Minimum

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Minimum across resolutions and presets shows a clear pattern: the Medium preset delivers the most balanced experience when considering frame rate stability and visual fidelity. At 1920x1080, Medium produces 133 FPS average with a minimum of 113 FPS and maximum of 152 FPS, offering a substantial margin above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining consistent frame pacing. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 173 FPS, but this comes at the cost of reduced visual quality that is unnecessary given the headroom available.

At 2560x1440, Medium again stands out with 85 FPS average, 73 FPS minimum, and 98 FPS maximum. This resolution is where the combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and AMD Radeon RX 7800M shows its most favorable balance—the frame rate remains comfortably playable while the visual detail is significantly higher than at 1080p. High settings at 1440p produce 72 FPS average, which is still smooth but leaves less margin for demanding scenes.

For 3840x2160, the situation changes. Medium drops to 46 FPS average with a 39 FPS minimum, which falls below the ideal smoothness threshold. At 4K, Low settings at 60 FPS average become the practical choice for maintaining fluid gameplay, while High at 39 FPS and Ultra at 29 FPS are clearly not suitable for responsive play. The data suggests that users prioritizing visual quality should select High at 1440p, while those seeking the best overall experience across resolutions should default to Medium at 1080p or 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process. Its base clock of 2.10 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide substantial single-thread performance, which is directly relevant to Minimum's frame rate behavior at lower resolutions. The processor's L3 cache totals 18 MB shared, with 3 MB L2 per core and 192 KB L1 per core, ensuring adequate data locality for game workloads.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ultra X9 388H achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18,911 and a single-core score of 2,200.5. Its PassMark single-thread score of 4,280 and multithread score of 36,811 place it in the 88th percentile among all CPUs. The nearest rival, AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, shows an average score of 44,573, which is 0.2% higher; Intel Core i9-13950HX at 44,342 is 0.3% lower; AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 at 44,309 is 0.4% lower; and Intel Core i5-13600 at 44,240 is 0.5% lower. This places the Ultra X9 388H essentially at parity with its closest competitors in overall CPU benchmark performance.

The relationship between CPU capability and Minimum's measured FPS becomes apparent when examining the scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p Low, the system produces 173 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all configurations. This high frame rate at a low-resolution setting indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with sufficient draw calls and game logic updates to sustain very high frame rates. The 16 threads are sufficient for Minimum's workload, as the game does not appear to be thread-limited based on the observed performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800M is built on the Navi 32 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It contains 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, with a transistor density of 81.2M per mm². The GPU operates with a base clock of 1295 MHz, a game clock of 2145 MHz, and a boost clock of 2335 MHz. Memory runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed across a 192-bit bus, providing 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth from 12 GB of GDDR6 memory.

The RX 7800M's compute configuration includes 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, with 60 ray tracing cores. Its pixel rate is 224.2 GPixel/s, texture rate is 560.4 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is 35.87 TFLOPS. In synthetic testing, the GPU achieves a PassMark G3D score of 17,613 and a PassMark G2D score of 892, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,994. The GPU ranks in the 73rd percentile among all GPUs.

The nearest GPU rivals show tight competition: AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 at 27,839 average score is 0.2% lower, AMD Radeon Pro W5500X at 27,973 is 0.3% higher, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti at 28,020 is 0.5% higher, and AMD FirePro S7150 at 28,117 is 0.8% higher. This indicates the RX 7800M sits in a performance band where small benchmark differences separate it from several older workstation and enthusiast parts.

The GPU's role in Minimum becomes evident in the resolution scaling behavior. At 4K Ultra, the system manages only 29 FPS, while at 4K Low it reaches 60 FPS—a clear indication that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions and quality settings. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for a 2014 title, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor; rather, the raw compute throughput at 4K resolutions is what constrains performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and AMD Radeon RX 7800M achieves a rank of 1,934 out of 2,939 tested combos in Minimum. This places the pairing in the lower-middle portion of the overall distribution, which is somewhat surprising given the individual component benchmark positions. The CPU's 88th percentile ranking and the GPU's 73rd percentile ranking would suggest a higher composite position, but the actual game performance indicates that Minimum is particularly demanding on the GPU at higher resolutions.

The rank of 1,934 out of 2,939 means that approximately 66% of tested combinations perform better in this specific title. This is notable because the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor—it sits well above average in synthetic tests. The bottleneck is the GPU, particularly at 4K resolutions where even Medium settings produce only 46 FPS. The measured data shows that the RX 7800M, while competitive with its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, does not translate that performance into exceptional Minimum frame rates at high resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals the scaling characteristics of this combination. At Low settings, the average frame rates are 173 FPS at 1080p, 112 FPS at 1440p, and 60 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 65% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the progression is 133 FPS at 1080p, 85 FPS at 1440p, and 46 FPS at 4K—a 36% drop to 1440p and a 65% drop to 4K.

High settings show 111 FPS at 1080p, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K, with drops of 35% and 65% respectively. Ultra settings produce 85 FPS at 1080p, 55 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K, representing a 35% drop to 1440p and a 66% drop to 4K. The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings presets is striking—the scaling pattern is nearly identical regardless of quality level, which indicates that the resolution change itself is the dominant factor rather than specific settings configurations.

The magnitude of the 4K performance penalty suggests that the GPU is the limiting component as resolution increases. The CPU's strong synthetic performance and the fact that 1080p Low reaches 173 FPS both point to the processor being capable of sustaining high frame rates; the GPU simply cannot maintain that throughput when pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 2560x1440 at Medium settings provides 85 FPS with a 73 FPS minimum, offering the best balance of visual quality and smoothness. At 1080p Medium, the system reaches 133 FPS, but the visual fidelity is lower; at 4K Medium, the 46 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold for ideal smoothness.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44,466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D at 44,573, 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i9-13950HX at 44,342, 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 at 44,309, and 0.5% higher than the Intel Core i5-13600 at 44,240. These differences are negligible in practice.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in Minimum?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor, particularly at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system produces 173 FPS, showing the CPU can drive high frame rates. However, at 4K Ultra, FPS drops to 29, and the consistent 65% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings presets indicates the GPU cannot keep up with the increased pixel workload.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 4K with this hardware?

A: At 4K, the measured average frame rates are 60 FPS on Low, 46 FPS on Medium, 39 FPS on High, and 29 FPS on Ultra. Only the Low preset achieves the 60 FPS threshold; Medium is borderline playable with a 39 FPS minimum, while High and Ultra are not recommended for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the AMD Radeon RX 7800M compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 7800M has an average benchmark score of 27,883. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 at 27,839 is 0.2% lower, the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X at 27,973 is 0.3% higher, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti at 28,020 is 0.5% higher, and the AMD FirePro S7150 at 28,117 is 0.8% higher. The GPU sits in a tight performance cluster with these parts.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in Minimum?

A: The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and AMD Radeon RX 7800M ranks 1,934 out of 2,939 tested combinations in Minimum. This places the pairing below the median performance level for this specific game, despite the CPU's strong 88th percentile ranking and the GPU's 73rd percentile ranking in their respective synthetic benchmarks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance profile across settings is as follows:

• Low: 173 FPS average
• Medium: 133 FPS average, with a minimum of 113 FPS and maximum of 152 FPS
• High: 111 FPS average
• Ultra: 85 FPS average

The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 51% reduction in frame rate, with the largest single step occurring between High and Ultra—a 23% drop from 111 FPS to 85 FPS. The Medium preset's 113 FPS minimum ensures that even during demanding scenes, the frame rate remains well above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the measured results are:

• Low: 112 FPS average
• Medium: 85 FPS average, with a minimum of 73 FPS and maximum of 98 FPS
• High: 72 FPS average
• Ultra: 55 FPS average

The 1440p Medium configuration offers the most stable experience, with the 73 FPS minimum providing a comfortable margin over 60 FPS. High settings at 72 FPS average are also playable, but the 55 FPS Ultra result indicates that the highest quality preset pushes the GPU beyond its comfortable performance envelope.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly:

• Low: 60 FPS average
• Medium: 46 FPS average, with a minimum of 39 FPS and maximum of 53 FPS
• High: 39 FPS average
• Ultra: 29 FPS average

The 4K results show a stark contrast: Low settings barely achieve 60 FPS, Medium falls below that threshold with a 46 FPS average, and High and Ultra are substantially lower. The 39 FPS minimum at Medium settings indicates that even the mid-range preset can experience notable frame dips at 4K resolution. The data across all resolutions demonstrates that this combination excels at 1080p and 1440p but struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K, particularly at higher quality settings.