Minimum

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

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a 16-core, 22-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 45 W TDP. The chip's cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and a single-core score of 1810.5, while Geekbench results show 11657 multi-core and 1794 single-core. Its PassMark multithread score is 29376, with a single-thread score of 3697, and it sits at the 85th percentile among all tested CPUs.

For a 2014-released third-person shooter like Minimum, the CPU's role is primarily about maintaining frame pacing and avoiding bottlenecks at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom. The Core Ultra 9 185H's high single-thread performance (1810.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core) is particularly relevant, as older game engines often rely heavily on one or two threads. The 5.10 GHz boost clock provides the raw speed needed to keep draw calls and physics updates flowing, while the 22 threads offer ample capacity for background tasks and any modern patches or overlays.

Compared to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the Core Ultra 9 185H is essentially tied at the top of its class. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 has an average benchmark score of 35719, a negligible 0.1% difference from the Intel chip's 35670. The Intel Core 7 250H scores 35728 (0.2% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 scores 35802 (0.4% higher). The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X leads this group with 35909, but only 0.7% ahead. This clustering means that for Minimum's CPU-bound scenarios, the Core Ultra 9 185H delivers performance statistically indistinguishable from its closest competitors — no single chip in this group holds a meaningful advantage.

The measured FPS data reinforces that the CPU is not the limiting factor in most configurations. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 199 FPS, which is well beyond the refresh rate of typical displays and indicates the CPU can feed the GPU effectively even in the least demanding graphics settings. When resolution increases to 4K, the CPU load doesn't scale proportionally with the pixel count, so the 185H's capabilities remain constant while the GPU becomes the primary constraint. The processor's 85th percentile ranking across all CPUs further confirms it is a high-tier mobile part that won't hold back the RTX 5070 Mobile in Minimum.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die. It has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 907 MHz with a boost clock of 1425 MHz, and memory runs at 1500 MHz (24 Gbps effective). Its compute configuration includes 4608 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, 48 ROPs, 36 RT cores, and 144 tensor cores. The GPU achieves 13.13 TFLOPS FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 68.40 GPixel/s, with a texture rate of 205.2 GTexel/s. Its TDP is rated at 50 W, and it connects via PCIe 5.0 x16.

In the context of Minimum, the RTX 5070 Mobile's 8 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for a game from 2014, which was designed around much older hardware. The 384.0 GB/s memory bandwidth provides ample headroom for texture streaming and high-resolution rendering, even at 4K where the measured FPS shows the GPU becoming the bottleneck. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 20355 places it at the 75th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29928.

The RTX 5070 Mobile's nearest rivals show a tight grouping in raw compute power. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti scores 29945 (0.1% higher), the RTX 2080 Ti scores 29783 (0.5% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 6800 scores 30095 (0.6% higher), and the RX 6700 scores 30433 (1.7% higher). This means the RTX 5070 Mobile is competitively positioned — it trades blows with last-generation high-end desktop cards, which is notable for a mobile part with a 50 W TDP.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's scaling behavior clearly. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 199 FPS, but at Ultra settings, it drops to 97 FPS. This 51% reduction from Low to Ultra at 1080p demonstrates how the GPU's shading units and ROPs are stressed by higher quality presets. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS falls to 34, which is only 17% of the 1080p Low result — a massive drop that highlights the GPU's limitations at extreme resolutions and settings. The RTX 5070 Mobile's 8 GB VRAM doesn't appear to be a limiting factor in these tests, as even at 4K Ultra, the game runs without crashing or stuttering, though the frame rate becomes marginal.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H compare to its nearest CPU rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The Core Ultra 9 185H has an average benchmark score of 35670. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 at 35719 (0.1% higher), Intel Core 7 250H at 35728 (0.2% higher), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 at 35802 (0.4% higher), and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X at 35909 (0.7% higher). This means the 185H is effectively tied with all of them within a 0.7% margin.

Q: What is the maximum average FPS the RTX 5070 Mobile achieves in Minimum, and at what settings?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 199 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is nearly double the 1080p Ultra result of 97 FPS, showing the GPU's massive headroom at low graphics quality.

Q: Does the RTX 5070 Mobile's 8 GB VRAM cause any issues in Minimum at 4K?

A: The data shows no VRAM-related failures or complete stutters at any resolution. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS is 34, which is playable but not smooth, and this is more attributable to raw GPU compute limits rather than memory capacity. The 384.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for this 2014 title.

Q: How does the combo's performance at 4K compare to 1080p in percentage terms?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 128 at 1080p to 44 at 4K, which is a 65.6% reduction. At Low settings, it drops from 199 to 69, a 65.3% reduction. At Medium, it goes from 152 to 53, a 65.1% drop. The consistent ~65% reduction across all settings indicates a uniform GPU-bound scaling pattern.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU+GPU combinations for Minimum?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the RTX 5070 Mobile ranks 2051 out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the 44.8th percentile. This means over half of all tested combinations outperform this specific pairing in Minimum.

Q: Which component is the primary bottleneck at 1440p Medium settings?

A: Evidence points to the GPU being the bottleneck. The CPU is capable of producing 199 FPS at 1080p Low, but at 2560x1440 Medium, the combo only achieves 98 FPS. Since the CPU load doesn't increase significantly with resolution while GPU load does, the 128 FPS at 1080p High versus 82 FPS at 1440p High clearly shows the GPU limiting performance as pixel count rises.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile combination ranks 2051 out of 3712 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This may seem surprising given the strong individual benchmark scores — the CPU is at the 85th percentile and the GPU at the 75th percentile — but the ranking reflects the game's specific demands and the competitive field of other pairings.

The rank of 2051 means that 1661 other combinations (44.8% of all tested) perform better in Minimum. This is not a commentary on raw hardware capability, as the component benchmarks show both parts are solid mid-to-high performers. Rather, it indicates that in this particular game, many other CPU+GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates, likely due to the game's relatively low system requirements and the fact that it was released in 2014.

The CPU's nearest rivals all have nearly identical average scores (within 0.7%), so swapping the Core Ultra 9 185H for any of them would not meaningfully change the combo's rank. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rivals are within 1.7% of its average score, meaning the RTX 5070 Mobile is not at a competitive disadvantage against its direct contemporaries. The ranking is more likely influenced by the fact that Minimum is not a demanding title, allowing lower-tier components with higher clock speeds or better optimization to achieve competitive frame rates.

The data shows that this combo's performance is consistent with its component benchmarks — it's neither a surprising overachiever nor a disappointing underperformer. In the context of the full database, it sits in the middle of the pack for this game, which aligns with the individual component percentiles when considered together. The 44.8th percentile ranking is slightly below the average of the two components' percentiles (85th CPU, 75th GPU), suggesting that Minimum may slightly favor other hardware configurations, perhaps those with higher single-thread performance or different memory configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a highly consistent scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 128 at 1920x1080 to 82 at 2560x1440 (a 35.9% reduction), then to 44 at 3840x2160 (a 65.6% reduction from 1080p). The drop from 1440p to 4K at High settings is 46.3%, showing that the GPU's rendering load increases exponentially with pixel count.

At Low settings, the pattern is similar but with higher absolute numbers. The average FPS goes from 199 at 1080p to 128 at 1440p (35.7% drop), then to 69 at 4K (65.3% drop from 1080p). The consistency of the percentage drop across Low, High, and Medium settings — all around 65% from 1080p to 4K — strongly suggests that the GPU is the sole limiting factor at higher resolutions, regardless of graphics quality presets.

At Medium settings, the combo achieves 152 FPS at 1080p, 98 at 1440p, and 53 at 4K. The min and max FPS data available for Medium settings shows the frame time variance: at 1080p, the range is 129 to 175 FPS (a 46 FPS spread), at 1440p it's 83 to 113 (a 30 FPS spread), and at 4K it's 45 to 61 (a 16 FPS spread). This narrowing of the frame rate range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes more consistently saturated, reducing variance as it approaches its rendering limits.

The scaling behavior confirms that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar FPS numbers across resolutions at the same settings, particularly at Low settings where the GPU has less work to do. Instead, the 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings (199 to 69 FPS) demonstrates that the GPU's rendering capacity is the primary constraint. The Core Ultra 9 185H's strong single-thread performance (1810.5 in Cinebench R23) ensures that even at 1080p Low, the CPU can feed the GPU fast enough to achieve 199 FPS.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is slightly steeper. The average FPS drops from 97 at 1080p to 63 at 1440p (a 35.1% reduction), then to 34 at 4K (a 65.0% reduction from 1080p). The 4K Ultra result of 34 FPS is the lowest recorded in the dataset, and it's below the 30 FPS threshold for playability on many displays. This suggests that for Minimum at 4K Ultra, the RTX 5070 Mobile simply doesn't have enough raw compute power to maintain smooth frame rates, and users would need to reduce settings to Medium (53 FPS) or Low (69 FPS) for a better experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the resolution with the highest frame rates, the combo demonstrates strong performance across all settings. Low settings yield an average of 199 FPS, which is the fastest result in the entire dataset. Medium settings average 152 FPS with a range of 129 to 175 FPS. High settings average 128 FPS, and Ultra settings average 97 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 51.3% reduction in frame rate, indicating that each quality tier imposes a significant rendering cost on the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates drop noticeably but remain playable. Low settings average 128 FPS, Medium averages 98 FPS (with min/max of 83/113), High averages 82 FPS, and Ultra averages 63 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is roughly 35-36%, which is consistent with the ~78% increase in pixel count (2,073,600 to 3,686,400 pixels). This near-linear scaling suggests the GPU is the limiting factor, as a CPU bottleneck would produce a smaller FPS drop.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal. Low settings average 69 FPS, Medium averages 53 FPS (with min/max of 45/61), High averages 44 FPS, and Ultra averages 34 FPS. The 4K pixel count of 8,294,400 is exactly four times 1080p, and the FPS drops by approximately 65% rather than 75%, which indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth (384.0 GB/s) and cache efficiency provide some mitigation against the extreme pixel load. However, even at Low settings, 4K performance (69 FPS) is below what most gamers would consider ideal for a smooth experience on high-refresh displays.

The data reveals an interesting relationship between settings and resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (199 FPS) and Ultra (97 FPS) is 102 FPS, or 51.3%. At 1440p, the difference is 65 FPS (128 vs 63), or 50.8%. At 4K, the difference is 35 FPS (69 vs 34), or 50.7%. This consistent ~51% reduction from Low to Ultra across all resolutions indicates that the settings presets impose a multiplicative load on the GPU rather than an additive one, and this load is independent of resolution.

In practical terms, the data suggests that for Minimum, the RTX 5070 Mobile can handle 1080p at any settings with ease, 1440p at High or lower settings for smooth gameplay, and 4K only at Low or Medium settings for acceptable frame rates. The 4K Ultra result of 34 FPS is technically playable but may feel sluggish in a fast-paced third-person shooter. The Medium settings at 4K, with an average of 53 FPS and a minimum of 45 FPS, provide the best balance of visual quality and performance at that resolution.