Minimum

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a highly capable 1080p and 1440p experience in Minimum, a Third-Person Shooter released on 2014-06-25. Benchmark results show the combination achieves strong frame rates at lower resolutions, but 4K Ultra settings push the GPU to its limits. The data indicates this pairing is well-balanced for competitive play at 1080p, with a clear performance ceiling at 4K. The combo ranks 2635 out of 3712 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all tested hardware pairings, yet the measured FPS across most settings shows smooth, playable performance.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo in Minimum?*

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 1920x1080 provides the highest frame rates, with averages ranging from 83 FPS at Ultra to 170 FPS at Low. The 2560x1440 results are also strong, with all settings except Ultra exceeding 70 FPS, while 3840x2160 struggles to maintain 60 FPS on most settings.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2635 out of 3712 tested combinations, which places it in the 71st percentile of all tested pairings. This indicates that while it is not a top-tier combination, it outperforms a significant majority of other tested systems in this game.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The data shows the RX 6600 XT is the primary bottleneck at 3840x2160. At Ultra settings, the combo averages only 29 FPS, which is a dramatic drop from the 83 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the demands of 4K Ultra in this title.

Q: What settings preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 109 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold while offering better visuals than Medium (130 FPS) or Low (170 FPS). At 2560x1440, High hits 70 FPS, making it the highest quality setting that maintains a comfortable frame rate.

Q: How does the RX 6600 XT perform relative to its closest rivals?

A: The RX 6600 XT has an average benchmark score of 24442, which is 0.7% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 and 0.8% lower than the Intel Arc A350M. It also sits 1.1% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER and 0.8% above the GTX 780 Ti, indicating a tightly clustered field of comparable GPUs.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-core performance compared to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-13700K scores 46881 in average benchmark, which is 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 and 0.3% below the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375. It sits 0.5% above both the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX and the Intel Xeon w3-2535, showing near-identical performance across these four processors.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT achieves a rank of 2635 out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum. This placement in the lower-middle third of all tested systems may seem modest, but the measured FPS data tells a more nuanced story. The ranking reflects performance across all settings and resolutions, and the 4K results significantly drag down the overall position. At 1080p, this combo performs like a much higher-ranked system, with even the Ultra preset hitting 83 FPS.

Looking at the CPU's standalone performance, the i7-13700K sits in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46881. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900, scores nearly identically at 46971, a delta of only -0.2%. This places the Intel chip in elite company for processing power. The GPU, however, is only in the 70th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 24442. The RX 6600 XT's nearest rivals include the GTX 1630 (0.7% slower) and the RTX 2080 SUPER (1.1% faster), showing that while the GPU is competent, it is not a high-end part.

The discrepancy between the CPU's high percentile (89) and the GPU's lower percentile (70) explains why the combo ranks where it does. The i7-13700K has significant headroom that the RX 6600 XT cannot fully utilize in this game, particularly at higher resolutions. The data suggests that the combo's ranking is more a reflection of the GPU's limitations than the CPU's capabilities. In CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 170 FPS, demonstrating that the processor is not the limiting factor in most configurations.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in Minimum, the 1920x1080 High preset stands out as the optimal choice. It delivers a 109 FPS average, which provides smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors, while maintaining visual fidelity that is noticeably better than Medium (130 FPS) or Low (170 FPS). The jump from High to Ultra costs 26 FPS (from 109 to 83), which may not be worth the marginal visual improvement for most players.

At 2560x1440, the High preset remains the recommended setting, achieving 70 FPS average. This is playable and smooth, though not ideal for 144Hz displays. The Medium preset at 84 FPS offers a safer margin for competitive play, while Ultra drops to 54 FPS, which is borderline for fast-paced action. For 1440p users prioritizing frame rate, Medium is the safer choice.

The 3840x2160 resolution is not recommended for this combo. Even the Low preset only reaches 59 FPS, and the High preset drops to 38 FPS. The Ultra preset is unplayable at 29 FPS. The data clearly shows this GPU is not suited for 4K gaming in this title, regardless of settings. The 8 GB VRAM and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the texture and shading demands at this resolution.

For players with 144Hz monitors, the 1080p Medium preset at 130 FPS offers the best balance, as it keeps frame rates above the refresh rate threshold while providing higher quality than Low. The 1080p Low preset at 170 FPS maximizes competitive advantage but sacrifices visual detail. The measured minimum FPS at 1080p Medium is 111, ensuring no significant frame drops during intense scenes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo demonstrates strong performance across all settings. The Low preset achieves the highest average at 170 FPS, followed by Medium at 130 FPS (with minimums of 111 and maximums of 150), High at 109 FPS, and Ultra at 83 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a consistent reduction of roughly 20-25 FPS per step, indicating balanced GPU load distribution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are moderate. Low delivers 110 FPS, Medium 84 FPS (71 minimum, 97 maximum), High 70 FPS, and Ultra 54 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs approximately 35-36% of the frame rate at each setting, which is typical for a GPU with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium (71) is still well above playable thresholds.

The 3840x2160 results show a significant performance cliff. Low averages 59 FPS, Medium 45 FPS (38 minimum, 52 maximum), High 38 FPS, and Ultra 29 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is severe, with frame rates falling by roughly 46-50% at each setting. This dramatic reduction highlights the GPU's memory bandwidth limitations at higher pixel counts.

The most telling statistic is the 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra comparison, which shows a 54 FPS drop (from 83 to 29). This 65% reduction in performance cannot be attributed to the CPU, which has ample headroom. The RX 6600 XT's 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB VRAM are simply overwhelmed at 4K, even in a game from 2014.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It features 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with a base clock of 1968 MHz and a boost clock of 2589 MHz. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the card in the 70th percentile of all GPUs.

The benchmark data shows the GPU's average score is 24442, with a PassMark G3D score of 16461 and a DirectX 12 score of 61. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630, scores 24277, a delta of only 0.7%. The RX 6600 XT also edges out the GTX 780 Ti by 0.8% but trails the Intel Arc A350M by 0.8%. This clustering indicates that the RX 6600 XT is a mid-range performer that competes closely with several older and newer cards.

In Minimum, the GPU's role is critical at higher resolutions. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (29 FPS) suggests the card cannot handle the pixel fill rate demands, despite a pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s. The 10.60 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the memory bandwidth becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The card's 160 W TDP and dual-slot design are modest, but the performance ceiling is clear.

The GPU's performance at 1080p Low (170 FPS) demonstrates that it can deliver high frame rates when not memory-limited. However, the steep decline at 4K indicates that the 8 GB VRAM is not just a capacity issue but also a bandwidth constraint. The 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is roughly half of what higher-tier cards offer, and this shows in the 4K results where even Low settings barely hit 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory and uses an Intel Socket 1700. Its average benchmark score of 46881 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745 and a PassMark multi-thread score of 45887. Single-thread performance is also solid, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2529 and a PassMark single-thread score of 4333. These results indicate the i7-13700K can handle any CPU-bound scenario in Minimum without becoming a limiting factor.

In gaming, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p Low settings, where the combo reaches 170 FPS. This high frame rate suggests the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently, even in a low-detail scenario that might expose processor bottlenecks. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 10717 and max-thread score of 12412 further confirm the CPU's ability to sustain high throughput in gaming workloads.

The nearest rival comparison shows the i7-13700K is virtually tied with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (-0.2%), the Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (-0.3%), and sits slightly above the Ryzen 9 7845HX and Xeon w3-2535 (both +0.5%). This tight grouping means that choosing any of these CPUs would yield nearly identical performance in Minimum. The CPU's 125 W TDP and 5.40 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom for sustained gaming sessions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops by approximately 35% across all settings. For example, High settings fall from 109 FPS to 70 FPS, while Low drops from 170 to 110 FPS. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is becoming more pixel-bound but still has some headroom.

The transition from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 shows a much steeper decline, with frame rates dropping by roughly 47% on average. High settings fall from 70 to 38 FPS, and Low from 110 to 59 FPS. The 4K results show that the RX 6600 XT cannot maintain playable frame rates above Medium settings, with Ultra bottoming out at 29 FPS.

This scaling behavior indicates that the limiting component shifts from balanced at 1080p to GPU-bound at 4K. At 1080p, the CPU's strong single-thread performance (PassMark single-thread score of 4333) ensures the GPU is fully utilized. However, at 4K, the GPU's 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM become the bottleneck, as evidenced by the dramatic FPS drop.

The resolution scaling also highlights the CPU's headroom. The i7-13700K's 30 MB L3 cache and 4,507.5 Cinebench R15 multi-core score suggest it could support higher frame rates if paired with a more powerful GPU. The fact that the combo reaches 170 FPS at 1080p Low confirms that the processor is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions, while the 4K results clearly point to the GPU as the performance ceiling.