Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the combined benchmark percentile of this CPU and GPU pairing?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF sits in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT lands in the 72nd percentile among all GPUs. This gap suggests the processor is a stronger component relative to its peers than the graphics card is relative to its own market segment.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic multi-threaded tests?

A: The Core i7-14700KF scores 70,163 in average benchmark score, placing it 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX. Against the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, the i7-14700KF trails by 1%, showing a tightly contested top-tier field.

Q: What is the GPU's standing against its closest competitors in average benchmark score?

A: The RX 6700 XT averages 27,425, which is statistically tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (0% delta) and 0.5% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. It also edges out the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell by 1.1% while trailing the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 by 1.5%.

Q: What are the measured FPS results at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium preset, the combo delivers an average of 156 FPS, with a minimum of 133 FPS and a maximum of 180 FPS. This represents a strong mid-range experience, comfortably above typical 60 FPS thresholds.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to the 1080p Low result?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 35, while 1080p Low achieves 204 FPS. The ratio between these two extremes shows a 5.8x performance difference, highlighting how resolution and settings heavily tax the system.

Q: What memory specifications does each component bring to this pairing?

A: The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, while the GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit interface with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU's L3 cache is 33 MB shared, with 2 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data presents a clear hierarchy across the four presets at each resolution, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target display. For 1080p gaming, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 204 FPS, but this comes at the cost of visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 156 FPS offers a compelling middle ground—it maintains a 133 FPS minimum, ensuring smooth frame pacing even in demanding scenes, while providing better graphical detail than Low. High at 131 FPS is nearly as fast and may be preferable for those who want additional visual polish without sacrificing much performance.

At 1440p, the story shifts. Medium produces 101 FPS average with a 86 FPS minimum, which is still well within high-refresh territory. High at 85 FPS average is playable but starts to approach the edge of 60 FPS in heavier moments. Low at 132 FPS remains the fastest option, but the gap between Low and Medium narrows compared to 1080p, suggesting the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor. For most 1440p users, Medium offers the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom.

The 4K results tell a different story entirely. Ultra averages 35 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. High at 46 FPS is marginally better but still falls short. Medium at 54 FPS average with a 46 FPS minimum approaches playability but cannot consistently hold 60. Only Low at 71 FPS crosses the 60 FPS threshold, making it the only viable preset for 4K if smoothness is the priority. Even then, the 71 FPS average leaves little headroom for demanding sequences.

The data implies that this pairing is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming with Medium or High presets. The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at that resolution, while the strong 1080p Low result of 204 FPS shows the CPU is more than capable of feeding the graphics card. Users targeting 4K would need to accept Low settings, while those at 1440p can enjoy a comfortable Medium experience.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 20 cores and 28 threads running on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz boosts up to 5.60 GHz, providing strong single-thread performance that is critical for game logic and frame pacing. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache, combined with 2 MB L2 per core, helps keep frequently accessed data close to the execution units, reducing latency in compute-heavy scenarios.

Synthetic benchmarks underscore the CPU's strength. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score reaches 44,167, while the single-core score hits 6,235. Geekbench results show 21,462 multicore and 2,578 single-core. PassMark multithread score is 52,425, and single-thread is 4,480. These figures place the CPU in the 94th percentile of all processors, indicating it is among the top 6% of desktop chips available.

The nearest rival data reveals a tightly packed competitive landscape. The i7-14700KF's average score of 70,163 is just 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, 0.4% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, and 0.9% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. Only the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K outperforms it, and only by 1%. This suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, the i7-14700KF will perform nearly identically to these alternatives.

In the context of this game, the CPU's role appears to be secondary at higher resolutions. The measured FPS drop from 204 at 1080p Low to 71 at 4K Low indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases. The CPU's high single-thread score of 6,235 in Cinebench R23 likely ensures that the game's simulation and AI logic are not bottlenecks at any tested resolution. The 20-core configuration also provides headroom for background tasks and streaming, though the game itself may not utilize all threads.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1,935 out of 3,712 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the 52nd percentile of all pairings. This middle-of-the-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the CPU's 94th percentile standing, but it reflects the GPU's more modest 72nd percentile position. The ranking suggests that in this specific game, the graphics card is the limiting factor for overall performance, pulling the combo down from what the CPU alone might achieve.

Comparing the measured FPS to the component benchmarks provides context. The CPU's average benchmark score of 70,163 is near the top of its class, yet the game's frame rates at 4K Ultra (35 FPS) and even 1440p Ultra (64 FPS) do not reflect that level of dominance. This indicates that the game's rendering workload is primarily GPU-bound at higher settings, and the CPU's headroom is not fully utilized.

The ranking also implies that there are 1,934 combos that perform better in this game, many of which likely pair similar CPUs with more powerful GPUs. Conversely, the 1,777 combos ranked below this pairing demonstrate that the i7-14700KF and RX 6700 XT combination is still capable of outperforming a significant portion of the market. The 52nd percentile position is a solid mid-tier result, neither exceptional nor disappointing.

The data suggests that for users specifically targeting this game, the combo delivers a balanced experience at 1080p and 1440p, but falls short of high-end 4K performance. The CPU's strength ensures that the combo will not be CPU-limited, while the GPU's capabilities define the ceiling. This ranking provides a useful reference point for anyone considering this pairing for Minimum.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 22 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It features 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with 40 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2,321 MHz, a game clock of 2,424 MHz, and a boost clock of 2,581 MHz, providing solid raw compute throughput of 13.21 TFLOPS FP32.

Memory configuration is a key strength. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial for a card in this class. The memory clock runs at 2,000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed. This capacity and bandwidth are sufficient for high-resolution textures, though the 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS suggests that compute throughput, not memory, is the limiting factor at that resolution.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a balanced profile. PassMark G3D score is 19,786, while 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 reaches 2,435. Geekbench Vulkan scores 93,500, OpenCL 44,152, and Metal 130,896. These numbers place the GPU in the 72nd percentile of all graphics cards, indicating it is a mid-to-upper-tier performer but not a flagship.

The nearest rival analysis reveals close competition. The RX 6700 XT's average score of 27,425 is exactly tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (0% delta) and 0.5% behind the RTX 3090. It leads the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell by 1.1% and trails the Radeon Pro Vega 20 by 1.5%. This tight grouping suggests that in raw compute terms, these cards are nearly interchangeable, and game-specific optimizations will determine the winner.

In Minimum, the GPU's role is clearly dominant at higher resolutions. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K at each settings level demonstrates this. At Low settings, FPS drops from 204 at 1080p to 71 at 4K, a 65% reduction. At Ultra, the drop is from 100 to 35, a similar 65% reduction. This consistent scaling indicates that the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity are the primary constraints as pixel count increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 204 FPS, the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium averages 156 FPS with a minimum of 133 and maximum of 180, providing smooth gameplay with good detail. High averages 131 FPS, still well above typical 60 FPS displays. Ultra averages 100 FPS, which is respectable for maximum settings at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops proportionally. Low averages 132 FPS, representing a 35% reduction from 1080p Low. Medium averages 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 and maximum of 116. High averages 85 FPS, which is playable but begins to approach the 60 FPS threshold in demanding scenes. Ultra averages 64 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS standard but leaves little margin for frame drops.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low averages 71 FPS, which is the only preset to exceed 60 FPS at this resolution. Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 and maximum of 62, showing noticeable frame variability. High averages 46 FPS, which is below the smoothness threshold. Ultra averages 35 FPS, which is playable only in slower-paced games or with adaptive sync.

The data shows a consistent pattern across settings: Low is always the fastest, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra in descending order. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 104 FPS (204 vs 100). At 1440p, the gap narrows to 68 FPS (132 vs 64). At 4K, the gap shrinks further to 36 FPS (71 vs 35). This narrowing gap indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU's limits compress the performance range across settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's balance. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reduces average FPS from 204 to 71, a 65.2% decrease. This is close to the theoretical 4x pixel count increase, suggesting that at Low settings, the GPU is fully utilized and the CPU has ample headroom. The fact that the drop is less than 75% (which would be proportional to pixel count) indicates some other factor, possibly memory bandwidth or driver overhead, is partially mitigating the load.

At Medium settings, the drop from 156 to 54 FPS represents a 65.4% reduction. At High settings, the drop from 131 to 46 FPS is a 64.9% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop from 100 to 35 FPS is a 65.0% reduction. The remarkable consistency of these percentages—all hovering around 65%—suggests that the scaling is uniform across settings and is driven primarily by resolution rather than preset-specific effects.

This consistent scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions above 1080p. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a smaller percentage drop at lower settings (where the CPU has more work relative to the GPU) and a larger drop at higher settings. Instead, the uniform 65% reduction suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the primary constraint, and the CPU's performance is sufficient to feed it at all tested resolutions.

The 1080p Low result of 204 FPS is particularly telling. This frame rate is high enough that even a powerful CPU might struggle to maintain it in CPU-intensive scenes. The fact that the i7-14700KF sustains this without issue, combined with its 94th percentile ranking, suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game. The data implies that users could upgrade the GPU without needing a CPU upgrade, as the processor has headroom to support a more powerful graphics card.

The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS serves as a clear indicator of the GPU's ceiling. At this resolution and settings, the RX 6700 XT is delivering approximately one-sixth of its 1080p Low performance. The 12 GB memory buffer is sufficient for 4K textures, but the compute throughput of 13.21 TFLOPS is insufficient for high-fidelity 4K rendering in this game. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, users would need to either drop to Low settings (71 FPS) or consider a more powerful GPU.