Minimum

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i7-14700KF + GTX 1660 Ti combo rank for Minimum?

A: This combination ranks 3198 out of 3712 tested combos for this game, placing it in the lower portion of the performance field. That ranking reflects a substantial mismatch between the high-end CPU and the older, mid-range GPU.

Q: What frame rates can this combo achieve at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 131 FPS on Low settings, 100 FPS on Medium, 84 FPS on High, and 64 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a measured range of 85 to 115 FPS.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 Ti's 6 GB VRAM sufficient for Minimum at 4K?

A: The data indicates that at 3840x2160, performance drops to an average of 45 FPS on Low and 29 FPS on High. The 6 GB GDDR6 memory with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be a limiting factor at this resolution, as even Low settings cannot maintain 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i7-14700KF has an average benchmark score of 70163, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, and 0.9% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. It trails the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K by 1% in average score.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other graphics cards?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti holds a percentile rank of 41 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 7723. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon 540, scores 7673, putting the GTX 1660 Ti 0.7% ahead; it leads the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 by 1.9% and the AMD Radeon R7 250 by 2.2%.

Q: Does the combo scale well when moving from 1440p to 4K?

A: Scaling is poor at the top end. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 54 at 2560x1440 to 29 at 3840x2160, a 46% reduction. The GPU becomes the clear bottleneck as pixel count increases, confirming the CPU has ample headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti lands at rank 3198 out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum. This places the setup in the 14th percentile of all tested combinations, meaning roughly 86% of tested combos outperform it in this specific title. That is a poor result for a system built around a top-tier 14th Gen CPU.

The ranking is driven almost entirely by the GPU. The GTX 1660 Ti, with its 41st percentile standing among all GPUs, is an end-of-life product from the GeForce 10-series era. In contrast, the i7-14700KF sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, making it one of the strongest processors available. When these two components are combined for Minimum, the GPU's modest 5.437 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 6 GB VRAM cap the experience, while the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads remain largely underutilized.

Benchmark data confirms the CPU is not the limiting factor. The i7-14700KF's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and single-core score of 6235 are exemplary, yet the combo's in-game ranking is low. This divergence between CPU potential and actual game performance is a classic sign of a GPU-bound configuration. The measured FPS data reinforces this: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 131 FPS, but even this moderate result is far below what the CPU could theoretically push if paired with a stronger GPU.

For context, the GPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon 540 (0.7% slower), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 (1.9% slower), and the AMD Radeon R7 250 (2.2% slower). These are all entry-level or older cards, which underscores how far down the performance ladder the GTX 1660 Ti sits relative to the CPU. The combo's rank of 3198 is thus a direct reflection of this imbalance — the system is held back by its graphics component in Minimum.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the decisive component in this combo's Minimum performance, and not in a favorable way. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz. These specifications are modest by modern standards, and the data shows they translate into sub-60 FPS averages at 4K across all settings.

Looking at the measured FPS, the GPU's limitations become stark at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 22 on Ultra to 45 on Low. Even at the lowest settings, the card cannot maintain 60 FPS at 4K. This is consistent with its 41st percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 7723, which places it just 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon 540.

The GPU's memory configuration is a key constraint. 6 GB of VRAM is sufficient for 1080p gaming but becomes marginal at 1440p and inadequate at 4K for a 2014 title like Minimum. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, while healthy for the card's era, is not enough to feed the 1536 shading units efficiently at higher pixel counts. The measured FPS drop from 84 at 1080p High to 54 at 1440p High — a 36% reduction — illustrates this bandwidth and memory pressure.

At 1080p, the GPU performs adequately for its class. The average FPS of 131 on Low settings and 100 on Medium show that the card can deliver smooth gameplay at lower resolutions. However, the Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 64 FPS, and the Medium preset's measured range of 85 to 115 FPS indicates some variance. The GPU's passmark DirectX 11 score of 103 and DirectX 12 score of 51 suggest that its API-level performance is moderate, which aligns with the observed frame rates in this older title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo in Minimum covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a clear picture of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves an average of 131 FPS on Low, 100 FPS on Medium, 84 FPS on High, and 64 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 85 FPS and a maximum of 115 FPS, indicating reasonable frame pacing.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 84 FPS on Low, 65 FPS on Medium, 54 FPS on High, and 41 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset again shows a measured range, from 55 to 74 FPS. These numbers represent a 36% reduction from 1080p to 1440p on High settings (84 down to 54 FPS), which is a significant but expected penalty given the increase in pixel count.

At 3840x2160, performance falls off a cliff. The averages are 45 FPS on Low, 35 FPS on Medium, 29 FPS on High, and 22 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 30 FPS and a maximum of 40 FPS. No settings preset at 4K achieves even 50 FPS, and the Ultra preset's 22 FPS average is barely playable. The drop from 1440p High (54 FPS) to 4K High (29 FPS) is a 46% reduction, showing that the GPU is overwhelmed at this resolution.

The data reveals a clear pattern: the combo is viable for 1080p gaming across all settings, acceptable for 1440p at Low and Medium, and only marginal at 4K even on Low. The 64 FPS average at 1080p Ultra is the only preset above 1080p where the combo maintains 60+ FPS, while 1440p Low (84 FPS) and 1440p Medium (65 FPS) also clear that threshold. Every 4K preset falls below 50 FPS, making 4K gaming impractical with this GPU.

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling in Minimum for this combo shows a predictable but steep degradation as pixel count increases. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 84 to 54, a 36% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High, the average drops from 54 to 29, a further 46% reduction. The cumulative drop from 1080p High to 4K High is 65%, from 84 FPS down to 29 FPS.

This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, is more than capable of handling the game's logic at any resolution. The fact that FPS drops consistently with resolution — rather than plateauing — confirms that the GTX 1660 Ti's rendering throughput is the bottleneck. The card's 169.9 GTexel/s texture rate and 84.96 GPixel/s pixel rate are insufficient for 4K workloads.

Looking at Low settings, the scaling is slightly less severe but still steep. From 1080p Low (131 FPS) to 1440p Low (84 FPS) is a 36% drop, and from 1440p Low to 4K Low (45 FPS) is a 46% drop. The consistency of these percentages across settings suggests that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints, regardless of graphical complexity.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 131 FPS, which is far below what the CPU could deliver with a stronger GPU. The i7-14700KF's single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6235) would support much higher frame rates if the GPU could keep up. The resolution scaling data thus serves as a diagnostic: the GPU is saturated, while the CPU remains underutilized.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF plays a supporting role in this combo, and its contribution to Minimum's performance is minimal due to the GPU bottleneck. This processor features 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process, includes 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core.

Benchmark results show the CPU's strength. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and single-core score of 6235 place it in the 94th percentile among all CPUs. The Geekbench multi-core score of 21462 and single-core score of 2578 further confirm its high-end status. These scores are far beyond what Minimum requires, as the game's 2014 release date means it was designed for much older, weaker processors.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark performance are all similarly powerful chips. The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is 0.2% slower, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is 0.4% slower, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.9% slower. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is 1% faster. These marginal differences have no practical impact on Minimum's frame rates, as the GPU limits performance in all cases.

The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution or settings preset. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 131 FPS, but the CPU could theoretically push far higher if paired with a more capable GPU. The measured FPS at 4K (45 FPS on Low) is entirely GPU-bound, as evidenced by the steep resolution scaling. The i7-14700KF's 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier make it a powerful processor, but in this pairing, its capabilities are wasted on Minimum's modest demands.