Minimum

The Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination delivers exceptional performance in Minimum, with the data showing a clear GPU bottleneck at higher resolutions and a CPU-limited ceiling at 1080p. The measured frames per second (FPS) across all settings and resolutions confirm that this pairing is more than capable of dominating this 2014 title, though the scaling patterns reveal where each component's influence peaks.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, indicating that the GeForce RTX 4080 becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 229 at 1920x1080 to 148 at 2560x1440, then to 79 at 3840x2160. That represents a 35% reduction moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is similar across all presets, with the 4K results landing roughly one-third to one-half of the 1080p numbers.

Low settings show the most dramatic scaling: 356 FPS at 1080p drops to 230 FPS at 1440p and finally to 124 FPS at 4K. The 1080p Low result is extraordinarily high, suggesting that at this resolution and settings combination, the CPU is approaching its ceiling while the GPU still has headroom. The gap between 1080p and 1440p Low is 126 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K Low is 106 FPS — a relatively even decline that points to the GPU becoming progressively more dominant.

Medium settings provide the only complete FPS range data, with minimum and maximum values recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 273 FPS with a range of 232 to 313. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 176 FPS with a range of 149 to 202. At 4K Medium, the average settles at 95 FPS with a range of 80 to 109. The minimum-to-maximum spread narrows as resolution increases, which is typical behavior when the GPU load becomes more uniform and less dependent on scene complexity.

Ultra settings show the steepest scaling curve, which is expected given the increased shader and texture demands. The 1080p Ultra average of 174 FPS drops to 112 FPS at 1440p, a 36% reduction, and then to 61 FPS at 4K, a further 46% reduction. The 4K Ultra result of 61 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, yet it remains playable for a third-person shooter, indicating that even the most demanding preset is manageable on this hardware.

The scaling behavior reveals that at 1080p, the i7-14700K's 20 cores and 28 threads are sufficient to keep the RTX 4080 fed, as evidenced by the 356 FPS Low result. However, at 4K, the GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth become the determining factor, with the FPS deltas between settings shrinking as resolution increases. The data suggests that this game was designed with a CPU-friendly engine that scales predictably with GPU load.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global ranking of tested combinations, this pairing sits at rank 246 out of 3,712 combos, placing it in the top 7% of all systems evaluated. This is a strong result for a game released in 2014, as the hardware is far more modern than the title's original target specifications. The percentile position reflects the sheer headroom this combo offers, though it does not crack the top 200, likely due to the game's age and the diminishing returns of extremely high-end components.

The CPU's benchmark percentile of 94 versus all processors indicates that the i7-14700K is near the top of the performance pyramid. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing include the AMD EPYC 9115 with an average score delta of 0.1%, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at -0.2%, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at -0.7%, and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F at -0.9%. These deltas are all within 1%, meaning the i7-14700K is statistically tied with these competitors in general compute workloads, though the gaming results here are determined more by the GPU.

The GPU's percentile of 86 versus all graphics cards is slightly lower than the CPU's percentile, which aligns with the resolution scaling analysis showing the RTX 4080 as the bottleneck at 4K. The RTX 4080's nearest rivals include the RTX 4080 SUPER at 0.1% delta, the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X at -1.1%, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB at -2.6%, and the AMD Radeon 8060S at -2.7%. The RTX 4080 essentially matches the SUPER variant in average benchmark score, which is notable given the former is listed as end-of-life.

The combo rank of 246 suggests that while this hardware is excellent, there are 245 other combinations that achieve higher average FPS in Minimum. Given the game's age and the fact that the highest measured FPS is 356 at 1080p Low, those higher-ranked combos likely feature even more powerful GPUs or CPUs with higher clock speeds that push frame rates even further. For practical purposes, the 246th rank is immaterial — the experience at any resolution and settings is smooth, with no result below 61 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data supports Ultra settings at 1080p and 1440p as the optimal choices for visual fidelity without sacrificing playability. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS of 174 is well above the refresh rate of most monitors, and even the minimum FPS (not recorded for Ultra, but inferred from the Medium range) would remain fluid. At 1440p Ultra, the 112 FPS average is still excellent for a third-person shooter, and the visual upgrade over High settings justifies the frame rate cost of 36 FPS.

For 4K, the situation is more nuanced. Ultra settings yield an average of 61 FPS, which is borderline for fast-paced gameplay. High settings at 4K provide 79 FPS, a 30% improvement over Ultra, making it the safer choice for maintaining a consistent frame rate. Medium settings at 4K reach 95 FPS, which is the sweet spot if the user prioritizes frame rate over visual detail. Low settings at 4K produce 124 FPS, which is overkill for most displays and sacrifices too much visual quality.

The data indicates that High settings offer the best balance across all resolutions: 229 FPS at 1080p, 148 FPS at 1440p, and 79 FPS at 4K. The jump from High to Ultra costs roughly 24% of the frame rate at 1080p (229 to 174), 24% at 1440p (148 to 112), and 23% at 4K (79 to 61). These consistent deltas suggest that Ultra is a linear extension of High, with no hidden performance cliff. For users with high-refresh-rate displays, Medium at 1080p (273 FPS) or Low at 1440p (230 FPS) are viable options to maximize frame rates beyond 200 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 356, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the peak of the 12 data points, with the next highest being 273 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: The combination of Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 246th out of 3,712 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 7% of all systems.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 the bottleneck at any resolution?

A: At 4K, yes. The FPS scaling from 1440p to 4K shows reductions of 47% at High, 46% at Low, 46% at Medium, and 46% at Ultra, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor. At 1080p, the CPU begins to constrain performance, as shown by the 356 FPS Low result.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the data?

A: The lowest minimum FPS is 80, recorded at 4K Medium. The only other minimum values are 149 at 1440p Medium and 232 at 1080p Medium, with the remaining settings not reporting minimum FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rival?

A: The RTX 4080's average benchmark score is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER, with a deltaPct of 0.1. It is also 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, 2.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, and 2.7% higher than the AMD Radeon 8060S.

Q: Does the game support high refresh rates at 4K?

A: At 4K, the maximum average FPS is 124 on Low settings, which supports 120 Hz displays. High settings at 79 FPS and Medium at 95 FPS are suitable for 60-90 Hz monitors, while Ultra at 61 FPS is limited to standard 60 Hz refresh rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, is the dominant component in this pairing at resolutions above 1080p. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is rated at 1400 MHz, with an effective data rate of 22.4 Gbps. These specifications are more than sufficient for Minimum, a 2014 title that does not require modern VRAM capacities or bandwidth for its texture sets.

The GPU's 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines deliver a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS is substantial, yet the game's engine is old enough that these compute resources are not fully utilized at lower resolutions. The base clock of 2205 MHz and boost clock of 2505 MHz are the key drivers of performance, with the boost clock being the effective speed during sustained gaming loads.

In the measured FPS data, the GPU's role becomes clear when comparing the 4K results across settings. The jump from Low (124 FPS) to Medium (95 FPS) to High (79 FPS) to Ultra (61 FPS) shows a nearly linear relationship between preset and frame rate, with each step costing roughly 20-25 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors at 4K, as the CPU has ample headroom. The GPU's percentile of 86 versus all GPUs places it above average, but its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is nearly identical in score (0.1% delta), confirming that the non-SUPER variant is not leaving performance on the table.

The GPU's 16 GB VRAM is never stressed by Minimum's requirements, as even the Ultra preset at 4K does not show signs of texture thrashing or memory-related stutters, given the consistent FPS averages. The 112 ROPs ensure efficient pixel fill at 4K, but the game's relatively simple geometry means that the bottleneck is more likely shader-bound than fill-rate-bound. The 304 tensor cores and 76 RT cores are unused by this game, as Minimum predates ray tracing and DLSS, making the GPU's modern feature set irrelevant to the actual performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K, with its 20 cores (8 performance and 12 efficiency) and 28 threads, plays a supporting role in Minimum's performance, yet it is crucial for achieving the highest frame rates at 1080p. The CPU's base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide the single-threaded performance that older game engines rely on, as they often have a primary thread that handles game logic and physics. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core reduce memory latency, which benefits the CPU-heavy workloads present in this third-person shooter.

The CPU's benchmark results paint a picture of a top-tier processor: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33,440.5 and a single-core score of 2,160, alongside a Geekbench multi-core score of 20,767 and single-core of 2,569. These figures place the i7-14700K in the 94th percentile versus all CPUs, with its nearest rivals all within 1% of its average benchmark score of 69,355. The PassMark multi-thread score of 52,392 and single-thread score of 4,472 further confirm its strength in both parallel and serial workloads.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the average FPS reaches 356. This result suggests that the CPU can sustain frame generation at a rate that exceeds most displays' refresh rates, but it also hints at a ceiling: the CPU is likely the limiting factor at this resolution and settings, as the GPU would otherwise push even higher. The fact that 1080p High (229 FPS) is 36% lower than 1080p Low (356 FPS) indicates that the GPU begins to take over as the bottleneck as settings increase, even at 1080p.

The CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are overkill for Minimum, which was released in 2014 and likely uses only a handful of threads. The efficiency cores (12 of the 20) may not be fully utilized, but the performance cores' high boost clock of 5.60 GHz is what matters for the game's primary thread. The CPU's TDP of 125 W and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory (dual-channel) mean that system memory bandwidth is not a constraint, though the game itself does not demand high memory throughput. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is irrelevant in this configuration, as the RTX 4080 handles all rendering duties.