Downfall

FAQ

Q: What is the highest preset that stays at or above 60 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 580?

A: High settings deliver 66.3 FPS average, which clears the 60 FPS threshold. Low and Medium also pass, at 102.9 FPS and 82.8 FPS respectively, but High is the most demanding playable preset at this resolution.

Q: Can this combo run the game at 2560x1440?

A: Yes, but only on Low settings. The recorded average at 1440p Low is 73.9 FPS, which exceeds the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium falls short at 58.3 FPS, and High drops to 50.5 FPS.

Q: Is 3840x2160 playable with this hardware?

A: No. None of the four tested presets at 4K reach 60 FPS. The best result is Low at 45.4 FPS, followed by Medium at 38.8 FPS, High at 28.2 FPS, and Ultra at 16.7 FPS. The verdict data confirms no playable settings at this resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from Low to Ultra at each resolution?

A: At 1920x1080, average FPS drops from 102.9 on Low to 45.2 on Ultra, a reduction of 57.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, the drop is from 73.9 to 32.5, a reduction of 41.4 FPS. At 3840x2160, the drop is from 45.4 to 16.7, a reduction of 28.7 FPS.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 2560x1440?

A: Low is the only preset that clears 60 FPS at this resolution, with 73.9 FPS average. Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below the threshold, so Low is both the minimum and the maximum playable option.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations for Downfall?

A: The combo ranks 3389 out of 3716 tested combinations, placing it in the lower portion of the database. This reflects its limited ability to handle higher presets, especially at 1440p and 4K.

Best Settings per Resolution

The database records measured average FPS for four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) at three resolutions. The playable threshold is defined as 60 FPS average.

1920x1080: The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is High, with an average of 66.3 FPS. Medium runs at 82.8 FPS and Low at 102.9 FPS, but High represents the best visual quality that remains fluid. Ultra falls to 45.2 FPS, which is below the threshold.

2560x1440: Only Low achieves playable performance, with 73.9 FPS average. Medium is close but misses at 58.3 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS mark. High (50.5 FPS) and Ultra (32.5 FPS) are progressively worse. Therefore, Low is the only viable setting at this resolution.

3840x2160: No preset reaches 60 FPS. Low averages 45.4 FPS, Medium 38.8 FPS, High 28.2 FPS, and Ultra 16.7 FPS. The verdict data lists no playable settings for 4K, so users must lower the resolution or accept sub-60 FPS performance.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling between resolutions and presets reveals which component dominates performance in Downfall. At 1920x1080, the GPU is the primary constraint. Moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p reduces average FPS from 102.9 to 45.2, a 56% drop. The CPU (Intel Core i5-9400, with 6 cores and 6 threads at up to 4.10 GHz boost) is capable enough at this resolution to feed the AMD Radeon RX 580, which has 2304 shading units and 8 GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus.

At 2560x1440, the GPU load increases significantly. The RX 580's memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s and pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s become limiting factors. The gap between Low (73.9 FPS) and Medium (58.3 FPS) is 15.6 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is only 7.8 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 18.0 FPS. This uneven scaling suggests that certain settings (like shadows or textures) impact the GPU more than others.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is overwhelmingly the bottleneck. The RX 580's 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 193.0 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for 4K rendering. Even Low settings only reach 45.4 FPS, which is 15.6 FPS below the playable threshold. The CPU's role diminishes further at this resolution, as the GPU cannot produce enough frames regardless of CPU headroom.

The data indicates that the CPU (which ranks in the 47th percentile among all CPUs) is not the limiting factor even at 1080p Ultra, where the GPU drops to 45.2 FPS. The GPU (53rd percentile among all GPUs) determines playability across all resolutions. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that CPU differences would likely produce negligible FPS changes.

The Verdict

The Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 580 can run Downfall, but only under specific conditions. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers playable frame rates on Low, Medium, and High presets, with High averaging 66.3 FPS. This is the best visual quality that clears the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra at 1080p is not playable, averaging 45.2 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the system is playable only on Low settings, with 73.9 FPS average. Medium falls just short at 58.3 FPS, which is below the playable threshold. At 3840x2160, no preset is playable. The best 4K result is Low at 45.4 FPS, which is 14.6 FPS short of the target.

The verdict data confirms this: 1920x1080 lists High, Low, and Medium as playable, with High as the best setting at 66.3 FPS. 2560x1440 lists only Low as playable, at 73.9 FPS. 3840x2160 lists no playable settings.

For users targeting 1080p, this combo is adequate for High settings. For 1440p, Low settings are the ceiling. For 4K, the hardware is not sufficient for smooth gameplay. The ranking of 3389 out of 3716 combos places this system in the lower third of tested configurations, consistent with its limited high-resolution performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All values below are average FPS from the database. Minimum and maximum FPS were not recorded for this game.

3840x2160:

• Low: 45.4
• Medium: 38.8
• High: 28.2
• Ultra: 16.7

The progression from Low to Ultra shows a monotonic decline. The largest single-step drop occurs between High and Ultra, a decrease of 11.5 FPS. The smallest drop is between Low and Medium, at 6.6 FPS.

2560x1440:

• Low: 73.9
• Medium: 58.3
• High: 50.5
• Ultra: 32.5

At 1440p, Low is the only preset above 60 FPS. Medium misses by 1.7 FPS, which is within measurement variance but still below the threshold. The drop from High to Ultra is substantial, at 18.0 FPS.

1920x1080:

• Low: 102.9
• Medium: 82.8
• High: 66.3
• Ultra: 45.2

At 1080p, the system shows a wide range. Low provides over 100 FPS, while Ultra falls below playable levels. The step from Medium to High costs 16.5 FPS, and the step from High to Ultra costs 21.1 FPS. This indicates that Ultra settings introduce rendering features that heavily tax the RX 580.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: the RX 580 handles Low and Medium well at 1080p, struggles at 1440p beyond Low, and cannot cope with 4K at any preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The database ranks this specific CPU-GPU combination at 3389 out of 3716 tested combos for Downfall. This places it in the 9th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 91% of combos in the database perform better.

This low ranking aligns with the measured results. The combo only achieves playable performance at 1080p High or lower, and at 1440p Low. Most modern systems in the database can handle 1080p Ultra or 1440p High for this game, which this combo cannot.

The ranking also reflects the age of both components. The CPU was released in late 2018, and the GPU in early 2017. Both are end-of-life products. The CPU has a 47th percentile rank among all CPUs, and the GPU has a 53rd percentile rank, so neither component is particularly strong relative to the full database.

For context, the combo sits near the bottom of the distribution. The nearest performance neighbors (see next section) have similar average benchmark scores, but the in-game ranking is what matters for Downfall specifically. A rank of 3389 out of 3716 indicates that most other tested combinations deliver higher frame rates at comparable settings.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The database provides nearest rivals for both the CPU and GPU based on average benchmark scores. These alternatives would likely produce similar performance in Downfall, assuming other system components are equivalent.

CPU alternatives to the Intel Core i5-9400:

The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254. The nearest rivals are:

• Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avg score 2259, 0.2% higher): This CPU scores marginally better in synthetic benchmarks, so in-game performance would be nearly identical.
• Intel Core i3-10305 (avg score 2264, 0.4% higher): A slightly stronger result, but the difference is within noise.
• Intel Core i7-10710U (avg score 2248, 0.3% lower): Essentially the same performance, though this is a mobile-oriented chip.
• AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (avg score 2246, 0.4% lower): The closest AMD alternative, with a negligible performance gap.

All four rivals are within 0.4% of the i5-9400's average score. For Downfall, the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at any resolution, so swapping to any of these would change FPS by less than 1 frame in most cases.

GPU alternatives to the AMD Radeon RX 580:

The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928. The nearest rivals are:

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (avg score 12986, 0.4% higher): The closest NVIDIA option. It would deliver slightly higher frame rates, but the difference is under 1 FPS across all presets.
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (avg score 12940, 0.1% higher): A mobile GPU that scores similarly; desktop versions would likely perform better, but that is outside this dataset.
• AMD Radeon 740M (avg score 12870, 0.5% lower): An integrated GPU that happens to score close, but its power envelope and thermals differ significantly.
• AMD FirePro W5100 (avg score 12847, 0.6% lower): A workstation card with similar compute performance.

The GTX 1660 SUPER is the most relevant alternative for gaming. Its 0.4% higher average score translates to roughly 0.3 to 0.4 FPS difference in Downfall, which is imperceptible. Users with any of these GPUs should expect the same playability profile: 1080p High is playable, 1440p Low is playable, and 4K is not playable.

In summary, the i5-9400 and RX 580 form a balanced pair for this game. Neither component has a close rival that would meaningfully change the outcome at any resolution. The limiting factor is the GPU's rendering throughput, which caps the system at 1080p High and 1440p Low.