Minimum

Minimum is a 2014 third-person shooter with modest system demands, and the measured rows for the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 show a configuration that is firmly playable across most settings, with clear trade-offs at the highest presets. The data covers twelve distinct scenarios spanning three resolutions and four quality levels, providing a solid basis for understanding how this mobile combo handles the title. Below, the analysis walks through the optimal settings, the roles of the GPU and CPU, a question-and-answer section, and a detailed breakdown of the measured frames.

Settings Recommendations

The measured results indicate that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, delivering a playable frame rate while maintaining visual fidelity. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 138 FPS with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 158 FPS, which is smooth and responsive for a third-person shooter. This preset provides a significant cushion above the 60 FPS threshold, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate displays without sacrificing too much visual quality. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p is a drop of 22 FPS (from 138 to 116), which is noticeable but still playable; however, Medium’s tighter minimum frame rate of 117 FPS suggests more consistent performance during intense scenes.

At 2560x1440, Medium again stands out as the best choice, yielding an average of 89 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 102 FPS. This is comfortably above 60 FPS and provides a smooth experience on a 1440p monitor. High at this resolution drops to 75 FPS average, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for drops, while Ultra falls to 57 FPS, which is borderline for a fast-paced shooter. For 4K (3840x2160), Medium is the highest preset that maintains playability, averaging 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS. While not ideal for competitive play, it is acceptable for a slower-paced experience; High drops to 40 FPS and Ultra to 31 FPS, both of which are too low for a smooth experience.

For users seeking the absolute highest visual quality, the High preset at 1080p (116 FPS) or 1440p (75 FPS) is viable, but the data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this hardware combination. Low settings, while providing the highest frame rates (180 FPS at 1080p, 116 FPS at 1440p, 62 FPS at 4K), do so at a significant visual cost that is unnecessary given the headroom available on Medium. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p, where it still achieves 88 FPS, but the performance penalty at higher resolutions makes it impractical. The measured minimums on Medium (117 FPS at 1080p, 75 FPS at 1440p, 41 FPS at 4K) indicate that the preset is robust against frame spikes, further supporting its recommendation as the optimal balance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivers a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is a key factor in the game’s performance, particularly at higher resolutions where the demand for texture data increases. The GPU’s boost clock of 2460 MHz, combined with 3072 shading units and 48 ROPs, drives the pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s, which is sufficient for Minimum’s dated engine. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS provides ample compute power, and the data shows that the RTX 4060 is not the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates scale almost linearly with settings (180 FPS on Low to 88 FPS on Ultra), indicating that the GPU is well within its limits and the CPU is likely the limiting factor at the highest frame rates.

However, as resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced. The drop from 1080p to 1440p on Medium is 49 FPS (from 138 to 89), and from 1440p to 4K on the same preset is 41 FPS (from 89 to 48). This steep decline highlights the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading limitations under higher pixel loads. The 8 GB VRAM is not a bottleneck at these settings, as the game’s 2014-era assets are unlikely to exceed this capacity, but the 128-bit bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth do limit the fill rate at 4K. The GPU’s percentile rank of 61 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17639, places it in the mid-range, which aligns with its performance profile: capable at 1080p and 1440p, but struggling to maintain 60 FPS at 4K on higher presets.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 4060’s average benchmark score is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666, a delta of -0.2%), the AMD Radeon 780M (17588, a delta of 0.3%), and the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551, a delta of 0.5%). This suggests that in synthetic tests, the RTX 4060 is on par with older or integrated solutions, but in Minimum, the measured results show it delivers playable performance at up to 1440p Medium, which is a reasonable expectation for a mobile GPU in this class. The GPU’s power draw is rated at 115 W TDP, and the data indicates that it is not thermally constrained in this title, as frame rates remain consistent across repeated runs.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 on Medium settings achieves an average of 89 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS, which is the highest resolution and quality preset that consistently exceeds 60 FPS. At 1920x1080, Medium provides 138 FPS average, while 4K Medium drops to 48 FPS, so 1440p Medium is the recommended target.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Minimum?

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The measured results show 4K Low averaging 62 FPS, and 4K Medium averaging 48 FPS. Higher presets fall below 40 FPS (High at 40 FPS, Ultra at 31 FPS), making them unsuitable for a smooth experience.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 57 FPS, while High averages 75 FPS, a difference of 18 FPS. This indicates that Ultra’s additional visual effects come at a significant performance cost, making High a better choice for maintaining a higher frame rate.

Q: Is there a large difference between Low and Medium settings?

A: Yes, but the impact is resolution-dependent. At 1080p, Low averages 180 FPS and Medium averages 138 FPS, a 42 FPS difference. At 1440p, Low averages 116 FPS and Medium averages 89 FPS, a 27 FPS difference. At 4K, Low averages 62 FPS and Medium averages 48 FPS, a 14 FPS difference. The visual improvement from Low to Medium is substantial, making the frame rate trade-off worthwhile.

Q: What are the minimum frame rates for Medium settings across resolutions?

A: The measured minimums for Medium are 117 FPS at 1920x1080, 75 FPS at 2560x1440, and 41 FPS at 3840x2160. These minimums are relatively close to the averages, indicating consistent performance without severe spikes.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its direct rivals in this game?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 17639 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666, -0.2% delta), AMD Radeon 780M (17588, +0.3% delta), and AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551, +0.5% delta). In Minimum, the RTX 4060’s measured performance is consistent with this mid-range ranking, delivering solid 1080p and 1440p results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of how the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 perform in Minimum across all tested configurations. Starting with 1920x1080, the lowest preset yields an average of 180 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. Medium at 1080p averages 138 FPS with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 158 FPS, offering a strong balance. High at 1080p drops to 116 FPS average, while Ultra averages 88 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline of roughly 40-50 FPS per step, indicating that the GPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution, as the CPU has headroom to push higher frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale downward but remain playable. Low averages 116 FPS, Medium averages 89 FPS (with a minimum of 75 FPS and maximum of 102 FPS), High averages 75 FPS, and Ultra averages 57 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 27 FPS, between Medium and High is 14 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 18 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is beginning to become a more significant factor, as the performance loss from resolution scaling is more pronounced than at 1080p. The minimum frame rate on Medium (75 FPS) is still above the 60 FPS threshold, confirming its viability.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limitations become evident. Low averages 62 FPS, which is just playable, while Medium averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS and maximum of 55 FPS. High averages 40 FPS, and Ultra averages 31 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 14 FPS, from Medium to High is 8 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 9 FPS. These smaller gaps indicate that the GPU is heavily loaded at 4K, and even reducing settings yields diminishing returns. The minimum frame rate on Medium (41 FPS) is below the 60 FPS target, making 4K gaming only viable on Low settings if a smooth experience is required.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling of frame rates from 1080p to 4K reveals the nature of the bottleneck in this configuration. On Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 138 at 1080p to 89 at 1440p, a 35.5% reduction, and then to 48 at 4K, a further 46.1% reduction. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component as resolution increases, with the 272.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 128-bit bus struggling to feed the higher pixel counts. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 22 threads, has sufficient headroom at 1080p, as evidenced by the 180 FPS on Low settings, but the GPU cannot maintain this performance at higher resolutions.

On Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 64 FPS (from 180 to 116), a 35.6% reduction, and from 1440p to 4K is 54 FPS (from 116 to 62), a 46.6% reduction. The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and bandwidth are the dominant constraints, rather than any CPU limitation. On Ultra settings, the drops are less severe in percentage terms (from 88 FPS at 1080p to 57 FPS at 1440p, a 35.2% reduction, and to 31 FPS at 4K, a 45.6% reduction), but the absolute frame rates become too low for playable gameplay. The data shows that the RTX 4060 is well-matched to the CPU at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, and even the lowest settings cannot achieve a solid 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, with its 16 cores and 22 threads (based on a base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz), provides ample processing power for Minimum, a title that is not particularly CPU-intensive. The CPU’s architecture, Meteor Lake, is built on a 7 nm process, and its 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps with data locality. In this game, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p on lower settings, where the frame rates exceed 116 FPS (up to 180 FPS on Low). The high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 1794 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1810.5, ensures that the game’s main thread is not a bottleneck.

However, the CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities are less relevant here, as Minimum is an older title that likely uses only a few threads. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and Passmark multithread score of 29376 indicate strong overall performance, but these are not fully utilized in this game. The percentile rank of 85 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35670, places the Core Ultra 9 185H in the upper echelon, but its nearest rivals (AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 at 35719, -0.1% delta; Intel Core 7 250H at 35728, -0.2% delta) show that it is not a performance outlier. In Minimum, the CPU does not limit frame rates at any resolution or settings combination, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 1440p and above. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.10 GHz is sufficient to keep up with the GPU’s demands, and the measured data confirms that the combo is GPU-bound in most scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations, the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 1752 out of 2939 total combos for Minimum, placing it in the 59.6th percentile of all configurations. This rank reflects a mid-pack performance, which is consistent with the measured FPS data: the combo delivers excellent 1080p performance and good 1440p performance, but falls short at 4K on higher settings. The rank is influenced by the GPU’s mid-range standing (percentile 61 among all GPUs) and the CPU’s higher standing (percentile 85), but in a game like Minimum, the GPU is the dominant factor, pulling the combo’s overall rank down from what the CPU alone might suggest.

The combo’s rank of 1752 indicates that there are 1187 other tested configurations that perform better in this game, and 1751 that perform worse. This places it in the lower half of the upper-middle tier, meaning it is a capable setup for most gaming scenarios but not a top-tier performer. The data shows that the RTX 4060’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks (AMD Radeon HD 7790, AMD Radeon 780M) have nearly identical average scores, and in Minimum, the combo’s frame rates are consistent with what one would expect from a mid-range mobile GPU. The CPU’s strong multi-threaded performance does not translate to a higher rank in this game, as the title’s age limits CPU utilization. Overall, this combo is a solid choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Minimum, but users targeting 4K should consider lower settings or a more powerful GPU.