Minimum

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is a high-end combination that ranks in the 1005th position out of 2939 tested combos for Minimum. This places it comfortably in the top third of all systems tested, indicating a strong overall capability for this third-person shooter. The combo’s standing is not surprising given the individual components; the CPU sits in the 96th percentile among all processors, while the GPU holds the 75th percentile among all graphics cards. This suggests a system that is well above average, though not at the absolute bleeding edge of performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1005 out of 2939 tested configurations places it in the 66th percentile of all systems benchmarked for this game. This is a solid result, showing that the pairing is capable of delivering a smooth experience in most scenarios. The ranking reflects a balance between the CPU’s immense processing power and the GPU’s high-end, though not flagship, performance. While the CPU is in the 96th percentile, the GPU’s 75th percentile standing is the more limiting factor in this pairing, which is typical for a gaming workload where the graphics card handles the bulk of the rendering.

When looking at the CPU’s nearest rivals, the data shows a tight cluster at the top. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003. Its closest competitor, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83807, a delta of just 0.2%. This indicates that the 290K Plus is essentially neck-and-neck with its direct predecessor in overall compute performance. The AMD EPYC 4584PX (score 83090, delta 1.1%) and AMD EPYC 9135 (score 82980, delta 1.2%) are also very close, showing that the 290K Plus has a slight edge over these server-class chips. However, the AMD EPYC 7F72 is slightly ahead, with a score of 85072, giving it a -1.3% delta relative to the 290K Plus.

For the GPU, the rivalry is equally tight. The RTX 3070 Ti’s average benchmark score is 29945. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is nearly identical, with a score of 29928 (delta 0.1%). The AMD Radeon RX 6800 scores 30095 (delta -0.5%), placing it marginally ahead. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti scores 29783 (delta 0.5%), making it slightly slower. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 is the fastest in this group, with a score of 30433, which is -1.6% relative to the 3070 Ti. This data shows that the 3070 Ti is in a highly competitive performance bracket, with only a few percentage points separating it from its closest alternatives.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture and features the GA104 chip on an 8 nm process from Samsung. It comes with 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s. The card’s clock speeds are set at a base of 1575 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz, with the memory running at an effective 19 Gbps. These specifications are crucial for understanding its performance in Minimum. The 8 GB VRAM is a key factor; at higher resolutions and detail settings, the game’s texture and geometry data can push against this limit. While the 608.3 GB/s bandwidth is substantial, it is the capacity that could become a bottleneck in the most demanding 4K scenarios, as the data suggests.

The GPU’s raw compute capabilities are substantial, with 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. It also includes 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, supporting features like DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4. The card’s FP32 performance is 21.75 TFLOPS, which is a strong indicator of its general rendering throughput. In the context of this game, which is a third-person shooter from 2014, the card is more than capable of handling the core rendering. The data shows that at 1080p, the GPU is able to push very high frame rates, indicating that the game is not heavily taxing the card’s computational resources at lower resolutions.

However, the GPU’s performance is not uniform across all settings. The benchmark data reveals that the card’s performance is significantly influenced by the quality preset. The difference between Low and Ultra settings at any resolution is substantial, with the Ultra preset providing a much lower average FPS. This indicates that the game’s Ultra settings introduce effects and rendering techniques that heavily load the GPU, such as advanced lighting or post-processing, which the 3070 Ti can handle but with a notable performance cost. The card’s 75th percentile standing among all GPUs suggests it is a strong performer, but not a top-tier one, and the data reflects this in the Minimum benchmarks.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling across resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation. At 1080p, the system is able to achieve very high frame rates, with the Low preset hitting 240 FPS average. This suggests that at this resolution, the CPU is able to feed the GPU enough data to keep it fully utilized, but the GPU is not the primary constraint in achieving even higher frame rates. As resolution increases to 1440p, the average FPS drops, and at 4K, it falls further. This is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance, where the rendering load increases dramatically with pixel count, and the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

The data for the High settings illustrates this scaling. At 1920x1080, the average FPS is 155. At 2560x1440, it drops to 100, a decrease of 35%. At 3840x2160, the average FPS falls to 54, which is a 46% drop from the 1440p figure. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti is struggling to maintain high frame rates at 4K, even on High settings. The trend is similar for Medium settings, where the average FPS goes from 184 at 1080p to 119 at 1440p and then to 64 at 4K. The scaling is consistent, pointing to the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth as the primary bottlenecks at higher resolutions.

The fact that the FPS drops so significantly from 1080p to 4K suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, with its high single-thread performance and numerous cores, is more than capable of keeping up with the GPU’s demands at lower resolutions. However, at 4K, the GPU’s workload becomes so heavy that it cannot maintain high frame rates, regardless of the CPU’s power. This is a typical scenario for a game like Minimum, where the visual effects scale heavily with resolution, and the GPU is the component that determines the final performance ceiling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at performance across all settings and resolutions. The system was tested at 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160, with Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets.

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the system performs exceptionally well. On Low settings, it achieves an average of 240 FPS. The Medium preset yields 184 FPS, with a minimum of 156 FPS and a maximum of 212 FPS. High settings produce an average of 155 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 118 FPS. These numbers indicate that the system is more than capable of driving a high-refresh-rate 1080p monitor, even at the highest detail settings. The difference between Low and Ultra is 122 FPS, showing that the GPU has a significant performance headroom at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows a noticeable decrease. The Low preset averages 155 FPS, which is still very smooth. Medium settings average 119 FPS, with a minimum of 101 FPS and a maximum of 137 FPS. High settings produce an average of 100 FPS, which is the threshold for a smooth 100 Hz experience. The Ultra preset averages 76 FPS, which is playable but not as fluid as the lower settings. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a roughly 35-40% reduction in frame rate for each preset, which is in line with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The Low preset averages 84 FPS, which is still respectable. Medium settings average 64 FPS, with a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 74 FPS. High settings drop to an average of 54 FPS, which is borderline for a smooth experience. The Ultra preset averages just 41 FPS, which is not ideal for a fast-paced shooter. These results show that while the system can handle 4K, users will need to compromise on settings to achieve a playable frame rate. The data clearly indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB of VRAM and its overall compute power are stretched thin at this resolution, especially on the higher presets.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Minimum with this combo for a high refresh rate experience?*

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080, the system can achieve 155 FPS on High settings and 118 FPS on Ultra, making it ideal for 144Hz or 165Hz monitors. At 2560x1440, the average FPS on High is 100, which is also suitable for a 100Hz monitor, but the Ultra preset drops to 76 FPS.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Minimum?*

A: Yes, it can, but with compromises. At 3840x2160 on High settings, the average FPS is 54, and on Ultra it is 41. For a more fluid experience, users would need to use Medium or Low settings, which average 64 FPS and 84 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its closest rival, the RTX 5070 Mobile, in overall GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 29945, which is nearly identical to the RTX 5070 Mobile’s score of 29928. The delta is just 0.1%, indicating they perform at essentially the same level in synthetic tests.

*Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck for this GPU in Minimum?*

A: The benchmark data suggests it is not. At 1080p, the system achieves very high frame rates, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU effectively. The significant FPS drop at 4K points to the GPU being the primary limiting factor, not the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 155 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 76 FPS. This represents a 79 FPS difference, or a 51% reduction in frame rate when switching from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: How does the CPU’s single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance in the context of gaming?

A: While the CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 51731, its single-core score is 7303. The single-core performance is critical for gaming, and the data shows it is strong, which contributes to the high frame rates observed at lower resolutions where the CPU has more influence.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. This high boost clock is critical for gaming performance, as most games rely heavily on single-threaded performance. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7303 is exceptionally high, placing it in the 96th percentile among all CPUs. This explains why the system is able to achieve such high frame rates at 1080p, where the CPU’s ability to process game logic and draw calls is more important.

The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities are also substantial, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731. While Minimum may not utilize all 24 cores, having a high multi-thread score ensures that the system can handle background tasks and any other workloads without impacting game performance. The Passmark multi-thread score of 60860 further reinforces this. The CPU’s large L3 cache of 36 MB is also beneficial, as it reduces latency when accessing frequently used data, which can improve frame pacing and minimum FPS.

In the context of this combo, the CPU’s performance is more than sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 3070 Ti. The data shows that the system’s performance scales with resolution in a way that is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p, the frame rates are high but not unlimited, suggesting that the CPU is not the limiting factor. At 4K, the frame rates drop significantly, which is a clear indication that the GPU is struggling to keep up with the rendering load. The CPU’s benchmark scores, particularly the high single-thread performance, support the conclusion that it is a capable partner for this GPU in Minimum.

The CPU’s memory support for DDR5 and its dual-channel bus with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s also contribute to overall system performance. The PCIe Gen 5 interface provides ample bandwidth for the GPU and any future NVMe storage devices. While these features may not have a direct impact on the FPS in this specific game, they ensure that the platform is not a bottleneck for other components. The processor’s integrated graphics, Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU, are present but not relevant for gaming when a discrete GPU is installed. Overall, the data indicates that the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a top-tier gaming CPU that allows the RTX 3070 Ti to perform at its full potential, with the GPU being the main determinant of frame rates in Minimum at higher resolutions.