Minimum

# Minimum (2014) — Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

This combination of Intel's top-tier Arrow Lake Refresh desktop processor and NVIDIA's end-of-life Pascal-era GTX 1050 Ti produces a striking imbalance in the third-person shooter Minimum. The CPU sits in the 96th percentile among all processors, while the GPU lands in just the 25th percentile — and the measured frame rates reflect that disparity clearly. With an average benchmark score of 84,003 for the CPU and 4,193 for the GPU, this pairing ranks 2,895th out of 2,939 tested combos in this game, placing it in the bottom 1.5% of configurations. The data paints a picture of a processor that is vastly overqualified for the graphics workload it is asked to feed.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best measured average FPS this combo achieves in Minimum?*

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 66 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that reaches the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Minimum?*

A: This pairing ranks 2,895th out of 2,939 total tested combos, placing it in the bottom 1.5% of all configurations. Its percentile position reflects the severe bottleneck created by the GTX 1050 Ti's modest performance ceiling.

Q: What is the lowest measured average FPS for this setup?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo produces an average of just 11 FPS. This is the weakest result across all resolution and settings combinations in the measured data.

Q: How does the GTX 1050 Ti compare to its nearest GPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The GTX 1050 Ti's average benchmark score of 4,193 is 0.6% higher than the AMD Radeon R5 M330's 4,170, and 1% higher than the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M's 4,151. It trails the NVIDIA Quadro K3000M by 1.1% and the AMD Radeon Vega 3 by 1.8%.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread performance?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 7,303 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 51,731 in multi-core, a ratio of roughly 7:1 in favor of multi-threaded workloads. Its PassMark single-thread score is 4,823, while its multithread score reaches 60,860.

Q: Does the GTX 1050 Ti support modern graphics APIs?

A: Yes, the GPU supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. However, its PassMark DirectX 12 score is only 26, compared to 104 for DirectX 9, suggesting weaker performance in modern API workloads.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the decisive limiting factor in this configuration. Built on the GP107 chip with Pascal architecture and a 14 nm process, this GPU carries 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 112.1 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock of 1291 MHz and boost clock of 1392 MHz drive 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units. The result is 2.138 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and peak rates of 44.54 GPixel/s and 66.82 GTexel/s.

In Minimum, the GPU's modest specifications translate directly into the measured frame rates. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 11 FPS average, while dropping to 4K Low raises that to 23 FPS. The gap between these settings — just 12 FPS — shows how heavily the GPU is taxed even at lower quality presets. The GPU's 25th percentile ranking among all GPUs, alongside its nearest rivals being the R5 M330 and Quadro K2100M (both with average scores within 1% of the 1050 Ti's 4,193), confirms that this is entry-level hardware by modern standards.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p gaming at lower settings, as the 66 FPS Low result at 1920x1080 demonstrates. But the data shows diminishing returns as resolution climbs. The GTX 1050 Ti's lack of ray tracing or tensor cores — features absent from its specification sheet — means it relies entirely on traditional rasterization, which the benchmark results show cannot keep pace with higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2,895 out of 2,939 tested configurations places this pairing in the 1.5th percentile — essentially the bottom rung of performance for Minimum. This ranking is remarkable given the CPU's strength. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus sits in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,003. Its nearest CPU rivals are the Core Ultra 9 285K (0.2% higher average score), the EPYC 4584PX (1.1% higher), and the EPYC 9135 (1.2% higher), while the EPYC 7F72 trails by 1.3%.

The extreme disconnect between CPU and GPU capability produces this bottom-tier ranking. When a processor in the 96th percentile is paired with a GPU in the 25th percentile, the GPU becomes the sole arbiter of gaming performance. The data suggests that virtually any other GPU pairing would yield better results, as the CPU has massive headroom to spare. Among the 2,939 tested combos, this one sits just 44 places from the very bottom, indicating that the GTX 1050 Ti's performance in Minimum is among the worst possible for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its most playable results. Low settings produce an average of 66 FPS, Medium yields 50 FPS (with a minimum of 43 and maximum of 58), High drops to 42 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS. The 34 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p shows meaningful scaling, but even the best case barely exceeds 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low averages 42 FPS, Medium 32 FPS (min 28, max 37), High 27 FPS, and Ultra 21 FPS. The step from 1080p Low (66 FPS) to 1440p Low (42 FPS) represents a 36% reduction, while Ultra falls from 32 to 21 FPS — a 34% drop.

At 3840x2160, the results become marginal. Low averages 23 FPS, Medium 17 FPS (min 15, max 20), High 15 FPS, and Ultra 11 FPS. None of these are playable in any practical sense, and the 12 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest across all resolutions, suggesting the GPU is hitting hard limits regardless of settings.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values across all resolutions, showing 43-58 FPS at 1080p, 28-37 FPS at 1440p, and 15-20 FPS at 4K. This data indicates consistent frame delivery within each resolution, with no extreme stuttering — but the averages themselves are the primary concern.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate erosion from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent. At Low settings, FPS drops from 66 at 1080p to 42 at 1440p (a 36% reduction), then to 23 at 4K (a 45% further reduction from 1440p). At Medium, the progression is 50 → 32 → 17, representing 36% and 47% drops respectively. High settings show 42 → 27 → 15, with 36% and 44% reductions. Ultra goes from 32 → 21 → 11, a 34% and 48% decline.

These percentages reveal that the GPU is the limiting component throughout. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU's workload stays constant. Instead, the steady decline with each resolution step — roughly one-third fewer FPS from 1080p to 1440p, and nearly half of that again from 1440p to 4K — is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock are nowhere near being stressed by Minimum's demands; the GTX 1050 Ti simply cannot translate the CPU's abundant compute into higher frame rates at larger pixel counts.

The fact that 4K Ultra (11 FPS) is less than one-sixth of 1080p Low (66 FPS) underscores the pixel-count penalty. Each doubling of resolution quadruples the pixel workload, and the GTX 1050 Ti's 44.54 GPixel/s pixel fill rate is clearly insufficient for 4K, where even Low settings yield only 23 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data offers a clear hierarchy of playability. At 1920x1080, Low settings provide the only average above 60 FPS (66 FPS), making it the sole configuration that meets standard smoothness expectations. Medium at 1080p delivers 50 FPS average with a 43 FPS minimum, which remains acceptable for slower-paced third-person shooting, though it misses the 60 FPS mark. High at 1080p (42 FPS) and Ultra (32 FPS) progressively sacrifice smoothness for visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, Low (42 FPS) is the only setting that approaches playability, while Medium (32 FPS) and above fall below comfortable thresholds. The 4K results — 23 FPS at Low, 17 FPS at Medium, 15 FPS at High, and 11 FPS at Ultra — are all below playable levels and should be avoided entirely.

The data supports 1920x1080 with Low settings as the optimal experience for this combo. The 66 FPS average provides headroom above 60 FPS, and the 24 FPS improvement over Medium (50 FPS) is substantial. Users prioritizing visual quality over frame rate might choose Medium at 1080p, accepting the 50 FPS average for better textures and effects. However, the benchmark results indicate that any settings above Medium at 1080p, or any resolution above 1080p, will push the GTX 1050 Ti past its comfortable operating range.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on Arrow Lake Refresh at 3 nm. It runs at a 3.70 GHz base clock and boosts to 5.80 GHz, with 125 W TDP. Its cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 115.2 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU's PCIe Gen 5 interface provides 20 lanes, and it includes integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 EU.

In benchmark terms, this CPU is a powerhouse. Cinebench R23 scores of 7,303 single-core and 51,731 multi-core place it among the top processors. PassMark results show 4,823 single-thread and 60,860 multithread scores, with strong showings in integer math (166,194), floating-point math (214,760), and data compression (698,346). Its 96th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 84,003 put it just 0.2% above the Core Ultra 9 285K and 1.1% above the EPYC 4584PX.

Yet in Minimum, this CPU's capabilities are almost entirely unused. The 66 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low is dictated by the GPU, not the CPU. The processor could likely push far higher frame rates with a more capable graphics card — its single-core performance alone (7,303 in Cinebench R23) suggests it can handle game logic and physics calculations without breaking a sweat. The CPU's role in this pairing is to feed the GTX 1050 Ti as much data as it can process, and the measured results show that the GPU's 2.138 TFLOPS of compute simply cannot keep up with what the CPU can deliver. The imbalance is stark: a 96th-percentile processor paired with a 25th-percentile GPU produces bottom-tier gaming performance, confirming that in Minimum, the graphics card is the sole determinant of frame rates.