Minimum

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a steep performance curve as resolution climbs, with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination delivering dramatically different experiences across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 155 FPS, which drops to 100 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 54 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 35% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings tiers, indicating that the rendering load increases in near-linear fashion with pixel count.

The 4K Ultra setting is particularly punishing, yielding only 41 FPS average. This is a 74% drop from the 1080p Ultra result of 118 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra settings also widens substantially at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the spread between Low (240 FPS) and Ultra (118 FPS) is 122 FPS. At 1440p, that spread narrows to 79 FPS (155 Low versus 76 Ultra). At 4K, the spread further compresses to 43 FPS (84 Low versus 41 Ultra). This compression suggests that at 4K, the GPU is becoming the dominant constraint, as raising settings has less relative impact when the pixel throughput demand is already near the hardware limit.

The Medium settings data provides additional granularity, showing minimum and maximum FPS values that reveal frame-time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the range is 156 to 212 FPS with a 184 average. At 1440p Medium, the range is 101 to 137 with a 119 average. At 4K Medium, the range is 54 to 74 with a 64 average. The relative width of these ranges stays roughly proportional to the average, suggesting the bottleneck profile does not fundamentally change character across resolutions, just shifts in severity.

GPU Role

The RTX 3070 Ti is the clear limiting factor at 4K in this title. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial but becomes strained at 3840x2160 where the pixel and texture data footprint expands considerably. The 4K results—54 FPS High, 64 FPS Medium, 84 FPS Low, and 41 FPS Ultra—show that even at Low settings, the card cannot maintain 100 FPS at 4K. This indicates the GPU's compute throughput, rated at 21.75 TFLOPS FP32, is the constraining factor more than memory capacity alone.

The card's clock behavior supports this interpretation. With a base clock of 1575 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, the RTX 3070 Ti operates in a relatively narrow frequency band. The 192 texture units and 96 ROPs, combined with 6144 shading units, give the card strong raw throughput for a 2021-era Ampere part, but this title at 4K demands more than the architecture can deliver at playable frame rates. The 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are present but do not appear to provide meaningful acceleration for this game's rendering path, as the Ultra preset's 41 FPS result shows no special advantage.

The GPU's position in the broader benchmark landscape is informative. It sits at the 75th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 29945. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (0.1% ahead), AMD Radeon RX 6800 (0.5% ahead), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (0.5% behind), and AMD Radeon RX 6700 (1.6% ahead). This clustering means the RTX 3070 Ti is competitive with a broad swath of mid-range-to-upper-mid-range cards, but none of those rivals would fundamentally change the 4K story in Minimum. The data indicates that 1440p is the practical ceiling for high-refresh gameplay with this GPU, while 1080p allows it to stretch fully.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 provides ample headroom for this game, as evidenced by the 1080p results. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches 240 FPS, which is a hard indicator that the CPU is not limiting frame generation at lower resolutions. The processor's 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz, offer substantial multi-threaded capacity. This is a desktop Arrow Lake-S part on the Intel Socket 1851 platform, built on a 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors.

The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce its capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 42216 multi-core and 5960 single-core. In PassMark, it achieves 49682 multi-thread and 4689 single-thread. The single-thread performance is particularly relevant for Minimum, a third-person shooter from 2014 that likely relies heavily on one or two primary game threads. The 5960 single-core score in Cinebench R23 indicates strong per-thread execution, which explains why the 1080p Low result hits 240 FPS without apparent CPU bottleneck.

At the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, the Ultra 7 265 sits well above the GPU's 75th percentile. This mismatch means the CPU is not the constraining component in this pairing. The nearest CPU rivals—AMD EPYC 4464P (0.3% ahead), Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (0.3% behind), AMD EPYC 7343 (0.7% behind), and AMD EPYC 9124 (0.7% ahead)—are all server-class parts with similar aggregate scores, but the Ultra 7 265's 20-core configuration with 30 MB of shared L3 cache is more than adequate for desktop gaming workloads. The L2 cache of 3 MB per core provides substantial low-latency storage for active game data.

The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth from dual-channel DDR5 support is sufficient for this title. The data shows that as resolution increases and the GPU becomes the bottleneck, the CPU's role diminishes further. At 4K, the CPU is effectively idle relative to the GPU's workload, which is why the frame rates scale down consistently with GPU expectations rather than showing any CPU-induced irregularity.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo achieve 4K 60 FPS in Minimum?

A: No. The data shows the best 4K result is 84 FPS on Low settings, but High settings drop to 54 FPS and Ultra drops to 41 FPS. Only Low settings at 4K exceed 60 FPS, and the margin is thin (84 FPS). Medium settings average 64 FPS, which does clear 60, but with minimums as low as 54 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for high-refresh-rate play?

A: 1080p is the clear choice. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 240 FPS on Low, 184 FPS on Medium, 155 FPS on High, and 118 FPS on Ultra. All settings tiers at 1080p exceed 100 FPS, making this resolution suitable for 144 Hz or even 240 Hz monitors.

Q: Is 1440p viable for this game?

A: Yes, with some settings compromise. At 2560x1440, Low settings yield 155 FPS, Medium yields 119 FPS, and High yields 100 FPS. Ultra drops to 76 FPS. For 100+ FPS gameplay, High settings at 1440p is the sweet spot, while Ultra requires accepting sub-80 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti's average benchmark score is 29945. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is 0.1% ahead at 29928, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 is 0.5% ahead at 30095, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is 0.5% behind at 29783, and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 is 1.6% ahead at 30433. These are all very close performance tiers.

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

A: No. The CPU sits at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 75th percentile among GPUs. The 1080p Low result of 240 FPS demonstrates the CPU can feed the GPU at very high frame rates. The bottleneck appears at 4K, where the GPU's 21.75 TFLOPS compute throughput cannot maintain high FPS regardless of CPU capability.

Q: What do the Medium settings FPS ranges indicate about frame pacing?

A: The Medium settings show consistent ranges. At 1080p, the range is 156-212 FPS (184 average). At 1440p, it is 101-137 FPS (119 average). At 4K, it is 54-74 FPS (64 average). The spread between minimum and maximum is roughly 30% of the average in each case, indicating stable frame delivery without severe stuttering.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 1005 out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum. That places it in the top 34% of all combinations tested for this game. The ranking reflects a pairing where the CPU is overqualified relative to the GPU, but the overall result is still positive for most playable scenarios.

The rank of 1005 out of 2939 means there are 1004 combos that perform better in this game, and 1934 that perform worse. Given that the GPU alone sits at the 75th percentile and the CPU at the 93rd percentile, the combo rank is dragged down primarily by the GPU's 4K performance. At 1080p and 1440p, the combo would likely rank much higher, as those resolutions show strong results. The 4K Ultra result of 41 FPS is the weakest data point and likely pulls the overall ranking down relative to combos with more powerful GPUs.

The delta between CPU and GPU percentiles—93 versus 75—suggests this combo is GPU-bound in most scenarios. Players seeking higher rankings in Minimum could either lower resolution or settings (both of which the data shows yield substantial gains) or pair the Ultra 7 265 with a stronger GPU. However, for the target use case of 1080p and 1440p gaming, this combo's rank understates its actual playability, as the majority of tested combos likely include less capable CPUs that still achieve similar FPS at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (Full HD):

• Low: 240 FPS average
• Medium: 184 FPS average, 156 FPS minimum, 212 FPS maximum
• High: 155 FPS average
• Ultra: 118 FPS average

At 1080p, every settings tier delivers playable-to-excellent frame rates. Even Ultra, the most demanding preset, maintains 118 FPS, which is above the refresh rate of most 1080p monitors. Low settings at 240 FPS effectively max out standard display capabilities.

2560x1440 (Quad HD):

• Low: 155 FPS average
• Medium: 119 FPS average, 101 FPS minimum, 137 FPS maximum
• High: 100 FPS average
• Ultra: 76 FPS average

At 1440p, the combo remains strong. Low and Medium both exceed 100 FPS, High hits exactly 100 FPS, and Ultra stays above 75 FPS. This resolution offers a balanced experience where even Ultra settings remain comfortably playable on 60-75 Hz displays, and High settings suit 100 Hz displays.

3840x2160 (4K UHD):

• Low: 84 FPS average
• Medium: 64 FPS average, 54 FPS minimum, 74 FPS maximum
• High: 54 FPS average
• Ultra: 41 FPS average

At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. Only Low settings achieve a comfortable 84 FPS. Medium clears 60 FPS on average but drops to 54 FPS minimum, which may introduce perceptible stutter. High sits at 54 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 41 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth third-person shooter gameplay. The 4K High and Ultra results are best suited for slower-paced or screenshot-oriented play rather than competitive sessions.