Minimum

The Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB pairing delivers a highly capable, if uneven, experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The data shows a system that can push very high frame rates at mainstream resolutions but begins to show its limitations as pixel count and graphical fidelity increase. This combination ranks 1895th out of 3712 tested combos in this specific game, placing it in the lower half of the database, which is a surprising result given the individual components' specifications.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a heavyweight desktop processor built on the Raptor Lake architecture, featuring a 10 nm process node. It is a 20-core, 28-thread part with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, making it exceptionally well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming. The processor has a substantial 33 MB of shared L3 cache, alongside 80 KB of L1 and 2 MB of L2 cache per core, ensuring that frequently accessed data is kept close for low latency. Its memory controller supports both DDR4 and DDR5 in a dual-channel configuration, offering flexibility for system builders.

In the context of Minimum, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The sheer core count and high boost clock are overkill for a title from this era, which typically scales best with strong single-core performance. The processor's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and single-core score of 6235 indicate that it will not bottleneck the graphics card in almost any scenario the game can present. Its PassMark single-thread score of 4480 reinforces this, showing a massive amount of headroom for the game's simulation and physics threads.

Benchmark results place the i7-14700KF in the 94th percentile of all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 70163. Compared to its nearest rivals, the data shows a tight cluster at the top. The Intel chip is a mere 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, which scores 69996, and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 69875. It also leads the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X by 0.9%, which scores 69515. The only rival that beats it is the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, which scores 70879, a 1% advantage over the i7-14700KF. These margins are negligible in gaming terms, meaning the CPU is not a differentiating factor in this build's performance; it is a top-tier part that will provide consistent, high-level performance for years.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB is the graphics engine in this pairing, built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture and the Navi 44 chip. It is a 4 nm part from TSMC with a die size of 199 mm² and a staggering 29,700 million transistors. The GPU has a base clock of 1700 MHz and a boost clock of 3130 MHz, with a game clock of 2530 MHz. It is supported by 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 322.3 GB/s. The card features 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 32 ray-tracing cores.

In Minimum, the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rate, especially at higher resolutions and settings. The 8 GB VRAM is a critical factor here; while it is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, the data suggests it may struggle with the largest textures at 4K. The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 4093, which places it in the 24th percentile of all GPUs. This percentile rank is surprisingly low, and the nearest rival data is even more telling. The RX 9060 XT is only 0.4% ahead of the integrated Intel HD Graphics 630, which scores 4075. It is also just 1.5% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M, which scores 4033. Conversely, it trails the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M by 1.4% and the AMD Radeon R5 M330 by 1.8%. These rivals are all significantly older and lower-tier parts, indicating that the RX 9060 XT's raw compute score in this specific test does not reflect its real-world gaming ability, or that the game relies on features where this card underperforms relative to its spec sheet. The data clearly shows the GPU is the limiting factor in this combo, especially when the resolution scales up.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates provide a clear picture of which settings presets offer the best balance between visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, the "Ultra" preset delivers an average of 101 FPS, which is smooth, but the "High" preset jumps to 133 FPS, and "Medium" reaches 158 FPS. The "Low" preset hits an extremely high 206 FPS. For competitive play on a high-refresh-rate monitor, the "Medium" preset at 1080p is the sweet spot, offering a substantial 57 FPS advantage over "Ultra" while still maintaining a level of visual detail that is likely indistinguishable from "High" in a fast-paced shooter.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes. The "Ultra" preset drops to 65 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a shooter. The "High" preset, however, maintains a robust 86 FPS, and "Medium" is even better at 102 FPS. The "Low" preset is the only option that clears the 120 FPS threshold, hitting 133 FPS. For 1440p, "High" is the recommended preset, as it provides a 21 FPS boost over "Ultra" and keeps the experience comfortably above the 60 FPS baseline for a smooth, responsive feel.

At 4K (3840x2160), the GPU is clearly overburdened. The "Ultra" preset yields an average of only 35 FPS, which is unplayable for a shooter. "High" is better at 46 FPS, but "Medium" is the first preset to break the 50 FPS barrier, hitting 55 FPS with a minimum of 47 FPS. For 4K gaming, users should stick to the "Medium" preset at most; the "Low" preset, which averages 72 FPS, is the only way to achieve a reliably smooth experience at this resolution. The data indicates that "Medium" at 4K is the most balanced choice, offering a playable frame rate without resorting to the lowest possible visual settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined performance of the Core i7-14700KF and the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB places this configuration at rank 1895 out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum. This is a mid-pack result, meaning that 51% of other hardware combinations tested in the database deliver better performance in this specific title. This ranking is primarily dragged down by the GPU's relative weakness, as the CPU is in the top 6% of all processors.

This rank is a key indicator that while the CPU is a top-tier component, the GPU is not. The pairing creates an imbalance where the processor is underutilized in many scenes. The data suggests that the i7-14700KF is not the bottleneck; instead, the RX 9060 XT's performance profile limits the overall system. For a game like Minimum, which is older and not heavily multithreaded, the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are largely idle, while the GPU is working at full capacity. This rank of 1895 out of 3712 is a clear warning that this specific GPU choice holds back the platform, and users might see better overall results with a more powerful graphics card, even if it means pairing it with a less potent processor.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern as resolution increases. Comparing the "High" preset across the three tested resolutions shows a clear and predictable drop in performance. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 133 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rate drops to 86 FPS, a 35% reduction. The jump to 3840x2160 is even more severe, with the frame rate falling to 46 FPS, a 65% reduction from the 1080p result.

This steep decline is a textbook sign that the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT is the limiting component. The CPU is not the issue; if it were, the frame rate would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU's workload is largely resolution-independent. The fact that the FPS nearly halves when going from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are being saturated. The 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are the likely culprits, as they struggle to feed the GPU with the massive amounts of texture data required at 4K. The 322.3 GB/s of bandwidth is simply insufficient for the demands of high-resolution rendering at high settings.

Further evidence of the GPU bottleneck is seen in the "Low" preset scaling. The frame rate only drops from 206 FPS at 1080p to 133 FPS at 1440p, a 35% decline, and then to 72 FPS at 4K, a 65% decline from 1080p. This shows that even when the graphical workload is reduced, the GPU is still the primary constraint. The system is unable to maintain high frame rates at 4K regardless of settings, confirming that the graphics card is the definitive bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured performance data is as follows:

1920x1080

• Ultra: Average FPS 101.
• High: Average FPS 133.
• Medium: Average FPS 158, with a minimum of 134 FPS and a maximum of 182 FPS.
• Low: Average FPS 206.

2560x1440

• Ultra: Average FPS 65.
• High: Average FPS 86.
• Medium: Average FPS 102, with a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 117 FPS.
• Low: Average FPS 133.

3840x2160

• Ultra: Average FPS 35.
• High: Average FPS 46.
• Medium: Average FPS 55, with a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS.
• Low: Average FPS 72.

These numbers show that the only consistently smooth experience is at 1080p, where all presets exceed 100 FPS. At 1440p, the "Ultra" preset dips below the 70 FPS mark, making "High" or "Medium" the better choices for competitive play. At 4K, the system struggles to maintain 60 FPS on any preset, with only the "Low" setting providing a playable average of 72 FPS. The minimum FPS data for the "Medium" settings shows that 1% lows are reasonable, staying within 15% of the average, which suggests the frame pacing is stable despite the high resolution load. The overall picture is a system that is excellent for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but falls short of the standards expected for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming.