Minimum

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a solid 1080p gaming experience in Minimum, but the data shows that pushing to higher resolutions requires careful settings management. At 1080p, the combo easily clears 60 FPS on every preset, making it a capable choice for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the performance curve flattens significantly at 4K, where even the Medium preset struggles to maintain a smooth frame rate. This analysis breaks down the measured results, offering practical settings guidance and a detailed look at where this combination excels and where it hits its limits.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for the best experience with this hardware. For 1080p gaming, the Ultra preset is the sweet spot, delivering an average of 84.4 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and leaves headroom for demanding scenes. While the Low preset pushes the average to 168.5 FPS, the visual fidelity loss is generally not worth the extra frames unless you are chasing maximum refresh rates on a 144Hz+ monitor. The High preset at 108.3 FPS is a strong alternative, but Ultra offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for most users.

Moving to 1440p, the situation changes. The High preset is the recommended choice, hitting an average of 67.6 FPS. This is playable, but the Ultra preset drops to 56.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset at 81.3 FPS is viable if you prefer smoother motion over maxed-out details, but High provides the best visual-per-frame trade-off. At 4K, the data paints a different picture. No preset achieves a playable 60 FPS. The Low preset is the only option that comes close, with an average of 58.8 FPS. While technically playable, this is borderline. The Medium and High presets (47.9 and 40.9 FPS) are too choppy for a third-person shooter, and Ultra (31.2 FPS) is a slideshow. For 4K, the recommendation is to use the Low preset and accept the compromise, or consider lowering the resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 1230th out of 1733 tested combos for Minimum. This places it in the lower third of all possible pairings. The ranking reflects the overall performance ceiling of the i5-9400 and RX 6600 XT when working together. While the GPU is a strong performer on its own — sitting at the 71st percentile among all GPUs — the six-core, six-thread CPU from 2018 is a limiting factor in this game. The combo's performance is not bad, but it is far from top-tier. The data suggests that this pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming, where the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, but the overall ranking still shows that many other combinations will deliver higher frame rates.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Minimum at 4K with playable frame rates?*

A: The data shows that only the Low preset at 4K comes close to playable, with an average of 58.8 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 47.9 FPS, and High falls to 40.9 FPS, which are not smooth for a shooter.

Q: What is the best preset for a 144Hz monitor at 1080p?

A: The Low preset is the only option that exceeds 144 FPS, averaging 168.5 FPS. The High preset at 108.3 FPS and Ultra at 84.4 FPS will not fully saturate a 144Hz display, so you would need to use Low for maximum frame rates.

Q: How does the RX 6600 XT's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: According to the passmark benchmark data, the RX 6600 XT's average score of 27985 is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti and 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon R9 M395X. It is 0.9% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more responsible for the frame rate drop at 4K?

A: The data indicates a GPU bottleneck at 4K. At 1080p, the CPU can feed frames quickly (168.5 FPS on Low), but at 4K, the GPU's workload increases dramatically, causing the average FPS to drop to 58.8 on Low. The CPU's performance is not the limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: What is the CPU's single-core performance score?

A: In Cinebench R23, the Intel Core i5-9400 scores 1125 in the single-core test and 7969 in the multi-core test. This indicates a modest single-threaded capability, which can affect game performance in CPU-bound scenarios.

Q: Does the combo rank well compared to all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1230th out of 1733 total combinations, placing it in the lower third. This suggests that while it is a functional pairing, other combinations of CPUs and GPUs deliver better overall performance in Minimum.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates reveal a consistent pattern across all resolutions. At 1080p, the combo performs admirably, with the Low preset achieving an average of 168.5 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 128.2 FPS, High at 108.3 FPS, and Ultra at 84.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 84.1 FPS, showing a significant performance cost for maximum visual fidelity. This resolution is clearly where the hardware is most comfortable.

At 1440p, the averages drop across the board. The Low preset still manages a strong 110.3 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate gaming. The Medium preset delivers 81.3 FPS, while High falls to 67.6 FPS. The Ultra preset is the first to dip below 60 FPS, averaging just 56.5 FPS. The performance delta between Low and Ultra here is 53.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU is starting to feel the pressure from the higher pixel count.

At 4K, the results are much more constrained. The Low preset is the only one that approaches a playable level, with an average of 58.8 FPS. The Medium preset averages 47.9 FPS, High drops to 40.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 31.2 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 27.6 FPS, which is a smaller absolute gap than at lower resolutions, but the starting point is already too low for comfortable gameplay. The data shows that this combo is not designed for 4K gaming in Minimum.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep, and it clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting component at higher resolutions. Looking at the High preset, the average FPS drops from 108.3 at 1080p to 67.6 at 1440p, a reduction of 37.6%. Moving to 4K, the average falls to 40.9 FPS, a further 39.5% drop from 1440p. This is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RX 6600 XT's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are not sufficient to feed the massive pixel count at 4K.

The Low preset shows a similar trend. It starts at 168.5 FPS at 1080p, drops to 110.3 FPS at 1440p (a 34.5% decrease), and then falls to 58.8 FPS at 4K (a 46.7% decrease). The percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is larger than from 1080p to 1440p, which suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline becomes increasingly saturated as resolution increases. The CPU, with its six cores and six threads, is not the primary constraint here. If it were, we would see a smaller drop in FPS as resolution increases, since the CPU workload would remain constant. Instead, the data shows that the GPU's performance is the deciding factor for this game at 1440p and 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 7969 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1125 in single-core tests. These scores place the CPU at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, indicating a mid-range performer.

In Minimum, the CPU's role becomes evident at 1080p, where it can keep up with the GPU's frame output. The fact that the Low preset at 1080p achieves 168.5 FPS shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution and settings level. However, the combo's overall rank of 1230th out of 1733 suggests that the CPU's six threads may limit performance in more CPU-intensive scenes or when paired with a faster GPU. The data shows that the CPU is adequate for this game at 1080p and 1440p, but it does not provide the headroom needed to push the GPU to its limits at higher resolutions, where the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The i5-9400's single-core score of 1125 is modest, but it is sufficient for the frame rates observed in the measured results.