Minimum

The Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination ranks 2602 out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the lower portion of the database. This rank reflects a pairing where the CPU is far stronger than the GPU in synthetic workloads, yet the measured frame rates show the system still delivers playable performance at most settings, with clear GPU-bound behavior emerging at higher resolutions and quality presets. Benchmark results indicate this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it exceeds 60 FPS across all settings, while 4K Ultra demands too much from the RTX 2060 SUPER.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 2602 out of 3712 places it in roughly the 30th percentile of all tested pairings in Minimum. This is a modest standing, driven primarily by the GPU’s mid-range position rather than the CPU’s capabilities. The RTX 2060 SUPER holds a percentile of 62 against all GPUs, meaning it outperforms 62% of the graphics cards in the database, but it sits near the bottom of its own nearest rival group. Its average benchmark score of 18093 is only 0.4% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (18159), 0.5% below the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (18189), 1.5% below the AMD Radeon RX 460 (18373), and 1.6% below the Intel Arc A770M (18383). These are tight margins, showing the RTX 2060 SUPER is competitive with those parts in raw compute, but none of them are high-end cards.

The CPU, by contrast, is a much stronger component. The Core i7-12700K has an 84th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35287. Its nearest rivals are extremely close: the Intel Core i5-13600T (35305, -0.1%), the Intel Core i7-12700KF (35365, -0.2%), the Intel Core i7-13700T (35403, -0.3%), and the Intel Core 5 213PE (35428, -0.4%). The i7-12700K is effectively tied with these parts, all within a fraction of a percent. This contrast—an 84th-percentile CPU paired with a 62nd-percentile GPU—explains why the combo ranks where it does: the GPU becomes the performance ceiling in most gaming scenarios.

In Minimum, the data shows that the combo’s rank is not a reflection of CPU inadequacy. Synthetic CPU benchmarks like Cinebench R23 multi-core (19784) and Geekbench multi-core (15790) demonstrate substantial processing power. The CPU’s 3DMark scores scale cleanly from 2 threads (2065) to 16 threads (9276) to max threads (9979), indicating strong multi-threading. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 16462 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011 are respectable but not exceptional. The bottleneck is clear: the RTX 2060 SUPER limits high-resolution performance, dragging the combo’s overall rank down despite the CPU’s strength.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the TU106 chip using TSMC’s 12 nm process, with 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. The GPU’s base clock is 1470 MHz, boosting to 1650 MHz. With 2176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, the card also includes 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, making it a DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) capable part. Its pixel rate is 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate is 224.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 7.181 TFLOPS.

In Minimum, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution and settings increase. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 170 FPS average, but at 1080p Ultra, that drops to 83 FPS—a 51% reduction from Low to Ultra. This scaling is typical of a GPU that handles lower settings with ease but struggles when pixel shading and memory bandwidth demands rise. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game’s tested settings, as no VRAM-related stutters or crashes are indicated in the data, but the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a limiting factor at 4K. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS falls to 29, which is below the 30 FPS threshold often considered minimally playable. Even at 4K Medium, the average is 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS, showing the GPU is working near its limits.

The RTX 2060 SUPER’s benchmark data reinforces this. Its PassMark G3D score of 16462 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 77402 are mid-range figures. In DirectX 12 (PassMark score 61) and DirectX 11 (PassMark score 130), the card performs adequately for a 2019 part. The GPU’s 62nd percentile ranking means it sits above most cards but far below high-end options. In Minimum, the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates at resolutions above 1080p, and even at 1080p, it caps Ultra settings at 83 FPS, which is well below the CPU’s potential.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode and has 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes. The CPU’s TDP is 125 W, and it includes integrated UHD Graphics 770, though the discrete GPU handles all rendering in this test. The launch MSRP is $409, but pricing is not a factor in this analysis.

Synthetic benchmarks show a powerful processor. Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 19784, while single-core scores 1850.5. Geekbench multi-core is 15790 and single-core is 2308. PassMark multi-thread scores 34404, with single-thread at 4013. The 3DMark scores demonstrate scalability: 2 threads (2065), 4 threads (4011), 8 threads (7202), 16 threads (9276), and max threads (9979). This scaling suggests the CPU can feed even demanding GPUs, but in this combo, the RTX 2060 SUPER does not require that level of throughput.

In Minimum, the CPU’s role is to avoid becoming a bottleneck, and the data confirms it does. At 1080p Low, the system hits 170 FPS, which is high enough that CPU overhead could matter, but the frame rate is still GPU-limited. The CPU’s 84th percentile ranking and its close rivalry with the Core i5-13600T (delta -0.1%) and Core i7-12700KF (delta -0.2%) indicate it is not the weak link. Even at 4K Ultra, where FPS drops to 29, the CPU is not the cause; the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are insufficient. The CPU’s high single-thread performance (Cinebench R15 single-core 272, PassMark single-thread 4013) ensures that the game’s main thread is well-served, but the RTX 2060 SUPER cannot translate that into higher frame rates at high resolutions.

The CPU also has headroom for future GPU upgrades, as its benchmarks far exceed what the RTX 2060 SUPER can utilize in most scenarios. For instance, the CPU’s PassMark data compression score of 446595 and floating-point math score of 88035 show computational strength that is irrelevant to frame rates in this pairing. The measured FPS data in Minimum never indicates a CPU bottleneck: FPS scales predictably with resolution and settings, which is the signature of a GPU-limited system.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 170 FPS, Medium averages 130 FPS with a minimum of 111 and maximum of 150, High averages 109 FPS, and Ultra averages 83 FPS. All settings at 1080p exceed 60 FPS, making this resolution the sweet spot. The step from Low to Medium costs 40 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 21 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 26 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that Ultra settings impose significant shading and texture loads that the GPU struggles to maintain.

At 2560x1440, performance drops but remains playable. Low averages 110 FPS, Medium averages 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 and maximum of 97, High averages 71 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The 1440p results show a similar pattern: Low to Medium costs 26 FPS, Medium to High costs 13 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 17 FPS. The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium (71) matches the average FPS at 1440p High, indicating variability in frame times at higher settings. Ultra at 1440p falls below 60 FPS, which may be noticeable in a third-person shooter where smooth camera movement matters.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overmatched. Low averages 59 FPS, Medium averages 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 and maximum of 52, High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 29 FPS. Only Low settings achieve near-60 FPS at 4K, and even that is marginal. The Medium preset’s minimum of 38 FPS shows that frame drops are significant, while Ultra’s 29 FPS average is below playable thresholds for many users. The 4K data confirms that the RTX 2060 SUPER’s 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for this game’s highest quality settings at that resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset includes min and max FPS data, allowing for a closer look at frame consistency. At 1080p Medium, the range is 111 to 150 FPS, a 39 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range is 71 to 97 FPS, a 26 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range is 38 to 52 FPS, a 14 FPS spread. The narrowing range as resolution increases suggests that the GPU is more consistently loaded at higher resolutions, but the average FPS drops correspondingly.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across settings. At Low settings, 1080p averages 170 FPS, 1440p averages 110 FPS, and 4K averages 59 FPS. This represents a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 65% drop from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, 1080p averages 109 FPS, 1440p averages 71 FPS, and 4K averages 38 FPS—a 35% drop to 1440p and a 65% drop to 4K, matching the Low scaling pattern. At Ultra settings, 1080p averages 83 FPS, 1440p averages 54 FPS, and 4K averages 29 FPS: a 35% drop to 1440p and a 65% drop to 4K.

This consistent scaling indicates a GPU-bound system. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would not drop proportionally with resolution, because CPU workload is largely independent of pixel count. The fact that 4K averages are roughly 35% of 1080p averages across all settings shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the bottleneck. The GPU’s rendering throughput, measured at 7.181 TFLOPS FP32 and 105.6 GPixel/s pixel rate, determines how many pixels can be processed per frame, and doubling resolution from 1080p to 4K quadruples the pixel count, which explains the dramatic FPS reduction.

The data also reveals that settings have a larger relative impact at lower resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra (83 FPS) is 49% of Low (170 FPS), whereas at 4K, Ultra (29 FPS) is 49% of Low (59 FPS). This similarity suggests that the GPU’s compute units are the primary constraint, not memory bandwidth, since the proportional cost of Ultra settings remains constant across resolutions. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for the game’s data at all tested settings, but the shading units and ROPs (64) limit pixel output. The 64 ROPs are particularly telling: at 4K, there are 8.3 million pixels per frame, and with 64 ROPs, the fill rate becomes a limiting factor, consistent with the observed 29 FPS at Ultra.

The limiting component is therefore the GPU. The CPU’s performance, while strong, does not need to be fully utilized in Minimum at these settings. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is entirely consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, and the CPU’s 84th percentile ranking versus the GPU’s 62nd percentile confirms which part is the ceiling. For users seeking higher 4K performance, a stronger GPU would be required, as the i7-12700K has ample headroom.

FAQ

*Q: What is the combo’s overall rank in Minimum?*

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination ranks 2602 out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the lower half of the database.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 18093, which is 0.4% below the RTX 3060 Mobile (18159), 0.5% below the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (18189), 1.5% below the AMD Radeon RX 460 (18373), and 1.6% below the Intel Arc A770M (18383).

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

A: At 4K, only Low settings achieve near-60 FPS (59 FPS average). Medium averages 45 FPS, High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 29 FPS, so 4K is only viable at Low settings.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 1080p is the best resolution, as all settings exceed 60 FPS: Low (170), Medium (130), High (109), and Ultra (83). At 1440p, Ultra drops to 54 FPS, so 1080p is recommended for consistent high frame rates.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU holds an 84th percentile ranking, while the GPU holds a 62nd percentile ranking. FPS scales consistently with resolution (35% drop from 1080p to 1440p, 65% drop to 4K), indicating GPU-bound performance.

Q: How much FPS difference is there between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 170 FPS and Ultra averages 83 FPS, a difference of 87 FPS or 51% lower performance at Ultra compared to Low.