Minimum

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 presents an unusual combination in the measured results for Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The data shows a mobile-centric processor paired with a flagship desktop GPU, creating a dynamic where the CPU's capabilities are the primary constraint at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across three resolutions and four quality presets, interpreting the numbers within the context of the system's component benchmarks.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates that the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions, offering the best combination of frame rate and visual fidelity without the significant performance penalty seen at Ultra settings. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves an average of 224 FPS with a minimum of 190 FPS and a maximum of 258 FPS, which is a 56.6% improvement over the Ultra preset's 143 FPS average. This headroom ensures smooth gameplay even during demanding scenes, as the minimum frame rate remains well above typical display refresh rates.

At 2560x1440, Medium again appears optimal, delivering 144 FPS on average with a minimum of 123 FPS and a maximum of 166 FPS. This represents a 56.5% advantage over Ultra's 92 FPS average, while only sacrificing 45 FPS compared to the Low preset's 189 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p maintains a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most high-refresh-rate monitors, making it the sensible choice for competitive play without resorting to the visual compromises of Low settings.

The 3840x2160 resolution tells a similar story, with Medium hitting 78 FPS average, 66 FPS minimum, and 89 FPS maximum. While this is below the 102 FPS achieved at Low settings, it remains playable and provides substantially better visual quality than Low. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 50 FPS, which introduces noticeable stutter, while High sits at 65 FPS. Medium at 4K offers the best trade-off, delivering a playable frame rate with moderate visual enhancements.

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 293 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. However, this comes at the cost of visual quality. The benchmark results suggest that Medium is the sweet spot for the majority of use cases, as it provides a substantial frame rate buffer over Ultra while retaining enough graphical detail for an immersive experience in this 2014 title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for achieving the highest frame rates with this combo?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 at Low settings yields the highest average FPS at 293. Across all settings, 1080p consistently outperforms both 1440p and 4K, with the Medium preset at 1080p achieving 224 FPS compared to 144 FPS at 1440p and 78 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High settings across resolutions?

A: Ultra is consistently the most demanding preset. At 1080p, Ultra averages 143 FPS versus 188 FPS for High, a 31.5% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 92 FPS from High's 121 FPS, and at 4K, Ultra reaches only 50 FPS while High manages 65 FPS. The gap widens at higher resolutions, indicating the GPU is increasingly stressed.

Q: Is the system capable of 4K gaming in this title?

A: Yes, but with limitations. The Medium preset at 3840x2160 achieves 78 FPS average with a 66 FPS minimum, which is playable. The Low preset reaches 102 FPS, while High and Ultra are limited to 65 FPS and 50 FPS respectively. Users seeking smooth 4K gameplay should select Medium or Low.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like for the Medium preset?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the range spans from 190 to 258 FPS, at 1440p from 123 to 166 FPS, and at 4K from 66 to 89 FPS. These ranges indicate consistent performance without severe frame drops, as the minimum values remain reasonably close to the averages.

Q: How does this combo rank among other tested configurations?

A: The combination ranks 581st out of 2939 tested combos for this game, placing it in the top 19.8% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong GPU performance tempered by the mobile CPU's limitations.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p. The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H has a PassMark single-thread score of 3399 and a multi-thread score of 21100, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12804.5. At 1080p Low, the system hits 293 FPS, but the GPU's massive compute capability (104.8 TFLOPS FP32) is underutilized, indicating the CPU cannot feed frames fast enough to saturate the RTX 5090.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 581 out of 2939 tested combos for Minimum. This places the configuration in the 80th percentile of all tested systems, indicating that it outperforms the majority of alternatives despite the CPU's mobile-class design. The ranking is particularly notable given that the CPU's average benchmark score of 27507 places it at the 79th percentile across all CPUs, while the GPU's average score of 79842 places it at the 92nd percentile across all GPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (avgScore 27535, deltaPct -0.1), the Intel Core i5-12600K (avgScore 27578, deltaPct -0.3), and the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (avgScore 27578, deltaPct -0.3). The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is effectively tied with these desktop processors in overall CPU benchmark scores, showing a delta of less than 0.5% in either direction. This suggests that the mobile CPU's 14 cores and 18 threads, with a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, provide computational throughput comparable to established desktop parts.

On the GPU side, the RTX 5090's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (avgScore 79605, deltaPct 0.3), the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (avgScore 79396, deltaPct 0.6), and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (avgScore 78940, deltaPct 1.1). The RTX 5090 is slightly ahead of these accelerators, with only the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (avgScore 80959, deltaPct -1.4) scoring higher by a small margin. The rank of 581 suggests that while the GPU is a top-tier performer, the system as a whole is held back by the CPU in a game that is likely not heavily multithreaded.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values across presets are 293 for Low, 224 for Medium, 188 for High, and 143 for Ultra. The Medium preset provides the only complete dataset with a minimum of 190 FPS and a maximum of 258 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with Ultra delivering 51.2% of the Low preset's frame rate. The gap between High and Ultra is 45 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 36 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a substantial additional load.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 189 for Low, 144 for Medium, 121 for High, and 92 for Ultra. The Medium preset again records a minimum of 123 FPS and a maximum of 166 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p results in a 35.5% reduction for Low (from 293 to 189 FPS), a 35.7% reduction for Medium (from 224 to 144 FPS), a 35.6% reduction for High (from 188 to 121 FPS), and a 35.7% reduction for Ultra (from 143 to 92 FPS). This uniform scaling across all presets suggests a consistent resolution-dependent bottleneck.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are 102 for Low, 78 for Medium, 65 for High, and 50 for Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 89 FPS. Moving from 1440p to 4K yields a 46.0% reduction for Low (from 189 to 102 FPS), a 45.8% reduction for Medium (from 144 to 78 FPS), a 46.3% reduction for High (from 121 to 65 FPS), and a 45.7% reduction for Ultra (from 92 to 50 FPS). The consistent reduction across presets indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, as the RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are stressed by the higher pixel count.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and consistent across all settings. At Low, the average FPS falls from 293 to 102, a 65.2% reduction. At Medium, it falls from 224 to 78, a 65.2% reduction. At High, it falls from 188 to 65, a 65.4% reduction. At Ultra, it falls from 143 to 50, a 65.0% reduction. The near-identical percentage drops across all presets indicate that the scaling is resolution-driven rather than settings-driven, pointing to the GPU as the primary constraint at higher pixel counts.

The RTX 5090's specifications support this interpretation. With a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s, the GPU has immense fill-rate capabilities. However, the 4K resolution (3840x2160) contains roughly 8.3 million pixels, compared to approximately 2.1 million at 1080p. The measured 65% drop in FPS when moving to 4K is less than the 75% increase in pixel count, suggesting that the GPU's parallel processing architecture handles the additional load efficiently, though it cannot fully compensate for the quad-pixel workload.

The scaling behavior also reveals the CPU's role at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves 293 FPS at Low, but the RTX 5090's theoretical capability far exceeds this, as indicated by its PassMark G3D score of 39650. The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, with its 14 cores and 18 threads, has a PassMark multi-thread score of 21100 and a single-thread score of 3399. At 1080p, the CPU's per-core performance becomes the bottleneck, limiting the frame rate before the GPU reaches full utilization. As resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, and the bottleneck shifts from the CPU to the GPU, explaining the consistent percentage drops.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a mobile processor with 14 cores and 18 threads, built on Intel's 7 nm process. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz, with a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, and it features 18 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 2 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU's benchmark scores are strong for a mobile part, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12804.5 and a single-core score of 1647.5. The PassMark multi-thread score of 21100 and single-thread score of 3399 place it at the 79th percentile among all CPUs.

In Minimum, a third-person shooter from 2014, the CPU's role is likely focused on game logic, physics, and draw-call processing. The game's age suggests it may not be heavily optimized for multi-threading, meaning the CPU's single-thread performance is crucial. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (293 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (143 FPS) indicates that the CPU can sustain high frame rates, but the 4.50 GHz boost clock is not sufficient to push the GPU to its limits at lower resolutions. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, has an average score of 27535, a delta of -0.1%, indicating comparable overall performance, yet the Ryzen 7 5800 is a desktop chip with potentially higher sustained clocks.

The Cinebench R15 multi-core score of 2021.5 and single-core score of 241 further illustrate the CPU's capabilities. The 14-core configuration provides substantial multi-threaded throughput, but the single-core score suggests that per-thread performance is adequate but not exceptional. In a game like Minimum, which likely relies on a few primary threads, the CPU's 3.60 GHz base clock and 4.50 GHz boost clock are the key metrics. The data shows that at 4K, the FPS drops to 50-102 depending on settings, which is likely GPU-bound, but at 1080p, the CPU's thread scheduling and clock speed are the limiting factors, capping performance below what the RTX 5090 could theoretically deliver.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a flagship desktop GPU based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 5 nm process. It features 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units, with 170 ray-tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Its FP32 performance is rated at 104.8 TFLOPS, and it achieves a PassMark G3D score of 39650, placing it at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs.

In the measured FPS data, the RTX 5090's role becomes increasingly prominent as resolution rises. At 1080p, the GPU is underutilized, as evidenced by the fact that the Low preset (293 FPS) is only modestly higher than the Medium preset (224 FPS), suggesting the CPU is the bottleneck. At 4K, however, the GPU's capabilities are fully tested, with the Low preset dropping to 102 FPS and Ultra to 50 FPS. The GPU's 32 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this 2014 title, which likely uses less than 4 GB, so memory capacity is not a constraint.

The GPU's clock speeds and memory bandwidth are the key factors in its performance. The 2407 MHz boost clock allows for high compute throughput, while the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture and geometry data can be fed to the shading units without stalling. The measured FPS at 4K Medium (78 FPS) and 4K High (65 FPS) indicates that the GPU can handle the game's visual effects at high resolutions, but the Ultra preset, which likely enables additional post-processing and shadow effects, pushes the GPU to its limits, resulting in a 50 FPS average. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, has an average score of 79605, a delta of 0.3%, indicating near-parity in synthetic benchmarks, but the RTX 5090's gaming-specific features, such as its 170 ray-tracing cores, may provide advantages in modern titles, though Minimum likely does not utilize these features.