Minimum

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread desktop processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. It runs at a 2.90 GHz base clock and boosts up to 4.10 GHz, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache and 256 KB of L2 per core. In the context of Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter, this CPU's configuration is more than adequate for the game's engine, which was designed around that era's hardware. The data confirms this: at 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 234 FPS average, which is a strong indicator that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do.

The i5-9400's benchmark scores place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avg score 2259, delta -0.2%), the Intel Core i7-10710U (avg score 2248, delta 0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (avg score 2246, delta 0.4%). These deltas are all within half a percent, meaning the i5-9400 sits in a tightly clustered performance band. In single-threaded workloads, which matter most for older games like Minimum, the CPU scores 935 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 1389 in Geekbench single-core. These are modest figures by modern standards, but Minimum's engine does not demand high core counts or massive thread counts; it relies more on consistent single-core throughput.

At 1080p with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 115, while at 1440p Ultra it falls to 74. The pattern shows that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes more dominant, but the CPU still holds up. The fact that the i5-9400 has six physical cores without hyper-threading means it can handle the game's background tasks and physics without stuttering, but the 47th percentile ranking suggests it is not a high-end part. For Minimum specifically, the CPU's 4.10 GHz boost clock ensures that the game's main thread has enough headroom. The measured data shows no min FPS values for most settings, but the Medium preset at 1080p reports a min of 153 FPS, which indicates no severe frame drops even when the CPU is under load.

The i5-9400's memory support is DDR4 dual-channel with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth, which is ample for a game of this era. The PCIe Gen 3 x16 interface is also sufficient for the RX 7700 XT, though the GPU supports PCIe 4.0. The CPU's 65W TDP is low, but that is a power figure, not a performance metric. What matters for Minimum is that the six cores are all fully utilized at lower settings, and the data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 234 FPS. That number is likely CPU-limited on the upper end, but it is far above playable thresholds. In short, the i5-9400 provides a stable foundation for this game, with enough single-core speed to avoid being the limiting factor at 1080p, while at higher resolutions the GPU takes over as the primary driver of performance.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data covers four presets at three resolutions: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 234 FPS average, Medium delivers 179 FPS (with a min of 153 and max of 206), High delivers 151 FPS, and Ultra delivers 115 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p is the sweet spot: it provides a 47% FPS uplift over High (179 vs 151) while still maintaining a high minimum frame rate of 153, which ensures smooth gameplay. The jump from Medium to Low is larger (179 to 234, a 31% increase), but the visual quality loss is significant, and the min FPS for Low is not reported, making it harder to validate consistency. Ultra at 1080p drops to 115 FPS, which is still playable, but the gap from High to Ultra is 24% (151 to 115), and the visual improvements in a 2014 game are marginal.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 116 FPS average with a min of 98 and max of 133. This is the only preset at this resolution that reports min/max values, and the min of 98 FPS is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play. High at 1440p drops to 97 FPS, which is close to the Medium's min, while Low hits 151 FPS and Ultra falls to 74 FPS. The recommendation here is Medium at 1440p: it offers 116 FPS average, which is 19 FPS higher than High (97) and 42 FPS higher than Ultra (74). The min frame rate of 98 FPS ensures no noticeable stutter, making this the best balance of visual quality and performance.

At 4K, the Medium preset delivers 62 FPS average with a min of 53 and max of 72. This is the only playable preset at 4K, as High drops to 52 FPS, Low hits 81 FPS, and Ultra falls to 40 FPS. The Medium preset's min of 53 FPS is just below the 60 FPS ideal, but it remains above the 30 FPS playable floor. Low at 4K delivers 81 FPS, which is smoother, but the visual quality is heavily reduced. For the best experience at 4K, Medium is the recommended preset because it maintains a reasonable average FPS while keeping the min above 50. The data suggests that Medium is the optimal preset across all resolutions: at 1080p it provides 179 FPS, at 1440p it provides 116 FPS, and at 4K it provides 62 FPS. This consistency makes Medium the default recommendation for this combo.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of this combo at higher resolutions. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 179 at 1080p to 116 at 1440p (a 35% decrease) and then to 62 at 4K (a 47% decrease from 1440p, or 65% from 1080p). This steep decline indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the primary limiting component as resolution increases. The CPU's role diminishes at higher resolutions because the GPU has to render more pixels, and the i5-9400's six cores are sufficient to feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

At High settings, the scaling is similar: 151 FPS at 1080p, 97 FPS at 1440p (a 36% drop), and 52 FPS at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets confirms that the GPU is the dominant constraint. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 234 at 1080p to 151 at 1440p (a 35% drop) and then to 81 at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). This pattern holds even at Low, where the CPU has more headroom, suggesting that the RX 7700 XT's pixel throughput is the limiting factor.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 115 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p (a 36% drop), and 40 FPS at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). At 4K Ultra, the combo falls below 60 FPS, indicating that the GPU cannot handle the highest settings at this resolution. The 4K Low preset delivers 81 FPS, which is the only way to achieve smooth gameplay at 4K, but even that is a 65% drop from the 1080p Low figure. The data clearly shows that the RX 7700 XT, despite having 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth, is not powerful enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K with this CPU. The limiting component shifts from CPU at 1080p (where 234 FPS suggests some CPU constraint) to GPU at 1440p and 4K, where the FPS drops are proportional to the pixel count increase.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ranks 1392 out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 37.5% of all configurations. This rank is respectable, given that the CPU is in the 47th percentile of all CPUs and the GPU is in the 67th percentile of all GPUs. The combo's ranking suggests that the GPU's strength compensates for the CPU's mid-range position, resulting in a solid overall performance for this game.

The GPU's nearest rivals provide context: the RX 7700 XT (avg benchmark score 22549) is 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (22435), 0.8% behind the RTX 4060 Mobile (22729), and 1.5% behind the RTX 2080 (22895). These small deltas indicate that the RX 7700 XT is competitive with last-generation high-end GPUs and current mid-range mobile parts. The CPU's nearest rivals show a similar clustering: the i5-9400 (2254) is 0.2% behind the i7-1068NG7 (2259), 0.3% ahead of the i7-10710U (2248), and 0.4% ahead of the Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246).

The combo rank of 1392 out of 3712 (62.5% of combos are faster) reflects the balanced nature of this pairing. A faster CPU would likely push the combo higher in the rankings at 1080p, where the data shows 234 FPS on Low, but at 4K the GPU is the bottleneck, so a better CPU would not improve the 52 FPS High result. Conversely, a faster GPU would significantly improve 4K performance, as evidenced by the 62 FPS Medium result at 4K. The ranking indicates that this combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can achieve high frame rates, rather than 4K, where it falls short of 60 FPS on most presets.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 1435 MHz, a boost clock of 2544 MHz, and a game clock of 2171 MHz. With 3456 shading units, 216 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, the RX 7700 XT offers 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. These specifications explain its 67th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 22549.

For Minimum, the GPU's 12 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient, as the game's textures are modest by modern standards. The 432.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures that the GPU can feed its 96 ROPs efficiently, which is critical for pixel-heavy resolutions like 4K. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K: at Ultra settings, it drops to 40 FPS, while at Low it reaches 81 FPS. This 2x difference between Low and Ultra at 4K highlights the GPU's fill-rate limitations at high resolutions.

The RX 7700 XT's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are the RTX 5060 Mobile (22435, 0.5% slower), the RTX 4060 Mobile (22729, 0.8% faster), and the RTX 2080 (22895, 1.5% faster). These comparisons show that the RX 7700 XT is competitive with these GPUs, but the 4K performance in Minimum suggests that its 192-bit memory bus and 12 GB VRAM are not enough to maintain high frame rates at that resolution. The GPU's pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s are strong on paper, but the 4K Ultra result of 40 FPS indicates that the GPU's compute throughput is the bottleneck.

At 1080p, the GPU is less stressed, and the combo achieves 234 FPS on Low, which is likely CPU-limited. The 115 FPS on Ultra at 1080p shows that the GPU can handle the game's highest settings at lower resolutions. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure that it can run Minimum with all modern APIs, though the game's 2014 release date means it likely uses older DirectX versions. The 245W TDP and dual-slot design are physical characteristics, but the performance data is what matters: the RX 7700 XT provides a strong 1080p and 1440p experience, with 4K being a compromise at Medium settings or below.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for this combo at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 116 FPS average with a min of 98 FPS, making it the best balance. High drops to 97 FPS, and Ultra falls to 74 FPS.

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, but only on Low settings (81 FPS) or Medium settings (62 FPS). High averages 52 FPS, and Ultra averages 40 FPS, both below 60.

Q: How does the RX 7700 XT compare to the RTX 2080 in benchmark scores?

A: The RX 7700 XT has an average benchmark score of 22549, which is 1.5% lower than the RTX 2080's 22895.

Q: Is the i5-9400 a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo hits 234 FPS, suggesting some CPU limitation. At 1080p Medium, the 179 FPS result indicates the CPU still provides enough headroom.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1392 out of 3712, placing it in the top 37.5% of all tested combos in Minimum.

Q: Does the GPU's 12 GB VRAM matter for this game?

A: Minimum's 2014-era textures do not require 12 GB, but the VRAM capacity ensures no texture loading issues at any resolution, with the GPU's bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s being more relevant for 4K performance.