Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in Minimum?

A: This combination ranks 599th out of 2,939 tested combos in the game, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H scores 44,466 on average, which is 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44,573) and 0.3% above the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44,342).

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 280 FPS average, which is the highest recorded frame rate across all tested settings and resolutions.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and what is its memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth.

Q: What is the CPU's core and thread configuration?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has 16 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz.

Q: Which settings preset at 4K produces the lowest average FPS?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo averages 48 FPS, which is the lowest recorded average across all tested configurations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread mobile processor built on Intel's 3 nm Panther Lake architecture. Its base clock of 2.10 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz define its computational ceiling, but the data from Minimum shows that the CPU's role shifts dramatically depending on resolution and settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 280 FPS average, indicating that the CPU is capable of feeding frames at a very high rate when the GPU is not the bottleneck. However, the processor's single-thread performance, measured at 2,200.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core, suggests it can handle the game's logic and physics without becoming a limiting factor at lower resolutions.

The CPU's L3 cache is 18 MB shared, with 3 MB L2 per core and 192 KB L1 per core. This cache configuration, combined with the 153.6 GB/s memory bandwidth from LPDDR5X dual-channel memory, provides the data throughput needed for the game's asset streaming. In the context of Minimum, the processor's multithreaded capabilities, evidenced by an 18,911 Cinebench R23 multi-core score, help maintain consistent frame delivery when multiple background tasks compete for resources. The CPU's percentile rank of 88 versus all CPUs places it well above average, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (0.2% higher average score) and Intel Core i9-13950HX (0.3% lower average score). These small deltas indicate that the 388H sits in a competitive tier where CPU performance is unlikely to be the primary constraint in a GPU-heavy title like Minimum.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience at each resolution depends on the target frame rate and the user's display capabilities. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 180 FPS average, which is already well above the refresh rate of most monitors. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 214 FPS average with a minimum of 182 FPS and a maximum of 246 FPS, offering a smoother experience than High for high-refresh-rate displays. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 137 FPS average, which is still playable but represents a significant step down from Medium. For 1080p users, the Medium preset appears optimal, as it provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability, with the minimum FPS (182) still exceeding what most displays can show.

At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 116 FPS, while Medium averages 138 FPS with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 159 FPS. The Medium preset here outperforms High, suggesting that the Medium settings are better optimized for this resolution. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 180 FPS, but the visual trade-off may not be worth the extra frames for most users. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 88 FPS, which is below the Medium preset's minimum. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended preset, as it maintains a 138 FPS average with a narrow frame time distribution (117-159 FPS). At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 62 FPS, Medium averages 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 86 FPS, and Ultra drops to 48 FPS. The Low preset at 4K reaches 97 FPS, but for a visually demanding resolution, Medium provides the best compromise, keeping the average above 60 FPS while the minimum (63 FPS) stays above the standard 60 Hz refresh threshold. The data shows that Medium settings consistently offer the most stable frame delivery across all resolutions, with the tightest min-max ranges relative to their averages.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 599th out of 2,939 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the top 20.4% of all configurations. This rank reflects the game's performance characteristics, which are heavily GPU-bound at higher settings but become more CPU-sensitive at lower presets. The combo's position is notable because the RTX 4090 is a flagship GPU, yet the rank indicates that other combos in the database outperform it, likely due to the CPU's mobile-oriented design (25 W TDP) limiting sustained performance in some scenarios. The CPU's percentile rank of 88 versus all CPUs and the GPU's percentile rank of 88 versus all GPUs suggest that both components individually sit well above average, but the combination does not reach the top tier of game-specific results.

The nearest GPU rivals to the RTX 4090 include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (0.3% higher), AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (2.5% lower), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (2.9% higher). These small deltas indicate that the GPU's raw benchmark scores are clustered with workstation-class parts, yet the RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate provide substantial headroom for Minimum's rendering demands. The combo's rank of 599 out of 2,939 suggests that while the hardware is capable, other combinations—possibly with desktop-class CPUs or different GPU pairings—achieve higher frame rates in this specific title. The data shows that the combo is not at the absolute top of the leaderboard, but it occupies a solid position that delivers playable performance across all tested settings and resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD102 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. It contains 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, with 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The GPU's base clock is 2,235 MHz with a boost clock of 2,520 MHz, and its memory runs at 1,313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) across a 384-bit bus, yielding 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is critical for Minimum at high resolutions, as the 4K data shows the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo averages 48 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that most users target, indicating that the GPU's raw compute power (82.58 TFLOPS FP32) is still challenged by the game's Ultra preset at 4K.

The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory provides ample capacity for the game's textures and assets, but the measured FPS data suggests that memory bandwidth, not capacity, is the limiting factor at 4K. The GPU's pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are substantial, yet the 4K High preset averages only 62 FPS, showing that the game's rendering pipeline at 4K is demanding even for this flagship card. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 38,194 and its percentile rank of 88 versus all GPUs confirm its high-end positioning, but the nearest rivals in benchmark scores include workstation GPUs like the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (2.5% lower) and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (2.9% higher), which are not gaming-focused. In Minimum, the GPU's role is dominant at 4K and increasingly secondary at 1080p, where the CPU can push frame rates to 280 FPS on Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 280 FPS on Low settings, 214 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 182 FPS and a maximum of 246 FPS), 180 FPS on High, and 137 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 51% drop in average FPS, with the most significant single-step decline occurring between Medium and Ultra (214 to 137 FPS, a 36% reduction). The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 182 is higher than the Ultra preset's average of 137, highlighting the stability advantage of Medium settings.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 180 FPS, Medium averages 138 FPS (minimum 117 FPS, maximum 159 FPS), High averages 116 FPS, and Ultra averages 88 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium represents a 23% drop, while Medium to High is a 16% drop, and High to Ultra is a 24% drop. The Medium preset's minimum of 117 FPS keeps the frame rate above 100 FPS for the majority of gameplay, while the Ultra preset's average of 88 FPS is still playable but less consistent.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 97 FPS, Medium averages 74 FPS (minimum 63 FPS, maximum 86 FPS), High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra averages 48 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 24% reduction, Medium to High is a 16% reduction, and High to Ultra is a 23% reduction. The Medium preset at 4K maintains a minimum of 63 FPS, which just clears the 60 FPS threshold, while the Ultra preset's 48 FPS average indicates that this setting is only suitable for users who prioritize visual fidelity over smoothness. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset offers the most consistent frame delivery, with the smallest gap between minimum and maximum FPS relative to the average.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a clear pattern of resolution scaling, with the combo losing performance as pixel count increases. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 180 to 116, a 35.6% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the average drops from 116 to 62, a 46.6% reduction. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 65.6%, which is larger than the pixel count increase (4K has 4 times the pixels of 1080p), indicating that the GPU is not scaling linearly with resolution. This suggests that Minimum's rendering workload at 4K is not purely pixel-bound but also involves more complex shading and post-processing effects that disproportionately impact high resolutions.

At Medium settings, the scaling pattern is similar but less severe: 1080p averages 214 FPS, 1440p averages 138 FPS (a 35.5% drop), and 4K averages 74 FPS (a 46.4% drop from 1440p). The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium is 65.4%, nearly identical to High. At Low settings, the 1080p average of 280 FPS drops to 180 FPS at 1440p (a 35.7% drop) and then to 97 FPS at 4K (a 46.1% drop from 1440p), with a cumulative drop of 65.4%. The consistency of these percentage drops across settings strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions above 1080p, as the CPU's frame delivery capability at 1080p Low (280 FPS) is far above what the GPU can sustain at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU's role becomes more prominent, as evidenced by the 280 FPS average on Low settings, which approaches the CPU's threading limits. The data shows that the GPU's performance degradation from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable curve, with roughly a 65% reduction in frame rate across all settings, confirming that the RTX 4090's rendering throughput, not the CPU's compute capacity, determines the combo's performance ceiling at resolutions above 1080p.