Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti pairing delivers a surprisingly playable experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title, but with significant caveats at higher resolutions. The data shows a classic mid-range combination where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K, while the CPU's strong single-thread performance keeps 1080p frame rates high. This analysis breaks down the measured performance to help you choose the right settings for your display.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU/GPU combo for Downfall?*

A: The combination ranks 1480 out of 1741 tested combos, placing it in the lower-mid tier of all possible pairings for this game.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 Ti a strong performer relative to its direct competitors?

A: Benchmark data shows it sits at the 55th percentile of all GPUs. Its average score of 13925 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 570X, which is only 0.4% slower, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, which is 0.8% slower.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7500F compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The CPU holds an 82nd percentile ranking. Its average benchmark score of 24993 is within a fraction of a percent of the Intel Core i7-11850H (0.1% faster) and the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (0.4% faster), showing it trades blows with those mobile parts.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a 60+ FPS average?

A: At 1080p, all settings except Ultra (64 FPS) exceed 100 FPS. At 1440p, High (73.2 FPS) and Medium (89.8 FPS) also clear the 60 FPS threshold, but 4K only achieves this on Low settings (67.4 FPS).

Q: How demanding is the jump from High to Ultra settings?

A: The performance cost is steep. At 1080p, Ultra (64 FPS) is 37% slower than High (101.5 FPS). This gap widens at 1440p, where Ultra (47.5 FPS) is 35% slower than High (73.2 FPS), and at 4K, Ultra (28.6 FPS) is 34% slower than High (43.6 FPS).

*Q: Does this CPU hold back the GPU in Downfall?*

A: The data suggests not at 1080p, where the 146.4 FPS Low result indicates the CPU can feed high frame rates. The bottleneck shifts to the GPU as resolution increases, evidenced by the dramatic FPS drops at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal preset depends entirely on your target resolution and tolerance for frame rate dips. For a smooth 60 FPS experience, the data points to a clear hierarchy. At 1080p, you have headroom to use High settings for a 101.5 FPS average, which is ideal for a responsive feel. Medium settings offer an even higher 123.7 FPS, but the visual jump to High is usually worth the 22 FPS cost in a horror game where atmosphere matters. Ultra is technically playable at 64 FPS, but the 37% performance loss over High makes it a poor trade for the marginal visual gains.

Moving to 1440p, the GTX 1660 Ti starts to feel the pressure. High settings deliver a solid 73.2 FPS, making it the best choice for a balance of visuals and smoothness. Medium settings provide a comfortable 89.8 FPS buffer, which is a safer pick if you are sensitive to any frame drops. Low settings push the frame rate to 108.7 FPS, but you lose the graphical fidelity that makes Downfall atmospheric. Ultra is not recommended here, as the 47.5 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play.

At 4K, the GPU's 6 GB frame buffer and 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are heavily taxed. Low settings are the only viable option for a playable experience, yielding a 67.4 FPS average. Medium and High settings drop to 51.7 FPS and 43.6 FPS respectively, which are playable but not ideal. Ultra at 28.6 FPS is effectively a slideshow and should be avoided.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a pronounced drop as resolution increases, confirming the GTX 1660 Ti is the limiting component. At High settings, the transition from 1080p (101.5 FPS) to 1440p (73.2 FPS) is a 28% performance loss. Pushing from 1440p to 4K (43.6 FPS) results in a further 40% drop, leaving the 4K High performance at just 43% of the 1080p result.

This scaling pattern is consistent across all settings. On Low, the drop from 1080p (146.4 FPS) to 1440p (108.7 FPS) is 26%, and then to 4K (67.4 FPS) is another 38% loss. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic degradation, falling from 64 FPS at 1080p to 47.5 FPS at 1440p (a 26% drop) and then to 28.6 FPS at 4K (a 40% drop from 1440p).

The consistent ~26% penalty from 1080p to 1440p and the larger ~40% penalty from 1440p to 4K indicate that the GPU is running out of pixel throughput and memory bandwidth. The Ryzen 5 7500F's 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth is not the constraint here. The GPU's 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is simply insufficient to feed the massive pixel count of 4K without a severe frame rate penalty, making 1080p the sweet spot for this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti setup is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 146.4 FPS average
• Medium: 123.7 FPS average
• High: 101.5 FPS average
• Ultra: 64 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 108.7 FPS average
• Medium: 89.8 FPS average
• High: 73.2 FPS average
• Ultra: 47.5 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 67.4 FPS average
• Medium: 51.7 FPS average
• High: 43.6 FPS average
• Ultra: 28.6 FPS average

These numbers reveal a linear performance scaling with settings. At every resolution, Low is roughly 18-20% faster than Medium, and Medium is about 15-20% faster than High. The jump from High to Ultra is the largest, costing 37% at 1080p, 35% at 1440p, and 34% at 4K. This indicates that the Ultra preset enables effects that disproportionately impact the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, based on the TU116 chip and Turing architecture, plays the decisive role in this pairing's 4K performance. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The measured data shows this is not enough for a smooth Ultra experience at 4K, where the average FPS plummets to 28.6. The GPU's 55th percentile ranking and an average benchmark score of 13925, which is nearly identical to the RX 570X and GTX 680, confirms it is a mid-range part by today's standards.

The clock speeds of 1500 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost are typical for the card, and its 1536 shading units are tasked heavily in Downfall. The performance drop from High to Ultra settings suggests that Ultra uses texture and shader complexity that saturates the 6 GB frame buffer or the 169.9 GTexel/s texture rate. The GPU's 5.437 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but for 4K, the data shows you must sacrifice settings to Low to stay above 60 FPS. The card's 12 nm process and 120 W TDP are indicative of its age, but it still provides a capable 1080p experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is demonstrably not the bottleneck in Downfall. Its 82nd percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 24993, which is a virtual tie with the Intel Core i7-11850H and AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, shows it offers strong processing power. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.00 GHz and robust single-thread score of 3218 in Cinebench R23 are key to achieving the high frame rates seen at 1080p Low (146.4 FPS).

The architecture, Zen 4 on a 5 nm process, provides high Instructions Per Clock (IPC) efficiency that benefits game logic and draw calls. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache is also beneficial for keeping frequently accessed data close to the cores. Since the FPS scales down predictably with resolution, it is clear the CPU is feeding the GPU adequately. If the CPU were the constraint, we would see similar FPS at 1080p and 1440p. Instead, the data shows a clear GPU limit. This makes the 7500F a future-proof choice, as it can handle a GPU upgrade without becoming a significant bottleneck in this title.