Minimum

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 delivers a playable experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter, with performance scaling predictably across resolutions and settings. The data shows that the combination ranks 1386 out of 1733 tested combos, placing it in the lower half of the database, yet the measured frame rates suggest the game is far from demanding by modern standards. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and the optimal settings for this specific hardware pairing.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average at 1920x1080 is 158.1 FPS, achieved with Low settings. This drops to 102.2 FPS at High and 76 FPS at Ultra, showing a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and raw frame rate.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35355, placing it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14400 and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i9-12900HX. It trails the Intel Core i7-13800H by 0.2%, indicating a tight cluster of performance among these processors.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 sits in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25235. This places it ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP by 0.2% but behind the AMD Radeon 890M by 0%.

Q: What is the lowest frame rate recorded for this combination?

A: The lowest measured average FPS is 23.3, which occurs at 3840x2160 (4K) resolution with Ultra settings. This is the only configuration that drops below the 30 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How much faster is the combo at 1080p Low compared to 4K Ultra?

A: The jump from 4K Ultra (23.3 FPS) to 1080p Low (158.1 FPS) represents a 578% increase in average frame rate. This dramatic difference underscores how resolution and settings heavily influence the GPU's workload.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the CPU?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF had a launch MSRP of $384. This information is provided for reference, though the current market value may differ.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is the primary driver of frame rates in Minimum, as evidenced by the steep performance drops when resolution increases. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2491 MHz and game clock of 2044 MHz provide the raw compute power needed for this title. The card's 1792 shading units and 64 ROPs handle the rendering pipeline, while its 28 ray accelerators (RT cores) offer features that Minimum, a 2014 release, likely does not utilize heavily.

The GPU's 69th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 25235 place it in the mid-range tier. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 890M, has a nearly identical score of 25246 (0% delta), while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 0.5% ahead. In practical terms for Minimum, the RX 6600 shows it can handle 1080p High at 102.2 FPS, but struggles at 4K Ultra with just 23.3 FPS. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this game's textures, even at 4K, but the GPU's compute throughput becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the "High" preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance for most users. At 1920x1080, High settings produce 102.2 FPS, which is smooth for a third-person shooter. The Medium preset provides a modest increase to 120.7 FPS, but the visual gains from High over Medium likely justify the 18 FPS difference. Ultra settings drop the frame rate to 76 FPS at 1080p, which is still playable but introduces diminishing returns for the extra GPU load.

For 1440p displays, High settings remain viable at 66.2 FPS, though this dips below the 70 FPS threshold that some players prefer. The Low preset at 1440p yields 102.4 FPS, which could be ideal for competitive play where frame rate trumps visuals. At 4K, the data clearly shows that only Low settings (51.7 FPS) approach playability, while Medium (41.7 FPS) and High (34.6 FPS) are borderline, and Ultra (23.3 FPS) is unplayable. The recommendation is to stick with High at 1080p or 1440p, and only drop to Low if targeting 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 1386 out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 20th percentile of all system configurations. This rank reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning, as the CPU is comparatively stronger. The i7-12700KF sits in the 89th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 35355, while the RX 6600 is in the 69th percentile of GPUs.

The disparity between the CPU's high percentile and the GPU's lower percentile suggests that the RX 6600 is the bottleneck in this pairing. In a game like Minimum, which is not CPU-intensive, the 12-core, 20-thread processor with a 5.00 GHz boost clock is largely idle. The combo's rank of 1386 indicates that many other systems with similar CPUs but stronger GPUs will outperform it, while systems with weaker CPUs but similar GPUs may achieve comparable frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 102.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 66.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a 35% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160, the frame rate falls further to 34.6 FPS, which is a 66% drop from 1080p. This scaling is consistent with the GPU's 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8.928 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

The Low settings curve shows a similar trend: 158.1 FPS at 1080p, 102.4 FPS at 1440p, and 51.7 FPS at 4K. The fact that the 4K Low result (51.7 FPS) is lower than the 1080p Ultra result (76 FPS) indicates that resolution is a heavier burden than settings alone. This is because pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, while settings changes have a more linear effect on shader complexity. The data implies that the RX 6600 is the limiting component, as the CPU's performance headroom is not being fully utilized even at 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a granular view of performance across all twelve measured configurations:

1920x1080:

• Low: 158.1 FPS
• Medium: 120.7 FPS
• High: 102.2 FPS
• Ultra: 76 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 102.4 FPS
• Medium: 75.9 FPS
• High: 66.2 FPS
• Ultra: 49.2 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 51.7 FPS
• Medium: 41.7 FPS
• High: 34.6 FPS
• Ultra: 23.3 FPS

These numbers show that the transition from Low to Ultra settings at any given resolution costs roughly half the frame rate. For example, at 1080p, the drop from Low to Ultra is from 158.1 FPS to 76 FPS, a 52% reduction. The same relationship holds at 1440p (102.4 to 49.2 FPS) and 4K (51.7 to 23.3 FPS). The consistency of this scaling suggests that the game's settings have a multiplicative effect on GPU load rather than an additive one.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz boosts up to 5.00 GHz, and it features 25 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 28979 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4091 in single-core, indicating strong overall performance. However, in Minimum, the CPU's role is minimal, as the game is clearly GPU-bound.

The processor's 89th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 35355 place it well above the RX 6600's 69th percentile. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14400 (0.1% faster) and the Intel Core i9-12900HX (0.2% faster), showing that the i7-12700KF is competitive with newer and higher-tier mobile parts. For this game, the CPU's 20 threads and high boost clock ensure that frame pacing is stable, but the measured FPS differences between settings are almost entirely attributable to the GPU. The data suggests that a less powerful CPU could achieve similar frame rates in Minimum, making the i7-12700KF overkill for this specific title.