Minimum

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB delivers a versatile performance profile in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released on 2014-06-25. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four settings presets show a system capable of high refresh rates at 1080p, while 4K Ultra presents a significant challenge. This analysis breaks down the measured data to determine the optimal settings, the role of each component, and how this specific combination ranks against other tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the gameplay experience in Minimum. For players targeting the smoothest experience on high-refresh-rate monitors, the Low preset at 1920x1080 is the standout choice, delivering an average of 234 FPS. This is 84 FPS higher than the High preset at the same resolution, representing a 56% performance uplift. While visual fidelity is reduced, the frame rate headroom is substantial, ensuring minimal input lag and maximum fluidity.

For a balanced approach that prioritizes visual quality without sacrificing responsiveness, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the recommended starting point. It achieves an average of 179 FPS, with a minimum of 152 FPS and a maximum of 206 FPS. This places it firmly in the field of high-refresh-rate gaming, and the 152 FPS minimum ensures that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate will not drop below the typical 144 Hz threshold. The gap to High is 29 FPS, but the visual improvement from Medium to High is often less perceptible than the frame rate difference.

At 2560x1440, the situation shifts. The High preset delivers a solid 97 FPS average, which is well-suited for 60 Hz to 100 Hz displays. The Medium preset at this resolution provides 115 FPS, making it the better choice for users with 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitors. The data shows that the jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 18 FPS, a 15.7% reduction, while the jump from High to Ultra costs a further 23 FPS, a 23.7% reduction. Therefore, High is the ceiling for a consistently smooth 1440p experience, while Medium is the sweet spot for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, only the Low preset provides a comfortable margin, with an average of 81 FPS. The Medium preset manages 62 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The High preset dips to 52 FPS, and Ultra drops to 40 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for a smooth experience in a shooter. For 4K, the data suggests that Low is the only preset that enables a consistently fluid frame rate, while Medium is viable for less demanding titles or slower-paced gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is the primary driver of frame rate differences across settings. Its specifications, including a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2535 MHz, along with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, dictate its performance ceiling. The benchmark results show a clear pattern: as settings increase from Low to Ultra, the average frame rate decreases significantly at every resolution, indicating the GPU is being tasked with more work.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a critical factor at higher resolutions. While the data does not show VRAM exhaustion in the measured FPS, the performance drop from 1440p High (97 FPS) to 4K High (52 FPS) is a 46.4% reduction, which is a larger drop than the pure pixel count increase would suggest. This indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are becoming a bottleneck at 4K, particularly with higher-quality textures and effects. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is a limiting factor when pushing 8.3 million pixels at 4K.

The GPU's overall standing is modest, as it holds a 19th percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB, has a 3DMark Steel Nomad score that is only 0.2% higher, showing that the 8 GB and 16 GB variants are very close in raw compute performance. However, the 8 GB capacity will likely limit future games or higher-resolution textures more than the 16 GB variant. The GPU's scores are also within 0.7% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4010 and 0.3% of the NVIDIA Quadro P600, placing it in a tight performance cluster.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve over 100 FPS?

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the system consistently exceeds 100 FPS on all settings, from 115 FPS on Ultra to 234 FPS on Low. At 2560x1440, only the Low (151 FPS) and Medium (115 FPS) presets break the 100 FPS barrier.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Minimum?*

A: It can, but with significant compromises. The data shows that at 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 81 FPS, and Medium achieves 62 FPS, which are playable. However, the High (52 FPS) and Ultra (40 FPS) presets fall below the 60 FPS standard, indicating the GPU is overburdened at those settings.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from Ultra to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average frame rate increases from 115 FPS on Ultra to 234 FPS on Low. This is a 119 FPS difference, or a 103.5% performance uplift, making Low the optimal choice for competitive play where frame rate is paramount.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured data shows an average of 115 FPS, with a minimum of 98 FPS and a maximum of 133 FPS. This indicates a relatively stable frame delivery, with the minimum still above the 90 FPS mark, suggesting a smooth experience on most 100 Hz to 120 Hz displays.

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 35365, which is statistically tied with its nearest rivals. It is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13600T and Intel Core i7-12700K, and 0.1% behind the Intel Core i7-13700T and 0.2% behind the Intel Core 5 213PE.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile relative to all other GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB sits in the 19th percentile among all GPUs, indicating that the majority of tested graphics cards perform better in the 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark. This places it in a lower-tier performance bracket.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a complete picture of the system's performance. At 1920x1080, the system is clearly CPU-bound at lower settings, with the Low preset hitting 234 FPS. The scaling is consistent: Medium drops to 179 FPS, High to 150 FPS, and Ultra to 115 FPS. The 1440p resolution shows a similar pattern, with Low at 151 FPS, Medium at 115 FPS, High at 97 FPS, and Ultra at 74 FPS. The 4K results are more constrained, with Low at 81 FPS, Medium at 62 FPS, High at 52 FPS, and Ultra at 40 FPS.

Looking at the specific data points, the Medium preset is the only one with min/max FPS recorded for all three resolutions. This data is useful for understanding frame pacing. At 1080p, the Medium preset's min of 152 FPS and max of 206 FPS show a 54 FPS spread, indicating some variance but a high floor. At 1440p, the spread narrows slightly to 35 FPS (98 min to 133 max), and at 4K, the spread is 19 FPS (53 min to 72 max). This suggests that as the GPU becomes more stressed, the frame rate becomes more consistent, but at a lower average.

The performance deltas between settings are consistent across resolutions. For example, going from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 55 FPS (23.5%), while at 1440p it costs 36 FPS (23.8%), and at 4K it costs 19 FPS (23.5%). This shows that the settings scaling is uniform, and the GPU's relative performance drops are predictable. The jump from High to Ultra is more expensive, with a 35 FPS drop at 1080p (23.3%), a 23 FPS drop at 1440p (23.7%), and a 12 FPS drop at 4K (23.1%).

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the system's performance is limited. At the Low preset, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 results in a frame rate drop from 234 FPS to 151 FPS, a 35.5% reduction. The further step to 3840x2160 drops the frame rate to 81 FPS, a 46.4% reduction from 1440p. These are substantial decreases that indicate the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases.

For the Medium preset, the same scaling shows a drop from 179 FPS at 1080p to 115 FPS at 1440p (35.8% reduction), and then to 62 FPS at 4K (46.1% reduction from 1440p). The High preset follows a similar curve: 150 FPS to 97 FPS (35.3% reduction) to 52 FPS (46.4% reduction). The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings is notable. It shows that the resolution scaling is independent of the graphics settings, meaning the GPU's workload increases proportionally with pixel count regardless of the preset.

This pattern strongly suggests that the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU's compute and memory resources are saturated as resolution increases. The 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely the limiting factors at 4K, as the GPU cannot maintain the same efficiency when processing larger textures and more complex shading. The data indicates that 1080p is where this combo excels, 1440p is the practical ceiling for high settings, and 4K requires significant settings reductions to be playable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its architecture is Alder Lake-S, built on a 10 nm process. While it is a powerful CPU, its role in Minimum is secondary to the GPU in most scenarios. The evidence for this is in the frame rate scaling: at 1080p Low, the system hits 234 FPS, which is a high frame rate that could stress CPU performance. However, the fact that frame rates scale predictably with GPU settings suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at these settings.

The CPU's synthetic benchmarks show it is a capable performer. It has an average benchmark score of 35365, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its multi-threaded performance is strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28838 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 14367. Single-thread performance is also solid, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2255 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4071. These scores suggest it can handle the physics and game logic of Minimum without issue.

However, the data does not show the CPU being a limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau at lower resolutions across different settings. This is not the case; the frame rates clearly increase with lower settings and decrease with higher resolutions. The CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample processing power, and its boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensures high single-thread performance for game logic. The nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-13700T and Intel Core i5-13600T, have average scores within 0.2% of this CPU, confirming that it is a top-tier performer in its class.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Minimum, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB holds a rank of 1432 out of 3712 tested combos. This places it in the top 38.6% of all systems tested. This is a solid mid-pack ranking, reflecting the GPU's modest performance ceiling despite the CPU's strength.

The rank is heavily influenced by the GPU's 19th percentile overall standing. While the CPU is in the 85th percentile, the GPU is in the 19th, meaning the graphics card is a significant drag on the overall combo ranking. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 4K Ultra, the system only manages 40 FPS, which is a poor result that drags down its average performance across all settings and resolutions.

Comparatively, the GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB, has a nearly identical 3DMark score (0.2% higher). This suggests that if the 16 GB variant were used instead, the combo ranking would likely be very similar, as the raw compute performance is the same. The 8 GB memory capacity is the only differentiator, and it may not have a significant impact in a 2014 title like Minimum. The ranking indicates that this combo is capable for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it is not a top-tier performer for 4K or high-ultra settings.