Minimum

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile combination delivers a decisive performance profile in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter that remains sensitive to raw hardware throughput. The measured data shows this pairing ranks 1022nd out of 3712 tested combos, placing it comfortably within the top 28% of all systems evaluated. This page analyzes the CPU and GPU roles, resolution scaling behavior, and provides specific settings guidance based on the measured FPS rows.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX is a 20-core, 20-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on Arrow Lake-HX architecture. Its base clock is 2.60 GHz with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, which represents a wide frequency range that allows the chip to scale from power-efficient operation to high single-thread performance. The processor is manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC, featuring 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. It includes 30 MB of shared L3 cache, with 192 KB of L1 cache per core and 3 MB of L2 cache per core.

In benchmark testing, the CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded capability with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 40642, while its single-core performance reaches 5737 in the same test. These scores indicate that the processor can handle both heavily threaded workloads and latency-sensitive single-thread tasks. The PassMark multithread score of 47985 and single-thread score of 4500 reinforce this dual strength. The CPU's percentile ranking against all processors is 93, placing it in the top 7% of all CPUs tested.

The nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the Intel Core i7-13790F, AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G, AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P185, and Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX. The 265HX scores 0.1% higher than the i7-13790F, 0.2% lower than the Ryzen AI 7 450G, 0.5% higher than the Ryzen AI Embedded P185, and 0.7% higher than the Core Ultra 7 255HX. These deltaPct values are minimal, meaning the 265HX sits in a tightly contested performance band where no single rival holds a decisive advantage.

For Minimum, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with enough draw calls and physics data to maintain high frame rates. The 20 cores and 20 threads provide substantial headroom for background tasks and game logic, while the 5.30 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded game engines do not become a bottleneck. The data shows that at lower resolutions like 1920x1080, where GPU load is lighter, the CPU's single-thread performance becomes more relevant — the measured FPS reaches 274 at Low settings, indicating that the processor can sustain very high frame rates without throttling the GPU.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB203 chip, manufactured by TSMC on a 5 nm process. It packs 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, with a transistor density of 120.6 million per mm². The GPU features 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation units, along with 60 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores. Its base clock is 975 MHz with a boost clock of 1500 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed.

The memory subsystem is a key strength: 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is critical for Minimum at higher resolutions and settings, where texture data and frame buffers demand substantial memory throughput. The GPU's pixel rate is 144.0 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 23.04 TFLOPS and FP16 performance also at 23.04 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio). The TDP is 80 W, which is modest for a high-end mobile GPU, and it connects via PCIe 5.0 x16.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4952, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 166986, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 169754. Its PassMark G3D score is 27711, with a PassMark GPU compute score of 12134. The GPU's percentile ranking is 81, meaning it outperforms 81% of all GPUs tested. The nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (0.1% higher score), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (0.6% higher), NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (0.9% lower), and AMD Radeon Pro 580X (0.9% lower). These tight deltaPct values indicate that the RTX 5080 Mobile's raw compute performance is very close to the RTX 4080 Mobile, though the newer architecture may offer efficiency advantages.

In Minimum, the GPU's 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for the game's 2014-era assets, even at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 47, which suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at that extreme setting. The high memory bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s allows the GPU to maintain consistent frame pacing, as evidenced by the Medium settings data at 4K showing a min FPS of 62 and max of 84, with an average of 73. The GPU's compute capability also handles the game's lighting and post-processing effects well, though the relatively low boost clock of 1500 MHz means that the GPU relies more on its parallel architecture than on raw clock speed.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of scaling across resolutions, with the CPU becoming less of a factor as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 274 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops this to 177 FPS, a 35.4% reduction. At 3840x2160, the Low settings result is 95 FPS, another 46.3% drop from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is increasingly becoming the bottleneck as pixel count rises.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar but with slightly different magnitudes. From 1080p (210 FPS) to 1440p (135 FPS) is a 35.7% drop, and from 1440p to 4K (73 FPS) is a 45.9% drop. The High settings show a more gradual decline: 176 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p (35.2% drop), and 61 FPS at 4K (46.5% drop). Ultra settings follow the same pattern: 134 FPS at 1080p, 87 FPS at 1440p (35.1% drop), and 47 FPS at 4K (46.0% drop).

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings — roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 46% from 1440p to 4K — indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at all resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain more constant at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work. Instead, the FPS scales nearly proportionally with pixel count, which is a classic GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p, the CPU's 5.30 GHz boost clock and 20 threads are sufficient to keep the GPU fed, but the GPU's rasterization throughput becomes the ceiling as resolution increases.

The Medium settings rows include min and max FPS data, which provides additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the min is 178 FPS and max is 241 FPS, a spread of 63 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the min drops to 115 FPS and max to 156 FPS, a spread of 41 FPS. At 4K Medium, the min is 62 FPS and max is 84 FPS, a spread of 22 FPS. This narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU's workload becomes more uniform, reducing frame time variance. The absolute FPS values at 4K remain playable at Medium (73 FPS average), but the Ultra setting at 47 FPS shows the practical limit of this combo.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo ranks 1022nd out of 3712 tested combinations in Minimum, placing it in the 72.5th percentile of all combos. This is a strong result, meaning that 72.5% of all tested systems perform worse in this game. However, the ranking is not as high as the individual component percentiles might suggest — the CPU ranks in the 93rd percentile and the GPU in the 81st percentile, but the combined result is lower than both. This discrepancy indicates that Minimum may have specific optimization quirks that prevent the hardware from reaching its full potential, or that the game's engine does not scale perfectly with the modern architecture.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each component provides context for the combo's performance. The CPU's closest rival, the Intel Core i7-13790F, has an average benchmark score just 0.1% lower, meaning systems with that CPU would perform nearly identically in CPU-bound tasks. The GPU's closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce MX570, scores 0.1% higher on average, suggesting that the RTX 5080 Mobile's raw compute is marginally below that of a lower-tier card in synthetic tests — though the RTX 5080 Mobile's 16 GB VRAM and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth provide advantages in real-world gaming that synthetic benchmarks may not capture.

The gap between the combo's rank (1022/3712) and the component percentiles suggests that other factors, such as memory bandwidth or driver optimization, may be limiting Minimum performance. The CPU's memory bandwidth is 102.4 GB/s, which is substantial for a mobile processor, but the game's reliance on memory-heavy operations could create a bottleneck not visible in synthetic CPU benchmarks. Similarly, the GPU's 80 W TDP is low for a high-end mobile chip, which could cause thermal throttling in sustained gaming sessions, affecting frame rates over time.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, all settings produce playable frame rates, but the Low preset at 274 FPS is excessive for most displays, which typically max out at 144 Hz or 240 Hz. The Medium preset at 210 FPS provides a good balance, with a minimum of 178 FPS ensuring no drops below high refresh rate thresholds. The High preset at 176 FPS is also viable, while Ultra at 134 FPS remains above 120 FPS, making it suitable for high-refresh displays.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset at 177 FPS is the only setting that exceeds 144 Hz, making it ideal for competitive play. The Medium preset at 135 FPS is sufficient for 120 Hz displays, with a minimum of 115 FPS keeping frame times consistent. High at 114 FPS is borderline for 120 Hz, while Ultra at 87 FPS is better suited for 60 Hz displays. For most users at 1440p, the Medium preset offers the best experience, providing high frame rates with better visual quality than Low.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low at 95 FPS is the only setting that remains above 60 FPS, while Medium at 73 FPS is playable but with occasional dips to 62 FPS. High at 61 FPS is right at the 60 FPS threshold, and Ultra at 47 FPS is below acceptable levels for smooth gameplay. The recommendation for 4K is to use Low settings for competitive play or Medium settings for a balance of visuals and performance, accepting that the minimum FPS of 62 may cause minor stuttering in crowded scenes.

The data shows that the Medium preset consistently provides the best balance across all resolutions. At 1080p, it delivers 210 FPS average with a 178 FPS minimum, which is more than adequate for any display. At 1440p, it offers 135 FPS average with a 115 FPS minimum, ideal for 120 Hz monitors. At 4K, it achieves 73 FPS average with a 62 FPS minimum, which is playable though not optimal. The Ultra preset is only recommended at 1080p, where 134 FPS still provides a smooth experience, but at higher resolutions the frame rate drops too low.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset produces an average of 47 FPS with no min or max data recorded. The High preset improves this to 61 FPS average. Medium settings deliver 73 FPS average, with a minimum of 62 FPS and maximum of 84 FPS. The Low preset achieves 95 FPS average, making it the only 4K setting that exceeds 60 FPS with substantial headroom.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset yields 87 FPS average, which is a 85.1% improvement over the 4K Ultra result. High settings reach 114 FPS average, a 86.9% improvement over 4K High. Medium settings produce 135 FPS average, with a minimum of 115 FPS and maximum of 156 FPS, representing an 84.9% improvement over 4K Medium. The Low preset achieves 177 FPS average, an 86.3% improvement over 4K Low. The consistent ~85% improvement from 4K to 1440p across all settings confirms that the GPU's pixel throughput is the primary scaling factor.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 134 FPS average, a 54.0% improvement over 1440p Ultra. High settings reach 176 FPS average, a 54.4% improvement over 1440p High. Medium settings produce 210 FPS average, with a minimum of 178 FPS and maximum of 241 FPS, representing a 55.6% improvement over 1440p Medium. The Low preset achieves 274 FPS average, a 54.8% improvement over 1440p Low. The consistent ~55% improvement from 1440p to 1080p indicates that the GPU is still the bottleneck at 1080p, but the CPU's capability becomes more apparent at these higher frame rates.

Across all settings, the 1080p to 1440p transition reduces FPS by approximately 35%, and the 1440p to 4K transition reduces FPS by approximately 46%. These percentages are remarkably consistent regardless of settings, suggesting that the game's rendering pipeline has a fixed scaling behavior with resolution. The Medium settings rows are the only ones with complete min/max data, showing that at 1080p the FPS ranges from 178 to 241, at 1440p from 115 to 156, and at 4K from 62 to 84. This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates more stable frame pacing as the GPU becomes more fully utilized.