Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Minimum shows a steep and consistent penalty as resolution climbs, which points squarely at the GPU as the primary limiter at higher settings. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 130 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 84 FPS, a 35% reduction. Pushing to 4K High further reduces performance to 45 FPS, which is 65% below the 1080p figure. This is a classic rasterization-bound pattern where pixel count outpaces the shading unit throughput.

The scaling from Low settings tells a similar story but with higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 202 FPS average. At 1440p Low, that falls to 130 FPS, a 36% drop. At 4K Low, the average is 70 FPS, which is 65% lower than 1080p Low. The consistency of the percentage drops across settings — roughly 35% for each step up in resolution — indicates that the RTX 4070 Mobile's 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 15.62 TFLOPS FP32 throughput are being saturated regardless of the preset. The game is not CPU-bound at any resolution tested; the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H has enough headroom to feed the GPU even at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200.

The Medium preset data includes min and max FPS values, which reveal the frame pacing characteristics. At 4K Medium, the average is 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 and maximum of 62. The 8 FPS spread between min and max is narrow, suggesting stable frame delivery even at high pixel counts. At 1440p Medium, the average is 100 FPS with min 85 and max 115 — a 30 FPS spread that indicates more variance as the GPU works harder but still maintains playable frame times. At 1080p Medium, the spread widens to 47 FPS (min 131, max 178), which is expected when frame rates are high and CPU scheduling or driver overhead creates occasional hitches.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding and shows the clearest GPU bottleneck. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 34 FPS — barely above the threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Ultra, it recovers to 64 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it reaches 99 FPS. The jump from Ultra to High at each resolution is substantial: 11 FPS at 4K, 20 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 1080p. This indicates that the Ultra preset adds significant shading and texture work that disproportionately taxes the 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 48 ROPs.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate for this hardware. At 1080p Medium, the 154 FPS average with a 131 FPS minimum keeps gameplay well above the 60 FPS threshold for competitive third-person shooters. The 1440p Medium result of 100 FPS average (min 85) is also excellent for high-refresh displays. Even at 4K Medium, the 54 FPS average with a 46 FPS minimum is playable, though it sits close to the edge of comfort.

The High preset is a reasonable alternative if visual fidelity matters more than raw headroom. At 1080p High, the 130 FPS average is still strong, and at 1440p High, 84 FPS remains fluid. However, the 4K High result of 45 FPS average is marginal — it will feel stuttery in fast-paced combat. The Ultra preset should be avoided at 4K entirely, as the 34 FPS average is below the playable threshold. At 1440p Ultra, 64 FPS is acceptable for slower moments but may dip during intense scenes. At 1080p Ultra, 99 FPS is solid.

The Low preset is only worth considering for competitive play where frame rate trumps visuals. At 1080p Low, 202 FPS gives maximum responsiveness for high-refresh monitors. At 1440p Low, 130 FPS is still excellent. The 4K Low result of 70 FPS is surprisingly usable, suggesting that even at the lowest settings, the GPU retains enough headroom to deliver a smooth experience at 4K — but the visual compromise is substantial.

For most players, the data supports Medium as the default choice. It provides the widest margin between minimum and average FPS across all resolutions, which translates to fewer hitches. The 1440p Medium configuration (100 FPS avg) is arguably the sweet spot for this laptop-class GPU: it delivers high frame rates while maintaining enough visual detail to appreciate the game's environments. The 1080p Medium configuration is the safe pick for those prioritizing consistent 144 FPS+ gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p at medium-to-high settings but becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The 48 ROPs handle pixel fill at 81.36 GPixel/s, and the 144 texture mapping units provide 244.1 GTexel/s. These specifications align with the measured FPS patterns: the GPU scales predictably with resolution and settings, and the frame rate drops are consistent with a memory-bandwidth-bound scenario at high pixel counts.

The GPU's clock behavior is worth noting. The base clock is 1395 MHz and the boost clock is 1695 MHz, but the measured FPS suggests the silicon sustains near-boost clocks under load. The 4K Medium result of 54 FPS average, for example, indicates the GPU is not thermally throttling — otherwise the minimum FPS of 46 would likely be lower. The 22,900 million transistors on a 188 mm² die (121.8M transistors per mm²) give the AD106 chip ample compute density for this title's requirements.

Comparing to the nearest rivals, the RTX 4070 Mobile's average benchmark score of 27435 places it essentially even with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (27425, deltaPct 0). It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 by 0.5% (27565) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 by 1.5% (27839). The RTX 4070 Mobile leads the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell by 1.1% (27135). This places the mobile GPU in desktop-class territory for rasterization performance, which explains why it can handle 1440p Medium at 100 FPS average in a game from this era.

The GPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all GPUs means it outperforms roughly three-quarters of the database's tested graphics cards. For a laptop part, this is strong — it means the 4070 Mobile can run Minimum at high frame rates at 1440p without compromise. The 4K results are the only area where the GPU's limitations show, and even then, the Low preset achieves 70 FPS average, which is respectable for a mobile chip.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range is available. Low produces 202 FPS average, Medium 154 FPS (min 131, max 178), High 130 FPS, and Ultra 99 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 48 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 31 FPS. This non-linear scaling indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately expensive relative to their visual impact. The 1080p Medium minimum of 131 FPS ensures that even in heavy combat, the frame rate stays above 120 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the numbers scale down proportionally. Low delivers 130 FPS average, Medium 100 FPS (min 85, max 115), High 84 FPS, and Ultra 64 FPS. The 1440p Medium configuration is particularly notable: the 85 FPS minimum is only 15 FPS below the average, indicating tight frame pacing. The 1440p Ultra result of 64 FPS is the first point where the experience becomes borderline for fast-paced gameplay, but it remains playable for less demanding sessions.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limits become apparent. Low achieves 70 FPS average, Medium 54 FPS (min 46, max 62), High 45 FPS, and Ultra 34 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 46 FPS is close to the 45 FPS High average, which suggests that the Medium preset's reduced effects allow the GPU to maintain more consistent frame delivery. The 4K Ultra result of 34 FPS is below the 40 FPS threshold most players consider minimum for playable third-person shooters.

The min/max data for Medium settings across all resolutions provides insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the spread is 47 FPS (131 to 178). At 1440p, the spread is 30 FPS (85 to 115). At 4K, the spread is 16 FPS (46 to 62). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more uniformly loaded — there is less headroom for occasional spikes, but also fewer idle cycles that could cause stutter.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile ranks 2029 out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum. This places it in the 55th percentile of all system pairings, meaning slightly more than half of tested configurations outperform it. Given that this is a mobile platform, the ranking is respectable — many of the combos ahead of it are likely desktop systems with higher-power GPUs.

The CPU's own ranking provides context. The Core Ultra 5 135H has a percentile of 81 among all CPUs, which is notably higher than the combo's overall rank. This suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing — the CPU has more headroom than the GPU can utilize in this game. The CPU's average benchmark score of 29093 places it within 0.1% of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (29123, deltaPct -0.1) and 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28940, deltaPct 0.5). It trails the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 by 0.5% (29245) and the Intel Core i5-13500HX by 0.6% (29270). These are all desktop-class CPUs, so the mobile Core Ultra 5 135H is punching above its weight class.

The GPU's percentile of 73 among all GPUs is lower than the CPU's 81, confirming that the graphics card is the bottleneck. The combo rank of 2029 out of 3712 reflects this imbalance: a stronger GPU would push this combo significantly higher in the rankings, while a stronger CPU would yield diminishing returns. For Minimum specifically, the game's age (released in 2014) means it does not heavily utilize modern multi-core processors, so the CPU's 14 cores and 18 threads are not fully exercised. The GPU's rasterization throughput is what determines the final frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is a 14-core, 18-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz and boost clock is 4.60 GHz, with a 28 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 18 MB shared L3. These specifications are more than sufficient for Minimum, a game that launched in 2014 when quad-core CPUs were the norm. The CPU's role in this pairing is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic without becoming a bottleneck.

The benchmark data shows the CPU's strengths. In Cinebench R23, it scores 11875.5 multi-core and 1700 single-core. The single-core score is particularly relevant for gaming, as most game threads rely on single-thread performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 3521 and multi-thread score of 22422 confirm that the CPU has both strong per-core performance and substantial multi-threaded capability. The data compression score of 251651 and floating-point math score of 54867 indicate the CPU can handle non-gaming workloads with ease.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p Low, where the frame rate reaches 202 FPS. At this point, the GPU is still the primary limiter — the RTX 4070 Mobile cannot push much beyond 200 FPS in this title. But the CPU is clearly not holding things back, as the 202 FPS result demonstrates. The 130 FPS at 1440p Low and 70 FPS at 4K Low further confirm that the CPU has ample headroom; the frame rate drops are entirely attributable to GPU workload.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are all desktop parts, which contextualizes its performance. The 0.1% delta from the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is remarkable for a mobile chip with a 28 W TDP. The Intel Core i5-13500HX, which is 0.6% faster, is a higher-power mobile part designed for gaming laptops. This suggests the Core Ultra 5 135H is well-matched for a mid-range gaming laptop where the GPU is the performance ceiling. In Minimum, the CPU will never be the reason for low frame rates — it will comfortably support any settings preset the GPU can handle.