Minimum

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 delivers exceptional performance in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The measured frame rates indicate that this combination is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s strong multi-threaded capabilities ensure that even the lowest settings produce extremely high frame rates. The data shows a clear hierarchy where visual fidelity settings have a significant impact on performance, but the hardware is capable of maintaining smooth gameplay across all tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

Analyzing the measured FPS rows across the four available presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—at each resolution reveals a consistent performance hierarchy. At 4K (3840x2160), the average frame rates are 127.8 FPS on Low, 99.8 FPS on Medium, 86 FPS on High, and 67.2 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra is substantial, representing a 47.4% drop in performance when switching to the highest settings. However, even at the demanding 4K Ultra preset, the system maintains an average of 67.2 FPS, which is above the threshold for smooth gameplay in most scenarios.

At 1440p (2560x1440), the results are more varied: Low produces 245.5 FPS, Medium 185.6 FPS, High 157.6 FPS, and Ultra 118 FPS. The 1080p (1920x1080) results show the system’s peak potential, with Low hitting 376.2 FPS, Medium 290.8 FPS, High 243.4 FPS, and Ultra 185.3 FPS. The data suggests that the High preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance, particularly at 1440p and 4K. At 4K, the High preset delivers 86 FPS, which is 28% faster than Ultra while still providing a substantial visual upgrade over Medium.

For competitive play, the Low preset at 1080p is the clear choice, as the 376.2 FPS average outpaces the refresh rates of most high-end monitors, providing a significant responsiveness advantage. However, for a more balanced experience that leverages the hardware’s capabilities, the High preset at 1440p is recommended, as it delivers 157.6 FPS while maintaining a high level of graphical detail. The Ultra preset, while visually impressive, shows diminishing returns in frame rate, especially at 4K where the 67.2 FPS average may not be worth the performance cost for all users.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best settings preset for a competitive advantage in Minimum?*

A: The Low preset at 1080p provides the highest average frame rate of 376.2 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play due to the minimal input lag and maximum responsiveness. This is significantly higher than the Ultra preset’s 185.3 FPS at the same resolution.

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

A: Yes, the data shows that the system achieves an average of 67.2 FPS at 4K Ultra settings and 86 FPS at 4K High settings. This indicates that 4K gaming is not only possible but also smooth, provided the user is willing to adjust settings from the absolute maximum.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 59188 places it 1.6% ahead of the Intel Arc A570M and 2.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A580. It trails the Intel Arc Pro A60 by 1.9% in this metric, though the real-world gaming performance in Minimum is excellent.

Q: What is the performance difference between the High and Ultra presets?

A: At 1080p, the High preset delivers 243.4 FPS compared to 185.3 FPS on Ultra, representing a 23.9% performance penalty for the Ultra settings. At 4K, the difference is 86 FPS vs 67.2 FPS, a 21.9% drop, indicating that Ultra is significantly more demanding.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck in this game?

A: Based on the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K, the CPU is not a bottleneck at higher resolutions. The data shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, while the i7-13700K’s multi-core performance is sufficient to drive very high frame rates at 1080p.

Q: How does the i7-13700K rank against other CPUs in the database?

A: The CPU holds a 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 47282. It is virtually tied with the Core i7-13700KF, which is only 0.1% faster, and slightly ahead of the AMD EPYC 4364P and Core i9-12900F.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across the three resolutions provides clear insight into the system’s scaling behavior and the primary limiting component. At the High preset, the average frame rates are 243.4 FPS at 1080p, 157.6 FPS at 1440p, and 86 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35.3% drop in performance when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 45.4% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a 64.7% reduction in frame rate.

This scaling pattern is classic evidence of a GPU-bound workload. As the resolution increases, the number of pixels rendered grows exponentially, placing a heavier load on the graphics card’s shading units, ROPs, and memory bandwidth. The RTX 5080’s 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed more heavily at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s workload remains relatively constant.

The Low preset shows a similar trend, with 376.2 FPS at 1080p dropping to 245.5 FPS at 1440p and 127.8 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 34.7% and 47.9% respectively, indicating that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is still the limiting factor at 4K. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau at higher resolutions, but the continuous decline suggests the GPU is working at its maximum capacity.

The data strongly indicates that the Intel Core i7-13700K is not a limiting factor in Minimum. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 376.2 FPS, which is an extremely high frame rate that most CPUs would struggle to maintain. The fact that this drops to 127.8 FPS at 4K Low, a 66% reduction, confirms that the RTX 5080 is the dominant performance constraint, and the CPU has ample headroom to handle the game’s physics and logic at any resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 achieves a rank of 71 out of 1733 tested combos in Minimum. This places the system in the top 4.1% of all configurations tested, indicating that it is a very high-performing setup for this game. The rank is determined by the average FPS across all measured settings and resolutions, and this combo’s scores are consistently strong.

The high ranking is driven by the exceptional performance of both components. The CPU’s 16 cores and 24 threads provide robust multi-threaded performance, which is reflected in its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000. The GPU’s 10752 shading units and 56.28 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power ensure that the graphics pipeline is never starved for processing power.

The rank of 71 is impressive given the age of the game. Minimum was released in 2014, and modern hardware is capable of far exceeding the requirements of games from that era. The fact that this combo still ranks in the top 71 out of 1733 suggests that the benchmark is measuring absolute performance rather than comparing against the game’s original hardware targets. The combination’s strong showing confirms the raw power of the RTX 5080 and the i7-13700K, which are both flagship components from their respective generations.

In comparison to other combos, this system’s performance at 1080p is particularly notable. The 376.2 FPS average on Low settings is an extreme result that few other configurations can match, and the 185.3 FPS on Ultra at the same resolution is also a high-water mark. The system’s ability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra, with a 67.2 FPS average, further solidifies its position among the top performers in the database.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process node. Its configuration includes 8 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores, with the performance cores capable of boosting up to 5.40 GHz. The CPU features a substantial 30 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps reduce memory latency and improve performance in cache-sensitive workloads.

In Minimum, the CPU’s role is to handle the game’s simulation, physics, and AI logic, while the GPU renders the frames. The benchmark results show that the CPU is more than capable of this task. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 376.2 FPS, which is likely near the upper limit of what the game engine can produce. The CPU’s high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1136 and Passmark single-thread score of 4333, ensures that it can feed the GPU with enough draw calls and data to maintain high frame rates.

The multi-threaded performance of the i7-13700K is also important for gaming. While Minimum may not be heavily multi-threaded, the CPU’s 24 threads ensure that background tasks and game logic do not interfere with rendering. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000 demonstrates the CPU’s ability to handle parallel workloads efficiently, which is useful for modern games that offload certain tasks to additional threads.

The CPU’s memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, along with its dual-channel memory bus, provides the bandwidth needed to feed the RTX 5080’s 960.0 GB/s of VRAM bandwidth. The CPU’s PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes ensures that the GPU has a fast connection to the rest of the system. In the context of Minimum, the CPU is not a bottleneck, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling with resolution changes. The data shows that the system’s performance is limited by the GPU at all resolutions, with the CPU having sufficient headroom to maintain maximum frame rates.