Minimum

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a highly playable experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter, but the performance profile reveals a system that is clearly bound by the graphics card. The RTX 2060 SUPER, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, provides sufficient bandwidth to drive the game at high frame rates, yet the CPU demonstrates it can easily outpace the GPU’s capabilities. Across all tested settings and resolutions, the data shows a consistent pattern: the GPU is the limiting component, especially as resolution and graphical fidelity increase.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, indicating that the rendering load scales heavily with pixel count, a classic sign of GPU limitation. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 85.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 53.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 37.7%. Moving to 4K (3840x2160), the average drops further to 31 FPS, which is a 63.9% decrease from the 1080p Ultra result. This dramatic scaling shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER’s compute throughput (7.181 TFLOPS FP32) and texture rate (224.4 GTexel/s) are being saturated as the pixel workload increases.

The trend is similar at lower settings, though the absolute frame rates are higher. At Low settings, the system achieves 173.2 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 111.7 FPS at 1440p (a 35.5% decrease) and then to 58.8 FPS at 4K (a 66.1% decrease from 1080p). The fact that even at Low settings the 4K frame rate is below 60 FPS strongly suggests that the GPU’s pixel fill rate (105.6 GPixel/s) is a bottleneck. The Intel Core i7-13700K, with its 16 cores and 24 threads, is not the constraint here; its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000 and a 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs indicate it has ample headroom to feed the GPU at all resolutions.

Interestingly, the scaling from 1440p to 4K is more severe than from 1080p to 1440p. For example, at High settings, the FPS drops from 108.7 at 1080p to 69.8 at 1440p (a 35.8% drop), but then from 69.8 to 40.5 at 4K (a 42.0% drop). This non-linear scaling suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER’s memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s becomes increasingly insufficient as the resolution grows, making the GPU the definitive limiting factor in this configuration.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo in Minimum?

A: The highest recorded average is 173.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration that exceeds 170 FPS, showing that the GPU can deliver high refresh-rate performance when the graphical load is minimized.

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

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 58.8 on Low settings to 31 on Ultra settings. Only the Low preset comes close to 60 FPS; Medium, High, and Ultra presets all fall below 43 FPS, indicating that 4K is only viable at the lowest settings.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 2070?

A: Based on average benchmark scores, the RTX 2060 SUPER scores 19774, while the RTX 2070 scores 19680, a delta of 0.5%. This indicates they are nearly identical in overall performance, with the RTX 2060 SUPER holding a marginal edge in this specific database.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-13700K a bottleneck in this game?

A: No. The CPU’s average benchmark score is 47282, and it sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700KF, scores 47334, a negligible -0.1% difference. The FPS scaling with resolution indicates the GPU is the limiting factor, not the CPU.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield an average of 69.8 FPS, while Ultra drops to 53.5 FPS. This is a difference of 16.3 FPS, or roughly a 23.4% reduction in performance when moving from High to Ultra.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking among tested systems?

A: The combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1210 out of 1733 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower third of all configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the primary driver of the frame rates observed in Minimum, and its specifications explain the performance ceiling. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1470 MHz and boosts up to 1650 MHz, with 2176 shading units and 64 ROPs. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at an effective speed of 14 Gbps across a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. These specs are adequate for a game from 2014, but the data shows they are stretched at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s benchmark scores corroborate its mid-range positioning. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 16462 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011, placing it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, scores 19706, a delta of just 0.3%, meaning the RTX 2060 SUPER performs nearly identically to that older flagship. The RTX 2070 is also close, with a delta of 0.5%, showing that these cards are effectively interchangeable for this game’s workload.

In Minimum, the GPU’s memory capacity and bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the high frame rates at those resolutions. However, at 4K, the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be a constraint, as the FPS drops disproportionately compared to lower resolutions. The texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s also contribute to the GPU-bound behavior, particularly at Ultra settings where the game demands more fill rate and texture throughput. The GPU’s 175 W TDP and dual-slot design are standard for this class, and the data shows that the card’s Turing architecture, built on a 12 nm process, is being fully utilized in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system is clearly capable of high refresh rates. Low settings average 173.2 FPS, Medium averages 129.2 FPS, High averages 108.7 FPS, and Ultra averages 85.9 FPS. This shows a smooth scaling where each step up in settings costs roughly 20-25% of the frame rate. The game is comfortably playable on any monitor at this resolution, even with the most demanding preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but begin to show the GPU’s strain. Low settings average 111.7 FPS, which is still excellent for competitive play. Medium settings average 81.5 FPS, and High settings average 69.8 FPS, both of which are above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Ultra settings, however, drop to 53.5 FPS, which is below that threshold and indicates that the GPU is struggling to maintain a consistent 60 FPS with all graphical features enabled. The drop from High to Ultra at this resolution is 16.3 FPS, a significant penalty for the visual upgrade.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is severely taxed. Low settings produce an average of 58.8 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS mark. Medium settings average 42.9 FPS, High settings average 40.5 FPS, and Ultra settings plummet to 31 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 15.9 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is only 2.4 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is hitting a hard limit where additional settings changes have diminishing returns. The Ultra preset at 4K is effectively unplayable for smooth gameplay, and even Low settings will experience occasional dips below 60 FPS given the average of 58.8 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination ranks 1210 out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 30th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the GPU’s mid-range status rather than the CPU’s high-end capabilities. The CPU alone is in the 93rd percentile of all processors, but when paired with a GPU that is in the 63rd percentile, the overall system performance is dragged down to a below-average position.

The CPU’s performance is exceptional, as evidenced by its average benchmark score of 47282, which is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700KF (47334, -0.1% delta). The GPU, however, scores 19774 on average, which is only 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN and 0.5% higher than the RTX 2070. This shows that the GPU is a generation-old mid-range part that competes with older high-end cards, but it is not sufficient to push the combo into a higher overall ranking.

The ranking of 1210 out of 1733 suggests that most other tested combinations, likely featuring newer or higher-tier GPUs, outperform this setup in Minimum. The data indicates that while the CPU provides a strong foundation, the GPU is the limiting factor in the overall system score. For this specific game, the combo is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming at high settings, but it falls short of top-tier performance, particularly at 4K. The results confirm that in a GPU-bound title like Minimum, the graphics card’s capabilities dictate the system’s standing among all tested configurations.