Minimum

# Minimum: Intel Core Ultra X9 388H + AMD Radeon 8050S — Performance Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the AMD Radeon 8050S delivers a playable but not exceptional experience in Minimum, a 2014 third-person shooter. At 1080p, the combo achieves 167 FPS on Low settings, but drops to 82 FPS on Ultra — a clear sign that the Radeon 8050S becomes the limiting factor as settings climb. The combo ranks 2152nd out of 2939 tested configurations, placing it in the lower-mid tier of tested hardware. This pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming at medium settings, where it holds 128 FPS, while 1440p remains viable at medium (82 FPS) and 4K is only practical on Low settings (58 FPS).

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 107 FPS at 1920x1080 to 69 FPS at 2560x1440 — a 35.5% reduction — and then to 37 FPS at 3840x2160, which is a further 46.4% drop. This steep decline indicates that the AMD Radeon 8050S is the primary bottleneck once pixel count increases, as the CPU's 16 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient for a game from 2014.

The scaling pattern across all settings is consistent. At Low settings, the frame rate goes from 167 FPS at 1080p to 108 FPS at 1440p (a 35.3% drop) and then to 58 FPS at 4K (a 46.3% drop from 1440p). The nearly identical percentage reductions at High and Low settings suggest that resolution scaling is uniform regardless of graphical complexity — the GPU's rendering throughput scales predictably with pixel count.

Medium settings show the same trend: 128 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS at Medium also scales proportionally, from 109 at 1080p to 70 at 1440p and 38 at 4K. This consistency implies that the Radeon 8050S's 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are being fully utilized, with no unexpected stalls or memory bandwidth limitations appearing at higher resolutions.

The Ultra settings curve is steeper, with 82 FPS at 1080p dropping to 53 FPS at 1440p (35.4% reduction) and then to 28 FPS at 4K (47.2% reduction). The 28 FPS at 4K Ultra is the only truly unplayable result in the dataset, but it underscores that this combo is not intended for maximum fidelity at 4K. The data indicates that the limiting component at 4K is clearly the GPU, as the CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4280 places it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs — far beyond what Minimum's engine requires.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor from the Panther Lake architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. Its base clock of 2.10 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide substantial headroom for single-threaded workloads, which is critical for a 2014 title like Minimum that was designed for older multi-core CPUs. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911 and single-core score of 2200.5 demonstrate strong all-around performance, ranking it in the 88th percentile versus all CPUs.

The processor's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, scores 44573 in the average benchmark, which is only 0.2% higher than the Ultra X9 388H's 44466. This places the Intel chip essentially at parity with one of AMD's strongest gaming CPUs, confirming that the processor is not a limiting factor in Minimum. The Intel Core i9-13950HX, another rival, scores 44342, which is 0.3% lower — meaning the Ultra X9 388H slightly outperforms a flagship mobile CPU from a previous generation.

The L3 cache of 18 MB shared across 16 cores is adequate for Minimum's data demands, and the dual-channel LPDDR5X memory with 153.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures that the CPU can feed the GPU without starvation. The PassMark data compression score of 361763 and integer math score of 90882 indicate strong compute throughput, though these metrics are more relevant to productivity than gaming. In Minimum, the CPU's role is to maintain frame pacing and handle game logic; with 16 threads available, there is no risk of thread starvation even with background processes active.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 8050S is an integrated graphics solution based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. It features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2800 MHz. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 11.47 TFLOPS places it in the 89th percentile of all GPUs, which is respectable for an integrated part but clearly below dedicated gaming GPUs.

The Radeon 8050S's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, scores 61896 in the average benchmark, just 0.3% lower than the 8050S's 62108. However, the Radeon Pro Vega 56 scores 63693, which is 2.5% higher, and the Radeon RX 7600M scores 63775, 2.6% higher. This places the 8050S at the bottom of its immediate competitive cluster, though the differences are small enough that real-world gaming performance will vary by title.

In Minimum, the GPU's 64 ROPs and 179.2 GPixel/s pixel rate determine the fill-rate ceiling, which becomes the dominant constraint at 4K. The 11.47 TFLOPS FP32 performance is sufficient for 1080p Medium at 128 FPS, but the 4K Ultra result of 28 FPS shows that the GPU's raw compute is overwhelmed by the 8.3 million pixels per frame. The system-shared memory architecture means the GPU relies on the same LPDDR5X memory as the CPU, with bandwidth listed as "System Dependent" — in practice, this shared bandwidth is likely the secondary bottleneck at 4K, as the memory controller must service both CPU and GPU requests.

The Geekbench Vulkan score of 58398 and OpenCL score of 65818 confirm that the GPU's driver and API support are modern (DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4), which is important for compatibility with Minimum's rendering paths. The 32 ray tracing cores are irrelevant for this title, as Minimum predates the widespread use of hardware ray tracing.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H + AMD Radeon 8050S combination ranks 2152nd out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 26.8th percentile of all configurations. This is a low-mid tier position, reflecting the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities. The rank suggests that roughly 73% of tested combos achieve higher frame rates in this game, which is expected given that the Radeon 8050S is an integrated GPU competing against dedicated solutions.

The CPU's individual percentile of 88 versus all CPUs is far higher than the combo's overall rank, confirming that the GPU is the performance ceiling. If the same CPU were paired with a stronger GPU, the combo rank would likely improve substantially, as the processor's 16 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock are more than adequate for Minimum's workload. Conversely, pairing the Radeon 8050S with a weaker CPU would likely show minimal FPS degradation at 1080p, since the GPU is already the bottleneck at that resolution.

The combo's rank of 2152 out of 2939 also indicates that the majority of tested systems use dedicated GPUs, which naturally outperform this integrated solution in a GPU-bound title. However, the 1080p Low result of 167 FPS shows that the combo can deliver high refresh rates when settings are reduced, making it viable for competitive play where frame rate matters more than visual fidelity. The 1440p Medium result of 82 FPS is also respectable for a mobile integrated GPU, suggesting that the combo can handle modern gaming at moderate settings on a 1440p display.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in Minimum?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 at Medium settings delivers 128 FPS average with a minimum of 109 FPS, making it the sweet spot for smooth gameplay. At 1440p, Medium yields 82 FPS average, which is also playable. 4K is only viable at Low settings, where the average is 58 FPS.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its closest rival in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D's 44573. It also outperforms the Intel Core i9-13950HX by 0.3% (44342) and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 by 0.4% (44309).

Q: Is the AMD Radeon 8050S better than comparable GPUs?

A: The Radeon 8050S has an average benchmark score of 62108, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M's 61896. However, it is 2.5% slower than the Radeon Pro Vega 56 (63693) and 2.6% slower than the Radeon RX 7600M (63775).

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so sharply from 1440p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS falls from 69 at 1440p to 37 at 4K, a 46.4% reduction. This steep drop is due to the GPU's 64 ROPs and system-shared memory bandwidth being overwhelmed by the 4K pixel count, making the Radeon 8050S the clear limiting factor.

Q: Can this combo handle 1080p Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the data shows 82 FPS average at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, though not sufficient for 144Hz displays. For higher refresh rates, Medium settings at 128 FPS or Low settings at 167 FPS are recommended.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance ranking?

A: The CPU's PassMark single-thread score is 4280, and its Cinebench R23 single-core score is 2200.5. It ranks in the 88th percentile versus all CPUs, indicating strong single-threaded capability that is more than sufficient for Minimum's game logic.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 167 FPS, Medium settings yield 128 FPS with a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 147 FPS, High settings average 107 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 82 FPS. The 1080p results show that the GPU can maintain high frame rates at lower settings, with the gap between Low and Ultra being 85 FPS, or roughly 51%.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decline proportionally. Low settings average 108 FPS, Medium settings average 82 FPS with a minimum of 70 FPS and a maximum of 95 FPS, High settings average 69 FPS, and Ultra settings average 53 FPS. The 1440p results remain playable at Medium and below, but Ultra settings fall below 60 FPS, which may cause noticeable stutter on standard 60Hz displays.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become severe. Low settings average 58 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 60 FPS. Medium settings average 44 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 51 FPS, High settings average 37 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 28 FPS. The 4K results indicate that this combo is not suitable for 4K gaming beyond Low settings, as even Medium settings fail to maintain a consistent 60 FPS.

The complete dataset shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p is fully playable across all settings, 1440p is playable from Low through High settings with Ultra being borderline, and 4K is only viable at Low settings. The Medium settings at each resolution provide the best balance of visual quality and performance, with 128 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings — 109, 70, and 38 respectively — indicate that frame pacing remains stable even when the average drops, with no sudden spikes or crashes in the data.