Minimum

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers a highly capable 1080p and 1440p experience in Minimum, a 2014 Third-Person Shooter. The data shows this combination provides frame rates well above playable thresholds at high refresh rates, though 4K Ultra remains demanding. This analysis breaks down the component roles, measured performance, and how this pairing ranks against the 1,733 other tested combinations.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average frame rate is 116.4 FPS. This indicates the combination is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming, providing a significant buffer above the 60 FPS standard.

Q: How does the combo perform at 2560x1440 compared to 4K?

A: At 2560x1440 Ultra, the average is 72.5 FPS, which is still smooth. However, at 3840x2160 Ultra, the average drops to 40 FPS, showing a substantial 32.5 FPS penalty. The performance cliff between these resolutions is primarily due to the GPU's 12 GB memory and memory bandwidth limitations.

Q: What is the difference in performance between Low and High settings at 4K?

A: The average FPS at 3840x2160 Low is 80.6, while High settings yield 50.5 FPS. This represents a 30.1 FPS reduction when moving from Low to High, highlighting the significant impact of graphical fidelity on the rendering load.

Q: How does this combo's rank compare to other tested systems?

A: This specific combination ranks 754th out of 1,733 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the upper half of all tested systems, indicating a solid mid-to-high-tier performance profile.

Q: What is the boost clock of the CPU and the game clock of the GPU?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K has a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, while the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT has a game clock of 2171 MHz. These are the peak frequencies that the components are designed to maintain during sustained workloads.

Q: Does the GPU support modern APIs that this game might use?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. This ensures broad compatibility and the ability to leverage modern rendering paths where available.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the primary driver of frame rate in Minimum, especially at higher resolutions. It is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 32 chip and features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. The GPU's core configuration includes 3456 shading units, 216 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2544 MHz and a game clock of 2171 MHz.

In practice, the GPU's memory subsystem is the key differentiator between resolution tiers. At 1920x1080, the GPU's raw compute power is sufficient to push frame rates from 116.4 FPS at Ultra to 230.8 FPS at Low. The performance scales predictably with settings, showing a 114.4 FPS gap between Low and Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the load increases, and the average FPS range shifts down to between 72.5 (Ultra) and 152 (Low). The relative performance drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra settings is approximately 44 FPS, which is less severe than the drop to 4K.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The average FPS at Ultra is just 40, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Even at High settings, the average is only 50.5 FPS. The data indicates that the 12 GB memory capacity and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K with high-detail settings. The scaling from 1440p Ultra (72.5 FPS) to 4K Ultra (40 FPS) shows a 32.5 FPS loss, or roughly a 45% reduction in performance, which is a typical characteristic of a GPU hitting its memory bandwidth limit. The GPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with a Passmark G3D score of 22547, places it in the upper echelon of mainstream cards, but not at the enthusiast level required for 4K Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K provides the computational foundation for this system. This 20-core, 20-thread processor is based on the Arrow Lake architecture and can boost up to 5.50 GHz from a base clock of 3.90 GHz. It has a substantial 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 50009 and a single-core score of 7060, demonstrate high throughput.

In Minimum, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and handle game logic. At 1920x1080 Low, the average FPS is 230.8, which is a very high frame rate that requires a strong single-threaded performance to avoid becoming a bottleneck. The Core Ultra 7 265K's single-core performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R20 single-core score of 2965, is more than adequate for this task. The CPU is ranked in the 97th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79102.

The data shows that the CPU's performance is not a limiting factor in this game across most tested configurations. The frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p (230.8 to 116.4 FPS) is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario. However, the CPU's multi-threading capabilities (20 cores) ensure that background tasks and complex game scenes do not cause frame drops. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF, which is 0.2% faster, and the Intel Core i9-14900K, which is 0.9% faster, showing that this CPU is within a small margin of the top performers. This headroom is beneficial for maintaining consistent frame times even when the GPU is under maximum load.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a clear performance hierarchy based on resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 230.8 FPS on Low, 180.5 FPS on Medium, 149.4 FPS on High, and 116.4 FPS on Ultra. This shows that even at the highest settings, the system easily exceeds 100 FPS, making it ideal for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but scale down proportionally. The average FPS is 152 on Low, 114.4 on Medium, 98.3 on High, and 72.5 on Ultra. The step from High to Ultra at this resolution results in a 25.8 FPS drop, which is a significant cost for the extra visual fidelity. The system maintains an average above 70 FPS at 1440p Ultra, which is still considered smooth for most users.

The 3840x2160 resolution presents the greatest challenge. Here, the average FPS is 80.6 on Low, 59.3 on Medium, 50.5 on High, and 40 on Ultra. The transition from Low to Medium produces a 21.3 FPS drop, and the drop from Medium to High is 8.8 FPS. The data shows that at 4K, the system is only comfortably playable at Low settings, with Medium being borderline and High/Ultra being below the 60 FPS threshold. The performance scaling is not linear, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth is the constraining factor at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is ranked 754th out of 1,733 tested combos in Minimum. This places it in the 43.5th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms a majority of configurations. Given the strength of the CPU (97th percentile) and the GPU (73rd percentile), this ranking reflects a balanced pairing where the CPU's power is somewhat underutilized by the GPU's mid-range capabilities.

The ranking is a result of the GPU's average benchmark score of 30097, which places it in a tight cluster with rivals like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 570 (-0.2% delta). This suggests that the RX 7700 XT's performance is very typical for its class. The CPU's high benchmark score of 79102, which is only 0.2% behind the Core Ultra 7 265KF, ensures that it is not the limiting factor in this pairing.

In the context of Minimum, the combo's rank of 754 indicates that while it is not a top-tier enthusiast setup, it provides a very strong and consistent experience at mainstream resolutions. The data supports that this pairing is optimized for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates with maximum settings. For 4K gaming, the user would need to compromise on settings to achieve playable frame rates, which is expected given the GPU's position in the market. The rank reflects a solid, well-balanced system for high-refresh-rate gaming rather than an extreme performance leader.