Minimum

Minimum, the 2014 third-person shooter, places the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 in the 1764th position out of 2939 tested combinations. This mid-pack placement (roughly the 60th percentile of tested combos) is telling: the combo lands in the lower-middle of the field, not a top-tier performer but far from the bottom. The ranking reflects a pairing where the CPU is a top-5% part (96th percentile among all CPUs) while the GPU sits at the 66th percentile among all GPUs, creating a lopsided system. In practical terms, this means the combo’s overall standing is dragged down by the graphics card, which becomes the primary constraint in demanding scenarios. The data shows a system that can handle Minimum at playable framerates, but with significant compromises required at higher resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1764 out of 2939 tested combinations places it just below the median of the database, indicating a workable but unexceptional configuration for Minimum. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 84003 puts it 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807), 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090), and 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9135 (82980), while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 (85072) by 1.3%. These are marginal differences, confirming that the Ultra 9 290K Plus is essentially at parity with its closest rivals in synthetic testing. However, this CPU strength does not translate into a high game-specific rank because Minimum’s performance is heavily gated by the GPU, which scores an average of 21035 across all its benchmarks. The RTX 5050’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21153, 0.6% faster), the AMD Radeon HD 8970M (21237, 1% faster), the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (20713, 1.6% slower), and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21379, 1.6% faster). These deltas are all within 2%, meaning the RTX 5050 sits in a tightly clustered performance band, but that band is simply not high enough to push this combo into the upper ranks.

The 1764th rank also reflects the game’s age and the fact that many tested combos include far more powerful GPUs. In Minimum, the RTX 5050’s measured framerates at 1080p Ultra (88 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (57 FPS) are respectable, but they fall well short of what high-end cards achieve. The CPU’s 96th percentile ranking suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios (like low-resolution, low-settings runs), the combo could outperform its overall rank, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution and settings increase. This is a classic case of a high-end CPU paired with a mid-range GPU, resulting in a combo that is greater than the sum of its parts in CPU-light workloads but held back elsewhere. The data indicates that the rank is more a reflection of the GPU’s limits than any deficiency in the processor, which posts strong synthetic scores across the board, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and a single-core score of 7303.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which preset to use for the best experience. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 179 FPS, Medium 137 FPS, High 115 FPS, and Ultra 88 FPS. All four are playable, but the jump from High to Ultra costs 27 FPS (from 115 to 88) for what is typically a marginal visual upgrade in a 2014 title. The sweet spot at 1080p is the High preset: it offers 115 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while retaining better visual fidelity than Medium or Low. The data suggests that Medium (137 FPS) is also viable for players prioritizing framerate, but High provides the best balance of smoothness and image quality without the steep performance penalty of Ultra.

At 1440p, the picture changes. Low delivers 116 FPS, Medium 88 FPS, and High 74 FPS, but Ultra drops to 57 FPS. Here, the High preset is still the recommendation, as 74 FPS is comfortably playable, and the gap to Ultra (57 FPS) represents a 23% performance loss that may cause noticeable stutter on standard 60 Hz displays. Medium at 88 FPS is a strong alternative for those who prefer higher headroom, but High’s visual improvements are worth the 14 FPS trade-off in this resolution. The minimum FPS data for Medium at 1440p (75 FPS) confirms that even in demanding scenes, the combo stays above 60 FPS, making Medium a safe choice for competitive play where frame pacing is critical.

At 4K, the options narrow significantly. Low delivers 62 FPS, Medium 48 FPS, High 40 FPS, and Ultra 30 FPS. The only preset that maintains a consistent 60 FPS is Low, which is a substantial visual downgrade for a game that can look dated at high settings. Medium at 48 FPS is borderline playable on a VRR display, but the minimum FPS of 41 suggests occasional dips below 45 FPS, which could be jarring. For 4K, the recommendation is Low if smoothness is paramount, or Medium if the player can tolerate sub-60 FPS and has adaptive sync. High and Ultra are not recommended for 4K, as 40 FPS and 30 FPS respectively are too low for a shooter where reaction time matters. The data clearly shows that 1080p High is the best overall experience for this combo, offering 115 FPS with no major compromises.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU as the limiting component. At High settings, the combo delivers 115 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p, and 40 FPS at 4K. That is a 36% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 46% drop from 1440p to 4K, for a total reduction of 65% from 1080p to 4K. This scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario: as pixel count increases, the RTX 5050’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth become strained, and the GPU’s 2560 shading units cannot keep up with the workload. The CPU’s role diminishes at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the fact that the 1080p Low preset hits 179 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s frame generation limit, but 4K Low only reaches 62 FPS, a 65% reduction that cannot be attributed to the CPU.

The pattern holds across all settings. At Medium, FPS drops from 137 at 1080p to 88 at 1440p (36% reduction) and then to 48 at 4K (45% reduction from 1440p). At Ultra, the numbers are 88 at 1080p, 57 at 1440p (35% reduction), and 30 at 4K (47% reduction). The consistency of these percentage drops (roughly 35-36% for the 1080p-to-1440p step and 45-47% for the 1440p-to-4K step) indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck across the board. If the CPU were limiting, the scaling would flatten at higher resolutions, but instead, FPS continues to fall proportionally with pixel count. The 4K Low result of 62 FPS versus the 1080p Low result of 179 FPS is a 65% reduction, which is close to the theoretical 4x pixel count increase (though not linear due to other factors), reinforcing that the RTX 5050 is the primary constraint.

This scaling has practical implications. For 1080p and 1440p gaming, the combo is well-balanced, with the CPU able to feed the GPU enough frames to reach high FPS. At 4K, however, the CPU’s power is largely wasted, as the GPU cannot translate its 96th-percentile performance into playable framerates beyond Low settings. The data suggests that users with 4K displays should either lower expectations to Low settings or consider a more powerful GPU, as the RTX 5050 simply does not have the raw throughput for 4K gaming in Minimum at higher presets. The 66th percentile GPU ranking aligns with this observation, placing it in the mid-range where 1080p and 1440p are the native resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this CPU/GPU pair?

A: The data shows 1080p High as the optimal choice, delivering 115 FPS average. This is well above 60 FPS and offers better visual quality than Medium (137 FPS) or Low (179 FPS), while avoiding the 27 FPS penalty of Ultra (88 FPS). At 1440p, High (74 FPS) is still viable, but 4K requires Low (62 FPS) for consistent 60 FPS.

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

A: It ranks 1764th out of 2939 combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This rank is primarily due to the GPU’s mid-range performance (66th percentile among all GPUs), as the CPU is a top-tier part (96th percentile among all CPUs).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor, especially at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 179 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 62 FPS, a 65% reduction. The consistent FPS drops across settings (roughly 35-36% from 1080p to 1440p, and 45-47% from 1440p to 4K) indicate GPU-bound scaling, not CPU limitation.

Q: What are the measured FPS at 1440p Medium?

A: The average FPS is 88, with a minimum of 75 and a maximum of 102. This provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, making Medium a strong choice for 1440p gaming if the user prefers higher framerates over visual fidelity.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5050’s average benchmark score is 21035. It trails the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21153) by 0.6% and the AMD Radeon HD 8970M (21237) by 1%, while leading the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (20713) by 1.6% and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21379) by 1.6%. All these rivals are within a 2% band.

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

A: No, the measured average FPS at 4K Ultra is 30, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Even 4K High (40 FPS) and 4K Medium (48 FPS) are sub-optimal; only 4K Low (62 FPS) achieves playable framerates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB207 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It features 2560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units, with 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores. The GPU’s base clock is 2317 MHz, boosting to 2572 MHz, and its memory runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective), delivering 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 128-bit bus. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is a notable constraint in Minimum at high resolutions, as the 4K Ultra preset (30 FPS) and 4K High (40 FPS) results suggest that memory bandwidth and capacity are insufficient for the game’s demands at those settings. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 13.17 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s are mid-range figures, consistent with its 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

In practical terms, the RTX 5050’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2502 and PassMark G3D score of 17326 place it in a performance tier where 1080p and 1440p gaming are the primary use cases. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 1080p, the GPU can push 179 FPS on Low settings, but at 4K, even Low drops to 62 FPS. The 20 Gbps effective memory speed and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 8 GB capacity becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where textures and geometry demand more memory than the card can efficiently handle. The GPU’s 80 tensor cores and 20 RT cores are present, but Minimum, as a 2014 title, does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS, so these features have no measurable impact on performance in this game.

The RTX 5050’s launch MSRP is 249 USD, and its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (0.6% faster), AMD Radeon HD 8970M (1% faster), AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (1.6% slower), and NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (1.6% faster). These small deltas mean that in real-world gaming, the RTX 5050 is interchangeable with these cards within a few percent, but none of them are high-end solutions. The GPU’s 66th percentile ranking versus all GPUs underscores that it is a mid-pack component, and its performance in Minimum reflects this: capable at 1080p and 1440p, but struggling at 4K. The measured data shows that the GPU is the primary determinant of the combo’s 1764th rank, as its performance ceiling is reached at 4K Low (62 FPS) and 4K Medium (48 FPS), well below the 100+ FPS figures seen at 1080p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU features 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache, totaling 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. Its multi-threaded performance is exceptional, as evidenced by Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and PassMark multithread score of 60860, while single-thread performance is also strong (Cinebench R23 single-core: 7303, PassMark single-thread: 4823). The CPU’s average benchmark score of 84003 places it at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals are all within 1.3% of its score, confirming that it is a top-tier processor.

In Minimum, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with frames, and the data shows it excels at this task at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 179 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s frame generation limit for this game, given that the GPU is not heavily stressed at such low settings. The 1080p Medium (137 FPS) and 1080p High (115 FPS) results also indicate that the CPU is not a bottleneck at these settings, as the GPU is still able to render frames at high rates. However, at 4K, the CPU’s advantage is nullified: 4K Low (62 FPS) and 4K High (40 FPS) are GPU-limited, and the CPU’s 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock cannot overcome the GPU’s memory bandwidth limitations.

The CPU’s high core count and clock speed are overkill for Minimum, a game from 2014 that is unlikely to scale beyond a few cores. The PassMark physics score of 3315 and data compression score of 698346 indicate strong integer and floating-point performance, but these do not translate to higher FPS in a GPU-bound title. The CPU’s 96th percentile ranking reflects its synthetic capabilities, but in this specific game, it contributes little beyond ensuring that the GPU is never starved for data. The 24 threads are essentially idle at 4K, where the GPU is the sole constraint. This imbalance is reflected in the combo’s rank: 1764th out of 2939, which is far lower than the CPU’s percentile would suggest, because the GPU’s 66th percentile performance is the limiting factor.

The CPU’s memory support (DDR5, dual-channel, 115.2 GB/s bandwidth) and PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes provide ample bandwidth for the RTX 5050, which uses a PCIe 5.0 x8 interface. This ensures no data transfer bottlenecks between the CPU and GPU, but it does not compensate for the GPU’s raw compute limits. In summary, the Ultra 9 290K Plus is a high-end processor that delivers top-tier synthetic scores, but in Minimum, its performance is largely irrelevant beyond ensuring the GPU can reach its maximum framerate. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution or setting, but it also cannot boost the combo’s rank above what the GPU allows.