Minimum

# Minimum — Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The pairing of Intel's Core Ultra 7 270K Plus with NVIDIA's RTX 4090 represents a top-tier desktop configuration for Minimum, a third-person shooter from 2014. With the CPU sitting at the 96th percentile among all processors and the GPU at the 88th percentile among all graphics cards, the measured frame rates across resolution and settings presets reveal a system that scales predictably but with notable bottlenecks shifting between components. The data shows a combo that ranks 107th out of 2,939 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the top 3.6% of all recorded configurations, which is impressive but not the absolute pinnacle—suggesting that other pairings have squeezed out slightly higher performance in this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the performance ceiling lies. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 394 FPS, dropping to 254 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 137 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 35.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 46.1% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total reduction from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 65.2%, which is substantial but not catastrophic for a game from 2014.

Looking at High settings, the scaling is similarly steep: 253 FPS at 1080p, 163 FPS at 1440p (a 35.6% drop), and 88 FPS at 4K (a 46.0% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings is telling. When the resolution increases by 2.25x from 1080p to 1440p, the frame rate drops by roughly one-third, and the same proportional drop occurs when moving from 1440p to 4K. This linear scaling pattern suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the rendering workload scales directly with pixel count.

However, the picture changes when examining the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 193 FPS, which drops to 124 FPS at 1440p (a 35.8% drop) and 67 FPS at 4K (a 46.0% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows slightly larger absolute drops compared to Low, which makes sense given the increased graphical complexity. What is more revealing is the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution: at 1080p, the difference is 201 FPS (394 vs 193); at 1440p, it is 130 FPS (254 vs 124); and at 4K, it narrows to 70 FPS (137 vs 67). The shrinking gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes more saturated with the base rendering workload, leaving less headroom for additional settings overhead to make a difference.

The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at extremely high frame rates—nearly 400 FPS on Low—but the Ultra settings introduce enough additional GPU workload to bring performance down to 193 FPS. At 4K, however, even the Low preset only achieves 137 FPS, which suggests the GPU is the dominant constraint. The RTX 4090, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, has ample memory resources for this game, but the pixel throughput demands at 4K overwhelm even this flagship card in a title that does not heavily utilize modern rendering features.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combination in Minimum?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 394, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling for this configuration in the tested scenarios.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's performance in this game compare to its closest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 60,347 places it essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326, 0% delta) and slightly behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61,896, -2.5%). The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60,140) is 0.3% slower, while the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58,657) is 2.9% faster.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a playable experience at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 67 FPS. While this is above the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered smooth, it is the lowest recorded average across all tested configurations and leaves minimal headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the range is 256 to 347 FPS (average 301); at 1440p, it is 165 to 223 FPS (average 194); and at 4K, it is 89 to 120 FPS (average 105). The spread narrows as resolution increases, indicating more consistent frame pacing at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark performance compare to its nearest competitors?

A: The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus has an average benchmark score of 93,785, which is effectively identical to the Intel Xeon 6520P (93,786, 0% delta). The AMD EPYC 4564P (95,183) is 1.5% faster, while the AMD EPYC 9175F (95,615) and AMD EPYC 4565P (95,764) are 1.9% and 2.1% faster, respectively.

Q: Is there a resolution where the system maintains over 200 FPS on High settings?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 with High settings, the system achieves 253 FPS. At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average drops to 163 FPS, falling below the 200 FPS threshold.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the most balanced experience. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 394 FPS, which is far beyond what most displays can show, while High delivers 253 FPS—still exceptionally high. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 193 FPS, which remains above 144 Hz refresh rates, making it the best choice for high-refresh displays at this resolution. The 201 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p shows that the GPU has significant headroom to handle increased visual fidelity without compromising smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more nuanced. High settings produce 163 FPS, which is comfortably above 144 Hz, while Ultra produces 124 FPS—still playable but below the threshold for 144 Hz displays. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 194 FPS with a minimum of 165 FPS, making it the best option for users who want both high visual quality and extremely smooth frame delivery. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p provides a better experience than Ultra at 1440p for competitive play, as the 70 FPS difference between the two presets could matter in fast-paced third-person shooter gameplay.

For 3840x2160, the recommendations change dramatically. High settings yield 88 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh displays. Medium at 4K delivers 105 FPS with a minimum of 89 FPS, making it the optimal choice for 4K gaming on this hardware. Ultra at 4K drops to 67 FPS, which, while technically above 60 FPS, leaves little margin for frame drops in intense combat scenarios. The Low preset at 4K achieves 137 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial. Given that the game is from 2014, the Medium preset at 4K likely represents the sweet spot—offering 105 FPS average with a 89 FPS minimum, which is both smooth and visually acceptable.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 107th out of 2,939 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 96.4th percentile of all configurations. This is a strong showing, but the ranking reveals that there are 106 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates in this specific game. Given that this system uses one of the fastest consumer GPUs available (RTX 4090) and a high-end CPU (Core Ultra 7 270K Plus), the fact that it does not crack the top 100 suggests that either the game favors different hardware architectures or that the CPU-GPU pairing has subtle inefficiencies.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 96th among all processors and the GPU's 88th percentile among all graphics cards indicate that both components are strong, but the GPU is relatively weaker compared to its peers. This could explain why the combo does not rank higher—the RTX 4090, while excellent, faces stiffer competition in the GPU landscape than the Core Ultra 7 does in the CPU landscape. The delta between the combo's rank and the component percentiles suggests that the game's performance is more sensitive to GPU capabilities than CPU capabilities, which aligns with the resolution scaling analysis showing GPU bottlenecks at higher resolutions.

The 107th rank out of 2,939 means that this system outperforms 2,832 other combinations. In absolute terms, that is a top-tier result, and the frame rates measured—exceeding 250 FPS at 1080p High and 160 FPS at 1440p High—confirm that this is a high-performance configuration for Minimum. However, the existence of 106 better-performing combos implies that there are configurations that extract even more from this game, possibly through different CPU choices that better complement the RTX 4090's strengths.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this system, and its specifications explain much of the observed performance. With 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, the GPU has massive parallel processing capability. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are largely irrelevant for a 2014 game like Minimum, which likely does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS, but the raw rasterization power from the shading units drives the high frame rates.

The GPU's clock speeds—2,235 MHz base and 2,520 MHz boost—combined with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provide a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. For a game from 2014, this memory configuration is vastly overprovisioned; the game's textures and geometry would fit comfortably within far less memory. The fact that the 4K Ultra preset only achieves 67 FPS despite this enormous bandwidth suggests that the bottleneck is not memory capacity or bandwidth but rather the compute throughput required to render the game at that resolution with maximum settings.

The GPU's benchmark results reinforce its strong position: a PassMark G3D score of 38,194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223. However, the GPU's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs is lower than the CPU's 96th percentile, and its nearest rivals include workstation cards like the Intel Arc Pro A60 and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M. This suggests that while the RTX 4090 is a top-tier gaming card, there are other GPUs in the database that outperform it in aggregate benchmarks, which may explain why the combo rank is not higher.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings yields the following average frame rates: Low delivers 394 FPS, Medium delivers 301 FPS with a minimum of 256 and maximum of 347, High delivers 253 FPS, and Ultra delivers 193 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 51.0% reduction in frame rate, with each step up in settings costing roughly 50-100 FPS. The Medium preset's recorded range of 256-347 FPS provides the only min/max data at this resolution, indicating that even the minimum frame rate stays above 250 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 254 FPS, Medium at 194 FPS with a range of 165-223, High at 163 FPS, and Ultra at 124 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 51.2%, nearly identical to the 1080p reduction, which indicates consistent scaling. The Medium preset's minimum of 165 FPS at 1440p is notable because it aligns exactly with the High preset's average, meaning that Medium's worst-case performance equals High's typical performance.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 137 FPS, Medium at 105 FPS with a range of 89-120, High at 88 FPS, and Ultra at 67 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 51.1%, again consistent with the other resolutions. The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum of 89 FPS, which is very close to the High preset's average of 88 FPS. This tight clustering at 4K suggests that the GPU is nearing its limit, as even the Low preset cannot exceed 137 FPS, which is less than half of the 1080p Low score.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus provides the computational foundation for this system. With 24 cores and 24 threads (no hyperthreading), it offers substantial multi-threaded capability, which is reflected in its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44,253 and PassMark multi-thread score of 68,574. The base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz give it strong single-thread performance, evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,439 and PassMark single-thread score of 5,068.

For a game like Minimum from 2014, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game's age means it was designed for CPUs with far fewer cores, so the 24-core configuration is likely underutilized. However, the high boost clock of 5.50 GHz ensures that the few threads the game does use run at maximum speed, which is crucial for maintaining the high frame rates seen at 1080p.

The CPU's benchmark scores position it at the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 93,785. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6520P, has a nearly identical score of 93,786, while the AMD EPYC 4564P is 1.5% faster. This places the Core Ultra 7 in elite company, and the data suggests that it is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. The exception might be at 1080p Low, where the 394 FPS result indicates the CPU can push frame rates to extreme levels, but the GPU still manages to keep up without creating a CPU bottleneck. The 125W TDP and L3 cache of 36 MB (shared) provide adequate resources for gaming workloads, though the 17,800 million transistors on a 3 nm process from TSMC suggest a highly efficient design that balances power consumption with performance.