Minimum

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination delivers a formidable first-person shooter experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter that remains surprisingly demanding at high settings. The measured data shows a system capable of triple-digit frame rates at mainstream resolutions, though the pairing reveals a clear performance hierarchy between the CPU and GPU depending on the workload. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across settings and resolutions, contextualizes the component roles, and explains how this specific combo stacks up against the 2,939 other configurations in our database.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings preset depends entirely on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the data shows headroom for maximum visual fidelity. The Ultra preset delivers an average of 146 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay on standard 144Hz displays. However, the Medium preset offers the best balance for high-refresh-rate monitors, producing 228 FPS average with a minimum of 193 FPS and a maximum of 262 FPS. This represents a 56% performance increase over Ultra while still maintaining a substantial visual upgrade over the Low preset. For esports-focused play at 1080p, the Low preset reaches 297 FPS, which is ideal for 240Hz panels but sacrifices nearly all visual polish.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. The High preset achieves 123 FPS average, which is excellent for 1440p gaming and provides a significant visual improvement over Medium. The Medium preset runs at 147 FPS average with a minimum of 125 FPS, making it the better choice for those with 144Hz or 165Hz QHD monitors who want a safety margin above the refresh ceiling. The Ultra preset at 94 FPS average is playable but dips below the 100 FPS threshold that many competitive players consider a baseline. The Low preset, while hitting 192 FPS, is visually sparse and not recommended for this resolution unless chasing maximum frame pacing.

At 3840x2160, the settings curve compresses dramatically. The High preset is the clear winner, producing 66 FPS average, which is acceptable for a cinematic 60Hz experience. The Medium preset comes in at 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS, making it the best choice for 4K displays that support VRR (Variable Refresh Rate). The Low preset reaches 103 FPS, which is impressive for 4K but requires significant visual compromises. The Ultra preset falls to 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and should be avoided on standard 60Hz panels. For the best overall experience at 4K, the Medium preset offers the highest playable frame rate while retaining enough graphical detail to justify the resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary performance driver in this configuration, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for Minimum at all tested settings, as the game does not appear to exceed the 12 GB capacity even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 51. The GPU's boost clock of 2512 MHz, paired with 6144 shading units, provides the raw compute throughput needed to maintain high frame rates in a fast-paced third-person shooter.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, with a Passmark G3D score of 29137. This positions it well above the median, though its nearest rivals are somewhat surprising: the AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 40318 (0.1% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 scores 40063 (0.8% higher), and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 scores 40870 (1.2% lower). These professional-oriented cards are closely matched in synthetic benchmarks, but the RTX 5070's gaming-specific optimizations are evident in the Minimum frame rates.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU at rates exceeding 200 FPS, but at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The 66 FPS average at 4K High versus 191 FPS at 1080p High represents a 65% performance drop, which is consistent with the GPU being the primary bottleneck at higher pixel counts. The RTX 5070's 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 201.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are the specifications that enable these results, though the game's age means it does not leverage the newer RT cores or Tensor cores for performance gains.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, with the GPU becoming progressively more dominant in determining performance. At 1080p High, the system achieves 191 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops this to 123 FPS, a 36% reduction. At 4K High, the frame rate falls to 66 FPS, which is another 46% reduction from 1440p. This scaling curve is steeper than the pixel count increase would suggest, indicating that Minimum has significant memory bandwidth and fill-rate demands that scale superlinearly with resolution.

The Low preset shows a similar pattern but with higher absolute values. At 1080p Low, the system hits 297 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 192 FPS, a 35% reduction. At 4K Low, the frame rate is 103 FPS, a 46% reduction from 1440p. The consistency of these percentage drops across presets suggests that the GPU's memory subsystem—specifically its 672.0 GB/s bandwidth—is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, rather than raw shader throughput.

The Medium preset provides the most complete data set, with minimum and maximum FPS values recorded. At 1080p, the Medium preset averages 228 FPS with a minimum of 193 FPS and a maximum of 262 FPS. At 1440p, this drops to 147 FPS average with a 125 FPS minimum and 169 FPS maximum. At 4K, the Medium preset averages 79 FPS with a 67 FPS minimum and 91 FPS maximum. The frame time consistency, as indicated by the narrow min-max ranges, suggests that the RTX 5070 maintains stable performance without significant stuttering, even when the GPU is under heavy load at 4K.

The resolution scaling confirms that at 1080p, the system is partially CPU-bound, as the 297 FPS Low preset is approaching the practical limits of the CPU's ability to issue draw calls. At 4K, the GPU is unquestionably the limiting component, with the Ultra preset dropping to 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 4.6x performance difference between 1080p Low (297 FPS) and 4K Ultra (51 FPS) illustrates the full spectrum of this combo's capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset delivers 297 FPS average, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire data set. The Medium preset follows at 228 FPS average, with a minimum of 193 FPS and a maximum of 262 FPS. The High preset achieves 191 FPS average, while the Ultra preset drops to 146 FPS average. This progression from Low to Ultra represents a 51% performance penalty for maximum visual quality, which is a reasonable trade-off for a game of this era.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain highly playable. The Low preset hits 192 FPS average, which is nearly identical to the 1080p High preset's 191 FPS, indicating that at lower settings, the resolution increase is partially offset by the CPU's headroom. The Medium preset averages 147 FPS with a 125 FPS minimum and 169 FPS maximum. The High preset achieves 123 FPS average, and the Ultra preset drops to 94 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 98 FPS, or a 51% reduction, mirroring the 1080p percentage drop.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance becomes more constrained. The Low preset averages 103 FPS, which is still smooth but represents a 65% drop from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 79 FPS with a 67 FPS minimum and 91 FPS maximum, making it the most consistent 4K option. The High preset achieves 66 FPS average, which is right at the 60 FPS standard for 4K displays. The Ultra preset drops to 51 FPS average, which is the only preset across all resolutions that falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

The data reveals that the Medium preset is the most balanced option across all three resolutions. At 1080p, it provides 228 FPS with minimal variance. At 1440p, it maintains 147 FPS with a 125 FPS minimum. At 4K, it delivers 79 FPS with a 67 FPS minimum. The min-max ranges for the Medium preset are consistently narrow, indicating that the RTX 5070 maintains stable frame pacing without sudden drops, which is critical for a third-person shooter where aiming precision matters.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination ranks 558th out of 2,939 tested configurations in Minimum, placing it in the 81st percentile of all combos. This is a strong result, though not a top-tier finish, which reflects the game's age and the fact that newer GPUs with more memory bandwidth can achieve higher frame rates at 4K. The rank of 558 out of 2,939 means that 2,381 other combos performed worse, while 557 performed better, indicating that this system is firmly in the upper echelon of tested hardware.

This ranking is somewhat lower than what the individual component benchmarks might suggest. The CPU's average benchmark score of 64640 places it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU's average benchmark score of 40377 places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. The combo's 81st percentile ranking in Minimum is slightly below the GPU's percentile, suggesting that the game's performance is not solely GPU-bound and that the specific combination of this CPU and GPU has a minor inefficiency in this particular title.

The nearest rival CPUs provide context for the processor's role. The AMD EPYC 4464P scores 64823 (0.3% higher), the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F scores 64438 (0.3% lower), the AMD EPYC 7343 scores 64202 (0.7% lower), and the AMD EPYC 9124 scores 65104 (0.7% higher). These extremely tight margins—all within 1% of each other—indicate that the CPU is not a differentiator in this game, as the GPU's performance dominates the frame rate calculations.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are professional workstation cards, which is unusual. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 40318 (0.1% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 scores 40063 (0.8% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 scores 40870 (1.2% lower), and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile scores 39568 (2.0% lower). The RTX 5070's gaming drivers and architecture give it an edge in Minimum that synthetic benchmarks may not fully capture, as evidenced by its ability to maintain high frame rates at 1440p and 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 plays a supporting role in this configuration, providing enough processing power to keep the RTX 5070 fed at low resolutions while becoming largely irrelevant at higher settings. The CPU features 20 cores and 20 threads with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This is a high-core-count desktop processor with a 65 W TDP, which is efficient for its performance class. The L3 cache is 30 MB shared, which is sufficient for gaming workloads.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 and a single-core score of 5960. The Passmark multi-thread score is 49682, with a single-thread score of 4689. These scores place the CPU in the 93rd percentile of all processors, indicating that it is a high-end part. However, in Minimum, which was released in 2014, the game's engine likely does not utilize all 20 cores effectively, meaning the CPU's performance is more dependent on its single-core boost clock of 5.30 GHz.

The CPU's role becomes evident when examining the frame rate differences between 1080p and 1440p at the same settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 297 FPS, while at 1440p Low, it achieves 192 FPS. This 105 FPS difference is primarily due to the GPU working harder at the higher resolution. However, the fact that the CPU can sustain 297 FPS at 1080p Low indicates that it is not a bottleneck at lower settings. The 20 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom for the game's threading model, even if the game only uses a fraction of the available cores.

The CPU's nearest rivals all score within 1% of each other, which confirms that the processor is not the limiting factor in this combo. The AMD EPYC 4464P scores 64823 (0.3% higher), the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F scores 64438 (0.3% lower), the AMD EPYC 7343 scores 64202 (0.7% lower), and the AMD EPYC 9124 scores 65104 (0.7% higher). These tiny deltas mean that swapping the Core Ultra 7 265 for any of these alternatives would produce nearly identical frame rates in Minimum, as the GPU would remain the dominant factor.

At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes further. The difference between 1080p High (191 FPS) and 4K High (66 FPS) is 125 FPS, which is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's rendering load. The CPU's boost clock of 5.30 GHz ensures that single-threaded game logic and draw call submission are handled efficiently, but the game's age means that even a much weaker CPU could likely maintain playable frame rates at 4K. The Core Ultra 7 265's 20 cores are overkill for this title, but they provide future-proofing for more modern games that can utilize higher thread counts.