Minimum

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The benchmark data shows that this combination excels at high refresh rates, with the RTX 4070 Ti providing substantial headroom even at demanding resolutions. While the aging six-core CPU lacks the raw multi-threaded muscle of modern processors, its performance is more than sufficient for this title, placing the combo in the 627th position out of 3712 tested combinations. The measured FPS reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but the CPU's influence becomes apparent at 1080p where frame rates approach 300.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 160. This is a significant drop from the 258 FPS average achieved at Low settings, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces substantial graphical overhead.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4070 Ti compared to its nearest rival?

A: According to the benchmark scores, the RTX 4070 Ti has an average score of 44795. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile, has a score of 45152, which is a deltaPct of -0.8, meaning the RTX 4070 Ti is slightly behind. Conversely, it is 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A6000, which has a score of 44075.

Q: What is the performance difference between the i5-9400 and the Intel Core i3-10305?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, while the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264. The deltaPct is -0.4, indicating that the i3-10305 is marginally (0.4%) faster in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Does the game support high refresh rate monitors at 1440p?

A: Yes, the data shows that at 2560x1440 with High settings, the average FPS is 135, which is suitable for a high refresh rate display. Even with the demanding Ultra preset, the average FPS remains at 103.

Q: What is the maximum FPS recorded in the dataset?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 258, at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The maximum FPS captured in any of the measured rows is 270, which occurs at 1080p with Medium settings.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking compared to all other GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ranks in the 84th percentile when compared to all GPUs in the database. This indicates that it performs better than the vast majority of graphics cards tested.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a shared 9 MB L3 cache. Its performance in synthetic benchmarks, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 6629 and a Geekbench multicore score of 5141, places it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs. This indicates a mid-range standing, and in the context of a game like Minimum, its six physical cores without hyper-threading are sufficient to feed the powerful RTX 4070 Ti in most scenarios.

However, the data suggests that the CPU can become a limiting factor at lower resolutions. When the resolution drops to 1920x1080, the GPU's workload decreases, allowing frame rates to climb to an average of 258 FPS on Low settings. At this point, the GPU is rendering frames so quickly that the CPU's ability to process game logic and draw calls is likely the bottleneck. The i5-9400's relative standing against rivals like the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, which is only 0.4% slower, and the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, which is 0.2% faster, shows it is competitive with other older chips, but it lacks the headroom of newer, higher-thread-count processors. This is why, in the most extreme low-resolution cases, the frame rate may not scale perfectly with the GPU's potential.

Despite this, the CPU's performance is more than adequate for a smooth experience. The benchmark results show that even at 2560x1440 with High settings, the system can produce an average of 135 FPS. The CPU's 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are typical for its generation and do not hinder performance in this title. The data implies that for Minimum, the i5-9400 provides a stable foundation, but its age is visible when trying to push frame rates to the absolute maximum at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the 5 nm Ada Lovelace architecture. It features 7680 shading units, 60 RT cores, and 240 tensor cores, with a boost clock of 2610 MHz. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This hardware translates to a Passmark G3D score of 31624 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 213808, placing it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. The data clearly shows this GPU is the primary driver of frame rates in Minimum, with its performance scaling directly with resolution.

The GPU's immense power means that at 1080p, it is often limited by the CPU, but as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 56, a clear sign that the GPU is being pushed to its limits. The transition from Low to Ultra settings at 4K shows a performance cost of 57 FPS, from 113 down to 56, which is a 50% reduction in average frame rate. This demonstrates the significant impact of the Ultra preset's graphical features, such as advanced lighting and shadows, on the GPU's compute and memory resources. The RTX 4070 Ti's 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is harnessed effectively here, but the data suggests that even this powerful card cannot maintain high frame rates at 4K with maximum settings in this title.

The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the RTX 5090 Mobile (0.8% faster) and the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (1.3% faster), are extremely close in synthetic benchmarks, but the RTX 4070 Ti's desktop-class cooling and power delivery allow it to sustain its boost clocks, resulting in the strong measured performance seen in the FPS tables.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance is found at the High preset. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 210 FPS, which is only 48 FPS less than Low but provides significantly better visuals. Moving up to 2560x1440, High still maintains an excellent average of 135 FPS, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors. The jump to Ultra at 1440p yields an average of 103 FPS, which is still playable, but the 32 FPS loss from High may not justify the marginal visual improvements in a fast-paced shooter.

For 4K gaming, the High preset is the recommended choice, producing an average of 73 FPS. This is within the range of smooth, playable frame rates for most users. The Medium preset at 4K offers 87 FPS, which is a 14 FPS improvement over High, but users with G-Sync or FreeSync displays may prefer the higher fidelity of High. The Low preset is not recommended at any resolution, as the visual downgrade is severe, and the performance gains are only necessary when targeting the absolute highest refresh rates, such as the 258 FPS seen at 1080p Low. The Ultra preset is best avoided at 4K, as the 56 FPS average dips below the ideal threshold for competitive play, though it remains smooth for slower-paced exploration.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ranks 627th out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the top 17% of all configurations tested, which is a strong result for a system built around a 2018 CPU and a 2023 GPU. The ranking indicates that the combo performs significantly better than the majority of systems in the database, which likely include older or lower-end hardware.

This high ranking is primarily attributed to the GPU's exceptional performance, as the CPU's 47th percentile standing is below average. The data implies that while the i5-9400 is not a bottleneck for most games at standard resolutions, the pairing with such a high-end GPU boosts the entire system's rank. The performance gap between this combo and those with more modern CPUs is likely small in Minimum, as the game is not heavily multi-threaded. The 627th rank suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti is able to overcome the CPU's limitations to deliver a top-tier experience, but there is headroom for improvement with a newer processor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides a clear picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

At 1920x1080, the system exhibits its highest frame rates:

• Low: 258 FPS average
• Medium: 234 FPS average (with min/max of 199/270)
• High: 210 FPS average
• Ultra: 160 FPS average

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably:

• Low: 211 FPS average
• Medium: 161 FPS average (with min/max of 137/185)
• High: 135 FPS average
• Ultra: 103 FPS average

At 3840x2160, the GPU is fully utilized:

• Low: 113 FPS average
• Medium: 87 FPS average (with min/max of 74/100)
• High: 73 FPS average
• Ultra: 56 FPS average

The Medium preset is the only one that includes min and max FPS data across all resolutions, showing a consistent frame time distribution. For example, at 1080p Medium, the range is 199 to 270 FPS, indicating a variance of 71 FPS, which is typical for a title with dynamic scenes.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals how the system scales with resolution, highlighting the shift in bottleneck from CPU to GPU. Moving from 1080p to 1440p on High settings, the average FPS drops from 210 to 135, a 35.7% decrease. This is a significant drop, but it is expected as the GPU is tasked with rendering 78% more pixels. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is even more pronounced, with the average FPS at High settings falling from 135 to 73, a 45.9% decrease. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is becoming the sole limiting factor, as the CPU's workload remains constant while the GPU's pixel throughput is quadrupled.

At Low settings, the scaling is less severe due to the reduced graphical load. The FPS drops from 258 at 1080p to 211 at 1440p (18.2% decrease) and then to 113 at 4K (46.4% decrease from 1440p). The smaller drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings suggests that the CPU is the primary bottleneck at 1080p Low, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential. This is confirmed by the fact that the drop from 1440p to 4K is nearly identical for both High and Low settings, showing that the GPU is fully saturated at 4K regardless of settings. This analysis implies that for this combo, 1440p is the sweet spot where the CPU and GPU are balanced, while 4K is a pure GPU test.