Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Minimum shows a predictable but steep drop as resolution increases, though the pattern reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers 396.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 251.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 37%. At 4K Low, the average falls to 138.7 FPS, which is about 45% lower than the 1440p figure. This scaling curve is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the RTX 4090's workload grows with pixel count.

The gap between settings presets also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the spread from Low (396.8 FPS) to Ultra (191.9 FPS) is 204.9 FPS — a massive range that indicates the CPU can feed the GPU even at the highest settings. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 130.2 FPS (251.8 Low versus 121.6 Ultra). At 4K, the spread compresses further to 69.3 FPS (138.7 Low versus 69.4 Ultra). This compression is the signature of GPU limitation: as resolution climbs, the RTX 4090 becomes the limiting component, and lowering settings recovers less absolute performance.

The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is still contributing meaningfully to frame rates. The jump from Ultra (191.9 FPS) to Low (396.8 FPS) at 1080p represents more than a doubling of performance, which would not happen if the GPU were the sole constraint. At 4K, the same settings change yields only a 2x improvement (69.4 to 138.7 FPS), suggesting the GPU is running near its capacity even at Low. The 4K Ultra result of 69.4 FPS is the only measured point below 100 FPS, indicating that this configuration, while powerful, cannot maintain high refresh rates at maximum settings in this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the clear performance driver in Minimum, particularly at 4K. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial for a third-person shooter from 2014. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, translating to 21 Gbps effective, and the GPU's base clock of 2235 MHz boosts to 2520 MHz. These specifications support the frame rates observed: at 4K Ultra, the card still manages 69.4 FPS, which is playable but not high-refresh territory.

The RTX 4090's benchmark scores place it in the 91st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66473. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (average score 66733, deltaPct -0.4), the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (66127, deltaPct 0.5), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67097, deltaPct -0.9), and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (67320, deltaPct -1.3). These deltas are all within roughly 1.3%, meaning the RTX 4090's performance is tightly clustered with these professional and workstation cards in synthetic benchmarks, despite being an end-of-life consumer product.

In gaming workloads, the RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are the raw attributes that drive the high frame rates seen here. The card's 16,384 shading units and 512 TMUs process the game's geometry and textures efficiently. The 176 ROPs handle pixel output, which becomes critical at 4K where the pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s is taxed. The fact that 4K Low (138.7 FPS) is nearly double 4K Ultra (69.4 FPS) suggests that pixel fill and shading load are the primary GPU constraints, not memory bandwidth or texture fetch.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF provides the computational foundation for these frame rates, though its role diminishes as resolution increases. With 20 cores and 28 threads, a base clock of 3.40 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, this CPU has ample single-thread and multi-thread capacity for Minimum. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 per core help maintain low latency for game logic and physics. The CPU's benchmark data shows a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44557 and a single-core score of 6290, placing it in the 96th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 70104.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the Intel Core i7-14700K (avgScore 70074, deltaPct 0), the AMD EPYC 9115 (69887, deltaPct 0.3), the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70420, deltaPct -0.4), and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (71056, deltaPct -1.3). These deltas are within 1.3%, indicating that the i7-14700KF is performance-equivalent to these processors in general compute, though the gaming results here are more dependent on single-thread speed.

At 1080p Low, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the 396.8 FPS result approaches what the game engine's thread scheduling can deliver. The 1080p High result of 256.1 FPS and 1080p Ultra of 191.9 FPS show that even with higher GPU load, the CPU sustains high frame rates. However, at 4K, the CPU's influence wanes: the 4K Low result (138.7 FPS) is still high, but the GPU is clearly the bottleneck given the smaller gap between Low and Ultra at that resolution. The CPU's 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier suggest headroom for overclocking, but the measured data does not include overclocked results, so the stock configuration is what these numbers represent.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combination?

A: The highest measured average is 396.8 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Does the RTX 4090 maintain 60+ FPS at 4K with any settings preset?

A: Yes, all four measured 4K presets exceed 60 FPS: Low (138.7), Medium (103.0), High (87.3), and Ultra (69.4).

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in multi-core performance?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 70104 on average, which is within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70420) and within 1.3% of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (71056).

Q: What is the largest FPS drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At Low settings, the drop is from 396.8 FPS to 251.8 FPS, a decrease of 145 FPS. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 191.9 FPS to 121.6 FPS, a decrease of 70.3 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's benchmark performance close to any rival cards?

A: Yes, its average benchmark score of 66473 is within 0.4% of the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66733) and within 0.9% of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67097).

Q: Which settings preset at 1440p yields the highest frame rate above 200 FPS?

A: The Low preset at 2560x1440 yields 251.8 FPS, and the Medium preset yields 195.6 FPS, so only Low exceeds 200 FPS at 1440p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear hierarchy across presets. Low settings produce 396.8 FPS average, Medium produces 301.7 FPS, High produces 256.1 FPS, and Ultra produces 191.9 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 95.1 FPS, from Medium to High is 45.6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 64.2 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that certain settings (likely shadows, post-processing, or texture filtering) have disproportionate costs at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the results are 251.8 FPS for Low, 195.6 FPS for Medium, 163.8 FPS for High, and 121.6 FPS for Ultra. The gaps between presets shrink compared to 1080p: Low to Medium is 56.2 FPS, Medium to High is 31.8 FPS, and High to Ultra is 42.2 FPS. The 1440p Low result is still above 250 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors, while Ultra stays above 120 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the measured averages are 138.7 FPS for Low, 103.0 FPS for Medium, 87.3 FPS for High, and 69.4 FPS for Ultra. The preset gaps are smallest here: Low to Medium is 35.7 FPS, Medium to High is 15.7 FPS, and High to Ultra is 17.9 FPS. This compression indicates that the RTX 4090 is fully utilized at 4K, and each settings tier adds a modest but consistent load. The 4K Ultra result of 69.4 FPS is the only sub-100 FPS measurement across all resolutions and presets, making it the most demanding configuration in the dataset.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target frame rate and resolution. For 1080p displays, any preset delivers playable performance, with Low (396.8 FPS) being excessive for most monitors and Ultra (191.9 FPS) still exceeding 144 Hz. The High preset at 256.1 FPS is a balanced choice, offering visual quality while keeping frame rates far above any refresh rate standard.

At 1440p, the Medium preset (195.6 FPS) provides a strong balance, comfortably exceeding 144 Hz. The High preset (163.8 FPS) is also viable for 144 Hz displays, while Ultra (121.6 FPS) drops below 144 Hz but remains above 120 Hz. For users with 240 Hz monitors, only the Low preset (251.8 FPS) reliably exceeds that threshold.

At 4K, the choices are more constrained. The High preset (87.3 FPS) is the best option for 60 Hz displays with good visual fidelity, while Medium (103.0 FPS) offers headroom for 100 Hz screens. The Ultra preset (69.4 FPS) is playable but leaves no margin for demanding scenes, and Low (138.7 FPS) sacrifices too much visual quality for a 120 Hz target. The data suggests that 4K Medium or High provides the best experience, as 4K Ultra's 69.4 FPS is close to 60 Hz but lacks the buffer for frame-time spikes. Overall, the High preset at 1440p (163.8 FPS) or the Medium preset at 4K (103.0 FPS) represent the sweet spots for this hardware combination, depending on whether resolution or frame rate is prioritized.