ultra, 51.5 FPS at High, 63.2 FPS at Medium, and 81.1 FPS at Low. The gains are 10.9 FPS from Ultra to High, 11.7 FPS from High to Medium, and 17.9 FPS from Medium to Low. The absolute frame rates are much lower, and even Low fails to reach 90 FPS, highlighting the GPU's struggle at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and consistent drop in frame rate as resolution increases from 1080p to 1440p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the FPS falls from 120.7 at 1080p to 78.8 at 1440p (a 34.7% reduction) and then to 40.6 at 4K (a 48.5% reduction from 1440p). At High settings, the sequence is 152.9, 98.3, and 51.5, with drops of 35.7% and 47.6%. At Medium, the figures are 182.7, 119.5, and 63.2, representing drops of 34.6% and 47.1%. At Low, the scores are 242.6, 156.5, and 81.1, with drops of 35.5% and 48.2%.

The consistency of these percentage drops—roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 48% from 1440p to 4K—across all settings strongly indicates a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rate would remain more constant across resolutions. The scaling pattern matches the pixel count increases: 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p. The measured frame rate drops are slightly less than the pixel count ratios, suggesting some efficiency in the rendering pipeline, but the overall trend is unmistakable—the RTX 3070 Ti is the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming with this combination?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset provides 182.7 FPS, which offers the best balance between visual quality and frame rate headroom. The High preset at 152.9 FPS is also strong, but Medium ensures smooth playback on high refresh rate monitors.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Minimum?*

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset achieves 63.2 FPS, which is playable, while the High preset drops to 51.5 FPS. Ultra is not recommended at 4K, as it only reaches 40.6 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 30,849, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME and 0.8% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6700. The NVIDIA Quadro M5000 is 0.9% higher, and the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q is 1.2% higher.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more influential in this game's performance?

A: The data shows the GPU is the primary factor. The frame rate drops consistently by roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 48% from 1440p to 4K across all settings, which is a classic GPU-bound pattern. The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking versus the GPU's 74th percentile supports this conclusion.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 156.5 FPS, while Ultra reaches 78.8 FPS. This represents a 77.7 FPS difference, with Low being nearly double the frame rate of Ultra.

Q: How does the i5-14600KF rank among all CPUs?

A: The CPU is in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49,367. It is 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X in average benchmark scores.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF features 14 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The processor has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration delivers strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,889 and single-core score of 4,643. The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 49,367 place it well above the GPU's percentile, indicating that it is not the limiting factor in Minimum.

The CPU's role in this game is to feed the GPU with enough data to maintain frame rates, and the measured FPS scaling suggests it does so effectively. At 1080p, where CPU load is relatively higher compared to GPU load, the combination still achieves 242.6 FPS at Low settings, indicating ample CPU headroom. The CPU's single-thread performance, measured at 4,273 in PassMark single-thread tests, is crucial for a third-person shooter that likely relies on a single main game thread. The data shows that even at 4K, the CPU does not become a bottleneck, as the frame rate drops are consistent with GPU-bound scaling. The 14-core, 20-thread configuration is overkill for this 2014 title, but it ensures that even the most demanding scenes do not cause CPU stalls, allowing the GPU to operate at its full potential.