Minimum

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB delivers a playable experience in Minimum, a 2014 Third-Person Shooter, but the data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics card at higher settings. The measured frames per second (FPS) across resolutions and presets paint a clear picture: this combination is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can achieve high refresh rates, while 4K Ultra is a slideshow.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, the High preset at 1920x1080 is the clear recommendation. The data shows an average of 78.8 FPS at this setting, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for fluid action in a third-person shooter. While the Low preset achieves a significantly higher 122 FPS, the jump to Medium (94.6 FPS) and then to High (78.8 FPS) suggests that the performance cost of increasing quality is not prohibitive until the final step to Ultra.

The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 61.5 FPS, which is technically playable, but the 17.3 FPS drop from High to Ultra represents a 22% performance penalty. Given that the game is from 2014, the visual difference between High and Ultra is likely less impactful than the frame rate difference. Therefore, High offers the most stable and visually rich experience without sacrificing responsiveness. At higher resolutions, the data suggests a different strategy. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the most sensible choice, producing 60.7 FPS and maintaining playability. The High preset at this resolution drops to 48.6 FPS, which begins to feel less smooth. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only manages 45 FPS, indicating that 4K gaming is not a viable option for this hardware in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark results place this specific component combination at rank 1559 out of 1733 tested combos for Minimum. This is a low-ranking position, placing it in the bottom 10% of systems tested. This ranking is a strong indicator that, while the system can run the game, it does so with significantly less headroom than most other configurations in the database. The percentile data for the individual components reinforces this. The CPU sits at the 50th percentile, meaning it performs better than half of all CPUs in the database. The GPU also holds a 50th percentile position. However, the combined result is a rank that suggests the pairing is not optimized for this specific game, likely due to the GPU's limited 4 GB of VRAM and modest memory bandwidth, which become bottlenecks in more demanding scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is the primary determinant of performance in Minimum, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. Its memory configuration is a critical factor: 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s. The data shows a steep performance cliff when moving from 1080p to 4K, which strongly suggests that the GPU's memory capacity and bandwidth are being overwhelmed. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 20.4, a figure that is unplayable and indicates the card is struggling to manage the texture and geometry data required at that resolution.

The GPU's clock speeds are modest, with a base of 1545 MHz and a boost of 1740 MHz. The FP32 performance of 7.127 TFLOPS is the raw compute power available. However, the measured FPS suggests that raw compute is not the limiting factor; rather, the memory subsystem is. The performance delta between the Low and Ultra presets at 4K (45 FPS vs 20.4 FPS) shows how quickly the card's limitations are exposed as the rendering load increases. This points to the 4 GB VRAM as a significant bottleneck, as modern and even older titles with high-resolution textures can exceed this capacity, forcing the system to use slower system memory.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete matrix of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the system shows its strength. The Low preset achieves a smooth 122 FPS, while Medium reaches 94.6 FPS. High is still very playable at 78.8 FPS, and even Ultra maintains a playable 61.5 FPS. This resolution is clearly where the combination thrives, with all presets providing a playable experience.

At 2560x1440, the strain becomes apparent. The Low preset drops to 76.6 FPS, still a good result. Medium is the last playable tier at 60.7 FPS. The High preset falls to 48.6 FPS, which is noticeably less smooth, and Ultra plummets to 37.9 FPS, which is approaching unplayable territory for a fast-paced game.

At 3840x2160, the system is out of its depth. The Low preset yields 45 FPS, which is borderline. Medium drops to 32 FPS, High to 25.8 FPS, and Ultra to a stuttery 20.4 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is severe, with the 1080p High average of 78.8 FPS falling to just 25.8 FPS at 4K High, a reduction of 53 FPS. This data highlights that the RTX 3050 4 GB is fundamentally a 1080p-class card for this game.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo in Minimum?*

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution. All four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) achieve average FPS above 60, with the Low preset reaching as high as 122 FPS.

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

A: It is not recommended. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only manages an average of 45 FPS. The Ultra preset produces a very low 20.4 FPS, indicating the GPU is heavily bottlenecked at this resolution.

Q: How does the system perform at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the experience is mixed. The Medium preset is the highest playable option at 60.7 FPS. The High preset at 48.6 FPS and Ultra at 37.9 FPS are too low for a smooth experience.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The average FPS drops from 122 on Low to 61.5 on Ultra, a difference of 60.5 FPS. This shows that the Ultra preset cuts the frame rate nearly in half compared to Low.

Q: Is the CPU a limiting factor in this game?

A: The CPU, with 6 cores and 6 threads boosting up to 4.10 GHz, has a benchmark score that places it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs. The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as performance scales dramatically with resolution and settings changes.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This specific combo ranks 1559th out of 1733 tested combinations in Minimum. This places it in the lower tier of systems, indicating it is less capable than the vast majority of tested hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 serves as a capable foundation for this system. It is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its benchmark results, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125, place it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs. This indicates it is an average performer, not a high-end part, but it is far from a weak link.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The evidence is in the FPS scaling. When the resolution is increased from 1080p to 4K, the FPS drops dramatically, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions. The fact that 1080p Low yields 122 FPS but 4K Low yields only 45 FPS shows that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at 1080p, but the GPU cannot handle the increased pixel workload at higher resolutions. The CPU is providing enough performance to avoid being the primary constraint at lower settings, but it is not a high-end part, as its 50th percentile ranking and comparison to rivals like the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.2% faster) and Intel Xeon E-2134 (0.4% faster) show.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a precipitous decline in performance as resolution increases, which is a clear indicator of the system's bottleneck. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at the High preset reduces the average FPS from 78.8 to 48.6, a 38% decrease. Scaling further to 3840x2160 at the same preset brings the FPS down to 25.8, a 67% decrease from the 1080p result. This non-linear drop is the signature of a GPU that is running out of memory bandwidth and capacity.

The scaling pattern across all presets is consistent: the RTX 3050 4 GB is simply overwhelmed by the pixel count at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the card has enough headroom to render the scene. At 1440p, it begins to struggle, and at 4K, it is completely saturated, resulting in frame rates that are not suitable for gameplay. The 192.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is insufficient for the data throughput required at 4K, and the 4 GB VRAM likely forces texture swapping, further degrading performance. This data implies that the limiting component is unequivocally the GPU, and any attempt to play Minimum at high resolutions would require a more powerful graphics card with more memory.