Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 delivers a highly variable experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title. Across the measured configurations, the combination shows a clear pattern: the GTX 1070, a Pascal-era GPU with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions and settings, while the Ryzen 5 7500X3D’s six Zen 4 cores provide ample headroom at 1080p. The data indicates that players can achieve smooth frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with medium to high settings, but 4K Ultra proves too demanding for this pairing.

FAQ

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

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 as the most consistent choice. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 66 at Ultra to 157 at Low, with High settings delivering 105 FPS and Medium hitting 128 FPS. At 2560x1440, averages fall to 47–112 FPS depending on settings, while 3840x2160 drops to 29–70 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070’s average benchmark score is 9780, placing it in the 47th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD FirePro W5000, scores 9803, a delta of -0.2%, meaning the GTX 1070 is effectively equivalent. The NVIDIA Quadro M2000M scores 9832 (-0.5%), while the NVIDIA Tesla M10 and Tesla C2070 score 9724 (+0.6%) and 9716 (+0.7%) respectively.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 7500X3D a strong CPU for gaming workloads?

A: The CPU’s PassMark multithread score is 25047, with a single-thread score of 3494. Its average benchmark score is 44573, which places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. It outperforms the Intel Core i5-14600, which scores 44889, by a delta of -0.7% (meaning the Ryzen is slightly ahead), and it is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H (44466).

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

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 157 FPS, while Ultra drops to 66 FPS. This represents a 91 FPS reduction, or roughly a 58% performance loss when moving from the lowest to the highest preset. Medium and High sit in between at 128 FPS and 105 FPS respectively.

*Q: Does the GPU’s VRAM capacity affect 4K performance in Downfall?*

A: The GTX 1070 has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 256.3 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160, the average FPS falls to 47 on High and 29 on Ultra, while Low reaches 70 FPS. The steep drop at Ultra suggests the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are saturated, though the data does not isolate VRAM usage.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for Downfall?*

A: The combination ranks 2420 out of 2928 tested combos, placing it in the lower 17% of all pairings. This low rank is driven by the GTX 1070’s 47th percentile GPU standing, while the CPU is in the 89th percentile, indicating a significant bottleneck on the graphics side.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is built on the Pascal architecture using the GP104 chip, manufactured on a 16 nm process at TSMC. It houses 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, with a transistor density of 22.9M per mm². The GPU operates at a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz, with memory running at 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective). Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory is accessed via a 256-bit bus, yielding 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The card features 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations units, producing a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance is rated at 6.463 TFLOPS for FP32, while FP16 is a mere 101.0 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio).

In Downfall, the GTX 1070’s role is decisive. At 1920x1080, the GPU can push high frame rates: 157 FPS on Low and 105 FPS on High. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the moderate FPS drops when moving from Medium to Ultra. However, at 3840x2160, the GPU’s limitations become apparent. The average FPS at 4K High is 47, and at 4K Ultra it collapses to 29. This aligns with the GPU’s 47th percentile ranking among all GPUs, indicating it is a mid-range part by modern standards. The GTX 1070’s memory bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s appears to be a limiting factor at 4K, where the pixel throughput demands exceed what the 256-bit bus can supply efficiently.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmarks reinforce this picture. Its PassMark G3D score is 13498, and its DirectX 12 score is 48, while DirectX 11 scores 100. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test yields 1082 points. These numbers place it near the AMD FirePro W5000 (9803 average score, -0.2% delta) and the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9832, -0.5% delta). In practical terms, the GTX 1070 is a capable 1080p card that can handle 1440p with adjustments, but 4K gaming requires significant setting reductions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. Starting at 1920x1080, the combo achieves 157 FPS on Low, 128 FPS on Medium, 105 FPS on High, and 66 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, these numbers drop to 112, 92, 75, and 47 respectively. At 3840x2160, the averages fall further to 70, 57, 47, and 29.

The percentage drops from 1080p to 1440p are relatively consistent: Low falls by 28.7% (157 to 112), Medium by 28.1% (128 to 92), High by 28.6% (105 to 75), and Ultra by 28.8% (66 to 47). This uniformity suggests that the GPU is the primary limiter across all settings at these two resolutions, as the workload scales roughly with pixel count (1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, but the FPS drops by about 29%, indicating some CPU headroom is being absorbed).

The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a more dramatic impact. Low settings drop from 112 to 70 FPS, a 37.5% reduction. Medium falls from 92 to 57 (38.0% drop), High from 75 to 47 (37.3% drop), and Ultra from 47 to 29 (38.3% drop). 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p, yet the FPS reduction is only about 38%, suggesting that the GTX 1070’s shading units and memory bandwidth are hitting a wall. The fact that the relative drop is similar across all settings indicates that the GPU is fully saturated at 4K, regardless of preset.

The data shows that the Ryzen 5 7500X3D is not the bottleneck at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the CPU can feed the GPU enough frames to reach 157 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU delivers just 29 FPS, the CPU’s six cores and 12 threads are not the constraint—the GPU simply cannot render the scene fast enough. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 3494 and multithread score of 25047 suggest it has ample compute for a 2016 title like Downfall.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are as follows: Low settings produce 157 FPS, Medium produces 128 FPS with a minimum of 109 and maximum of 147, High produces 105 FPS, and Ultra drops to 66 FPS. The Medium preset’s min-to-max spread of 38 FPS (109–147) indicates some frame pacing variability, but the average remains well above 60 FPS for all settings except Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 112 FPS on Low, 92 FPS on Medium (min 78, max 105), 75 FPS on High, and 47 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a 27 FPS spread (78–105), which is tighter than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is more consistently loaded. High settings at 1440p still deliver a playable 75 FPS, while Ultra falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the results are: 70 FPS on Low, 57 FPS on Medium (min 48, max 66), 47 FPS on High, and 29 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K has an 18 FPS spread (48–66), with the minimum dipping to 48 FPS—borderline for smooth gameplay. High and Ultra settings at 4K are not viable for a 60 FPS experience, as the averages fall to 47 and 29 respectively.

The data shows that the jump from 1440p to 4K is the most punishing. At 1440p High, the average is 75 FPS, but at 4K High it drops to 47 FPS—a 28 FPS reduction. Similarly, 1440p Ultra averages 47 FPS, while 4K Ultra averages 29 FPS. This indicates that the GTX 1070’s 256.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are insufficient for 4K with high-quality settings in Downfall.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, based on the Raphael codename and Zen 4 architecture. It operates at a base clock of 4.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing 83.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes. The CPU’s integrated Radeon Graphics are present but not used for gaming in this pairing.

In Downfall, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D’s PassMark multithread score of 25047 and single-thread score of 3494 place it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 44573 is nearly identical to the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H (44466, +0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342, +0.5% delta). The only rival with a higher score is the Intel Core i5-14600 at 44889, where the Ryzen trails by -0.7%.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck even at 1080p Low, where the GPU produces 157 FPS. At 1080p Ultra, the FPS drops to 66, but this is due to the GPU’s workload, not CPU limits. The fact that the FPS scales nearly linearly with resolution (when moving from 1080p to 1440p, the drop is consistent at ~29% across all settings) indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect the FPS to remain similar across resolutions, which is not the case.

The CPU’s 96 MB of L3 cache is particularly beneficial for gaming, as it can hold more of the working set for game logic and scene data. However, in Downfall, the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 256-bit memory bus are the primary determinants of performance at higher resolutions. The CPU’s 4.50 GHz boost clock ensures it can keep up with the GPU’s demands, and its 12 threads provide ample parallelism for any background tasks or physics calculations the horror title may require.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate.

For 1920x1080, the best experience is achieved with High settings, which deliver an average of 105 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a good balance between visual quality and performance. Medium settings at 1080p offer 128 FPS, which is beneficial for high-refresh-rate monitors, but High adds visual fidelity without sacrificing playability. Ultra at 1080p drops to 66 FPS, which is still playable but may cause noticeable stutters in fast-paced horror scenes. Low at 1080p hits 157 FPS but is unnecessary for most users unless chasing maximum frame rates.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings are the recommended choice, with an average of 92 FPS and a minimum of 78 FPS. This ensures smooth gameplay with no drops below 60 FPS. High settings at 1440p average 75 FPS, which is also playable, but the min FPS is not recorded, so Medium’s guaranteed 78 FPS minimum offers more consistency. Ultra at 1440p drops to 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and should be avoided. Low at 1440p provides 112 FPS but sacrifices too much visual quality for a horror game where atmosphere matters.

For 3840x2160, the only viable option is Low settings, which average 70 FPS. Medium at 4K averages 57 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS, meaning it will drop below 60 FPS during intense moments. High and Ultra at 4K are not recommended, as they average 47 and 29 FPS respectively, resulting in a poor experience. If 4K is a priority, the user must accept Low settings, or consider that this GPU is fundamentally not suited for 4K gaming in Downfall—the data shows that even Low settings at 4K produce half the frame rate of 1080p High.

The overall recommendation is to play at 1920x1080 with High settings for the best balance of visuals and performance. For 1440p, Medium settings provide a solid 92 FPS average. The combo’s rank of 2420 out of 2928 confirms that it is a lower-tier pairing for this game, primarily due to the GTX 1070’s age. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D has significant headroom, as evidenced by its 89th percentile CPU ranking, but the GPU’s 47th percentile standing caps the overall experience. Players with this hardware should target 1080p or 1440p with medium-to-high settings to enjoy Downfall without frame rate compromises.