Downfall

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a six-core, twelve-thread processor built on the Zen 3 architecture (codename Vermeer) using TSMC's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache, which is typical for this generation of AMD desktop parts. Memory support is DDR4 over a dual-channel bus, providing 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and the CPU supports ECC memory. The socket is AMD Socket AM4, and the chip uses PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes from the CPU.

In the context of Downfall, a horror title released in 2016, the CPU's core and thread configuration contributes to the frame rates observed across the measured settings. The game's engine benefits from the 5600's single-thread performance, which is reflected in its benchmark scores: a 3DMark single-thread score of 882, Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2584, and Geekbench single-core score of 1936. Multi-threaded performance is also strong for a six-core part, with Cinebench R23 multi-core scoring 18309 and Passmark multithread scoring 21541.

The CPU's percentile rank against all processors is 74, meaning it outperforms roughly three-quarters of the CPUs in the database's benchmark suite. Its average benchmark score is 20468, which places it in close competition with several other processors. The nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V with an average score of 20454 (a delta of 0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 5 8500G at 20425 (0.2% delta), the AMD EPYC 9454P at 20422 (0.2% delta), and the AMD EPYC 7713 at 20363 (0.5% delta). These deltas are minuscule, indicating that the Ryzen 5 5600's computational throughput is effectively on par with those parts in synthetic benchmarks.

However, in gaming workloads like Downfall, the CPU's role is less about raw multi-threaded throughput and more about maintaining consistent frame pacing and avoiding bottlenecks at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is likely the primary limiter when paired with the Radeon RX 9060, as frame rates reach as high as 210 FPS on Low settings. At 4K, the load shifts to the GPU, but the CPU still needs to keep up with draw calls and game logic. The 5600's twelve threads provide enough parallelism for modern game engines, though the game's 2016 release date means it may not fully utilize all cores.

The boost clock of 4.40 GHz is critical for the game's engine, which tends to favor higher clocks per core over additional cores. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1737 and 4-thread score of 3313 suggest that the CPU scales well with limited thread counts, which is typical for horror games that often have modest CPU demands but require low latency. The 8-thread score of 4798 and max-thread score of 5659 indicate diminishing returns beyond eight threads, aligning with the game's likely threading model.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS data for Downfall with this CPU-GPU combo spans four settings presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—across three resolutions. The data reveals a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate smoothness.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 210 FPS, which is exceptionally high and likely beyond the refresh rate of most displays. Medium averages 172 FPS with a minimum of 146 FPS and a maximum of 198 FPS, providing a very smooth experience. High averages 141 FPS, still well above typical 60 Hz or 144 Hz monitors. Ultra averages 88 FPS, which is playable but noticeably lower.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low averages 150 FPS, Medium averages 123 FPS (minimum 104, maximum 141), High averages 101 FPS, and Ultra averages 63 FPS. The jump from Medium to High is a 22 FPS reduction, while the jump from High to Ultra is a 38 FPS reduction, indicating that Ultra imposes a significant penalty.

At 3840x2160, the numbers compress further. Low averages 93 FPS, Medium averages 76 FPS (minimum 65, maximum 88), High averages 63 FPS, and Ultra averages 39 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 17 FPS, between Medium and High is 13 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 24 FPS.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 stands out as the sweet spot. It delivers an average of 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 FPS, ensuring no major frame drops below 100 FPS. The visual upgrade from Low is substantial, and the performance headroom is ample for most displays. If the user prefers 1080p, the High preset at 141 FPS is a strong choice, as it balances quality and speed without dipping below 60 FPS. At 4K, the High preset at 63 FPS is the only preset that stays above 60 FPS on average, making it the recommended option for UHD displays, though the Medium preset at 76 FPS offers more headroom at the cost of some visual detail.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution. At 1080p it drops to 88 FPS, at 1440p it falls to 63 FPS, and at 4K it plummets to 39 FPS. The trade-off for Ultra-level settings is too steep, especially at higher resolutions where the GPU is already strained.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data demonstrates how the workload scales with resolution. At 1080p, the average frame rates across all settings are high: Low at 210 FPS, Medium at 172 FPS, High at 141 FPS, and Ultra at 88 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the averages drop to 150, 123, 101, and 63 FPS respectively. At 4K, they fall further to 93, 76, 63, and 39 FPS.

The percentage drops from 1080p to 1440p are consistent across settings: Low drops by 28.6% (from 210 to 150), Medium by 28.5% (from 172 to 123), High by 28.4% (from 141 to 101), and Ultra by 28.4% (from 88 to 63). These nearly uniform reductions indicate that the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is largely resolution-bound, with the GPU becoming the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

From 1440p to 4K, the drops become steeper. Low falls from 150 to 93, a 38% reduction. Medium falls from 123 to 76, a 38.2% reduction. High falls from 101 to 63, a 37.6% reduction. Ultra falls from 63 to 39, a 38.1% reduction. The consistency across settings again suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at these higher resolutions.

The fact that the frame rate drops are so uniform across settings—especially the near-identical percentage drops from 1440p to 4K—indicates that the Radeon RX 9060's rendering throughput is the limiting component at resolutions above 1080p. At 1080p, the CPU may still play a role in capping frame rates, particularly on Low settings where 210 FPS is achieved. However, the data does not show a clear CPU bottleneck because even at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate of 88 FPS is likely GPU-limited given the GPU's performance characteristics.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s across a 128-bit bus and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is likely a factor at 4K, where higher resolution textures and larger frame buffers demand more bandwidth. The drop from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced than the drop from 1080p to 1440p, which aligns with the memory bandwidth limitations becoming more severe as pixel count doubles.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p on High settings?

A: The average frame rate at 1920x1080 on High settings is 141 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and suitable for high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: Does the Ultra preset at 4K maintain a playable frame rate?

A: No. At 3840x2160 on Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 39 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 4K averages 76 FPS with a minimum of 65 FPS, making it a better choice.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5600 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600 has an average benchmark score of 20468. Its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, scores 20454, a delta of 0.1%. The AMD Ryzen 5 8500G scores 20425 (0.2% delta), and the AMD EPYC 9454P scores 20422 (0.2% delta). These differences are negligible.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p on Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 on Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 104, with an average of 123 FPS and a maximum of 141 FPS. This ensures no frame drops below 100 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark percentile compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon RX 9060 has a percentile rank of 59 against all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 16014. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129 (a delta of -0.7%), the AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862 (1% delta), and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 scores 15852 (1% delta).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and High settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings average 210 FPS, while High settings average 141 FPS. This is a difference of 69 FPS, or a 32.9% reduction from Low to High.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture, using the Navi 44 chip (codename Strix Point) on TSMC's 4 nm process. The GPU has 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, along with 28 ray tracing cores. Its clock speeds are a base of 1700 MHz, a boost of 2990 MHz, and a game clock of 2400 MHz. The memory configuration is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, with a memory clock of 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s.

The GPU's performance metrics include a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s, and FP32 throughput of 21.43 TFLOPS. The TDP is 132 W, with a suggested PSU of 300 W, and it uses a single 8-pin power connector. The card supports PCIe 5.0 x16 and outputs via 1x HDMI 2.1b and 2x DisplayPort 2.1a. It is a dual-slot card.

In Downfall, the GPU's role is critical at resolutions above 1080p. The measured data shows that at 4K, frame rates drop significantly compared to 1440p, which aligns with the GPU's memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity. The 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K with Ultra settings, the frame rate of 39 FPS suggests that the GPU is heavily strained, likely due to both compute load and memory bandwidth limitations.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its overall performance. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3322, Geekbench OpenCL score is 88183, and Geekbench Vulkan score is 39476. The Passmark G3D score is 17631, with a GPU compute score of 9919. The DirectX 11 score of 182 and DirectX 12 score of 44 are notably low, but these may reflect specific test conditions rather than gaming performance. The GPU's percentile rank against all GPUs is 59, and its average benchmark score is 16014.

The nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with an average score of 16129 (a delta of -0.7%), meaning the RX 9060 is slightly slower on average. The AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862 (1% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 scores 15852 (1% delta), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 15679 (2.1% delta). These small deltas indicate that the RX 9060 sits in a tight performance band, but the data from Downfall shows it is capable of high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p.

The GPU's boost clock of 2990 MHz is high, which helps maintain frame rates in less demanding scenes. However, the 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are modest by modern standards, and this is likely the reason for the steep frame rate drops at 4K. The game's horror genre often involves dark scenes with dynamic lighting, which can stress the GPU's shading units, but the 1792 shading units appear sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data for Downfall with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 spans all combinations of resolution and settings. Below is a complete breakdown.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average 210 FPS.
• Medium: Average 172 FPS, minimum 146 FPS, maximum 198 FPS.
• High: Average 141 FPS.
• Ultra: Average 88 FPS.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average 150 FPS.
• Medium: Average 123 FPS, minimum 104 FPS, maximum 141 FPS.
• High: Average 101 FPS.
• Ultra: Average 63 FPS.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average 93 FPS.
• Medium: Average 76 FPS, minimum 65 FPS, maximum 88 FPS.
• High: Average 63 FPS.
• Ultra: Average 39 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each step up in settings reduces the average frame rate by a similar margin at a given resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Medium is 38 FPS, between Medium and High is 31 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 53 FPS. At 1440p, the differences are 27, 22, and 38 FPS respectively. At 4K, the differences are 17, 13, and 24 FPS.

The minimum FPS values are only provided for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 146 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it is 104 FPS; at 4K Medium, it is 65 FPS. These minimums suggest that the Medium preset maintains reasonably stable frame rates without severe drops.

The maximum FPS values are also only provided for Medium, showing 198 FPS at 1080p, 141 FPS at 1440p, and 88 FPS at 4K. This indicates that even at Medium settings, there is enough headroom to exceed the average by a significant margin in less demanding scenes.

The overall trend is that the combo is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with all settings except Ultra delivering over 60 FPS on average. At 4K, only Low and Medium presets exceed 60 FPS, with High barely hitting 63 FPS and Ultra falling to 39 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 in Downfall has a combo rank of 1667 out of 2928 tested combinations. This places it in the 57th percentile of all combos in the database for this game (calculated as 1667 divided by 2928, which equals 0.569). In other words, this combo outperforms approximately 57% of all tested CPU-GPU pairings in Downfall, while 43% achieve higher average frame rates.

The rank of 1667 out of 2928 indicates that this is a mid-tier combination for this specific game. The game is a 2016 horror title, which may not be as demanding as modern releases, but the combo still faces stiff competition from higher-end parts. The CPU's percentile rank of 74 and the GPU's percentile rank of 59 suggest that the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU when compared to their respective pools. However, in Downfall, the combo rank is lower than the CPU's percentile, which implies that the GPU is holding the combo back relative to the CPU's potential.

The fact that this combo ranks in the middle of the pack is consistent with the measured FPS data. At 1080p, the combo achieves high frame rates (up to 210 FPS on Low), but at 4K, it struggles to maintain 60 FPS on higher settings. Many other combos likely feature more powerful GPUs that can handle 4K Ultra more effectively, pushing this combo down the rank list. Conversely, weaker CPUs paired with similar GPUs might fall below this rank due to CPU bottlenecks at lower resolutions.

The rank also reflects the game's specific optimization. Since Downfall was released in 2016, it may not benefit from the Ryzen 5 5600's modern architecture as much as newer titles would, and the GPU's RDNA 4.0 features may be underutilized. The combo's performance is still respectable, but the rank data indicates that there are many faster configurations in the database. Users seeking higher frame rates at 4K or maximum settings would likely need to upgrade the GPU, while those targeting 1080p or 1440p gaming will find this combo adequate.