Minimum

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a highly resolution-dependent experience in Minimum, a third-person shooter from 2014. The benchmark data reveals a system that can comfortably handle 1440p gaming at high refresh rates, but struggles to maintain smooth 4K performance on the highest settings. The measured FPS figures show a clear pattern: the RTX 3080 is the dominant component at lower resolutions, while the i5-9400’s six-core architecture begins to assert its influence as the pixel count increases.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about which component is the limiting factor. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 256.7 FPS, which drops to 170.7 FPS at 1440p and then to 90.6 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 46.9% drop from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is consistent across all settings presets, but the magnitude of the drop increases with higher quality settings.

For the High preset, the descent from 174.2 FPS at 1080p to 110.4 FPS at 1440p represents a 36.6% reduction, and then to 58.2 FPS at 4K is a 47.3% further drop. The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling: 130.8 FPS at 1080p falls to 87.1 FPS at 1440p (33.4% drop), and then plummets to 44.2 FPS at 4K, a 49.2% reduction. This non-linear scaling, where the percentage drop grows as resolution increases, strongly suggests the RTX 3080 is being pushed toward its limits at 4K, whereas at 1080p the GPU has enough headroom that other bottlenecks emerge.

The fact that 1080p to 1440p scaling is similar (around 33-37%) across all presets indicates the GPU is still the primary driver at these resolutions. However, the increasingly severe 4K drops point to a GPU that is running out of pixel-pushing capability, particularly with the demanding Ultra settings. The data implies that players targeting 4K will need to make significant compromises in quality, while 1440p represents the sweet spot where the GPU’s 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth can be fully utilized.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Minimum?*

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 256.7, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 44.2, which is below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for smooth gameplay in a third-person shooter.

Q: Is there a settings preset that keeps FPS above 60 at 1440p?

A: Yes, all four presets at 2560x1440 exceed 60 FPS: High averages 110.4 FPS, Medium 132.9 FPS, Low 170.7 FPS, and even Ultra achieves 87.1 FPS.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 256.7 FPS while Ultra averages 130.8 FPS, a difference of 125.9 FPS or roughly 49% lower performance for Ultra.

Q: How does the RTX 3080’s benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 35787, which is 0.9% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, but 1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: The extremely high 256.7 FPS at 1080p Low indicates the GPU is not the limiting factor; the Intel Core i5-9400’s 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost clock, with 6 cores and 6 threads, likely becomes the constraint at such high frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake-era desktop processor with 6 cores and 6 threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It features a 9 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 7969 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1125 in single-core, placing it at the 50th percentile among all CPUs.

The benchmark data suggests this CPU is adequate for Minimum, but its influence becomes most apparent at 1080p with Low settings. The 256.7 FPS result likely approaches the ceiling of what this six-thread processor can feed to the RTX 3080. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU’s rendering load increases, and the CPU’s role diminishes, as evidenced by the scaling patterns discussed earlier.

The i5-9400’s nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark database include the Intel Core i3-10305 with a score of 2300 (0.2% higher) and the Intel Xeon E-2134 at 2295 (0.4% higher). The CPU’s average benchmark score of 2305 is remarkably close to these alternatives, indicating that swapping to a comparable Intel part would yield negligible differences in Minimum. The lack of multi-threading (6 threads vs. potentially 12 on a comparable i7) could theoretically impact minimum frame rates in busy scenes, but the measured data shows no min FPS values to confirm this.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers outstanding performance across all presets. Low settings produce 256.7 FPS, Medium drops to 205.5 FPS (a 19.9% reduction), High yields 174.2 FPS (32.1% below Low), and Ultra bottoms out at 130.8 FPS (49.0% below Low). Even the lowest figure at 1080p is well above the refresh rate of most mainstream monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the GPU’s workload increasing. Low averages 170.7 FPS, Medium 132.9 FPS, High 110.4 FPS, and Ultra 87.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is now 83.6 FPS, representing a 51.0% performance penalty for Ultra settings. Interestingly, the percentage drops between presets remain relatively consistent with 1080p, suggesting the GPU scales predictably with quality settings.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 3080 begins to show its limits. Low settings still manage 90.6 FPS, but Medium falls to 71.1 FPS, High to 58.2 FPS, and Ultra to 44.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, but High at 4K also fails to hit the 60 FPS mark. This represents a clear boundary: for 4K gaming, players must settle for Medium or Low settings to maintain smoothness.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos for Minimum, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 556th out of 1733 combinations. This places it in the upper third of all tested systems, which is a strong showing given the CPU’s age (released in 2018) and the game’s 2014 release date. The RTX 3080, with its 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs, is clearly the star of this pairing.

The combo rank suggests that while the RTX 3080 is capable of exceptional performance, the i5-9400 holds the system back from the very top rankings. For context, the RTX 3080’s nearest GPU rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (0.9% faster average score) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile (1% slower), which would likely place slightly different combos higher or lower in the rankings. The CPU’s 50th percentile ranking means it is exactly average, and upgrading to a higher-percentile CPU would likely improve the combo’s rank, particularly at 1080p where CPU overhead is more significant.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend entirely on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, Ultra settings are the best choice, as the 130.8 FPS average provides a smooth experience on any monitor, including 144Hz displays. There is no reason to sacrifice quality at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, Ultra settings at 87.1 FPS are still excellent for most gamers, but those with 144Hz monitors might prefer High at 110.4 FPS or Medium at 132.9 FPS. The data shows that High offers a 26.8% FPS increase over Ultra with presumably minimal visual degradation, making it the balanced recommendation.

For 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. Ultra at 44.2 FPS is borderline unplayable for a third-person shooter, and High at 58.2 FPS is still below the 60 FPS target. Medium at 71.1 FPS is the first preset that crosses the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended choice for 4K. Low at 90.6 FPS is viable for competitive play but sacrifices significant visual fidelity. The data clearly indicates that 4K players should use Medium settings as the default, with Low reserved for maximum smoothness.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, based on the GA102 chip with 28,300 million transistors, is a powerhouse that clearly dominates this pairing. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus delivers 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for handling the texture data in Minimum at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 8704 shading units and 272 texture mapping units allow it to process geometry and textures with exceptional speed.

The RTX 3080’s benchmark results reinforce its high-end positioning: it scores 25086 in Passmark G3D and 14397 in Passmark GPU Compute, with a DirectX 12 score of 100 in Passmark. Its 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs means it outperforms 80% of the graphics cards in the database. However, the measured FPS data shows that even this powerful GPU struggles at 4K Ultra in Minimum, dropping to 44.2 FPS.

This suggests that Minimum’s Ultra preset at 4K is exceptionally demanding, possibly due to high-resolution textures or post-processing effects that stress the 10 GB VRAM capacity. The GPU’s boost clock of 1710 MHz and 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute provide ample raw power, but the resolution scaling data indicates that the RTX 3080 hits a wall at 4K with the most demanding settings. For players with 4K displays, the GPU’s capabilities are best utilized with Medium settings, where the 71.1 FPS result demonstrates the card’s ability to maintain smooth performance when not pushed to its absolute limits.