Downfall

FAQ

Q: What is the best-performing settings preset for this CPU/GPU combo in Downfall?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers the highest average frame rate at 442 FPS. However, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 provides a more balanced experience with 361 FPS average, which is still exceptionally high while likely offering better visual fidelity than Low.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 82 FPS. This is the most demanding configuration measured, and while playable, it represents a significant drop from the 132 FPS average seen at 4K High settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 High, the average FPS is 296. Moving to 2560x1440 High drops this to 212 FPS, and at 3840x2160 High it further drops to 132 FPS. This represents a 55.4% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Does the Medium preset show any frame time consistency issues?

A: The data includes min and max FPS values only for Medium settings. At 3840x2160 Medium, the range is 136 to 185 FPS (an average of 161 FPS). At 2560x1440 Medium, the range is 219 to 297 FPS (average 258 FPS). At 1920x1080 Medium, the range is 307 to 416 FPS (average 361 FPS). These ranges are relatively tight, indicating stable performance.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Downfall?

A: The combo ranks 109th out of 3716 tested combinations in Downfall. This places it in the top 3% of all tested combos, indicating exceptional performance for this title.

Q: What is the frame rate at 1440p Ultra compared to 4K High?

A: At 2560x1440 Ultra, the average FPS is 132, which is identical to the average FPS at 3840x2160 High (132 FPS). This suggests that the Ultra preset at 1440p is as demanding as the High preset at 4K for this combo.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear hierarchy across settings presets. For players prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers an extraordinary 442 FPS average, which is more than sufficient for any display technology. However, this preset likely sacrifices visual quality in a horror title where atmosphere matters.

The Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers the best balance in the data: 361 FPS average with a recorded range of 307 to 416 FPS. This frame time consistency is valuable in a horror game where sudden frame drops can break immersion. The 307 FPS minimum is still far above any display's refresh rate capability.

For 1440p users, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 provides 258 FPS average with a 219 to 297 FPS range. This maintains high refresh rate compatibility while increasing resolution. The High preset at 2560x1440 drops to 212 FPS average, which is still excellent but shows diminishing returns for the visual upgrade.

At 4K, the Medium preset at 3840x2160 achieves 161 FPS average with a 136 to 185 FPS range. This is the recommended 4K configuration for high refresh rate displays. The High preset at 4K drops to 132 FPS average, and Ultra drops dramatically to 82 FPS. Given that 82 FPS is below the 90 FPS threshold many consider optimal for smooth gameplay, the Ultra preset at 4K should be avoided unless visual fidelity is the absolute priority.

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the most consistent experience across all resolutions, with the tightest min-max ranges relative to their averages.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about system bottlenecks. At Low settings, the progression is 442 FPS at 1920x1080, 315 FPS at 2560x1440, and 196 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 55.7% drop from 1080p to 4K, showing that even at Low settings, resolution significantly impacts performance.

For High settings, the scaling is 296 FPS at 1080p, 212 FPS at 1440p, and 132 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28.4%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 37.7%. This increasingly steep decline at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The Medium preset shows similar scaling: 361 FPS at 1080p, 258 FPS at 1440p, and 161 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 28.5% and 37.6% respectively, mirroring the High preset pattern almost exactly.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling: 185 FPS at 1080p, 132 FPS at 1440p, and 82 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28.6%, but the drop from 1440p to 4K is 37.9%. This consistent pattern across all presets suggests that the RTX 4090's rendering load scales predictably with resolution, and the GPU is the limiting component at 4K.

The fact that Ultra at 1080p (185 FPS) is higher than High at 1440p (212 FPS) is notable, but the gap narrows significantly at higher resolutions. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU still has headroom to feed the GPU, but at 4K, the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 109th out of 3716 tested combinations in Downfall. This places it in the top 2.9% of all tested combos, a remarkable achievement for a system pairing a 6-core CPU with the flagship RTX 4090 GPU.

The CPU alone holds an 81st percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the GPU holds an 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs. The combo's 109th rank in Downfall suggests that the game is slightly more demanding on the GPU than the CPU, as the GPU's higher percentile ranking contributes more to the overall placement.

In the nearestRivals data, the Ryzen 5 9600X performs nearly identically to several competing CPUs. It is 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, 0.5% below the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H, 0.6% below the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT, and 0.8% below the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS. These deltas are negligible in real-world gaming scenarios, confirming that the CPU is not a limiting factor in Downfall.

The GPU's nearestRivals show a similar pattern. The RTX 4090 is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta), 0.3% above the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, 2.5% below the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, and 2.9% above the AMD Radeon PRO V710. These small differences are within measurement noise and do not affect the combo's ranking.

The 109th rank out of 3716 combos means this system outperforms 3607 other combinations tested in Downfall. This is an elite-tier result, placing the combo in the same performance class as systems with more expensive or higher-core-count CPUs.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this combo for Downfall. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for high-resolution texture streaming in a horror game with detailed environments. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, with 21 Gbps effective speed.

The GPU's base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These clock speeds, combined with 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, deliver the raw compute throughput needed for the frame rates observed. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores provide additional capabilities, though Downfall's measured data does not isolate ray tracing performance.

The 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate explain why the GPU can maintain 132 FPS at 4K High settings. The texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s ensures that texture-heavy scenes do not become a bottleneck.

The GPU's 450 W TDP and triple-slot design indicate a high-power component, and the 850 W suggested PSU requirement reflects the system's overall power needs. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides sufficient bandwidth for this game's data transfer requirements.

The RTX 4090's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs, combined with its benchmark scores (38,194 in Passmark G3D and 26,613 in Passmark GPU Compute), confirms its position as a top-tier graphics solution. The fact that this GPU is end-of-life in production status does not diminish its current performance in Downfall.

The data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rate differences between settings presets. The jump from Low to Medium at 4K costs 35 FPS (196 to 161), while the jump from Medium to High costs 29 FPS (161 to 132), and High to Ultra costs 50 FPS (132 to 82). This non-linear scaling suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately impact the GPU's rendering pipeline.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 442 FPS average
• Medium: 361 FPS average (307 min, 416 max)
• High: 296 FPS average
• Ultra: 185 FPS average

At 1080p, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Even Ultra settings maintain 185 FPS, which is above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The Medium preset's 307 FPS minimum is particularly impressive, showing that even in demanding scenes, frame rates do not drop below 300 FPS.

2560x1440:

• Low: 315 FPS average
• Medium: 258 FPS average (219 min, 297 max)
• High: 212 FPS average
• Ultra: 132 FPS average

At 1440p, performance remains excellent. The Medium preset's 219 FPS minimum is still well above standard 144Hz displays. The Ultra preset's 132 FPS average matches the 4K High performance, indicating that 1440p Ultra and 4K High have similar GPU demands.

3840x2160:

• Low: 196 FPS average
• Medium: 161 FPS average (136 min, 185 max)
• High: 132 FPS average
• Ultra: 82 FPS average

At 4K, the combo remains highly playable at all settings except Ultra. The Low preset's 196 FPS average is exceptional for 4K. The Medium preset's 136 FPS minimum is still above 120 FPS, making it suitable for high refresh rate 4K displays. The Ultra preset's 82 FPS average is the only configuration that dips below 100 FPS, and its minimum FPS is not recorded in the data, suggesting potential frame time instability.

The scaling across resolutions shows a consistent pattern: each step from Low to Ultra costs roughly 20-30% performance, and each resolution step from 1080p to 1440p to 4K costs roughly 30-40% performance. This linear relationship indicates that the game's rendering pipeline is well-optimized and scales predictably with both settings and resolution.