Minimum

FAQ

Q: Does this combination hit 60 FPS at 4K in Minimum?

A: Only at Low settings. The measured 4K average is 59 FPS on Low. Medium drops to 45 FPS, High to 38 FPS, and Ultra to 29 FPS.

Q: What is the best 1080p setting for this combo?

A: Low settings produce 170 FPS average, which is the highest measured result. Medium yields 130 FPS, High drops to 109 FPS, and Ultra falls to 83 FPS.

Q: How much headroom does the Intel Core i7-12700KF have over its nearest rival?

A: The i7-12700KF scores 35,365 on average, which is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13600T and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700K. It trails the Intel Core i7-13700T by 0.1%.

Q: Where does this GPU rank among all tested graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT sits at the 70th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 24,442 places it 0.7% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 and 1.1% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1440p High?

A: The 1440p High result of 70 FPS is roughly 36% lower than the 1080p High result of 109 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution increases.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-threaded performance like?

A: The i7-12700KF achieves 28,838 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 12,111 in Cinebench R20 multi-core. Its 3DMark max-threads score is 9,983, with a 16-thread score of 9,282.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. That memory configuration is paired with a 1968 MHz base clock and a 2589 MHz boost clock, with a game clock rated at 2359 MHz. The GPU's 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations processors define its raw throughput: 10.60 TFLOPS FP32 performance and a texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s.

In Minimum, the GPU's VRAM capacity and bandwidth are sufficient to avoid obvious capacity-related stutters at 1080p and 1440p. The 8 GB frame buffer is not stressed heavily by this 2014-era third-person shooter, even at Ultra settings. At 4K, however, the combination of higher pixel count and Ultra settings pushes the GPU hard. The 4K Ultra average of 29 FPS shows the GPU struggling to maintain playable frame rates, likely due to raw shading throughput rather than memory exhaustion.

The GPU's RDNA 2.0 architecture includes 32 ray accelerators, but Minimum does not appear to leverage ray tracing in any meaningful way based on the measured results. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility mean the card can handle modern rendering paths, but the game's age suggests it relies on simpler pipelines.

The RX 6600 XT's 160 W TDP and dual-slot design make it a modest power draw, but the performance envelope is clear. At 1080p Low, the card delivers 170 FPS, which indicates plenty of headroom for high-refresh gaming. At 4K Ultra, the same card drops to 29 FPS, showing a 5.9x performance deficit. The GPU's percentile ranking at 70th among all tested cards confirms it sits in the upper-midrange tier.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. Starting at 1080p Low with 170 FPS, moving to 1440p Low drops performance to 110 FPS — a 35% reduction. Pushing to 4K Low yields 59 FPS, which is another 46% drop from 1440p. This steep decline from 1440p to 4K strongly indicates the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

At High settings, the scaling shows a slightly different shape. 1080p High produces 109 FPS, 1440p High drops to 70 FPS (36% lower), and 4K High falls to 38 FPS (46% lower than 1440p). The proportional drops are nearly identical to Low settings, suggesting the GPU is consistently the limiting component across all quality presets.

Medium settings follow the same trajectory: 130 FPS at 1080p, 84 FPS at 1440p, and 45 FPS at 4K. The 1440p-to-4K drop is 46%, matching the pattern seen at Low and High. Ultra settings show the most dramatic decline: 83 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K. The 1440p-to-4K reduction here is 46% as well, confirming that resolution scaling is consistent regardless of quality preset.

The data shows that 1080p-to-1440p scaling costs roughly 35-36% of performance, while 1440p-to-4K costs about 46%. This nonlinear scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario where pixel count increases faster than the GPU can compensate. The CPU, with its 12 cores and 20 threads, has ample headroom at lower resolutions to feed the GPU, but once resolution climbs, the RX 6600 XT's shading resources become the decisive factor.

For a 4K display, this combo requires Low settings to approach 60 FPS, and even then it only hits 59 FPS. At 1440p, Medium settings at 84 FPS or High at 70 FPS are more realistic targets. 1080p users can push higher — Ultra at 83 FPS or Medium at 130 FPS for smoother gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range is playable. Low settings deliver 170 FPS average, Medium produces 130 FPS with a minimum of 111 FPS and maximum of 150 FPS, High yields 109 FPS, and Ultra drops to 83 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 87 FPS, which gives users substantial flexibility to prioritize visual quality or frame rate.

At 2560x1440, performance remains respectable but the gap between settings narrows in absolute terms. Low settings hit 110 FPS, Medium averages 84 FPS with a range of 71 to 97 FPS, High produces 70 FPS, and Ultra falls to 54 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 56 FPS, compared to 87 FPS at 1080p. This compression indicates the GPU is starting to saturate.

At 3840x2160, all settings struggle to maintain smooth frame rates. Low settings average 59 FPS, which is borderline playable. Medium drops to 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS and maximum of 52 FPS. High falls to 38 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 29 FPS. The 4K results show that only the lowest quality preset approaches 60 FPS, and even that is marginal.

The minimum FPS data available for Medium settings across all resolutions shows consistent frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 111 FPS, at 1440p Medium it's 71 FPS, and at 4K Medium it's 38 FPS. The maximums follow a similar pattern: 150 FPS at 1080p, 97 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K. These ranges suggest no severe stuttering or frame-time spikes, just a steady decline in overall throughput as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 2,635th out of 3,712 tested combos in Minimum. That places it in the lower third of all system pairings, which is noteworthy given the individual components' relative strength. The CPU alone sits at the 85th percentile of all processors, while the GPU is at the 70th percentile. The combined rank suggests the GPU constrains overall gaming performance more than the CPU.

The rank of 2,635 out of 3,712 means roughly 71% of tested combos perform better in this specific game. This is not a reflection of poor hardware — the RX 6600 XT's average benchmark score of 24,442 places it just 0.7% above the GTX 1630 and 0.8% above the GTX 780 Ti. The RTX 2080 SUPER trails by only 1.1%, which is surprising given that card's higher-tier positioning in other contexts.

What the combo ranking reveals is that in Minimum, the GPU's midrange position limits the overall system. The i7-12700KF's nearest rivals — the i7-13700T at -0.1%, the i5-13600T at +0.2%, and the i7-12700K at +0.2% — are all within a fraction of a percent in average CPU score. Swapping the CPU for any of these would not meaningfully change the combo's rank. Swapping the GPU for a higher-tier card would have a much larger impact on the combined ranking.

The data indicates that for Minimum specifically, the RX 6600 XT is the component holding this pairing back from higher ranks. The CPU's 85th percentile standing is strong, but the GPU's 70th percentile position drags the combined result down. Users considering this combo should understand that the gaming experience in Minimum is GPU-limited, particularly at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF brings 12 cores and 20 threads from its Alder Lake architecture, running on the Intel Socket 1700 platform. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and the 125 W TDP reflects the performance-oriented design. The 10 nm process node and 215 mm² die size place it in the high-end desktop segment.

Cache configuration shows 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. This substantial L3 allocation helps with gaming workloads that benefit from shared data access across cores. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, giving builders flexibility in platform configuration.

Benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 28,838, R20 multi-core hits 12,111, and R15 multi-core reaches 2,906. Single-thread scores are equally robust — Cinebench R23 single-core at 4,071 and R20 single-core at 1,709. The 3DMark scores confirm scalability: 2,065 with 2 threads, 4,011 with 4 threads, 7,211 with 8 threads, 9,282 with 16 threads, and 9,983 with max threads. This near-linear scaling from 2 to 16 threads indicates excellent thread management.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is largely supportive rather than decisive. At 1080p Low, the GPU produces 170 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed frames well above typical display refresh rates. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all processors means it outpaces the vast majority of CPUs tested, and its nearest rivals — all within 0.2% — confirm it sits at the top of its performance tier.

The PassMark scores provide additional context: multi-thread score of 34,092, single-thread score of 3,984, and integer math at 113,521. These figures indicate the i7-12700KF handles both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads without issue. For Minimum, which is not a demanding CPU title, the processor is unlikely to bottleneck the RX 6600 XT at any resolution. The measured FPS drops as resolution increases are consistent with GPU limitation, not CPU constraint.

The CPU's 20 threads and high boost clock ensure that even in complex scenes with many AI actors or physics calculations, the processor maintains consistent frame delivery. The data shows no evidence of CPU-induced frame drops, as the minimum FPS values at Medium settings scale proportionally with resolution.