Downfall

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates for this combination across all resolutions and settings reveal a clear pattern: Medium settings deliver the most balanced experience, while Ultra imposes a severe penalty that pushes performance below playable thresholds in most scenarios. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS, which places it comfortably above the 60 FPS baseline for smooth gameplay. High settings at the same resolution drop to 71 FPS average, still acceptable, but the gap to Medium is notable given the relatively modest visual uplift typically associated with that step. Low settings reach 106 FPS average, but the visual degradation in a horror title, where atmosphere and lighting are critical, makes this preset less desirable despite the headroom.

At 2560x1440, Medium again stands out with a 62 FPS average, a 53 FPS minimum, and a 71 FPS maximum. This is the only 1440p preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for users prioritizing fluid motion over maximum fidelity. High at 1440p yields 51 FPS average, which is playable but subject to noticeable dips in demanding scenes. Low reaches 76 FPS average, but the same caveat about visual quality applies. Ultra at 1440p collapses to 32 FPS average, which is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay in a genre that relies on sudden movements and quick reactions.

At 3840x2160, even Medium only manages 39 FPS average with a 33 FPS minimum and 44 FPS maximum. High drops to 32 FPS, and Ultra falls to 20 FPS. Low at 4K reaches 47 FPS average, but the combination of a horror game’s dark environments and low preset settings produces a washed-out presentation that undermines the experience. The data indicates that Medium is the optimal preset for this hardware pairing across all resolutions, offering the best compromise between visual quality and frame rate consistency. Users who insist on 4K should accept that Medium is the ceiling for acceptable performance, and even then, the 39 FPS average suggests a less fluid experience than most players would prefer.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, fabricated on Intel’s 3 nm process. Its base clock is 300 MHz, boosting to 2500 MHz, with 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. The GPU also includes 12 ray tracing cores. Memory is system-shared, meaning the VRAM allocation and bandwidth depend entirely on the host system’s DDR4 configuration; the memory bus width and type are likewise system-dependent. This architecture places the Arc B390 in the 9th percentile of all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark rankings are NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (score 1463, deltaPct 1.3), NVIDIA GeForce 800M (score 1460, deltaPct 1.5), NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (score 1446, deltaPct 2.5), and NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (score 1443, deltaPct 2.7). The Arc B390 leads this group by a narrow margin, between 1.3% and 2.7%, which indicates that its raw compute capabilities are only marginally ahead of decade-old entry-level discrete GPUs. In the context of Downfall, a 2016 horror title, the GPU’s limited throughput manifests directly in the measured frame rates. The 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate are modest figures, and the system-shared memory architecture means that the CPU’s dual-channel DDR4 bandwidth (51.2 GB/s) constrains texture fetch and frame buffer operations.

The GPU’s pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s is a theoretical maximum that the game’s rendering pipeline cannot fully utilize given the memory bottleneck. The RT cores, while present, are unlikely to be exercised by Downfall given its release year, meaning the ray tracing hardware provides no tangible benefit in this title. The texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s is similarly theoretical; the measured frame rates suggest that the actual achievable texture throughput is far lower due to memory contention. The GPU’s 80 W TDP and integrated form factor (IGP) mean it shares thermal and power budgets with the CPU, further limiting sustained boost clocks during extended gaming sessions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance gradient as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 87 FPS at 1080p to 62 FPS at 1440p, a 28.7% reduction, and then to 39 FPS at 4K, a further 37.1% reduction from 1440p. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a system where the GPU is the primary limiting component. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the frame rate does not drop by a proportional amount, instead, the decline is sub-linear, suggesting that the CPU can still feed the GPU adequately at higher resolutions up to a point, after which the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth become insurmountable bottlenecks.

At Low settings, the 1080p average is 106 FPS, dropping to 76 FPS at 1440p (a 28.3% reduction) and 47 FPS at 4K (a 38.2% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and Medium presets indicates that resolution scaling is independent of the quality preset, the GPU’s rendering workload scales with pixel count regardless of the level of detail. However, at High settings, the drops are steeper: from 71 FPS at 1080p to 51 FPS at 1440p (a 28.2% reduction) and then to 32 FPS at 4K (a 37.3% reduction). Ultra settings show the most severe degradation: 44 FPS at 1080p, 32 FPS at 1440p (a 27.3% reduction), and 20 FPS at 4K (a 37.5% reduction from 1440p).

These patterns indicate that the GPU’s memory subsystem, system-shared DDR4, is the critical constraint. As resolution increases, the demand for frame buffer memory and bandwidth grows, and the shared memory architecture cannot keep pace. The CPU’s role in this scaling is secondary; while the Ryzen 5 5500’s six cores and twelve threads are adequate for the game’s CPU demands, the GPU’s inability to maintain frame rates at higher resolutions points squarely at the integrated graphics solution as the bottleneck. The data suggests that 1080p is the only resolution where this combination achieves consistently playable frame rates across all settings, and even then, Ultra dips to 44 FPS average.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination in Downfall?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where average frame rates remain above 60 FPS for Low, Medium, and High settings. At 2560x1440, only Medium achieves an average above 60 FPS (62 FPS), while at 3840x2160, no preset reaches 50 FPS average.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its closest rivals in the benchmark database?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% ahead of the GT 710 (1443). These are marginal performance differences.

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so significantly from 1080p to 4K?

A: The average frame rate at Medium settings falls from 87 FPS at 1080p to 62 FPS at 1440p (a 28.7% reduction) and then to 39 FPS at 4K (a 37.1% reduction from 1440p). This sub-linear scaling relative to pixel count indicates the GPU’s system-shared memory bandwidth is the limiting factor.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 adequate for this game’s CPU requirements?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 has six cores and twelve threads with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429 and single-core score of 2319, place it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, indicating sufficient processing power for a 2016 horror title.

Q: What is the worst-performing preset for this combination?

A: Ultra settings at 3840x2160 produce an average of 20 FPS, the lowest measured value. Even at 1920x1080, Ultra only reaches 44 FPS average, making it the least viable preset across all resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU’s percentile ranking relate to its in-game performance?

A: The Arc B390 sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 1482. This low ranking aligns with the measured frame rates in Downfall, where even at 1080p Medium, the average is 87 FPS, playable but not high-refresh territory.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of an AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2589th out of 2928 tested combinations in Downfall, placing it in the bottom 11.6% of all configurations. The rank reflects the severe bottleneck imposed by the integrated GPU, which sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, is in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19593. This stark disparity between the CPU’s relative strength and the GPU’s relative weakness explains the combination’s poor standing: the processor has ample headroom that the graphics solution cannot utilize.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the overall benchmark rankings highlight its mid-range positioning. The AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 scores 19617 (deltaPct -0.1), the Intel Core i5-12500 scores 19668 (deltaPct -0.4), the Intel Core i7-10700F scores 19499 (deltaPct 0.5), and the Intel Core i5-11600KF scores 19723 (deltaPct -0.7). These deltas are all within 0.7% of the Ryzen 5 5500’s average score, indicating that the CPU is competitive with a range of mid-range processors from both AMD and Intel. However, this CPU performance is largely wasted in gaming scenarios where the GPU cannot keep up.

The combo rank of 2589 out of 2928 suggests that the vast majority of tested configurations deliver better frame rates in Downfall. This is not surprising given that the Arc B390 is an integrated solution competing against discrete GPUs in most other combinations. The data indicates that users with this pairing should temper expectations: the combination is suitable for 1080p gaming at Medium settings, but it will struggle at higher resolutions or with maximum quality presets. The rank also implies that upgrading the GPU alone would yield substantial improvements, as the CPU has demonstrated it can hold its own against comparable processors.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a six-core, twelve-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, manufactured on TSMC’s 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a theoretical bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it connects to the system via PCIe Gen 3. Its release date is April 2022, with a launch MSRP of $159.

In benchmark tests, the Ryzen 5 5500 demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance relative to its class. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 16429, while the single-core score is 2319. Geekbench results show 7976 multicore and 1730 single-core. The PassMark multithread score is 19330, with a single-thread score of 3058. The average benchmark score of 19593 places the CPU in the 73rd percentile of all processors. The 3DMark tests reveal scaling from 836 (single-thread) to 5386 (16-threads) and 5411 (max-threads), indicating that the six cores provide diminishing returns beyond eight threads but still offer solid scaling up to that point.

In the context of Downfall, a horror game released in 2016, the CPU’s role is primarily to maintain a stable frame pipeline and handle game logic, physics, and AI. The measured frame rates show that the CPU is not the limiting factor at 1080p, where even Ultra settings produce 44 FPS, a figure more consistent with GPU constraints than CPU bottlenecks. The CPU’s single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core 2319) is adequate for the game’s likely single-threaded engine tasks, while its multi-threaded capability (Cinebench R23 multicore 16429) ensures that background processes and game threads do not starve the GPU of data. However, the CPU’s DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s becomes a shared resource with the GPU’s system-shared memory, meaning that the CPU’s memory operations can compete with the GPU for the same bandwidth, potentially exacerbating the GPU’s already limited memory throughput.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are as follows: Low settings produce 106 FPS, Medium produces 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS, High produces 71 FPS, and Ultra produces 44 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 62 FPS, with each successive quality tier reducing performance by roughly 15-18 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 74 FPS indicates that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate rarely dips below a playable threshold.

At 2560x1440, Low produces 76 FPS average, Medium produces 62 FPS average with a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 71 FPS, High produces 51 FPS, and Ultra produces 32 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 53 FPS approaches the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that occasional dips are noticeable but not severe. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, ranging from 28.3% (Low) to 28.2% (High), with Ultra showing a 27.3% reduction.

At 3840x2160, Low produces 47 FPS average, Medium produces 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS, High produces 32 FPS, and Ultra produces 20 FPS. The Medium preset’s maximum of 44 FPS is lower than the High preset’s average at 1440p (51 FPS), illustrating the severe impact of 4K resolution on this hardware. The Ultra preset’s 20 FPS average is borderline unplayable, and even Low’s 47 FPS is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

The data shows a consistent pattern: Medium settings offer the best balance between visual fidelity and performance at every resolution. At 1080p, Medium achieves 87 FPS average, which is 81.7% of Low’s performance while providing noticeably better visuals. At 1440p, Medium’s 62 FPS is still above 60 FPS, whereas High and Ultra fall below. At 4K, Medium’s 39 FPS is the highest average among the non-Low presets, but the minimum of 33 FPS indicates that the experience will be inconsistent. The measured data suggest that users should prioritize Medium settings and accept that 4K gaming is not viable for this combination beyond low-quality visuals.