Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB delivers a playable but constrained experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title. Measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets show a system that is consistently capable at 1080p, increasingly stressed at 1440p, and only marginally viable at 4K with reduced settings. The data indicates a combination where the GPU’s modest 4 GB memory and mid-range Ampere architecture define most performance ceilings, while the six-core Zen 4 processor provides ample headroom that is rarely the primary bottleneck. This analysis draws exclusively from the measured FPS table and component specifications.

Resolution Scaling

The progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a steep performance penalty that grows with each step up the resolution ladder. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 135 FPS at 1080p to 96 FPS at 1440p, a decline of 39 FPS or roughly 29%. Moving from 1440p to 4K Low yields an additional fall to 60 FPS, another 36 FPS reduction. The cumulative effect from 1080p to 4K Low is a 75 FPS loss, representing a 56% reduction in average frame rate. This pattern strongly indicates that the GPU is the dominant limiting factor, as pixel throughput demands scale directly with resolution.

For Medium settings, the scaling is similarly pronounced. At 1080p, the average is 110 FPS, dropping to 79 FPS at 1440p (a 31 FPS decline) and then to 49 FPS at 4K (a further 30 FPS drop). The 4K Medium result includes a measured minimum of 42 FPS and maximum of 56 FPS, showing that frame pacing becomes more variable at higher pixel counts. High settings follow the same trend: 91 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 40 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, shows the harshest scaling—57 FPS at 1080p falls to 40 FPS at 1440p and bottoms out at 25 FPS at 4K.

The consistent pattern across all four presets is that the largest single drop occurs between 1440p and 4K. For example, High settings lose 25 FPS from 1080p to 1440p, but then lose another 25 FPS from 1440p to 4K. Low settings lose 39 FPS in the first step but only 36 FPS in the second. This suggests that the RTX 3050 4 GB’s memory bandwidth—measured at 192.0 GB/s over a 128-bit bus—becomes a critical constraint at 4K, where the required memory traffic increases disproportionately. The GPU’s 4 GB GDDR6 capacity is also likely exhausted by 4K textures, further compounding the issue.

At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU’s role cannot be entirely dismissed, but the data shows diminishing returns as resolution increases. The Ryzen 5 7500F’s boost clock of 5.00 GHz and 32 MB of shared L3 cache provide strong single-thread performance, which is relevant for Downfall’s horror-game logic and AI routines. However, the fact that frame rates fall so steeply with resolution indicates that the GPU saturates well before the CPU becomes a bottleneck. In summary, resolution scaling in this combo is steep and consistent, with each resolution step costing roughly a third of the previous frame rate, pointing squarely at the RTX 3050 4 GB as the limiting component.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data offers a clear hierarchy for optimizing the balance between visual quality and frame rate. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 135 FPS, which is well above any standard display refresh rate and suggests a very smooth experience. Medium raises the average to 110 FPS, a 25 FPS drop but still comfortably high. High further reduces the average to 91 FPS, which remains excellent for most monitors. Ultra, however, drops to 57 FPS—a significant 34 FPS penalty over High—and this is where the 4 GB VRAM and 2048 shading units begin to struggle. For 1080p, the data suggests that High is the optimal preset: it retains 91 FPS average while providing substantially better visuals than Medium or Low, without the steep cost of Ultra.

At 1440p, the options narrow. Low produces 96 FPS, Medium 79 FPS, and High 65 FPS, while Ultra falls to 40 FPS. The 65 FPS High result is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The 40 FPS Ultra score is below the threshold for smooth gameplay in a horror title where reaction time matters. The data indicates that Medium is the best choice at 1440p, offering 79 FPS average with a measured range of 67 to 91 FPS, which provides both a reasonable frame rate and a buffer against drops. Low is also viable for competitive or high-refresh play, but Medium’s extra visual fidelity comes at only a 17 FPS cost.

At 4K, every preset pushes the system hard. Low averages 60 FPS, which is exactly at the common 60 Hz refresh rate but with no margin for drops. Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS, which will be perceptible in fast-moving scenes. High averages 40 FPS, and Ultra falls to 25 FPS. For 4K, Low is the only preset that maintains a playable average, and even that is borderline. The measured data shows that dropping from Medium to Low at 4K yields an 11 FPS improvement (49 to 60), which is worth the visual trade-off. Players at 4K should use Low settings and accept the 60 FPS ceiling, or alternatively use Medium if they prioritize image quality over frame rate consistency.

The overall recommendation based on the numbers is: 1080p High (91 FPS), 1440p Medium (79 FPS), and 4K Low (60 FPS). This set of choices maximizes the average frame rate while keeping the experience fluid. The Ultra preset is not advisable at any resolution—it reduces frame rates by 34 to 39 FPS compared to High, with no measured benefit in the data. The Medium preset at 4K, with its minimum of 42 FPS, is the only other viable option, but it risks noticeable stutter in a horror game where smooth motion is critical.

FAQ

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

A: Based on measured FPS, 1920x1080 is the strongest resolution. At High settings, it achieves 91 FPS average, while Medium reaches 110 FPS and Low reaches 135 FPS. Even Ultra at 1080p maintains 57 FPS, which is higher than any preset at 1440p except Low (96 FPS) and Medium (79 FPS).

Q: Does the 4 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K?

A: The data shows a steep drop at 3840x2160 across all presets. At 4K Ultra, the average is 25 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it is 57 FPS. The GPU’s 4 GB GDDR6 memory and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely insufficient for 4K textures, as evidenced by the 60 FPS Low result being the only playable option at that resolution.

Q: How does the CPU contribute to frame rates in this game?

A: The Ryzen 5 7500F has 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its 3DMark single-thread score is 974, and Cinebench R23 single-core is 3218. These numbers suggest strong per-core performance, which is sufficient for Downfall; the measured FPS drops are more consistent with GPU limitations, as seen by the large losses when resolution increases.

Q: What is the difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium averages 79 FPS with a range of 67 to 91 FPS, while High averages 65 FPS. The difference is 14 FPS, which is noticeable but not drastic. The data shows that Medium provides a better balance of frame rate and visual quality at this resolution.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever worth using?

A: No, the measured data does not support it. At 1080p, Ultra is 34 FPS slower than High (57 vs. 91). At 1440p, Ultra is 25 FPS slower than High (40 vs. 65). At 4K, Ultra is 15 FPS slower than High (25 vs. 40) and 35 FPS slower than Low (25 vs. 60). The frame rate cost is substantial at every resolution.

Q: How does this combo rank among tested configurations?

A: The combo rank is 3263 out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the lower percentile of systems. This aligns with the GPU’s 50th percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU’s 77th percentile among all CPUs, indicating that the GPU drags the overall ranking down.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB combination ranks 3263 out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the bottom 12% of all configurations. This ranking is not surprising given the component specifications. The GPU sits at the 50th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 77th percentile among all CPUs. The mismatch between the two—a high-performing processor paired with a mid-range graphics card—means the system’s overall rank is closer to the GPU’s percentile than the CPU’s.

The CPU’s nearest rivals help contextualize its performance level. The Ryzen 5 7500F has an average benchmark score of 24964, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-11850H (24935) and 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-13620H (24911). It is 0.2% slower than the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (25005) and 0.4% faster than the Intel Core 5 210H (24872). These deltas are negligible, meaning the CPU is essentially on par with several other mid-range processors. However, this parity does not translate to a high combo rank because the RTX 3050 4 GB lacks a similar competitive standing.

In practical terms, the combo’s rank of 3263 means that many other systems deliver higher frame rates in Downfall. The measured FPS data confirms this: even at 1080p Low, the system only reaches 135 FPS, which is good but not exceptional. At 4K Ultra, the 25 FPS result is below playability thresholds. The rank reflects that this configuration is suited for 1080p gaming with reasonable settings, but it falls behind in higher-resolution scenarios. The data suggests that the GPU is the primary reason for the low rank, as the CPU’s percentile is significantly higher. For a benchmark database, this combo serves as an example of a CPU-heavy build where the GPU bottleneck is evident.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is the defining component in this combo, and its specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. The GPU features 2048 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units, with a base clock of 1545 MHz and a boost clock of 1740 MHz. It has 16 ray tracing cores and 64 tensor cores, though Downfall’s age (2016) suggests ray tracing is not a factor. The memory configuration is 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The pixel rate is 55.68 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 111.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 7.127 TFLOPS.

These numbers point to a GPU that is adequate for 1080p but struggles with higher resolutions. The 4 GB VRAM is a critical limitation, especially at 4K where textures and buffers can exceed this capacity. The measured FPS shows that at 4K Low, the average is 60 FPS, but at 4K Medium it drops to 49 FPS, and at 4K High it falls to 40 FPS. This pattern of declining performance with increasing settings is typical of a GPU that is memory-bound. The 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, while reasonable for a 128-bit card, is insufficient for 4K workloads that require frequent memory access.

The GPU’s 50th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it is a mid-range performer. In Downfall, this translates to playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with appropriate settings, but a poor experience at 4K. The boost clock of 1740 MHz is not particularly high, and the 8 nm process node from Samsung, with 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, suggests that thermal and power limits are modest—the TDP is 90 W with a suggested PSU of 250 W. The data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck in this system, as the CPU is capable of higher performance than the GPU can feed. The frame rate differences between presets are proportional to the GPU’s workload, confirming that the RTX 3050 4 GB is the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers the highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 135 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium settings reduce this to 110 FPS, with a measured minimum of 94 FPS and maximum of 127 FPS. High settings lower the average further to 91 FPS, while Ultra drops to 57 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline: 135, 110, 91, 57. The gap between High and Ultra is 34 FPS, the largest single-step drop at this resolution, suggesting that Ultra introduces a significant processing load that the GPU cannot sustain.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are lower but still playable. Low averages 96 FPS, Medium 79 FPS (with a range of 67 to 91 FPS), High 65 FPS, and Ultra 40 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 29% of the frame rate at Low, 28% at Medium, 29% at High, and 30% at Ultra. This uniformity indicates a GPU-bound scenario where the pixel count increase scales linearly with the workload. The 1440p Medium result, with its 67 FPS minimum, is the only one at this resolution with a recorded minimum, suggesting that frame pacing is stable enough for consistent measurement.

At 3840x2160, the system is pushed to its limits. Low averages 60 FPS, which is exactly at the threshold for smooth playback. Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS and maximum of 56 FPS. High averages 40 FPS, and Ultra drops to 25 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 11 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 9 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 15 FPS. The Ultra result of 25 FPS is the lowest measured value across all resolutions and settings, indicating that this preset is not viable for 4K gaming. The data also shows that the 4K results have fewer recorded min/max values, which may reflect the instability of frame times at this resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, code-named Raphael, and manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s, and it has 24 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. The 3DMark single-thread score is 974, and the multi-thread scores are 6376 for 16 threads and 6379 for max threads. Cinebench R23 scores are 3218 single-core and 22799 multi-core.

In the context of Downfall, the CPU’s role is to handle game logic, AI, and physics, while the GPU manages rendering. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution because frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings, which are GPU-dependent tasks. The high single-thread performance, evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 974 and Geekbench single-core score of 2374, is sufficient for the game’s single-threaded or lightly threaded workloads. The multi-thread scores, such as PassMark multithread at 26825, provide additional headroom for background tasks or heavily threaded scenes, but the frame rates do not suggest that the CPU is holding back the GPU.

The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24964, places it above most processors. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11850H (deltaPct 0.1), AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (deltaPct -0.2), Intel Core i7-13620H (deltaPct 0.2), and Intel Core 5 210H (deltaPct 0.4). These small deltas mean the CPU is comparable to several other mid-range chips. However, the combo’s rank of 3263 out of 3716 in Downfall is much lower than the CPU’s percentile, which reinforces that the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 5 nm process also suggest efficient operation, but the benchmark data does not show any CPU-related frame rate dips—the minimum FPS values, where present, are consistent with GPU load.