Minimum

# Minimum — Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but not dominant experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. The combo ranks 2336th out of 2939 tested configurations, placing it in the lower third of all possible pairings. At 1080p, the system produces smooth frame rates across all settings, but 4K performance drops below the 60 FPS threshold even at Low settings, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions. The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p is fully playable, 1440p is acceptable at medium settings, and 4K requires significant compromise.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the Arc B570 struggles as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 145 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 94 FPS, a 35% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 50 FPS, another 47% drop from 1440p. This steep scaling pattern indicates that the GPU's 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 160-bit bus, with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth, are insufficient to maintain high throughput at 4K resolutions.

The High preset tells a similar story: 93 FPS at 1080p, 60 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is 66% lower than the 1080p High figure, a dramatic reduction that clearly points to the GPU as the limiting component. Even the Medium preset, which shows 111 FPS at 1080p and 72 FPS at 1440p, collapses to 39 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result includes a minimum of 33 FPS and maximum of 44 FPS, showing frame time inconsistency that would be noticeable in a fast-paced shooter.

The scaling behavior suggests the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The Core Ultra 5 225, with its 10 cores and 10 threads, maintains sufficient headroom that frame rate differences across resolutions are almost entirely attributable to GPU workload. At 1080p, the CPU may impose some limitation — the 145 FPS Low result versus 94 FPS at 1440p Low shows a larger gap than pure pixel-count scaling would predict, but the overall pattern remains GPU-dominated.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2336th out of 2939 tested configurations for Minimum. This places it in the 79th percentile of all combos — meaning roughly 79% of tested pairings perform better. The ranking reflects the Arc B570's position in the GPU hierarchy more than the CPU's. The Intel Arc B570 scores in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, while the Core Ultra 5 225 sits in the 85th percentile among all CPUs.

The GPU's nearest rivals based on average benchmark scores are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% faster), the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% slower), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (0.4% slower), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (0.5% slower). In Minimum, the Arc B570's performance aligns with these competitors, meaning the combo's low rank stems from the game's age and the GPU's mid-range positioning rather than any specific compatibility issue.

The CPU's nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (0% difference), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (0.2% slower), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (0.4% slower), and Intel Core i9-12900T (0.5% slower). The Core Ultra 5 225's average benchmark score of 36938 is nearly identical to these processors, confirming that CPU-side performance is not the weak link in this combo.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 brings 10 cores and 10 threads with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz. This Arrow Lake-S architecture processor, built on TSMC's 3 nm process, delivers strong single-thread performance with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3655. Multi-core performance is equally solid at 25891 in Cinebench R23, placing the chip comfortably above the 85th percentile of all CPUs.

For Minimum, a 2014 title, the CPU's capabilities far exceed the game's typical requirements. The game was released before the Core Ultra Series 2 existed, and its threading model likely does not utilize all 10 cores effectively. The PassMark single-thread score of 4412 and multithread score of 30459 indicate that even the most demanding CPU-bound scenarios in this game would not stress the processor to its limits.

The 20 MB shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample memory hierarchy for game data. DDR5 dual-channel memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed the GPU without memory bottlenecks. The 4.90 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for older games that rely on high clock speeds rather than many cores, and the data shows this combination delivers 145 FPS at 1080p Low, which is likely CPU-limited given the GPU's mid-range position.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo capable of running Minimum at 1440p with smooth frame rates?*

A: Yes, at Medium settings the combo achieves 72 FPS average at 2560x1440, with a minimum of 61 FPS and maximum of 82 FPS. High settings also reach 60 FPS average, making both presets viable for 1440p gaming.

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Minimum?*

A: The data shows 1920x1080 provides the most consistent experience, with 145 FPS at Low, 111 FPS at Medium, and 93 FPS at High. At 4K, even Low settings only reach 50 FPS, so 1080p or 1440p are the practical choices.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, scores 20534 (0.1% faster). The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582 (0.1% slower), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scores 20480 (0.4% slower), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20662 (0.5% slower).

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The Core Ultra 5 225 ranks in the 85th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 36938. The FPS scaling across resolutions follows GPU-bound patterns, suggesting the CPU provides adequate performance at all tested settings.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The combo achieves 25 FPS average at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is below playable thresholds for a third-person shooter, so 4K Ultra is not recommended.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to all tested configurations for this game?

A: It ranks 2336th out of 2939 total combos, which places it in the lower third of all tested pairings for Minimum.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the primary driver of Minimum's performance envelope. This Battlemage-generation GPU (Xe2-HPG architecture) features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. The 10 GB GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which becomes the limiting factor at 4K resolutions.

The GPU's base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). This configuration delivers 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate. The 150 W TDP and dual-slot design are modest for a modern GPU, and the PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides sufficient bandwidth for most gaming workloads.

In Minimum, the Arc B570's benchmark scores correlate well with observed FPS. The PassMark G3D score of 14195 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649 place it in the 65th percentile among all GPUs. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 96844 suggests strong API-level performance that benefits modern titles, though Minimum's 2014 release may not fully leverage these capabilities.

The GPU's 18 ray tracing cores are irrelevant for this game, but the 12 Ultimate (12_2) DirectX support ensures compatibility with the game's rendering requirements. The 10 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for Minimum at any resolution, as the game's texture budgets are modest by modern standards. The bottleneck at 4K is raw fill rate and memory bandwidth, not capacity.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data supports specific settings choices based on target resolution. At 1920x1080, Medium settings provide 111 FPS average with a minimum of 95 FPS, offering a balanced experience with headroom for frame drops. High settings at 93 FPS are also viable, while Ultra at 71 FPS remains playable but with less margin.

For 2560x1440, Medium settings are the sweet spot: 72 FPS average with a minimum of 61 FPS ensures consistent gameplay. High settings at 60 FPS average are borderline — playable but with no margin for demanding scenes. Low settings at 94 FPS sacrifice visual quality unnecessarily.

At 3840x2160, no preset delivers 60 FPS. Low settings achieve 50 FPS, which may be acceptable for some players but falls short of smooth performance. Medium settings drop to 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS, which is below the threshold for competitive play. The recommendation is to avoid 4K or accept Low settings as the only playable option.

The overall best experience per the measured data is 1080p Medium, which combines the game's visual features with a 111 FPS average and 95 FPS minimum. This provides the largest performance buffer relative to the 60 FPS target while maintaining higher quality than Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers the following average frame rates: Low at 145 FPS, Medium at 111 FPS (95 min, 128 max), High at 93 FPS, and Ultra at 71 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 51% reduction in average FPS, which is typical for a game with modest scaling between presets.

At 2560x1440, performance scales as follows: Low at 94 FPS, Medium at 72 FPS (61 min, 82 max), High at 60 FPS, and Ultra at 46 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 61 FPS is notable — it maintains playability even during demanding sequences. The drop from 1080p Medium to 1440p Medium is 35%, while the High preset drops by 35% as well.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 50 FPS, Medium at 39 FPS (33 min, 44 max), High at 32 FPS, and Ultra at 25 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 33 FPS would cause visible stuttering in a third-person shooter. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steepest at High settings (47% reduction) and least severe at Low settings (47% reduction), confirming consistent GPU-bound behavior across all presets.

The complete dataset shows 12 measured configurations, with the best result being 145 FPS at 1080p Low and the worst being 25 FPS at 4K Ultra. The median average FPS across all configurations is 66.5, indicating that the combo's typical performance sits between 1080p High and 1440p Medium. For players prioritizing frame rate, 1080p Low or Medium are the clear choices; for visual quality at playable frame rates, 1440p Medium is the most balanced option.