Minimum

# Minimum — Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050

This combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 delivers a playable but uneven experience in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter from 2014. The pairing ranks 1764th out of 2939 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. The CPU is a high-end 12th Gen part with substantial headroom, while the GPU is a modest entry-level Blackwell chip, and the measured frame rates show exactly where that bottleneck sits: at 4K the combo falls below 60 FPS on every preset, while at 1080p it comfortably exceeds 100 FPS on most settings. The data indicates a system that can handle the game at high refresh rates on standard monitors but struggles at 4K, making resolution choice the single most important decision for owners of this pairing.

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

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor built on the Alder Lake architecture with a 10 nm process. Its base clock runs at 3.60 GHz and boosts to 5.00 GHz, and it carries 25 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 1.25 MB of L2 per core and 80 KB of L1 per core. This is a desktop part with a 125 W TDP, supporting both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and it connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes from the CPU alone. The processor's 3DMark scores tell a clear story: 9,276 in the 16-thread test, 7,202 in the 8-thread test, and 9,979 at max threads, while single-thread performance sits at 1,043. Cinebench R23 results show 19,784 multi-core and 1,850.5 single-core, and Geekbench reports 15,790 multi-core and 2,308 single-core.

In the context of Minimum, this CPU is far more capable than the game requires. The game launched in 2014, and the i7-12700K's single-thread score of 4,013 in PassMark and 1,850.5 in Cinebench R23 place it well above the threshold for older titles. The benchmark data supports this: the CPU's percentile versus all CPUs sits at 84, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of processors in the database. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-13600T at a 0.1% lower average score, the Intel Core i7-12700KF at 0.2% lower, the Intel Core i7-13700T at 0.3% lower, and the Intel Core 5 213PE at 0.4% lower — all essentially identical in aggregate performance. However, the measured FPS in Minimum shows that even this strong CPU cannot overcome GPU limitations at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 179 FPS, which suggests the CPU is feeding the GPU adequately; but at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 30 FPS, a figure that points squarely at the GPU as the limiting factor rather than the processor. The CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom for the game's threading model, and the data shows no CPU-bound behavior even at the lowest settings where FPS peaks.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is an 8 GB GDDR6 card with a 128-bit memory bus and 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2317 MHz with a boost of 2572 MHz, and memory runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). The GPU is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process, featuring 2,560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, 32 ROPs, 20 ray tracing cores, and 80 tensor cores. Its compute performance reaches 13.17 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16, with pixel rate at 82.30 GPixel/s and texture rate at 205.8 GTexel/s. The card draws 130 W and requires a 300 W power supply, connecting via PCIe 5.0 x8.

The RTX 5050's benchmark scores place it at the 66th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21,035. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL at 0.6% lower, the AMD Radeon HD 8970M at 1% lower, the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT at 1.6% higher, and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile at 1.6% lower. These are not modern high-end parts — the RX 5600 XT is a mid-range card from 2019 — which contextualizes the RTX 5050's position as an entry-level option. In Minimum, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM appears sufficient for the game's demands, as even at 4K Ultra the bottleneck manifests as raw compute limits rather than memory exhaustion. The measured FPS across settings shows a clear pattern: at 4K, the GPU delivers 62 FPS on Low, 48 FPS on Medium, 40 FPS on High, and 30 FPS on Ultra. The step from Low to Ultra at 4K cuts performance by more than half, indicating that the GPU's shading units and ROPs are the limiting resource. The 32 ROPs are notably low for a modern card, and this directly impacts fill-rate-heavy scenarios at high resolutions. At 1080p, the GPU performs much better, with 179 FPS on Low and 88 FPS on Ultra, showing that the card can handle the game when pixel count is reduced.

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

The resolution scaling data reveals a GPU-bound system at every setting tier. At Low settings, the combo delivers 179 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 116 FPS at 1440p and 62 FPS at 4K. That represents a 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K, a stark decline that highlights the RTX 5050's limited pixel throughput. At Medium settings, the numbers are 137 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p, and 48 FPS at 4K — again a roughly 65% drop. At High settings, 115 FPS at 1080p falls to 74 FPS at 1440p and 40 FPS at 4K, a 65% decrease. At Ultra settings, 88 FPS at 1080p drops to 57 FPS at 1440p and 30 FPS at 4K, a 66% reduction.

The consistency of these drops across all four settings presets is telling. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat when resolution increases, as the processor would be maxed out regardless of pixel count. Instead, the data shows a proportional decline with resolution, which is the signature of a GPU-limited workload. The i7-12700K's strong single-thread and multi-thread scores, combined with the fact that even at 1080p Low the CPU is not preventing 179 FPS, confirm that the processor is not the constraint. The RTX 5050's 128-bit memory bus and 320 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p but become strained at 1440p and especially 4K, where the pixel count quadruples from 1080p. The 4K Ultra result of 30 FPS is particularly telling — it is exactly half of the 1440p Ultra result of 57 FPS, suggesting a linear scaling that points to pure pixel fill-rate limits rather than any memory or cache bottleneck. For users targeting 4K, the data indicates that even Low settings only reach 62 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and far from the refresh rates common on modern displays.

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

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 137 FPS average with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 158 FPS. This is the sweet spot: it provides a significant jump over High's 115 FPS and Ultra's 88 FPS, while maintaining a comfortable margin above 60 FPS even in the worst-case minimum frame time. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 42 FPS (from 179 to 137), but the visual improvement from Low to Medium is typically substantial in a 2014 title, making Medium the recommended choice for most users. At 1440p, Medium again stands out with 88 FPS average and a minimum of 75 FPS, which stays above the 60 FPS threshold. High at 1440p drops to 74 FPS, and Ultra falls to 57 FPS, which dips below 60 FPS and may introduce stutter on standard 60 Hz monitors. At 4K, no preset achieves a consistently smooth experience: Low hits 62 FPS, Medium 48 FPS, High 40 FPS, and Ultra 30 FPS. The 4K Medium result of 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS is playable on adaptive sync displays but falls short of the 60 FPS target. For the best balance of visual quality and performance across resolutions, Medium is the clear winner — it is the only preset that stays above 60 FPS at both 1080p and 1440p while providing more detail than Low. At 4K, users must accept either Low for near-60 FPS or Medium for better visuals at the cost of smoothness.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1764th out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 60th percentile of all pairings in the database. This rank is surprisingly low given the CPU's 84th percentile standing and the GPU's 66th percentile, suggesting that the pairing is held back by the GPU's modest performance relative to other combos that pair stronger graphics cards with mid-range CPUs. The rank indicates that the i7-12700K is not the differentiator here — many combos with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs outperform this pairing in this specific game. The CPU's nearest rivals — the i5-13600T, i7-12700KF, i7-13700T, and Core 5 213PE — all have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with deltas under 0.5%, which means the CPU choice among these parts would not meaningfully change the FPS results in Minimum. The GPU's nearest rivals, including the RX 5600 XT and RTX A4000 Mobile, are also within 1.6% of its average score, reinforcing that the RTX 5050 sits in a tightly clustered performance band. The combo's 1764th rank out of 2939 means it outperforms roughly 40% of tested configurations, but it lags behind the majority of pairings that feature more powerful GPUs. For a game like Minimum that is not particularly demanding by modern standards, the rank reflects the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions rather than any deficiency in the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 179 FPS average, Medium produces 137 FPS with a minimum of 117 and maximum of 158, High produces 115 FPS, and Ultra produces 88 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 91 FPS, showing that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution even on the highest preset. The Medium preset's minimum of 117 FPS ensures no frame drops below the 60 FPS threshold, and even Ultra's 88 FPS average leaves substantial margin for demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably but remains playable on lower presets. Low settings yield 116 FPS, Medium yields 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 and maximum of 102, High yields 74 FPS, and Ultra yields 57 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p maintains a minimum of 75 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target, while Ultra falls below it. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 59 FPS, a smaller spread than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the increased pixel load.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles across the board. Low settings produce 62 FPS, Medium produces 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 and maximum of 55, High produces 40 FPS, and Ultra produces 30 FPS. Only Low achieves an average above 60 FPS, and even that result has no margin for demanding scenes. The Medium preset's minimum of 41 FPS means the frame rate can dip below 45 FPS, which is noticeable in a third-person shooter. The High and Ultra presets at 4K produce frame rates that are borderline unplayable for a fast-paced title, with 40 FPS and 30 FPS respectively. The data clearly shows that 4K is not a viable target for this combination in Minimum unless the user is willing to accept Low settings and occasional dips below 60 FPS. The 1440p Medium result is the best overall balance of resolution and performance, while 1080p Medium offers the most consistent experience with the highest minimum frame rate of any preset above Low.