Minimum

Minimum is a 2014 third-person shooter whose performance profile on this Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination reveals a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, yet capable of delivering extremely high frame rates at 1080p. The measured data shows a clear hierarchy across settings and resolutions, with the combo ranking in the 1253rd position out of 2939 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus brings 24 cores and 24 threads to the table, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This Arrow Lake Refresh part, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC, features 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 192 KB of L1 cache per core, alongside 3 MB of L2 per core. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44253 and single-core score of 2439 indicate substantial headroom for CPU-bound scenarios, though the game's measured FPS data suggests that this headroom is rarely stressed in Minimum.

The 24-thread configuration is overkill for a 2014 shooter, but the single-thread performance is what matters most for older game engines. The Passmark single-thread score of 5068 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 354 show that the processor excels at the type of lightly-threaded workloads that Minimum likely presents. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 215 FPS average, which is 56% higher than the 138 FPS at High settings — this spread hints that the CPU is still capable of feeding the GPU even at lower resolutions, but the bottleneck shifts as resolution climbs.

Interestingly, the CPU's 96th percentile ranking against all CPUs suggests it is far more powerful than what this game needs. The nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — the Intel Xeon 6520P with a delta of 0%, the AMD EPYC 4564P at -1.5%, the AMD EPYC 9175F at -1.9%, and the AMD EPYC 4565P at -2.1% — are all server-class parts, indicating that the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus sits in rarefied company for raw compute. Yet Minimum's frame rates at 4K Ultra (37 FPS) versus 4K Low (75 FPS) demonstrate that the GPU, not the CPU, dictates the experience at higher loads.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of which preset delivers the best experience. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves 165 FPS average with a minimum of 140 FPS and a maximum of 190 FPS, while High delivers 138 FPS and Low pushes to 215 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 105 FPS. For a third-person shooter, maintaining high frame rates matters for smooth camera movement, and the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance — it stays well above 140 FPS at all times according to the minimum recorded value, while providing better visual fidelity than Low.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 106 FPS with a minimum of 90 FPS and maximum of 122 FPS. This is still comfortably playable, and the 90 FPS floor ensures no significant stutter. High at 1440p averages 89 FPS, which is slightly below the 90 FPS threshold that many players consider optimal for competitive shooters. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset drops to 57 FPS average with a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 66 FPS — this is borderline for a shooter, as the 49 FPS minimum could produce noticeable hitches during intense action.

The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot across all resolutions. At 1080p it provides 165 FPS average, at 1440p it yields 106 FPS, and at 4K it still manages 57 FPS. Low settings at 4K offer 75 FPS but sacrifice too much visual quality for a game that likely benefits from better textures and effects. Ultra settings are only viable at 1080p (105 FPS), as the 1440p Ultra average of 68 FPS and 4K Ultra average of 37 FPS are too low for responsive gameplay.

FAQ

Q: Does this system achieve 144 FPS at 1080p in Minimum?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 with Low settings the combo averages 215 FPS, with Medium averaging 165 FPS and High averaging 138 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 105 FPS, so only Low and Medium presets guarantee performance above the 144 FPS mark.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 139 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 68 FPS. This represents a 51% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset at this resolution.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this CPU and GPU combination?

A: The data shows 4K Ultra averaging 37 FPS, 4K High averaging 48 FPS, 4K Medium averaging 57 FPS, and 4K Low averaging 75 FPS. Only the Low and Medium presets provide frame rates above 60 FPS at 3840x2160, and the Medium preset's minimum of 49 FPS suggests occasional dips below that threshold.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1253rd out of 2939 tested combinations in Minimum, placing it in the 57th percentile of all tested systems. This indicates it performs better than the majority of configurations in the database for this specific game.

Q: Which resolution provides the most consistent frame pacing based on the measured data?

A: The 1920x1080 Medium preset shows the tightest frame time consistency, with a minimum of 140 FPS and maximum of 190 FPS, producing a 50 FPS spread. The 2560x1440 Medium preset has a 32 FPS spread (90 to 122 FPS), while the 3840x2160 Medium preset has a 17 FPS spread (49 to 66 FPS), suggesting that higher resolutions actually reduce variance in frame delivery despite lower averages.

Q: Does the CPU's 24-core configuration provide any advantage in this game?

A: The benchmark data does not show any multi-core scaling benefit in Minimum's frame rates. The game's performance scales primarily with resolution and settings, indicating that the engine likely uses only a few threads. The CPU's strong single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2439) is what enables the high frame rates at 1080p Low, where the processor is more likely to be the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The rank of 1253 out of 2939 total combinations places this system in the upper 43% of all tested configurations for Minimum. This might seem modest given the hardware's synthetic benchmark scores, but the context matters — Minimum is a 2014 title that does not heavily stress modern GPUs, so the ranking reflects how the RTX 5060's performance profile interacts with this particular game engine.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 72 against all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 26331 position it well below the top-tier cards, yet the combo still achieves 215 FPS at 1080p Low. The rank of 1253 suggests that many combinations with more powerful GPUs achieve higher frame rates, but the 2939 total combos include systems with far more expensive components. The fact that this mid-range GPU paired with a high-end CPU still lands above the median for Minimum indicates that the game is not exceptionally demanding, and the bottleneck analysis from the resolution scaling section confirms that the RTX 5060 is the limiting factor at higher settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s. The boost clock of 2497 MHz and base clock of 2280 MHz provide the raw throughput, with FP32 performance rated at 19.18 TFLOPS.

In Minimum, the GPU's role becomes evident when comparing frame rates across settings. At 1080p, the difference between Low (215 FPS) and Ultra (105 FPS) is 110 FPS, which is a 51% reduction. At 4K, the same comparison shows a drop from 75 FPS to 37 FPS, a 51% reduction as well. This consistent percentage drop across resolutions indicates that the GPU is handling the increased graphical load proportionally, with the 8 GB VRAM being sufficient for this title's requirements.

The GPU's benchmarks show a Passmark G3D score of 20891 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3628, which are respectable figures. However, its nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon 860M (delta -0.3%), NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (delta -0.3%), AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (delta -0.8%), and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT (delta 1.2%). These comparisons suggest the RTX 5060 performs similarly to older and integrated solutions in synthetic tests, yet the measured FPS data shows it handles Minimum well up to 1440p Medium.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured data shows the following averages: Low settings produce 215 FPS, Medium produces 165 FPS with a minimum of 140 FPS and maximum of 190 FPS, High produces 138 FPS, and Ultra produces 105 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 50 FPS, between Medium and High is 27 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 33 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 139 FPS, Medium at 106 FPS with a minimum of 90 FPS and maximum of 122 FPS, High at 89 FPS, and Ultra at 68 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 33 FPS, between Medium and High is 17 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 21 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 75 FPS, Medium at 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 66 FPS, High at 48 FPS, and Ultra at 37 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 18 FPS, between Medium and High is 9 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 11 FPS.

The pattern across resolutions shows that the absolute FPS drop from one setting tier to the next shrinks as resolution increases, which is consistent with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck. At 1080p, the CPU can still push frames quickly enough that the GPU's workload differences create larger FPS gaps; at 4K, the GPU is saturated at even Low settings, so the relative differences compress.

Resolution Scaling

Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the Low preset drops from 215 FPS to 139 FPS, a 35% reduction. Medium drops from 165 FPS to 106 FPS, a 36% reduction. High drops from 138 FPS to 89 FPS, a 36% reduction. Ultra drops from 105 FPS to 68 FPS, a 35% reduction. The consistency of this ~35% drop across all settings indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at every quality level.

Moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the Low preset drops from 139 FPS to 75 FPS, a 46% reduction. Medium drops from 106 FPS to 57 FPS, a 46% reduction. High drops from 89 FPS to 48 FPS, a 46% reduction. Ultra drops from 68 FPS to 37 FPS, a 46% reduction. Again, the uniform 46% reduction across all settings confirms that the RTX 5060's rendering pipeline is the bottleneck, not the CPU.

The fact that the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K (46%) is larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p (35%) reflects the pixel count increase — 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p, while 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p. The measured FPS scaling closely mirrors these pixel ratios, which is the signature of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU's 24 cores and 5.50 GHz boost clock are never the constraint here; even at 1080p Low with 215 FPS, the processor's single-thread performance is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck. The data implies that this combination delivers its best experience at 1440p Medium or 1080p Medium, where frame rates remain high and visual quality is acceptable, while 4K is only playable at Low settings.