Minimum

The Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination demonstrates a clear performance profile in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released on 2014-06-25. The data indicates a system that scales predictably with settings and resolution, with the CPU’s 12 cores and 20 threads proving more than adequate for the game’s demands, while the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher visual loads. The benchmark results show a strong pairing that sits near the middle of the database’s tested combinations, ranking 884 out of 1733 combos.

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

The Intel Core i7-12700K brings substantial processing power to this pairing, featuring 12 cores and 20 threads from its Alder Lake architecture. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz can boost up to 5.00 GHz, and this headroom is evident in the measured frame rates. The processor’s 3DMark scores—9,276 for 16 threads and 10,43 for single-thread—indicate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities, which matter for a 2014-era title that likely does not heavily utilize all available cores. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29,241 and single-core score of 4,128 further reinforce the CPU’s ability to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU’s role appears to be supportive rather than dominant. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 211.7 FPS, a figure that suggests the processor can feed frames efficiently even when the GPU has little work. However, the delta between CPU-bound scenarios is revealing. The passmark single-thread score of 4,013 and the Geekbench single-core score of 2,561 show that the i7-12700K excels in lightly-threaded tasks, which is typical for older game engines. The CPU’s percentile rank of 89 against all processors places it well above average, and its nearest rivals—including the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 with a delta of -0.3% and the Intel Core i7-13700T at +0.6%—show that it sits in a tightly contested performance band.

The L3 cache of 25 MB (shared) and the per-core L2 cache of 1.25 MB provide ample data storage for game assets, but the benchmarks suggest that Minimum does not push this hardware to its limits. The 3DMark max-thread score of 9,979 versus the 16-thread score of 9,276 indicates only modest gains from additional threads, implying the game’s engine scales to a certain point and then plateaus. This means the CPU’s high clock speeds are more relevant than its core count for achieving the high frame rates seen in the data. The processor’s launch MSRP is $409, and it supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though the memory type’s impact on this specific game is not quantified in the results.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves in Minimum at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 211.7, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 106.4 FPS at Ultra settings, showing a significant performance cost for higher visual fidelity.

Q: How does the i7-12700K compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K has an average benchmark score of 35,684, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845’s score of 35,802. It is 0.6% higher than the Intel Core i7-13700T’s 35,468, placing it in a near-tie with its competitors.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 134.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 64.7 FPS. This represents a reduction of approximately 52% in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest settings.

Q: Is the RTX 5060 more powerful than the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT based on average scores?

A: The RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 30,109, while the RX 7700 XT scores 30,097, resulting in a deltaPct of 0. This indicates the two GPUs are effectively tied in synthetic performance.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth and how does it relate to 4K performance?

A: The RTX 5060 features GDDR7 memory with a 128-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At 3840x2160, the combo achieves 48.6 FPS on High settings, suggesting the 8 GB memory capacity is sufficient for this title at that resolution.

Q: How many combinations does this setup rank above in the database?

A: This CPU-GPU combo ranks 884 out of 1,733 tested combinations in Minimum, placing it in the 51st percentile of all tested systems.

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

The resolution scaling data reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario at higher pixel counts. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 135.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that to 91.1 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 48.6 FPS. This pattern—a roughly 33% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and another 47% reduction from 1440p to 4K—indicates that the rendering load is overwhelming the GPU as pixel count increases.

The Ultra settings tell a similar story with lower absolute numbers. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 106.4 FPS, which drops to 64.7 FPS at 1440p and 35.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 35.1 FPS is the lowest measured score in the entire dataset, showing that this combination is not suited for maximum quality at maximum resolution. The fact that Low settings at 4K still achieve 75 FPS confirms that the CPU is not the limiting factor; the GPU’s 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 119.9 GPixel/s pixel rate are being taxed by the higher resolution.

The delta between 1080p Low (211.7 FPS) and 1440p Low (134.6 FPS) is 77.1 FPS, which is a 36% drop. This is less severe than the drop at High settings, suggesting that when the GPU has fewer effects to process, the resolution scaling is more linear. The data implies that for smooth 4K gameplay, users must accept Low settings, while 1440p offers a balanced sweet spot where High settings still deliver above 90 FPS. The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus, while adequate for this older title, show their limits at 4K Ultra where the frame rate becomes nearly unplayable.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 ranks 884 out of 1,733 tested combos in Minimum. This places it almost exactly in the middle of the database, suggesting that while the components are individually strong, the pairing does not produce top-tier results in this specific game. The rank implies that many other combinations, likely with more powerful GPUs or newer CPUs, achieve higher frame rates.

Looking at the individual component standings, the CPU’s percentile rank of 89 (meaning it outperforms 89% of all tested CPUs) is much higher than the combo’s overall rank. Similarly, the GPU’s percentile rank of 73 is above average. The combination of two above-average parts yielding a median overall rank suggests that Minimum may not heavily favor this particular pairing. The GPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 570, has a nearly identical average score (30,158 vs 30,109), which is surprising given the generational gap, but the RTX 5060’s modern features like 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores do not translate to better performance in this 2014 title.

The CPU’s rivals—the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, Intel Core i7-13700T, Intel Core i5-14500HX, and Intel Core i7-13800H—all score within 0.8% of the i7-12700K. This tight clustering means that swapping to any of these CPUs would likely produce nearly identical results in Minimum. The combo rank of 884 suggests that the system is capable but not exceptional, and users seeking higher rankings would need to upgrade the GPU, as the CPU is already performing near the top of its class.

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

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 164.3 FPS, which is 28.8 FPS higher than High (135.3 FPS) and 57.9 FPS higher than Ultra (106.4 FPS). The jump from Medium to High costs 29 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 28.9 FPS. For most users, Medium at 1080p offers the best experience—it maintains a high frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors while providing better visuals than Low.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 102.5 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and only 11.4 FPS lower than High (91.1 FPS). The Low preset at 1440p hits 134.6 FPS, but the visual sacrifice may not be worth the extra 32.1 FPS over Medium. For 1440p users, Medium is the recommended preset, as it stays comfortably above 100 FPS while offering a reasonable visual upgrade over Low.

At 4K, the options are more limited. The High preset achieves 48.6 FPS, which is borderline playable but not ideal for fast-paced shooters. The Medium preset drops to 55.7 FPS, which is actually higher than High—an anomaly in the data that suggests High settings introduce a specific effect that disproportionately impacts performance. Low at 4K hits 75 FPS, making it the only 4K preset that exceeds 60 FPS. For 4K, Low is the only sensible choice for competitive play, while Medium could serve for less demanding sessions. Ultra at 4K (35.1 FPS) is not recommended under any circumstances.

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

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset achieves an average of 211.7 FPS, followed by Medium at 164.3 FPS, High at 135.3 FPS, and Ultra at 106.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 105.3 FPS, showing that settings have a profound impact on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the scores drop across the board. Low produces 134.6 FPS, Medium hits 102.5 FPS, High reaches 91.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 64.7 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 69.9 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 1080p spread but with lower absolute values.

At 3840x2160, the results show the GPU struggling with the pixel load. Low is 75 FPS, Medium is 55.7 FPS, High is 48.6 FPS, and Ultra is 35.1 FPS. Notably, the gap between Medium and High at 4K is only 7.1 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 13.5 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately expensive at high resolutions.

The data reveals that the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly linear across all settings, with an average drop of about 33%. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more severe, with an average drop of about 47%. This non-linear scaling indicates that the RTX 5060’s 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at 4K, as the GPU must access more data for each frame at higher resolutions.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is the primary driver of the frame rate differences observed in Minimum. Its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for this 2014 title at most settings. The GPU’s base clock of 2280 MHz and boost clock of 2497 MHz, combined with 3,840 shading units, deliver 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. These specifications explain why the card performs well at 1080p and 1440p but struggles at 4K Ultra.

The GPU’s benchmark scores show a mixed picture. Its Passmark G3D score of 20,891 is strong, but the DirectX 11 score of 200 and DirectX 12 score of 77 are notably lower, which may reflect driver optimizations for newer titles rather than this older game. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 120,785 and Vulkan score of 116,626 indicate robust compute capabilities, but Minimum likely uses older DirectX paths. The GPU’s percentile rank of 73 places it above average, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, is tied at 0% deltaPct, showing that the RTX 5060 is competitive with that card in synthetic tests.

In terms of actual gameplay, the GPU’s role becomes clear when examining the 4K results. At 4K Low, the GPU produces 75 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 35.1 FPS. This 39.9 FPS difference is entirely attributable to the GPU’s rendering load, as the CPU is not changing between these tests. The GPU’s 48 ROPs and 120 TMUs handle pixel and texture work, but the 128-bit memory bus limits memory bandwidth at higher resolutions. The 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die (with a density of 121.0M / mm²) show a modern, efficient design, but the card’s 145 W TDP and dual-slot cooler suggest it is designed for mainstream use rather than extreme 4K gaming. For Minimum, the RTX 5060 provides a capable experience up to 1440p High, but 4K requires significant settings compromises.