Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 produces a fascinating dataset in Downfall, a horror title from 2016. The combination of a capable but aging six-core processor with a flagship-class graphics card reveals a system where the bottleneck shifts dramatically depending on the resolution and quality preset. The measured frames per second (FPS) across the board are high, yet the scaling patterns tell a story about how each component contributes to the final experience.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and expected trend: as resolution increases, average FPS decreases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 286 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that to 256 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 178 FPS. This represents a 37.8% reduction in FPS from 1080p Low to 4K Low. The pattern is similar for High settings, where the system delivers 248 FPS at 1080p, 191 FPS at 1440p, and 119 FPS at 4K—a 52% decrease from the lowest to the highest resolution.

The scaling behavior is most telling when examining the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 168 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 120 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it plummets to 74 FPS. This 56% drop from 1080p to 4K under maximum load suggests that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. Conversely, the gap between 1080p and 1440p on Low settings is only 30 FPS (286 vs 256), indicating that the CPU is likely holding the system back at the lowest resolution, where the GPU has less work to do.

The most dramatic scaling occurs between Medium and Ultra at 4K, where FPS falls from 145 to 74—a 49% reduction. This steep cliff suggests that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that heavily tax the GPU's resources. The data implies that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 3600 is the limiting component, while at 4K, the RTX 4080's workload dominates the performance equation.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 3000 series, built on the Zen 2 architecture (codenamed Matisse). It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 32 MB shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 15045 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2124 in single-core, placing it in the 71st percentile for all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1260P (0.2% faster) and the Intel Core i5-11400 (0.2% slower), showing it remains competitive in general compute tasks.

In Downfall, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p. The jump from Low (286 FPS) to Medium (266 FPS) to High (248 FPS) shows only a modest 13% drop from Low to High. This relatively flat curve suggests the CPU can feed frames fast enough, but the GPU is not being fully utilized at these settings. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 168 FPS, a 41% reduction from High, which is a larger gap than the resolution scaling alone would explain—indicating the Ultra settings add CPU-intensive calculations.

The 3DMark scores offer context: the CPU achieves 4605 in the 16-thread test and 1361 in the 2-thread test. These numbers suggest that while multi-threaded performance is solid for its class, single-thread performance (696 in 3DMark single-thread) is modest. Downfall, being a horror game from 2016, likely relies more on single-thread performance for game logic and physics, which could explain why the system cannot push beyond 286 FPS even at Low settings—the CPU's single-thread ceiling is the constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a behemoth: 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. It has 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster operations pipelines. The chip runs at a base clock of 2205 MHz and boosts to 2505 MHz. In synthetic testing, it scores 34457 in Passmark G3D and 214739 in Geekbench OpenCL, placing it in the 86th percentile for all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the RTX 4080 SUPER, which is only 0.1% faster, indicating the standard 4080 is essentially at the top of its class.

The GPU's dominance is clear in the 4K results. At 4K High, the system produces 119 FPS, which is still highly playable, but the jump to 4K Ultra (74 FPS) shows the GPU is being pushed hard. The memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s is ample for this title, so the limitation is likely the shader and ray tracing workload, not memory. The RTX 4080's 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores suggest it can handle advanced effects, but the 2016 game engine may not be optimized for such modern hardware, leading to inefficiencies.

The data reveals that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K, but the CPU prevents the system from reaching its full potential at 1080p. At 1080p Low, the system gets 286 FPS, but the RTX 4080 is theoretically capable of much more—the CPU's 3DMark 2-thread score of 1361 shows it cannot keep up with the GPU's frame generation capability. This imbalance means the RTX 4080 is underutilized at lower resolutions, a common issue when pairing a high-end GPU with a mid-range CPU.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves in Downfall?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 286, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra compared to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 74, which is 56% lower than the 168 FPS at 1080p Ultra, indicating the GPU is heavily taxed at maximum resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1440p Medium?

A: At 1440p Medium, the system averages 233 FPS with a minimum of 198 FPS, suggesting the GPU is still delivering high frame rates, but the CPU's single-thread performance (696 in 3DMark) is likely capping the maximum frame rate.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 123, seen at 4K Medium settings, while the highest minimum is 226 at 1080p Medium.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54247 in average benchmark score, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER (54209) and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828).

Q: Does the combo exceed 200 FPS at any resolution above 1080p?

A: Yes, at 1440p Low, the system averages 256 FPS, and at 1440p Medium it averages 233 FPS, both exceeding 200 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests that the optimal experience depends on the user's priority. For maximum frame rate, 1080p Low delivers 286 FPS, but this sacrifices visual quality. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 266 FPS with a minimum of 226, which is a strong balance for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors. High settings at 1080p provide 248 FPS, still exceptionally smooth.

At 1440p, the Medium preset stands out with 233 FPS and a minimum of 198 FPS, making it the best choice for a consistent high-refresh experience without dropping to Low. High settings at 1440p yield 191 FPS, which is also excellent. The Ultra preset at 1440p (120 FPS) is playable but represents a significant drop from Medium, suggesting it is not worth the visual gain.

For 4K users, the High preset (119 FPS) is the recommended balance, as it maintains a three-digit frame rate. Medium at 4K (145 FPS) is even better for smoothness, but the jump to Ultra (74 FPS) is a severe penalty, making it only suitable for users who prioritize graphical fidelity over frame rate. The data implies that Medium or High presets are the sweet spot across all resolutions, with Low only recommended for absolute maximum FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 286 FPS average.
• Medium: 266 FPS average, 226 min, 306 max.
• High: 248 FPS average.
• Ultra: 168 FPS average.

The 1080p results show a 41% drop from Low to Ultra, with the most significant single-step decline occurring between High (248) and Ultra (168), a 32% reduction.

2560x1440:

• Low: 256 FPS average.
• Medium: 233 FPS average, 198 min, 268 max.
• High: 191 FPS average.
• Ultra: 120 FPS average.

At 1440p, the scaling is steeper: the gap between Low and High is 25%, and between High and Ultra is 37%. The Medium preset's minimum of 198 FPS indicates good consistency.

3840x2160:

• Low: 178 FPS average.
• Medium: 145 FPS average, 123 min, 167 max.
• High: 119 FPS average.
• Ultra: 74 FPS average.

The 4K data shows the largest relative drops. From Low to Medium is an 18.5% decrease, but from High to Ultra is a 37.8% drop. The Ultra preset's 74 FPS is the lowest measured average, highlighting the GPU's workload at maximum settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Downfall, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 holds the rank of 549 out of 3716 total combinations. This places it in the top 14.8% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing given the CPU's age. The rank reflects the overall performance across all resolutions and settings, weighted toward the highest frame rates.

The CPU's percentile of 71 and GPU's percentile of 86 indicate that the GPU is the stronger component relative to its peers. However, the combo's rank of 549 suggests that other pairings with newer CPUs achieve higher scores, likely because the Ryzen 5 3600 holds back the RTX 4080 at lower resolutions where the frame rate is CPU-limited. The nearest rival GPUs—the RTX 4080 SUPER and AMD Radeon Pro W5700X—are within 1.1% of the 4080's synthetic score, meaning the GPU is not the differentiator in the ranking.

The data implies that this combo is excellent for high-resolution gaming (1440p and 4K), where the GPU dominates, but it does not maximize the RTX 4080's potential at 1080p. Users upgrading from a weaker CPU would see notable gains at lower resolutions, but those targeting 4K will find the system performs admirably, ranking in the top 15% of all tested configurations.