Minimum

Minimum is a 2014 third-person shooter that, on paper, should be far behind the hardware of this pairing, yet the measured data reveals a nuanced performance story that goes beyond simple “old game runs fast.” This analysis examines the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination specifically, using only the provided benchmark results to interpret how these components interact with the game’s engine, where the bottlenecks truly lie, and which settings deliver the most sensible experience. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly capable at 1080p and 1440p, but which begins to show meaningful strain at 4K Ultra, suggesting that even a top-tier GPU from the Ada Lovelace generation has limits when paired with a high-core-count CPU in this particular title.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-14600KF compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49,394, which places it 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (score 49,228) and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (score 49,196). It trails the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 by 0.8%, which scores 49,796.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS at 1920x1080 is 356, achieved with Low settings. The Medium preset delivers 273 FPS, High delivers 229 FPS, and Ultra drops to 174 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 significantly faster than its nearest rival in GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54,247, which is only 0.1% ahead of the RTX 4080 SUPER (score 54,209). It is 1.1% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (score 54,828) and 2.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (score 55,698).

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank among tested systems for this game?

A: This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 246th out of 3,712 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the top 6.6% of all systems.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU show more performance headroom when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 356, dropping to 230 at 1440p Low and further to 124 at 4K Low. This scaling pattern suggests the RTX 4080’s workload increases dramatically with pixel count, while the CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded for Medium settings across resolutions?

A: For Medium settings, the measured minimum FPS values are 232 at 1920x1080, 149 at 2560x1440, and 80 at 3840x2160. These are the only minFPS data points provided in the measured results.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured data places this pairing at rank 246 out of 3,712 tested combinations for Minimum, which translates to approximately the 93rd percentile of all systems tested. This is a strong showing, but the rank alone does not tell the full story. The combination of a 14-core, 20-thread CPU from the Raptor Lake Refresh generation and a GPU based on the AD103 chip with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory should theoretically crush a game from 2014. The fact that it ranks only 246th, rather than in the top ten, suggests that either the game engine has quirks that limit scaling, or that other tested combos with similar or better scores are using even more recent hardware.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the CPU, the i5-14600KF’s average benchmark score of 49,394 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (48,995). The deltaPct values are all under 1%, meaning that from a pure CPU compute standpoint, there is no decisive advantage between these processors. For the GPU, the RTX 4080’s score of 54,247 is essentially tied with the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209), but sits behind the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698) and the AMD Radeon 8060S (55,757) by about 2.6-2.7%. This indicates that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4080 is not the absolute fastest card available, but it is within a small margin of its direct successor.

In practical terms for Minimum, the rank of 246 suggests that while this combo is very fast, it is not at the absolute top. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system hits 356 FPS average, which is excellent, but the rank implies there are 245 other combos that perform better. This could be due to newer CPUs with higher single-thread performance or GPUs with more raw throughput, but the provided data does not specify what those combos are. What is clear is that this pairing is firmly in the upper echelon, with a percentile rank that places it ahead of the vast majority of tested hardware.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, housing 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. Its memory configuration includes 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 2205 MHz, boosting to 2505 MHz, with memory running at 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective). These specifications are substantial, and the benchmark results reflect this: the GPU scores 34,457 in Passmark G3D, 21,4739 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 263,779 in Geekbench Vulkan.

In Minimum, the GPU’s role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 356, which is so high that the CPU is likely the limiting factor. However, when moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 230 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 124 FPS. This scaling is not linear; the drop from 1080p to 1440p is about 35%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is about 46%. This suggests that the GPU is being pushed harder at each step, and the 16 GB VRAM and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are being utilized more fully.

The settings also have a significant impact. At 4K, the average FPS goes from 124 at Low to 95 at Medium, then 79 at High, and finally 61 at Ultra. The RTX 4080’s 16 GB of VRAM is unlikely to be a bottleneck at any of these settings for a 2014 game, but the compute load from higher presets clearly affects performance. The data shows that the GPU’s pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are more than adequate for 4K, but the frame rates still drop, indicating that the game’s rendering pipeline is not perfectly optimized for modern hardware. The RTX 4080’s 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is impressive, yet the Ultra preset at 4K only yields 61 FPS, showing that raw compute does not always translate to proportional frame rates in older titles.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 356 FPS at Low, 273 FPS at Medium, 229 FPS at High, and 174 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset includes min and max values of 232 and 313 FPS, respectively, indicating a stable frame delivery with a 81 FPS spread. These numbers are all well above the refresh rates of most monitors, meaning that at 1080p, the combination of i5-14600KF and RTX 4080 is overkill for Minimum, but still shows predictable scaling: Low to Medium is a 23% drop, Medium to High is a 16% drop, and High to Ultra is a 24% drop.

At 2560x1440, the FPS drops to 230 at Low, 176 at Medium, 148 at High, and 112 at Ultra. The Medium preset shows min and max values of 149 and 202 FPS, a 53 FPS spread. The percentage drops are more pronounced here: Low to Medium is 23%, Medium to High is 16%, and High to Ultra is 24% again. This consistency suggests that the game’s settings have a uniform impact on GPU load regardless of resolution.

At 3840x2160, the numbers become more modest: 124 FPS at Low, 95 FPS at Medium, 79 FPS at High, and 61 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset’s min and max are 80 and 109 FPS, a 29 FPS spread. The drops are steeper: Low to Medium is 23%, Medium to High is 17%, and High to Ultra is 23%. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only setting where the average FPS dips below 60, which is significant for a game that is over a decade old. The data shows that the RTX 4080 is capable of 4K at high frame rates on lower presets, but the Ultra preset pushes it to the edge of playability.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor from the Raptor Lake Refresh generation, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It has 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 per core, with 80 KB L1 per core. Its synthetic benchmarks are strong: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32,544 and single-core score of 4,594, plus a Geekbench multicore score of 17,085 and single-core score of 2,445. The CPU’s percentile rank versus all CPUs is 90, meaning it outperforms 90% of processors.

In Minimum, the CPU’s role is most evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 356 FPS average suggests the CPU is feeding the GPU efficiently, but the boost clock of 5.30 GHz and 20 threads are not fully utilized because the game is likely single-thread bound in parts. The data shows that at 1080p, the performance gap between Low and Ultra is 182 FPS (from 356 to 174), which is a 51% drop. This indicates that higher settings increase the CPU’s workload as well, possibly due to more physics or draw calls.

At 1440p and 4K, the CPU’s influence diminishes relative to the GPU. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K at Low settings are from 356 to 124, a 65% reduction, which is largely a GPU limitation. The CPU’s 14 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient for a 2014 title, and the data suggests that even at 4K Ultra (61 FPS), the CPU is not the bottleneck. The i5-14600KF’s Cinebench R20 multicore score of 13,668 and single-core score of 1,929 show that it has ample processing power, but Minimum does not appear to scale beyond a few cores. The 5.30 GHz boost clock is likely the most critical factor for maintaining high frame rates, and the data shows that the CPU holds up well even at 1080p where frame rates exceed 300 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for different priorities are clear. For players seeking the highest frame rates, 1080p Low delivers an average of 356 FPS, which is far beyond any display’s refresh rate capability. This setting is ideal for competitive play where every frame matters, but the visual fidelity is sacrificed. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 273 FPS, which is still exceptionally high and provides a better balance of visuals and performance.

At 1440p, the High preset yields 148 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors (144Hz or higher). The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 112 FPS, which is still playable but may not fully utilize a 144Hz display. For a more consistent experience, Medium at 1440p provides 176 FPS, with a minimum of 149 FPS, ensuring no drops below typical refresh rates.

At 4K, the recommendations change. The High preset delivers 79 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, but the Ultra preset drops to 61 FPS, which is borderline. The Medium preset at 4K offers 95 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. For 4K gaming, the data suggests that Medium or High settings are the sweet spot, as they maintain playable frame rates without the visual impact of Ultra. The Low preset at 4K (124 FPS) is also viable, but it defeats the purpose of 4K resolution. Overall, the best experience per the measured rows is 1440p High (148 FPS) or 4K Medium (95 FPS), depending on whether resolution or settings priority is higher.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 356 at 1080p to 230 at 1440p (a 35% reduction) and then to 124 at 4K (a 46% reduction from 1440p). This is a total 65% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the drops are from 273 to 176 (36%) and then to 95 (46%). At High settings, the drops are from 229 to 148 (35%) and then to 79 (47%). At Ultra, the drops are from 174 to 112 (36%) and then to 61 (46%).

These consistent percentage drops across settings indicate that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The RTX 4080’s 716.8 GB/s bandwidth and 16 GB VRAM are not a bottleneck, but the sheer number of pixels at 4K (3840x2160) is four times that of 1080p (1920x1080). The data shows that the FPS does not scale inversely with pixel count—if it did, 4K would be roughly a quarter of 1080p performance. Instead, the 4K Low FPS of 124 is about 35% of the 1080p Low FPS of 356, which is better than linear scaling. This suggests that the game engine has some efficiency at higher resolutions, or that the CPU is still partially limiting at 1080p.

The fact that the drop from 1440p to 4K is consistently larger (46-47%) than the drop from 1080p to 1440p (35-36%) indicates that the GPU is being pushed harder at 4K. The RTX 4080’s boost clock of 2505 MHz and 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are substantial, but the data implies that Minimum’s rendering path at 4K Ultra (61 FPS) is near the limit for this GPU. The CPU, with its 5.30 GHz boost clock, is not the bottleneck at 4K, as evidenced by the fact that the FPS drops are solely attributable to resolution. This analysis shows that for this combo, 1440p is the resolution where the balance between CPU and GPU is most favorable, while 4K demands significant compromises on settings to maintain high frame rates.