Downfall

# Downfall with AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + AMD Radeon RX 9070

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 produces a broad spread of frame rates in Downfall, ranging from 250 FPS at 1080p Low to 55 FPS at 4K Ultra. This combination lands at rank 1231 out of 3716 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all tested configurations. The data shows a system that can handle high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gaming comfortably, but struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K with maximum settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings, but the shape of that curve changes depending on the preset. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 250 at 1080p to 210 at 1440p (a 16% reduction), then further to 131 at 4K (a 38% drop from 1440p). This scaling pattern suggests that at Low settings, the GPU is still the primary driver, but the CPU begins to show its limits at the lower resolution.

At High settings, the scaling is steeper. The average FPS goes from 198 at 1080p to 141 at 1440p (a 29% drop), then to 88 at 4K (a 38% drop from 1440p). The 4K High result of 88 FPS is still playable, but the gap between 1080p and 1440p is notable, indicating that the RX 9070's rendering load is increasing rapidly as resolution climbs.

Medium settings show a similar pattern: 233 FPS at 1080p, 172 at 1440p (a 26% drop), and 107 at 4K (a 38% drop from 1440p). The 4K Medium result includes a minimum FPS of 91 and a maximum of 123, showing some variance but no catastrophic frame time spikes. The consistency of the 38% drop from 1440p to 4K across Low, Medium, and High presets suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are scaling predictably with pixel count.

Ultra settings tell a different story. Here, 1080p yields 123 FPS, 1440p drops to 88 (a 28% reduction), and 4K falls to 55 FPS (a 37% drop from 1440p). The 4K Ultra result of 55 FPS is the only sub-60 average in the entire measured set, indicating that this combo is not suited for maximum-quality 4K play in Downfall. The gap between Ultra and High at 4K is 33 FPS (88 vs 55), which is larger than the gap between High and Medium at 4K (88 vs 107, a 19 FPS difference). This suggests that Ultra settings introduce a significant rendering cost that the RX 9070 cannot fully offset at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience. At 4K, High settings deliver 88 FPS average, which is 33 FPS higher than Ultra and only 19 FPS lower than Medium. Given that the minimum FPS is not reported for 4K High, the average of 88 suggests a comfortable margin above typical 60 FPS targets. Medium at 4K offers 107 FPS with a minimum of 91 FPS, making it the best choice for users who prioritize smoothness over visual fidelity — the 19 FPS gain over High comes with a guaranteed floor above 90 FPS.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts. High settings produce 141 FPS, which is already well above 120 FPS thresholds for high-refresh displays. Ultra at 1440p drops to 88 FPS, matching the 4K High result exactly, which suggests that the visual quality jump from High to Ultra at 1440p carries a heavy performance penalty. Medium at 1440p (172 FPS) and Low (210 FPS) offer diminishing returns for most users, as High already clears 140 FPS with room to spare.

At 1080p, the data shows a system that is largely GPU-bound even at Ultra settings. Ultra delivers 123 FPS, while High jumps to 198 FPS — a 75 FPS difference that makes High the clear sweet spot for competitive play. Medium at 233 FPS and Low at 250 FPS are within 17 FPS of each other, suggesting that the CPU begins to cap performance around 250 FPS regardless of GPU load. For 1080p users with 144 Hz monitors, High settings at 198 FPS provide a strong experience, while Ultra at 123 FPS is acceptable but leaves performance on the table.

The best overall experience per the measured rows is 1440p High at 141 FPS. This resolution balances the GPU's capabilities with the CPU's ability to feed frames, and the 88 FPS minimum at 4K Medium (which is the only preset with reported min/max values) suggests that 4K Medium is the fallback option for users who insist on 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, built on the Zen architecture with a 12 nm process. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, and it carries 16 MB of shared L3 cache. In the context of Downfall, a horror game released in 2016, the CPU's role is primarily to maintain a consistent frame delivery rate rather than to push maximum FPS.

The benchmark results place this CPU at the 75th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 21484. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V, scores 21440 (0.2% slower), while the Intel Core i9-11900H scores 21367 (0.5% slower). This places the Ryzen 5 2600 in a competitive position for its generation, but the data from Downfall suggests that its single-thread performance is the limiting factor at high frame rates.

At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 250 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's frame delivery ceiling. The fact that 1080p Medium (233 FPS) and 1080p Low (250 FPS) are only 17 FPS apart, despite the GPU having more work to do at Medium, indicates that the CPU is saturating around 250 FPS. The single-thread benchmark scores — 157.3 in Cinebench R15 and 1154 in Geekbench — are modest by modern standards, which explains this ceiling.

The multi-threaded performance is more robust. The CPU scores 1248 in Cinebench R15 multicore and 5648 in Geekbench multicore, with a Passmark multithread score of 13160. These scores suggest that the Ryzen 5 2600 can handle the background tasks and game logic of Downfall without issue, but the frame rate ceiling at low resolutions is constrained by single-thread performance. The 12 threads provide enough parallelism for the game's engine, but the 3.90 GHz boost clock is not high enough to push much beyond 250 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 1231 out of 3716 tested combinations in Downfall. This places it in the 67th percentile of all combos — meaning roughly one-third of tested systems perform better, and two-thirds perform worse. Given that the GPU is a modern RDNA 4.0 part and the CPU is from 2018, the ranking reflects the balance between a strong GPU and a mid-range older CPU.

The rank of 1231 suggests that this combo is competitive but not elite. In a game like Downfall, which appears to scale well with GPU power (as evidenced by the 38% FPS drop from 1440p to 4K across most settings), the RX 9070 is doing most of the heavy lifting. The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs is higher than the combo's 67th percentile ranking in this game, which indicates that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck — instead, the GPU's raw performance is the main driver of the combo's position.

The nearest rival GPUs to the RX 9070 — the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (0.6% slower), AMD Radeon RX 6800S (0.8% faster), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (1.1% slower), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (1.2% faster) — all have similar average benchmark scores. However, the RX 9070's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth give it a structural advantage in 4K scenarios, which is reflected in the 4K High result of 88 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a 4 nm process, featuring 3584 shading units, 128 ROPs, and 56 RT cores. Its boost clock is 2520 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz, and it carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus. The memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s is substantial, which is critical for 4K rendering in a horror game that likely uses high-resolution textures.

The GPU's benchmark results show a Passmark G3D score of 25381, placing it at the 69th percentile among all GPUs. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6290, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 131539. These scores indicate a GPU that is well above average but not at the very top tier. The nearest rival comparisons show that the RX 9070 sits in a tight cluster with older high-end cards, which suggests that its performance is solid but not class-leading.

In Downfall, the GPU's role is dominant at higher resolutions. At 4K, the FPS drops from 131 at Low to 107 at Medium, 88 at High, and 55 at Ultra. This 76 FPS spread across settings at 4K shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution — the CPU has less impact because frame rates are lower. The 16 GB VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor in a 2016 game, even at 4K Ultra, so the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are the key constraints.

At 1080p, the GPU's role diminishes. The FPS range from 123 at Ultra to 250 at Low shows a 127 FPS spread, but the upper bound is likely CPU-limited. The GPU's pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s are more than sufficient for 1080p rendering, which is why the combo can hit 250 FPS at Low settings. The FP32 performance of 36.13 TFLOPS provides ample compute for the game's effects, but the CPU's single-thread speed caps the frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low settings yield 250 FPS, Medium yields 233 FPS with a minimum of 198 and maximum of 268, High yields 198 FPS, and Ultra yields 123 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 198 FPS indicates that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays well above 144 Hz, making this resolution suitable for high-refresh displays.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 210 FPS, Medium at 172 FPS (minimum 146, maximum 198), High at 141 FPS, and Ultra at 88 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 146 FPS is still above 120 Hz, while High at 141 FPS is close to that threshold. Ultra at 88 FPS is the first preset that dips below 100 FPS at this resolution, suggesting that 1440p Ultra is a borderline choice.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 131 FPS, Medium at 107 FPS (minimum 91, maximum 123), High at 88 FPS, and Ultra at 55 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 91 FPS is playable but not ideal for smooth motion, while High at 88 FPS is acceptable for most users. Ultra at 55 FPS is the only sub-60 result in the entire dataset, making it the only setting where this combo fails to maintain a standard 60 FPS target.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the highest minimum FPS relative to its average. At 1080p, the minimum of 198 FPS is 35 FPS below the average of 233; at 1440p, the minimum of 146 FPS is 26 FPS below the average of 172; and at 4K, the minimum of 91 FPS is 16 FPS below the average of 107. This pattern suggests that the Medium preset offers the most stable frame delivery, which is valuable in a horror game where frame time consistency matters for atmosphere.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K in Downfall?

A: Yes, but only up to High settings. The measured average at 4K High is 88 FPS, while 4K Ultra drops to 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. 4K Medium averages 107 FPS with a minimum of 91 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Downfall?

A: The data shows 1440p High at 141 FPS as the strongest balance of visual quality and performance. At 4K, High at 88 FPS is acceptable, but 1440p provides a much larger frame rate cushion.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: At 1080p, the CPU appears to cap performance around 250 FPS, as Low and Medium presets are only 17 FPS apart. At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, with a 76 FPS spread between Low (131) and Ultra (55).

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems in Downfall?

A: It ranks 1231 out of 3716 combos, placing it in the upper third of all tested configurations. The GPU's percentile rank (69th) is slightly lower than the CPU's (75th), but the combo's overall position reflects the balance between the two.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 4K Medium, and is it stable?

A: The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 91, with a maximum of 123 and an average of 107. This 16 FPS gap between average and minimum indicates relatively stable frame delivery.

Q: Does the RX 9070's 16 GB VRAM help in this game?

A: Downfall is a 2016 title, so 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any settings. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s is more relevant, as it supports the high frame rates seen at 1080p and 1440p.