Minimum

Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter, presents a straightforward scalability picture for the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination. The benchmark data indicates that this pairing is capable of delivering smooth, high-refresh-rate gameplay at 1080p, but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, particularly with higher graphical presets. The analysis below breaks down the measured performance across resolutions and settings to identify the optimal configuration and the limiting hardware component.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific CPU-GPU combo, the data strongly suggests that the Low preset at 1920x1080 is the only configuration that fully exploits the system's potential, delivering an average of 131.9 FPS. This is the only tested setting that pushes performance beyond the 120 FPS threshold, making it the clear choice for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors. The performance drop from Low to Medium at 1080p is significant, with the average FPS falling to 102.6, a reduction of about 29 FPS. While still playable, this suggests the GPU is already becoming a bottleneck as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset remains the most viable option, with an average of 83.8 FPS. This is perfectly smooth for most gamers and indicates that the system can handle a resolution upgrade if visual fidelity is sacrificed. The Medium preset at this resolution drops to 65.5 FPS, which is still acceptable for slower-paced titles but begins to feel less fluid. The High preset at 1440p yields 55.7 FPS, a playable but not ideal frame rate for a fast-paced shooter.

For 4K (3840x2160), the data shows that this combination is not suited for high-fidelity gaming. The Low preset is the only one that approaches playability, with an average of 44.4 FPS. However, this is below the 60 FPS target most players prefer. The High preset at 4K drops to 30.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to a stuttery 22.4 FPS. Given these results, the recommended experience is to play at 1080p with the Low preset for maximum fluidity, or at 1440p with Low to balance visual clarity and performance. The Ultra preset is entirely unreasonable at any resolution for this GPU, yielding only 65 FPS at 1080p and 39 FPS at 1440p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary limiting factor in this configuration. Its performance, relative to other GPUs, sits at the 55th percentile, and its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. With a boost clock of 1785 MHz, the card is capable of a 5.027 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. The benchmark results confirm this limitation: the frame rate scales inversely with both resolution and graphical settings, which is the classic signature of GPU-bound performance.

The GTX 1660 SUPER's average benchmark score of 14286 places it in a tight cluster with rivals like the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11, which scores 14314 (a 0.2% difference), and the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics, which scores 14315 (also a 0.2% difference). This close grouping suggests that while it is a competent 1080p card, it does not have the raw horsepower to maintain high frame rates at higher resolutions. The data shows that when moving from 1080p to 4K on the Low preset, performance drops by over 66%, from 131.9 FPS to 44.4 FPS, which is a direct consequence of the GPU's fillrate and memory bandwidth limits. The 6 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this older title, but the processing power is clearly not enough for 4K Ultra settings, where the average frame rate collapses to 22.4 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system?

A: The best experience is at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which achieves an average of 131.9 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low preset is still excellent at 83.8 FPS.

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

A: Barely, and only on the Low preset, which produces an average of 44.4 FPS. Higher presets at 4K are not playable, with Ultra yielding just 22.4 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its closest rivals?

A: Its average benchmark score of 14286 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14314) and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics (14315), with a negligible performance difference of 0.2%.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this game?

A: No. The frame rate drops significantly as resolution and settings increase, which is the expected behavior when the GPU is the bottleneck. The Intel Core i7-14700K has ample headroom.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The Low preset achieves 131.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 65 FPS. The Ultra preset is exactly 50.7% slower than Low.

Q: What is the frame rate drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p on the High preset?

A: The average frame rate falls from 83.9 FPS at 1080p to 55.7 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 28.2 FPS, or approximately 33.6%.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ranks 1531 out of 1733 total combos for this game. This places it in the bottom 12% of all tested systems, which is a surprisingly low rank given the strong CPU. This low ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU, as the GTX 1660 SUPER's performance percentile (55th) is far below that of the CPU (96th).

This ranking indicates that, for Minimum, the system is significantly hampered by its graphics card. The data implies that a system with a more balanced pairing would perform much better. The combination's rank is a direct consequence of the GPU's inability to push high frame rates at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the 4K results. The i7-14700K's processing power is effectively wasted in this configuration, as it is never the limiting factor at any of the tested settings. The 1531st place finish out of 1733 underscores that while this CPU is top-tier, the overall gaming experience is dictated by the far weaker GTX 1660 SUPER.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the GPU as the bottleneck. On the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 131.9 FPS at 1080p to 83.8 FPS at 1440p (a 36.5% drop), and then to 44.4 FPS at 4K (a 66.3% drop from 1080p). This pattern is consistent across all settings. For instance, on the High preset, the frame rate falls from 83.9 FPS at 1080p to 55.7 FPS at 1440p and finally to 30.4 FPS at 4K.

These results are the hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU's performance is resolution-independent, so if it were the bottleneck, frame rates would remain constant across resolutions. The data shows a near-linear relationship between pixel count and frame rate, which is expected when the graphics card's processing units are saturated. The scaling is slightly worse than linear due to the increased memory pressure, but the trend is unmistakable. The GTX 1660 SUPER simply does not have the fillrate to maintain high frame rates at 4K, making 1080p the only resolution where this combo can fully express its potential.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average frame rates (FPS) measured for the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination across all tested resolutions and settings.

1920x1080

• Ultra: 65 FPS
• High: 83.9 FPS
• Medium: 102.6 FPS
• Low: 131.9 FPS

2560x1440

• Ultra: 39 FPS
• High: 55.7 FPS
• Medium: 65.5 FPS
• Low: 83.8 FPS

3840x2160

• Ultra: 22.4 FPS
• High: 30.4 FPS
• Medium: 33.5 FPS
• Low: 44.4 FPS

The data shows a consistent hierarchy: Low is always fastest, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra is always slowest. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is a substantial 66.9 FPS. At 1440p, the spread is 44.8 FPS, and at 4K, it narrows to 22 FPS, which indicates that the GPU is so overwhelmed at 4K that even reducing settings has a limited impact on performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its synthetic benchmark scores are exceptional, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534 and a single-core score of 6287, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs.

Despite this immense processing power, the CPU's role in Minimum's performance is minimal. The measured FPS data shows no sign of CPU limitation; frame rates are entirely dependent on resolution and GPU settings. The CPU's average benchmark score of 70074 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70104, a 0% difference), which reinforces its position as a top-tier processor. However, this power is untapped in this gaming scenario. The GTX 1660 SUPER is a 2019-era mid-range card, and its performance is simply too low to allow the i7-14700K to flex its capabilities. The bottleneck is conclusively the GPU, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops at higher resolutions, which is a function of the graphics card's processing limits rather than the CPU's. The CPU is ready for a much more powerful GPU, but in this pairing, its role is simply to feed frames to a graphics card that cannot keep up.