Downfall

Downfall, a horror title from 2016, is a light load for a pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER. The recorded data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160) across four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), and the pairing clears the 60 FPS threshold at nearly every combination measured, with only two exceptions at the very top of the settings ladder. The analysis below walks through each resolution, explains where the performance boundaries sit, and places this hardware combination in context against other configurations in the database.

Best Settings per Resolution

The database defines the best settings as the most demanding preset that still averages at or above 60 FPS at a given resolution. At 1920x1080, that preset is Ultra, where the pairing averages 79.4 FPS. This is the only resolution where the maximum preset clears the threshold, and it does so with a comfortable margin of nearly 20 frames above the bar.

At 2560x1440, the best setting drops one notch to High, which averages 89.9 FPS. Notably, this High result at 1440p is actually higher than the Ultra result at 1080p, meaning the jump in pixel count costs less than the jump to maximum quality. Ultra at 1440p falls just short at 58.3 FPS, roughly two frames below the threshold.

At 3840x2160, the best playable preset is Medium, averaging 70.4 FPS. High at 4K drops to 56.3 FPS, missing the mark by under four frames, while Ultra falls to 35.9 FPS and is clearly out of reach. Low remains playable at every resolution, averaging 84 FPS even at 4K.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data points to a GPU-bound profile, which is the expected pattern for a game released in early 2016 running on a Turing-era graphics card. Moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 at Ultra cuts the average from 79.4 FPS to 35.9 FPS, a drop of more than half as the pixel count quadruples. That resolution-driven collapse is characteristic of a workload limited by the graphics card rather than the processor.

Preset scaling reinforces this. At 1080p, going from Low (192.9 FPS) to Ultra (79.4 FPS) costs well over half the frame rate, and the same pattern repeats at 1440p (138.9 down to 58.3) and 4K (84 down to 35.9). If the Core i5-9400 were the limiting factor, raising graphics quality would produce flatter curves, since the CPU portion of the frame time would dominate. Instead, every quality tier and resolution change moves the average substantially.

That said, the CPU contribution is not negligible at the low end of the settings range. At 1080p Low, the average of 192.9 FPS represents a frame time of roughly five milliseconds, a level where the six-core, six-thread Coffee Lake chip, with a 4.10 GHz boost clock and a single-core Geekbench score of 1389, becomes the plausible ceiling. For practical purposes, though, the RTX 2060 SUPER is the component that decides which presets are playable at 1440p and 4K.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the processor, the database identifies several rivals clustered within a fraction of a percent of the Core i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254. The Intel Core i7-1068NG7 sits at 2259, a delta of only -0.2 percent, and the Intel Core i7-10710U at 2248 is 0.3 percent behind. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, 0.4 percent off the pace, while the Intel Core i3-10305 lands at 2264, slightly ahead at -0.4 percent. Any of these chips would deliver effectively indistinguishable Downfall performance in this GPU-bound scenario.

On the graphics side, the RTX 2060 SUPER's average score of 18093 has an equally tight neighborhood. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile averages 18159 (-0.4 percent), the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 comes in at 18189 (-0.5 percent), the AMD Radeon RX 460 at 18373 (-1.5 percent), and the Intel Arc A770M at 18383 (-1.6 percent). Swapping the 2060 SUPER for any of these cards would be expected to reproduce the measured frame rates within a small margin, so the conclusions in this analysis apply broadly to this performance class.

The Verdict

Yes, this PC can run Downfall. At 1920x1080, every preset is playable, including Ultra at 79.4 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low, Medium, and High all clear 60 FPS, with High leading at 89.9 FPS; only Ultra at 58.3 FPS falls short, and by a small margin. At 3840x2160, Low (84 FPS) and Medium (70.4 FPS) are playable, while High (56.3 FPS) and Ultra (35.9 FPS) are not. In short: full maximum settings at 1080p, one notch below maximum at 1440p, and Medium at 4K.

FAQ

Q: Can the RTX 2060 SUPER run Downfall at Ultra settings? A: Yes, but only at 1920x1080, where it averages 79.4 FPS. At 2560x1440 Ultra averages 58.3 FPS (just below 60), and at 3840x2160 it averages 35.9 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 4K? A: Medium, which averages 70.4 FPS. High drops to 56.3 FPS and misses the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is the Core i5-9400 or the RTX 2060 SUPER the bigger factor in performance? A: The GPU. Frame rates scale steeply with both resolution and preset, which indicates a graphics-limited workload. The CPU only becomes relevant at very high frame rates on Low settings.

Q: How high does the frame rate go at 1080p? A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 averages 192.9 FPS, the highest result recorded for this combination in Downfall.

Q: Which alternative GPUs would perform similarly? A: The RTX 3060 Mobile, Radeon Pro 5700, Radeon RX 460, and Arc A770M all sit within about 1.6 percent of the RTX 2060 SUPER's average benchmark score.

Q: What CPU could replace the i5-9400 without changing results? A: The i7-1068NG7, i7-10710U, Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, and i3-10305 all match its average score within half a percent.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database's Downfall results, this pairing ranks 2550 out of 3716 tested combinations. That places it slightly below the midpoint of all measured configurations, which aligns with its component profiles: the Core i5-9400 sits at the 47th percentile versus all CPUs, while the RTX 2060 SUPER sits at the 62nd percentile versus all GPUs. The rank reflects a mid-table pairing overall, yet the game's modest demands mean a mid-table rank still translates into playable frame rates at every resolution with appropriate settings, and even full Ultra at 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are average frame rates recorded by the database; minimum and maximum values were not captured for this game.

At 1920x1080: Low averages 192.9 FPS, Medium 158 FPS, High 127.9 FPS, and Ultra 79.4 FPS. Even the heaviest preset holds a lead of nearly twenty frames over the 60 FPS threshold, and the lighter presets push into high-refresh territory.

At 2560x1440: Low averages 138.9 FPS, Medium 114.5 FPS, High 89.9 FPS, and Ultra 58.3 FPS. The first three presets are comfortably playable; Ultra lands two frames short of the threshold and would require a small quality reduction to reach a stable 60.

At 3840x2160: Low averages 84 FPS, Medium 70.4 FPS, High 56.3 FPS, and Ultra 35.9 FPS. The playable band narrows to the two lower presets, with High missing by a modest margin and Ultra falling well behind. The complete dataset shows a consistent stepwise decline across presets at every resolution, confirming that the frame rate ceiling at each setting is set by the graphics card's headroom rather than any hard CPU limit.