Downfall

# Downfall with AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a playable experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title, with average frame rates ranging from 36.8 FPS at 4K Ultra to 211.9 FPS at 1080p Low. The data reveals a system where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU's six Zen 4 cores provide ample headroom at lower settings. This combination ranks 1050th out of 1741 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, a position driven more by the aging GPU than the relatively modern processor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and steep performance drop as resolution increases, which is typical for a system where the graphics card is the limiting factor. At 1080p High, the combo averages 141.4 FPS, but stepping up to 1440p High reduces that to 102 FPS, a decline of roughly 28%. Moving from 1440p to 4K High yields a further drop of about 41%, landing at 60.4 FPS. This pattern of diminishing returns at higher pixel counts is consistent with the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus being saturated by the increased workload.

The scaling behavior across settings at each resolution reinforces the GPU-bound nature of this pairing. At 4K, the spread between Low (96.2 FPS) and Ultra (36.8 FPS) is a massive 59.4 FPS, indicating that the graphics card's compute and memory throughput are heavily taxed by the highest quality presets. In contrast, at 1080p, the same spread is 124.1 FPS (from 211.9 FPS at Low to 87.8 FPS at Ultra), showing that the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently at lower resolutions, but the GPU still struggles to maintain high frame rates when visual quality is maxed out.

The transition from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings illustrates the resolution penalty clearly: 174.7 FPS drops to 75.2 FPS, a reduction of nearly 57%. This suggests that even at moderate quality settings, the 4K resolution overwhelms the GPU's capabilities. The data indicates that for a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, only the Low preset (96.2 FPS) or High preset (60.4 FPS) are viable, while Ultra at 4K falls below acceptable playability at 36.8 FPS. The scaling curve points to a component that is firmly GPU-limited, with the CPU not becoming a significant constraint until frame rates approach the 200 FPS range at 1080p Low.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER, built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process, is the dominant factor in this combo's performance. Its base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, combined with 2560 shading units, deliver a peak FP32 throughput of 9.062 TFLOPS. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory running at 14 Gbps effective provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical resource for a horror game like Downfall that likely relies on detailed textures and lighting effects to build atmosphere.

The GPU's benchmark scores contextualize its mid-range standing. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 18169 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 7557, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in average score include the NVIDIA RTX A400 (deltaPct -0.5%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (deltaPct 0.9%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (deltaPct -2.3%), showing that the 2070 SUPER sits in a competitive band with these cards. However, its end-of-life production status and 2019 release date mean it lacks the architectural efficiencies of newer GPUs.

In Downfall specifically, the GPU's role is most evident at 4K Ultra, where the 36.8 FPS result indicates that the card's 8 GB frame buffer and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the highest quality textures at that resolution. The fact that dropping from High to Low at 4K nearly doubles the frame rate (from 60.4 to 96.2 FPS) suggests that the GPU is heavily reliant on memory bandwidth and raw shading power, both of which are stretched thin at high settings. The 160 TMUs and 64 ROPs also contribute to the card's ability to handle texture-heavy scenes, but they cannot compensate for the resolution demands at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 (Phoenix) architecture, provides a strong foundation for gaming. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz, supported by a 16 MB shared L3 cache, ensure that it can keep up with the GPU's demands in most scenarios. The CPU's benchmark results reinforce this: it scores 20851 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2943 in single-core, with a Passmark single-thread score of 3684. These figures place it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (deltaPct 0%), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (deltaPct -0.1%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (deltaPct 0.3%), indicating that it performs on par with these processors in general workloads. In gaming, the high single-thread performance from the 4.7 GHz boost clock is particularly valuable for Downfall, a title from 2016 that is unlikely to scale well beyond a few cores. The 3DMark scores show a progression from 951 in single-thread to 6165 in max-threads, suggesting good scaling across its 12 threads, but the game's older engine likely benefits most from the strong single-core throughput.

Evidence of the CPU's sufficiency is visible in the 1080p Low result of 211.9 FPS, which is a frame rate that would challenge many processors. The fact that the combo can exceed 200 FPS at 1080p Low indicates that the Ryzen 5 8400F is not a bottleneck at that resolution and settings combination. However, at 4K, the CPU's role diminishes significantly, as the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. The 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth) also contribute to the CPU's efficiency, though these factors have less direct impact on gaming frame rates than clock speed and core count.

How This Combo Ranks

In the Downfall benchmark database, this combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1050th out of 1741 tested combos. This places it in the 60th percentile of all combinations, meaning roughly 60% of tested systems perform better in this game. The ranking reflects the GPU's age and mid-range positioning more than the CPU's capabilities, as the Ryzen 5 8400F is a modern processor with strong benchmark scores.

The GPU's 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs is slightly higher than the combo's overall ranking, which suggests that the pairing with this specific CPU does not fully leverage the GPU's potential. In contrast, the CPU's 82nd percentile ranking is notably higher, indicating that the processor is capable of driving more powerful graphics cards than the RTX 2070 SUPER. The gap between the CPU's high percentile and the GPU's lower percentile explains why the combo ranks in the lower-middle tier: the system is held back by the graphics card.

When comparing to the GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 2070 SUPER's average score of 22206 is within 2.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (21670) and within 0.9% of the GTX TITAN Z (22006). This tight grouping suggests that swapping to any of these cards would produce similar results in Downfall. The combo's rank of 1050 also implies that there are 691 tested combinations that perform worse, which includes systems with older or lower-end GPUs paired with similarly capable CPUs.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo in Downfall?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 211.9 at 1080p with Low settings. This drops to 141.4 FPS at 1080p High and 87.8 FPS at 1080p Ultra.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Downfall?

A: At 4K, the combo averages 60.4 FPS on High settings and 96.2 FPS on Low, but drops to 36.8 FPS on Ultra. Only Low and High settings are viable for a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25064, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (25057, deltaPct 0%) and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (25099, deltaPct -0.1%). It is 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (24993).

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and how does it affect performance?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At 4K Ultra, this configuration becomes a bottleneck, resulting in 36.8 FPS, while at 1080p Low it is sufficient for 211.9 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1440p High settings?

A: At 1440p High, the combo achieves 102 FPS, and the scaling pattern suggests the GPU is the primary limiter. The CPU's strong single-thread performance (2943 in Cinebench R23) is not saturated at this resolution and settings level.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested systems in Downfall?

A: It ranks 1050th out of 1741 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. The GPU's 65th percentile ranking is the main constraint, while the CPU's 82nd percentile indicates it has headroom for a more powerful graphics card.