Downfall

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Downfall with the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 shows a clear and consistent scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 178.2 FPS, which drops to 126 FPS at 1440p and further to 75.9 FPS at 4K. This represents a 29.3% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 39.8% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling curve is steep, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as resolution increases.

The pattern becomes more pronounced at higher quality settings. At High settings, the frame rate falls from 118.7 FPS at 1080p to 84.6 FPS at 1440p (a 28.7% drop), then to 52.2 FPS at 4K (a 38.3% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, starting at 71.1 FPS at 1080p, declining to 51.1 FPS at 1440p, and bottoming out at 34 FPS at 4K. The relative consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests the resolution scaling behavior is driven primarily by the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth constraints rather than by any particular settings configuration.

The data reveals that the 1080p to 1440p transition is relatively manageable across all presets, with the combo maintaining playable frame rates even at High settings. However, the jump to 4K imposes a heavy penalty, particularly at Ultra where the average FPS falls below 35. This indicates that the Radeon RX 6600, with its 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus delivering 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, hits a hard wall at 4K resolution. The memory subsystem becomes saturated, and the GPU's 64 ROPs and 112 TMUs cannot sustain the pixel and texture throughput required at 3840x2160.

Notably, the scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution reveals the GPU's compute headroom. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 107.1 FPS, while at 4K it is only 41.9 FPS. This narrowing gap indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU and GPU can work in tandem to push higher frame rates, but at 4K, the GPU's raw throughput becomes the sole bottleneck, compressing the performance envelope across settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2491 MHz. These clocks, combined with 1792 shading units, deliver a peak FP32 throughput of 8.928 TFLOPS. The pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are the key metrics that govern Downfall's rendering performance, particularly at higher resolutions.

The 8 GB GDDR6 memory operating at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) provides a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s over a 128-bit bus. This memory configuration proves adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes strained at 4K. The measured data supports this: at 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 34 suggests the GPU is memory-bound, as the texture and geometry data required at this resolution exceed what the 224.0 GB/s bandwidth can efficiently feed to the compute units. The RX 6600's position in the GPU hierarchy is reflected in its percentileVsAllGpus score of 69, meaning it outperforms 69% of all GPUs in the database.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its gaming performance. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1492, while Geekbench Vulkan and OpenCL scores are 80492 and 73130 respectively. The PassMark G3D score of 15096 aligns with its mid-range positioning. The nearest rival comparisons show the RX 6600 is nearly identical in average benchmark score to the AMD Radeon 890M (deltaPct 0), slightly behind the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (deltaPct -0.2), and slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (deltaPct 0.2) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (deltaPct 0.5). These marginal deltas indicate that the RX 6600 sits in a tightly contested performance band, where small architectural differences in clock speeds and memory efficiency determine frame rate outcomes.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide clear guidance for optimal settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 118.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 143.2 FPS offers a 20.6% improvement over High, while Low at 178.2 FPS provides the highest headroom. The Ultra preset at 71.1 FPS is still playable but represents a 40.1% reduction from High, making it a less attractive option given the visual gains are typically marginal in a horror title like Downfall.

At 1440p, the High preset maintains 84.6 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth motion. The Medium preset at 101.9 FPS provides a 20.4% boost over High and is arguably the sweet spot, balancing visual fidelity with performance headroom. The Low preset at 126 FPS is viable for competitive play, while Ultra at 51.1 FPS dips below the ideal threshold, making it a less desirable choice despite the visual enhancements.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. The High preset at 52.2 FPS is marginally playable, but the Medium preset at 66.7 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides a 27.8% improvement over High while maintaining acceptable visual quality. The Low preset at 75.9 FPS offers the best performance but sacrifices significant visual detail. The Ultra preset at 34 FPS is not recommended for serious play, as the frame rate drops below the threshold for responsive gameplay in a horror genre that relies on atmospheric tension.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset emerges as the balanced choice, offering the best compromise between visual quality and frame rate. The data shows that the performance difference between Medium and High is consistent, with Medium providing roughly 20-28% higher FPS depending on resolution, while the visual gap between these two presets in Downfall is typically modest.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 achieves a combo rank of 1376 out of 1741 tested combinations in Downfall. This places the combo in the lower-middle tier of the database, at approximately the 79th percentile of all tested combos. The ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning, as the CPU's strong multi-threaded performance cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions.

The combo's rank is influenced by the fact that Downfall is a horror game that likely emphasizes atmospheric effects, lighting, and shadow rendering, which stress the GPU's shader and rasterization capabilities. The RX 6600's 28 RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are relevant here, but the measured FPS data suggests that the game does not heavily leverage ray tracing, as the performance scaling follows a traditional rasterization pattern. The combo's rank of 1376 indicates that there are 365 other combinations that perform better, likely featuring higher-tier GPUs with more memory bandwidth and compute units.

The CPU's contribution to this rank is evident in the benchmark scores. The Ryzen 5 8400F has a percentileVsAllCpus score of 82, indicating it outperforms 82% of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (deltaPct 0), AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (deltaPct -0.1), AMD EPYC 9474F (deltaPct -0.2), and AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (deltaPct 0.3). This CPU strength is reflected in the 1080p Low setting, where the combo achieves 178.2 FPS, suggesting that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower resolutions. However, the combo rank is ultimately capped by the GPU's performance ceiling, particularly at 4K where the RX 6600's memory bandwidth becomes the limiting factor.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Phoenix, and manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing a theoretical bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 16 MB shared L3 cache.

The CPU's benchmark scores demonstrate strong multi-threaded performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 20851 in multi-core and 2943 in single-core. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 1874 (2 threads) to 6165 (max threads), indicating good thread scaling. PassMark multi-thread score of 24530 and single-thread score of 3684 further confirm its capability. The CPU's avgBenchmarkScore of 25064 places it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals showing near-identical scores: the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X at 25057 (deltaPct 0), AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 at 25099 (deltaPct -0.1), AMD EPYC 9474F at 25103 (deltaPct -0.2), and AMD Ryzen 5 7500F at 24993 (deltaPct 0.3).

In Downfall, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p with Low settings, where the combo achieves 178.2 FPS. This high frame rate indicates that the CPU can sustain high draw call throughput and game logic processing without becoming a bottleneck. The 12 threads handle the game's background tasks, physics, and AI processing efficiently. The CPU's 4.70 GHz boost clock provides the single-thread performance needed for the main game thread, which is critical in horror games that often have complex scripting and event-driven sequences.

However, as resolution increases, the CPU's influence diminishes. The measured FPS drops at 4K are nearly identical across all settings regardless of CPU load, indicating that the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s is sufficient to feed the GPU's 224.0 GB/s, ensuring no data starvation occurs. The 16 MB L3 cache helps maintain low latency for frequently accessed game data, contributing to the consistent frame pacing observed in the data.

The CPU's 4 nm process and 25,000 million transistors on a 178 mm² die provide efficient power delivery, though the 65 W TDP is not a direct indicator of gaming performance. The unlocked multiplier allows for overclocking, but the measured results already show the CPU performing at a level that does not constrain the GPU in this title. In summary, the Ryzen 5 8400F provides ample computational headroom for Downfall, and the combo's overall performance is dictated almost entirely by the Radeon RX 6600's capabilities.