Minimum

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers a performance profile in Minimum that is heavily dictated by resolution and preset. The data shows a clear transition from a CPU-bound scenario at 1080p to a GPU-limited one at 4K, with the measured average frame rates revealing where the balance of the system shifts. The combination ranks 1240th out of 1733 tested combos in this title, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, interprets the scaling patterns, and contextualizes the hardware's role in the results.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the RTX 3060 Ti becomes the primary limiting component as pixel count rises. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 168.9 at 1920x1080 to 109.9 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 59.0 FPS, and then further to 60.5 at 3840x2160, representing a total drop of 108.4 FPS from the 1080p baseline. This pattern demonstrates that even at the lowest graphical fidelity, the GPU's rendering workload at 4K nearly cuts the frame rate to a third of its 1080p value.

The scaling becomes more dramatic at higher presets. With High settings, the average drops from 111.2 FPS at 1080p to 70.5 FPS at 1440p, and then to 36.9 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most severe degradation: 82.6 FPS at 1080p, 52.2 FPS at 1440p, and just 27.1 FPS at 4K. The transition from 1440p to 4K consistently removes roughly half of the frame rate across all settings, underscoring that the 4K resolution demands more from the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth than the board can consistently deliver for smooth gameplay.

The relative scaling suggests that at 1080p, the Core i7-12700KF with its 12 cores and 20 threads is capable of feeding the GPU sufficiently, as the FPS differences between Low and Ultra are proportionally smaller than at higher resolutions. However, the data indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti's compute resources, including its 4864 shading units and 152 texture mapping units, saturate quickly when resolution increases. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 86.3 FPS, while at 4K that same gap narrows to 33.4 FPS, proving that the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck before the CPU's processing power is fully utilized.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 provides the most balanced outcome, delivering an average of 85.8 FPS. This sits comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold while retaining more visual fidelity than Low, which achieves 109.9 FPS at the same resolution. At 1080p, Medium yields 131.4 FPS, which is a substantial improvement over High's 111.2 FPS and only slightly below Low's 168.9 FPS, making it the optimal choice for high-refresh-rate displays without sacrificing image quality.

At 4K, no preset reaches a desirable playable average. The highest average is Low at 60.5 FPS, which barely touches the standard for smooth motion, while Medium drops to 45.6 FPS and High to 36.9 FPS. Ultra at 4K is effectively unplayable at 27.1 FPS. The data suggests that users targeting 4K should accept the Low preset if they demand 60 FPS, but the 1440p Medium option offers a far superior balance of frame rate and visual quality. For those prioritizing frame rate above all else, 1080p Low at 168.9 FPS maximizes the display's potential, though the difference from Medium is only 37.5 FPS, which may not justify the visual compromise.

The Ultra preset is the least efficient choice across all resolutions. At 1080p, it still manages 82.6 FPS, which is playable, but the step down from High is 28.6 FPS for marginal graphical gains. At 1440p and 4K, Ultra's averages of 52.2 FPS and 27.1 FPS respectively fall below acceptable smoothness standards, making it a poor trade-off in this configuration.

GPU Role

The RTX 3060 Ti's specifications directly explain the measured outcomes. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but becomes strained at 4K with higher presets. The GPU's boost clock of 1665 MHz and base clock of 1410 MHz drive the 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, but the data shows that this compute throughput is not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra, where the average falls to 27.1 FPS.

The GPU's 80 ROPs and 133.2 GPixel/s pixel rate are critical for resolution scaling. At 4K, the sheer number of pixels to fill increases exponentially, and the measured FPS drops by over half from 1440p to 4K at every preset. The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is a potential limiting factor at 4K Ultra, as texture data and frame buffers can exceed this allocation, forcing the card to manage memory more conservatively. The benchmark results indicate that the RTX 3060 Ti is a capable 1080p and entry-level 1440p card for this title, but its role diminishes beyond those resolutions.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 69th versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25120, places it near peers like the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, which scores 25180 with a -0.2% delta. This close grouping suggests that the RTX 3060 Ti's performance in Minimum is representative of its class, and the measured FPS aligns with expectations for a card of this tier. The 152 tensor cores and 38 RT cores are present but do not appear to influence the rasterization-focused results in this game, as the frame rates are driven primarily by standard shader and memory operations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination shows strong performance across all settings. Low averages 168.9 FPS, Medium 131.4 FPS, High 111.2 FPS, and Ultra 82.6 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 86.3 FPS, indicating that the CPU and GPU have headroom even at the highest preset. The 1080p results are the only resolution where every setting exceeds the 60 FPS mark, with even Ultra remaining 22.6 FPS above that threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 109.9 FPS for Low, 85.8 FPS for Medium, 70.5 FPS for High, and 52.2 FPS for Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent, with Low losing 59.0 FPS, Medium losing 45.6 FPS, High losing 40.7 FPS, and Ultra losing 30.4 FPS. This pattern shows that lower presets suffer larger absolute FPS losses due to the GPU becoming the bottleneck sooner, while higher presets were already more GPU-limited at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the results are significantly lower: Low hits 60.5 FPS, Medium 45.6 FPS, High 36.9 FPS, and Ultra 27.1 FPS. The 4K data reveals that only the Low preset manages to stay at the 60 FPS boundary, and all others fall below playable thresholds. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 108.4 FPS for Low, 85.8 FPS for Medium, 74.3 FPS for High, and 55.5 FPS for Ultra. This decreasing absolute drop with higher presets reinforces that the GPU's workload is the dominant factor at 4K, regardless of CPU capability.

How This Combo Ranks

The Core i7-12700KF and RTX 3060 Ti combination ranks 1240th out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 28th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning rather than the CPU's strength, as the Core i7-12700KF itself sits at the 89th percentile versus all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 35355. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14400, which scores 35336 with a 0.1% delta, and the Intel Core i9-12900HX at 35289 with a 0.2% delta, indicating that the processor is not the performance limiter in this pairing.

The GPU's ranking is more modest, at the 69th percentile versus all GPUs with an average score of 25120. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6700M at 25180 (-0.2%), the AMD Radeon RX 6600 at 25235 (-0.5%), and the AMD Radeon 890M at 25246 (-0.5%). The tight clustering of these scores, all within a 0.7% delta, places the RTX 3060 Ti in a highly competitive segment where minor differences in game optimization can shift outcomes. In Minimum, the measured FPS data shows this combo performing in line with its component rankings, excelling at lower resolutions and presets but falling behind more powerful GPUs as the resolution increases.

The combo's overall rank of 1240 suggests that many other tested configurations, likely with higher-tier GPUs, achieve superior frame rates, particularly at 4K. The data indicates that this pairing is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the CPU's high single-thread performance and the GPU's adequate memory bandwidth combine to deliver smooth results. At 4K, the combo's rank would likely drop further, as the GPU's limitations become the defining factor in the measured averages.