Minimum

Opening Paragraph

Minimum is a 2014 third-person shooter that, despite its age, still demands a balanced system at higher resolutions. The data examined here pairs the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H mobile processor with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 laptop GPU. Benchmark results across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a system that scales predictably, with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as resolution climbs. This analysis interprets those measured frames to explain where the limits lie and how to get the best experience from this combination.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and expected drop in performance as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo averages 199 FPS, which is a very high refresh-rate figure. Moving to 1440p Low drops that average to 128 FPS, a 36% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 69 FPS, which is a 46% drop from the 1440p result and a 65% drop from the 1080p baseline. This pattern is consistent across all presets, confirming that the rendering load scales heavily with pixel count.

The gap between presets also widens at higher resolutions, which indicates where the system's stress point lies. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 102 FPS (199 vs 97). At 1440p, that gap shrinks to 65 FPS (128 vs 63). At 4K, the gap is just 35 FPS (69 vs 34). This compression of frame rates at 4K suggests that the GPU is becoming fully saturated, regardless of the quality setting. The CPU has more headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions, but at 4K, the rendering demands of the RTX 5070's workload dominate the timeline.

Specifically, the 4K Medium preset shows an average of 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 61. This is the only preset at 4K with min/max data, and it shows a relatively tight frame window of 16 FPS. In contrast, the 1440p Medium preset averages 98 FPS with a range from 83 to 113, a 30 FPS spread. The tighter range at 4K indicates that the system is hitting a hard performance ceiling, likely due to the GPU's raw throughput limits. The data suggests that 4K is not viable for high refresh-rate play, while 1080p and 1440p offer much smoother experiences.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Minimum, this specific CPU-GPU pairing holds a combo rank of 1584 out of 2939 total combos. This places it in the 54th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms slightly more than half of the database entries. This is a mid-pack result, which is a bit surprising given the modern nature of both components. However, the rank reflects the entire system's capability in this specific game, and the data shows that the GPU's performance class is the limiting factor for high-end placements.

The CPU, the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H, has an average benchmark score of 40518 and sits in the 87th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core 7 253PE (deltaPct -0.1), the Intel Core 5 223PE (deltaPct -0.2), and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (deltaPct 0.2). These are very close scores, with the X7 368H essentially tied with its rivals, being 0.1% faster than one and 0.2% slower than others. This indicates that the CPU is a strong performer, but it is not the differentiator in the combo's rank.

The GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, has an average benchmark score of 40377 and sits in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (deltaPct 0.1), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (deltaPct 0.8), and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (deltaPct -1.2). The deltaPct values show the RTX 5070 is 0.1% faster than the Pro 580 but 1.2% slower than the Pro 5300, indicating it is in a tight performance cluster. Given that the CPU is ranked higher than the GPU in their respective percentiles, the GPU is the component holding the combo back from a higher rank in this particular game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 3, built on the Panther Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.00 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The data shows a substantial difference between synthetic multi-core and single-core performance, which is typical for a mobile chip with this core count. In Cinebench R23, it scores 28221 in multicore and 3984 in single-core. This indicates that while it can handle heavily threaded workloads, its single-thread speed is also strong, which is critical for gaming.

In the context of Minimum, a 2014 title, the game's threading model is likely not optimized to use all 16 cores efficiently. The data supports this interpretation. At 1080p Low settings, the system hits 199 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that typically requires a strong single-core performance to avoid CPU bottlenecks. The CPU's single-core Cinebench R23 score of 3984 is high enough to feed the GPU at these frame rates. However, the fact that the combo rank is only mid-pack suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor.

Instead, the CPU's role appears to be providing a stable foundation that allows the GPU to work at its full potential. The Passmark multithread score is 32956, and the physics score is 2857, which are decent numbers. But in this game, the performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is almost entirely dictated by the GPU. The data shows that the CPU is more than capable of keeping up, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates at 1080p are high and not artificially capped. The memory bandwidth of 153.6 GB/s and the L3 cache of 18 MB are sufficient for the game's data demands, but they do not appear to be a point of contention in the results.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play this game with this combo?

A: The 1440p resolution offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. With a High preset, the system averages 82 FPS, and with Medium, it averages 98 FPS. Both are smoother than the 4K results, which dip below 60 FPS on High and Ultra.

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

A: Yes, but with compromises. The 4K Low preset averages 69 FPS, which is playable. The 4K Medium preset averages 53 FPS, which is borderline, while the High and Ultra presets average 44 FPS and 34 FPS, respectively, which are less ideal for a fast-paced shooter.

Q: How does the CPU performance compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H is essentially tied with its nearest rivals. Its average benchmark score of 40518 is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core 7 253PE, 0.2% lower than the Intel Core 5 223PE, and 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H. There is no significant performance difference between them.

Q: Is the GPU performance matching its expected class?

A: The data shows the RTX 5070 is performing within a tight cluster of rivals. Its average score of 40377 is 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580 and 0.8% higher than the Radeon Pro WX 7100, but it is 1.2% lower than the Radeon Pro 5300. This indicates it is a solid mid-to-high tier performer.

Q: Why is the combo rank only 1584 out of 2939 if the components are modern?

A: The rank is specific to Minimum. The game is from 2014, and its engine may not leverage the full capabilities of modern hardware. The data suggests the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, limiting the overall score. Other combos with different GPU configurations may perform better in this specific title.

Q: What is the difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The difference is significant. At 1080p, the Low preset averages 199 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 97 FPS. This is a 102 FPS drop, showing that the Ultra preset nearly halves the frame rate compared to Low, even at a resolution where the CPU has more headroom.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. It has a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz. The memory configuration is 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. These specifications point to a high-end mobile GPU, but the benchmark results in Minimum suggest it is not a top-tier performer in this specific game.

The GPU's Passmark G3D score is 29137, and its percentile rank is 82, which is high. However, the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 5077, which is a more modern test. The disparity between these scores suggests that the GPU is strong in compute and modern APIs but may not have the raw fillrate or memory bandwidth to excel in older titles. The pixel rate is 201.0 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 482.3 GTexel/s, which are respectable numbers, but they don't translate to top-tier frame rates in this game.

The data clearly shows the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 34 FPS, which is a very low number for a modern GPU. Even at 4K Low, the average is only 69 FPS. This indicates that the game's rendering engine at high resolutions is heavily taxing the GPU's memory bandwidth or pixel processing capabilities. The 12 GB of VRAM is sufficient for this game, but the 192-bit bus width and the specific memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) may be restrictive. The GPU's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are all AMD Radeon Pro models, which are workstation cards, not gaming GPUs, highlighting that the RTX 5070's gaming performance is not its strongest attribute in this database.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in Minimum, the data points to the Medium preset as the optimal choice across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium provides an average of 152 FPS, which is a high refresh-rate experience with a minimum of 129 FPS. This is a better choice than High, which averages 128 FPS, and it is significantly faster than Ultra, which averages 97 FPS. The visual jump from Medium to High is typically not as impactful as the frame rate drop suggests.

At 1440p, the Medium preset continues to be the best balance, averaging 98 FPS with a minimum of 83 FPS. This is smooth and responsive. The High preset at 1440p averages 82 FPS, which is also playable, but Medium offers a higher frame rate without a major visual hit. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 63 FPS, which is playable but may be less ideal for competitive play.

At 4K, the recommendation changes based on what the user prioritizes. If a consistent 60 FPS is the goal, the Low preset is the only one that achieves it, with an average of 69 FPS. The Medium preset averages 53 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold but still playable. The data shows that the High and Ultra presets at 4K are not recommended for this combo, as they average 44 FPS and 34 FPS, respectively. The best experience overall is to target 1440p with the Medium preset, as it provides a high frame rate that maximizes the system's capabilities without sacrificing too much visual fidelity.