Minimum

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile pairing delivers a solid, if not spectacular, showing in Minimum. This is a 2014 third-person shooter, but the data indicates that modern hardware still has to work to max it out at high resolutions. The measured results show a clear hierarchy across settings and resolutions, making it easy to identify the best way to play.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data points to Medium as the optimal settings preset for this combo, but with a caveat depending on your display. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers a very playable 114 FPS average, with a minimum of 97 FPS and a maximum of 131 FPS. This is a significant jump from the 73 FPS average at Ultra, and it provides a much smoother experience than the 95 FPS average found at High. The jump from High to Medium nets you a 19 FPS average increase, which is a substantial gain for a visual fidelity drop that is often imperceptible in a fast-paced game.

For 2560x1440, Medium again proves to be the sweet spot, producing a 73 FPS average with a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 84 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. While High at this resolution still hits a respectable 61 FPS average, the Medium preset offers a 12 FPS average headroom, which is valuable for maintaining stability during intense firefights. The Low preset at 1440p pushes the average up to 96 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely too steep for a game where spotting enemies is key.

The data strongly suggests avoiding the Ultra preset entirely on this hardware. At 1080p, it yields a 73 FPS average, which is playable, but you are sacrificing 41 FPS on average compared to Low for visual gains that are marginal in a game of this era. At 1440p, Ultra drops to a 47 FPS average, which is below the threshold for smooth, responsive gameplay. At 4K, the Ultra preset becomes a slideshow at 25 FPS average. The performance cost of Ultra is simply not justified.

Low is the competitive choice. At 1080p, it delivers a 148 FPS average, providing maximum frame rates for high-refresh-rate displays, though it comes at the cost of visual fidelity. For most players, starting with Medium and adjusting from there is the most balanced approach. It provides a high frame rate with the best visual quality per the measured data. If you have a 144Hz or higher refresh rate monitor, the Low preset at 1080p is the only way to approach those frame rates, but for standard 60Hz displays, Medium is the clear recommendation for both 1080p and 1440p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile is the primary driver of performance in this game, and its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth appears to be a limiting factor at higher resolutions. The data shows a steep performance drop when moving from 1440p to 4K, which is a classic sign of memory bandwidth or capacity constraints. At 4K High, the average FPS falls to 33, which is nearly half of the 61 FPS average at 1440p High. This indicates that the GPU is struggling to feed the framebuffer at that resolution.

The GPU's clock speeds of 1020 MHz base and 1500 MHz boost are relatively low, which contributes to its overall performance profile. With 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, the RTX 5050 Mobile is positioned as an entry-level part in the 50-series lineup. The benchmark results show it sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 43268. Its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (0% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER (0.1% delta), and the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (-0.1% delta). This places the RTX 5050 Mobile in a performance tier that is roughly equivalent to a desktop RTX 4070 SUPER in synthetic benchmarks, though the 8 GB memory capacity will likely be a bigger issue in modern titles than in Minimum.

The 4K results paint a clear picture. The 52 FPS average at Low settings is the only playable option at this resolution, and it requires significant visual compromises. The 39 FPS average at Medium, with a minimum of 34 FPS, is borderline unplayable for a shooter. The data shows that the RTX 5050 Mobile is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p, where it can provide high frame rates. At 4K, it is simply out of its depth for this game at higher presets. The GPU's 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the theoretical ceiling, but the memory bus width and clock speeds are the practical bottlenecks in this scenario.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H provides ample processing power for Minimum. This is a 16-core, 22-thread processor from the Meteor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The CPU's benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14551 and a single-core score of 1759. This level of single-core performance is more than sufficient for a 2014 shooter, which typically relies on one or a few cores for game logic and physics.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 148, which is a high frame rate that would stress many CPUs. The fact that this combo can achieve this suggests the CPU has enough headroom to avoid bottlenecking the GPU. The CPU's architecture and clock speeds are more than adequate to feed the RTX 5050 Mobile the necessary draw calls. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache is also beneficial for game data that needs to be quickly accessed.

The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34083, places it in a competitive position. Its nearest rivals in the database are the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (0.3% delta), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (-0.4% delta), and the AMD EPYC 4244P (-0.4% delta). This shows that the 165H is a well-rounded mobile processor. The 28W TDP is a key indicator of its efficiency, and the data suggests that it does not thermally throttle in a way that would impact Minimum's performance. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG 128EU graphics are not relevant for this test, as the discrete RTX 5050 Mobile is handling the rendering.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested configurations, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile ranks at 2973 out of 3712 combos for this game. This places it in the bottom 20% of tested systems, which is a surprising result given the individual components' performance. This low ranking suggests that the RTX 5050 Mobile's performance is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU is well above average.

The combo's rank indicates that while it is a capable system for 1080p gaming, it is far from the top tier. The data shows that many other combinations of CPUs and GPUs will deliver significantly higher frame rates in Minimum. The 2973rd rank is a clear indicator that this is not a high-end gaming machine, but rather a mid-range or entry-level mobile solution. The GPU's percentile rank of 83 is misleading in this context, as the combination of a mid-tier GPU with a high-tier CPU does not necessarily result in a top-tier gaming experience. The game's age means that CPU performance is less critical, and the GPU's raw pixel-pushing power is what determines the overall rank.

This ranking is a sobering reminder that for a game like Minimum, the GPU is king. A system with a weaker CPU but a stronger GPU would likely rank higher in this specific title. The 2973rd position is not a judgment on the CPU, but rather a reflection of the GPU's limits at higher settings and resolutions. For a user with this combo, the expectation should be set to 1080p or 1440p gaming at Medium settings, rather than trying to push 4K or Ultra presets.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 114 at 1080p to 73 at 1440p, a 36% reduction, and then to 39 at 4K, a further 47% reduction from the 1440p figure. This steep decline is a hallmark of a GPU that is running out of memory bandwidth or pixel fill rate as the resolution increases. The RTX 5050 Mobile's 128-bit memory bus is a significant constraint here.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in these scaling tests. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would see a much smaller difference between 1080p and 1440p results. Instead, the consistent and large drops in FPS as resolution increases point squarely at the GPU. The 1080p Low result of 148 FPS is a good example of the CPU's capability; it can push high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily taxed. However, as the resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, and the frame rate plummets.

This scaling behavior is important for users to understand. It means that to improve performance, the focus should be on lowering the resolution or the graphics preset, not on upgrading the CPU. The 4K results are particularly telling. The 33 FPS average at High and 25 FPS at Ultra are not playable for a shooter. Even the 52 FPS at Low is marginal. The data suggests that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo in Minimum if you want a smooth experience. 1440p is the upper limit for playable frame rates, and 1080p is where this combo truly shines.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Here is the complete measured FPS data for this combo in Minimum, showing the average frame rates across all tested configurations.

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Ultra: 73 FPS average
• High: 95 FPS average
• Medium: 114 FPS average (97 FPS min, 131 FPS max)
• Low: 148 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Ultra: 47 FPS average
• High: 61 FPS average
• Medium: 73 FPS average (62 FPS min, 84 FPS max)
• Low: 96 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K)

• Ultra: 25 FPS average
• High: 33 FPS average
• Medium: 39 FPS average (34 FPS min, 45 FPS max)
• Low: 52 FPS average

The data shows a clear pattern. At 1080p, all presets are playable, with Low and Medium providing the best experiences. At 1440p, Medium is the sweet spot, and High is still viable. At 4K, only Low is marginally playable. The Medium preset consistently offers a balanced experience across all resolutions, with the minimum FPS figures showing that it maintains a playable frame rate even in demanding scenes. The Ultra preset is consistently the worst performer, with the 4K result being a slideshow. The High preset is a middle ground that offers a small visual upgrade over Medium but at a significant FPS cost. For this hardware, the measured data strongly supports using the Medium preset for the best balance of visual quality and performance.