Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of the Intel Core i7-13700K + AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combo in Minimum?

A: This combination ranks 885th out of 3,712 tested combos in the game, placing it in the upper quartile of all tested systems.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core i7-13700K scores 46,881 on average, which is 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46,971) and 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47,022). It edges out the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX and Intel Xeon w3-2535 by 0.5% (both scoring 46,654 and 46,653 respectively).

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable in Minimum with this hardware?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 278, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next highest is 213 FPS on Medium settings at the same resolution.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS observed in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 47, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is the only configuration that dips below 60 FPS.

Q: Does the GPU outperform its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 9070 XT scores 13,543 on average, which is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 7770M (13,536) and 0.2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13,515). It leads the NVIDIA P106-090 by 0.5% and the AMD Radeon Pro 555 by 1%.

Q: What memory specifications does the GPU bring to this game?

A: The RX 9070 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clock runs at 2518 MHz, effective 20.1 Gbps.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock sits at 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. The chip carries 30 MB of shared L3 cache, alongside 2 MB of L2 and 80 KB of L1 per core. This configuration provides substantial parallel processing headroom for Minimum, a game from 2014 that may not fully utilize all 24 threads but benefits from the high boost clock in single-threaded scenarios.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark results reveal a strong balance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 30,745 in multicore and 2,116 in single-core tests. Geekbench shows 19,429 multicore and 2,529 single-core. The 3DMark results scale cleanly from 1,136 single-thread to 12,412 max-threads, indicating efficient thread scaling. PassMark multi-thread score of 45,887 and single-thread of 4,333 reinforce this pattern.

What does this mean for Minimum? The game's measured frame rates suggest that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU is likely the primary driver. At 1080p Low, the system hits 278 FPS, which is nearly double the 1440p Low result of 179 FPS. This steep scaling pattern at low settings points to the CPU's ability to feed frames quickly, though the GPU still plays a role.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 89 versus all CPUs places it in the top tier for gaming workloads. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900, scores nearly identically (46,971 vs 46,881), meaning these two chips would perform indistinguishably in most gaming scenarios. The 0.5% lead over the Ryzen 9 7845HX and Xeon w3-2535 is negligible in practice.

The 125W TDP and unlocked multiplier suggest this CPU can sustain high clocks under gaming loads. For a 2014 title like Minimum, the i7-13700K's modern architecture likely handles the game's physics and AI calculations with significant headroom. The benchmark data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking, even at the highest frame rates measured.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 885 out of 3,712 tested systems places this configuration in the 76th percentile of all tested combinations. This is a strong result for a game from 2014, where modern hardware often exceeds the game's original performance targets.

The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU. The i7-13700K's 89th percentile CPU score and the RX 9070 XT's 55th percentile GPU score combine to produce a system that is well-equipped for Minimum. The game's relatively simple rendering pipeline, being a third-person shooter from 2014, likely responds more to raw CPU clock speed than to GPU compute power.

Notably, the GPU's percentile ranking (55) is significantly lower than the CPU's (89). This suggests the RX 9070 XT is the weaker component in this pairing for this specific game. However, the measured FPS results tell a nuanced story. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 278 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine limits. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 47 FPS, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

The rank of 885 out of 3,712 means this combo outperforms roughly 76% of all tested systems. For a game that is over a decade old, this is expected behavior. Systems with newer, more powerful GPUs would rank higher, but this pairing offers a solid experience across all tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data covers four resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings levels (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). The results show a clear performance hierarchy.

At 1920x1080:

• Low: 278 FPS average
• Medium: 213 FPS average (181 min, 245 max)
• High: 179 FPS average
• Ultra: 136 FPS average

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 179 FPS average
• Medium: 137 FPS average (117 min, 158 max)
• High: 115 FPS average
• Ultra: 88 FPS average

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 97 FPS average
• Medium: 74 FPS average (63 min, 85 max)
• High: 62 FPS average
• Ultra: 47 FPS average

The data reveals consistent scaling. Moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by approximately 35-37% across all settings. Moving from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS by an additional 45-48%. These percentages hold relatively constant regardless of settings, suggesting a uniform performance scaling pattern.

The Medium settings rows include min and max FPS values, providing insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the system ranges from 181 to 245 FPS, a 64 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 117-158 FPS (41 FPS spread). At 4K Medium, it tightens further to 63-85 FPS (22 FPS spread). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates the GPU becomes more consistently loaded.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. It packs 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1660 MHz with a boost clock of 2970 MHz and a game clock of 2400 MHz.

Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU features 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. It includes 64 ray tracing cores. Compute performance reaches 48.66 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 operations.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores show a unique pattern. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 7,260, while Geekbench OpenCL is 17,428 and Vulkan is 65,879. PassMark G3D is 26,795, with G2D at 1,328. The GPU compute score is 15,864. However, its DirectX-specific PassMark scores are notably low: DX9 at 353, DX11 at 292, DX12 at 78.

These DirectX scores explain the 55th percentile ranking. The RX 9070 XT's architecture is optimized for modern APIs, and Minimum from 2014 likely uses an older DirectX path. The measured FPS results confirm this: the GPU performs well at lower resolutions but struggles at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 13,543 places it 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 7770M and 0.2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570. This tight grouping of scores suggests these GPUs have similar legacy performance characteristics, despite the RX 9070 XT being a much newer product.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience in Minimum. At 1920x1080, all settings levels deliver playable frame rates, with Low at 278 FPS and Ultra at 136 FPS. The Medium setting at 213 FPS offers a good balance of visual quality and performance, with a min of 181 FPS ensuring smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the High setting at 115 FPS provides a solid experience for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra setting at 88 FPS remains playable, while Medium at 137 FPS is ideal for those prioritizing frame rate. Low at 179 FPS is excessive for most displays but demonstrates the system's headroom.

At 3840x2160, the choice becomes more critical. High delivers 62 FPS, just above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium at 74 FPS is the recommended choice for 4K gaming, offering better smoothness with a minimum of 63 FPS. Low at 97 FPS maximizes performance but sacrifices visual fidelity. Ultra at 47 FPS is not recommended for competitive play, though it remains usable for slower-paced exploration.

The data suggests that Medium settings offer the best overall experience across all resolutions. The Medium rows are the only ones with reported min and max FPS values, indicating the measurement team found these configurations most representative of real-world performance. At 1080p Medium, the system achieves 213 FPS with a tight 181-245 FPS range. At 1440p Medium, 137 FPS with 117-158 FPS range. At 4K Medium, 74 FPS with 63-85 FPS range.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck characteristics. From 1080p Low (278 FPS) to 1440p Low (179 FPS), the drop is 35.6%. From 1440p Low to 4K Low (97 FPS), the additional drop is 45.8%. This compounding effect shows that at Low settings, the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as resolution increases.

For Medium settings, the scaling is 35.7% from 1080p (213 FPS) to 1440p (137 FPS), then 46.0% from 1440p to 4K (74 FPS). High settings show 35.8% and 46.1% drops respectively. Ultra settings show 35.3% and 46.6% drops. The consistency of these percentages across all settings levels is striking.

This uniform scaling pattern indicates that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively constant as resolution increases. Instead, the consistent percentage drops suggest the GPU's workload scales predictably with pixel count.

The absolute FPS values tell the bottleneck story more clearly. At 1080p Low, 278 FPS is exceptionally high, suggesting the CPU can process frames faster than the GPU can render them. At 4K Ultra, 47 FPS indicates the GPU is working at its limit. The transition point appears to be around 1440p High (115 FPS), where both components are likely balanced.

The fact that Ultra settings at 1080p (136 FPS) are nearly identical to 1440p Low (179 FPS) minus the resolution scaling suggests the game's Ultra preset adds significant GPU load. The 47 FPS at 4K Ultra confirms that the RX 9070 XT, while capable for modern titles, faces challenges with this game's Ultra settings at high resolutions. The data implies that for the best 4K experience, Medium settings provide the optimal balance, while 1080p and 1440p users can comfortably use High or Ultra settings.