Downfall

# Downfall with AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + Intel Arc B370

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the Intel Arc B370 produces a highly unusual performance profile in Downfall, a horror title from 2016. The measured data reveals a system that struggles significantly at higher resolutions, with the combo ranking 2688th out of 2928 tested combinations — placing it in the bottom 8% of all tested hardware pairings. This analysis examines the measured frame rates across three resolutions and four settings presets, and what the data reveals about the underlying hardware dynamics of this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep and consistent drop as resolution increases across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 96 FPS at 1920x1080 to 68 FPS at 2560x1440, representing a 29% reduction, and then further drops to 43 FPS at 3840x2160, a 55% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This degradation pattern suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel count rises, which aligns with the Arc B370's position in the graphics hierarchy.

At Medium settings, the scaling curve shows 78 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 56 FPS at 1440p (a 28% reduction), and then to 35 FPS at 4K (a 55% reduction from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and Medium settings is notable — both show nearly identical relative declines, indicating that the resolution scaling penalty is largely independent of the quality preset at these levels.

High settings exhibit a slightly different pattern: 64 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p (28% reduction), and 29 FPS at 4K (55% reduction). The Ultra preset shows the most severe absolute decline, starting at just 40 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 29 FPS at 1440p (28% reduction), and collapsing to 18 FPS at 4K (55% reduction). The proportional consistency across all four presets — roughly 28% penalty for 1440p and 55% for 4K — strongly suggests that the limiting component is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound.

The data implies that the Intel Arc B370, with its system-shared memory architecture and 25 W TDP, simply cannot maintain adequate fill rates at higher resolutions. The measured pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are the hardware ceilings that explain these results. At 4K Ultra, the 18 FPS average is barely playable, while even 1440p High at 46 FPS approaches the edge of acceptable smoothness for a horror title that benefits from stable motion.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is a highly unusual graphics solution in this context. Its architecture is Xe3-LPG on Intel's 3 nm process, built on the Panther Lake chip. The GPU operates at a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, with 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 render output units. The memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with no dedicated VRAM — the memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent."

This shared memory architecture has profound implications for the measured results. At 1080p Low, the 96 FPS average suggests the GPU can handle the workload when memory bandwidth demands are modest. However, the steep decline at 4K — where even Low settings produce only 43 FPS — indicates that the system-shared memory becomes a bottleneck as resolution increases and memory pressure grows. The bandwidth being "System Dependent" means performance is tied to the DDR4 memory of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X platform, which offers 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth in dual-channel configuration.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score of 1184 places this GPU in the 5th percentile of all tested GPUs, with nearest rivals including the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (score 1186, delta -0.2%), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (score 1190, delta -0.5%), and AMD Radeon HD 7650M (score 1192, delta -0.7%). These are all legacy or low-end mobile parts, confirming that the Arc B370's raw graphics performance is minimal by modern standards.

The GPU's 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 12.29 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1) are the theoretical compute ceilings, but the measured game results suggest real-world performance is far below what these numbers might imply. The 10 ray tracing cores are present but likely insufficient for meaningful ray-traced workloads in a 2016 horror title. The DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) API support is technically current, but the hardware cannot leverage it effectively at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + Intel Arc B370 combination ranks 2688th out of 2928 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the bottom 8% of all tested hardware pairings. This ranking reflects the GPU's severe limitations more than the CPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 7 3700X itself is a solid mid-range processor from the 3000 series, based on Zen 2 architecture (Matisse codename) on TSMC's 7 nm process. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz.

The CPU's benchmark results show a capable processor: Cinebench R15 multicore score of 2092, single-core score of 204, Geekbench multicore score of 8899, and single-core score of 1593. PassMark tests show 22458 for multithread and 2656 for single-thread, with the CPU placing in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 34260 places it extremely close to rivals: AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, delta 0.1%), AMD EPYC 4244P (34220, delta 0.1%), Intel Core i5-13450HX (34333, delta -0.2%), and Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34083, delta 0.5%).

The massive discrepancy between the CPU's 84th percentile ranking and the combo's bottom-8% position in Downfall makes it clear that the GPU is the binding constraint. This is a textbook case of a bottleneck, where the processor's potential is entirely unrealized because the graphics solution cannot feed frames fast enough. The ranking data suggests that nearly any other GPU paired with this CPU would produce better results in this game.

FAQ

Q: Why does the 4K Ultra preset only achieve 18 FPS average?

A: The Intel Arc B370's system-shared memory architecture and low pixel rate (48.00 GPixel/s) cannot handle the combined load of 3840x2160 resolution and Ultra settings. The 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 places this GPU in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, indicating insufficient raw performance for this demanding configuration.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X bottlenecking the system in Downfall?

A: No, the data indicates the opposite. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 34260, which is nearly identical to rivals like the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, delta 0.1%), show a capable processor. The combo's 2688th rank out of 2928 combos points to the GPU as the limiting factor.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 is within 1% of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, delta -0.2%), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, delta -0.5%), and AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, delta -0.7%). The AMD FirePro M2000 (1168, delta 1.4%) is the only close rival that scores lower.

Q: What resolution provides the most playable experience for this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, all settings presets except Ultra exceed 60 FPS average (Low 96, Medium 78, High 64). The 2560x1440 resolution is playable at Low (68 FPS) and Medium (56 FPS), but High drops to 46 FPS. At 3840x2160, the best result is Low at 43 FPS, which is marginal.

Q: Does the CPU's 65 W TDP and DDR4 memory support affect game performance?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X's 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are relevant because the Arc B370 uses system-shared memory. The GPU's memory bandwidth is "System Dependent," meaning it relies on this CPU platform's memory subsystem, which can become a constraint at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU's 25 W TDP and integrated form factor influence results?

A: The Arc B370 is listed as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with a 25 W TDP, no power connectors, and "Portable Device Dependent" display outputs. This indicates it is designed for low-power mobile or compact systems, which explains its limited performance in a demanding game like Downfall.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X provides substantial processing headroom that remains largely untapped in Downfall when paired with the Arc B370. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on Zen 2 architecture, this CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance in synthetic benchmarks: Cinebench R15 multicore score of 2092, PassMark multithread score of 22458, and PassMark physics score of 1181. The single-thread performance is also respectable, with Cinebench R15 single-core at 204 and Geekbench single-core at 1593, which matters for games that rely heavily on a few threads.

The CPU's memory controller supports DDR4 in dual-channel configuration, providing 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This is particularly relevant because the Arc B370's memory is system-shared, meaning the CPU's memory bandwidth is shared with graphics workloads. At 1080p, the combined CPU and GPU memory demands seem manageable, as evidenced by the 96 FPS Low preset result. However, at 4K, the shared memory architecture likely creates contention, contributing to the dramatic FPS drops.

The CPU's PCIe Gen 4 support with 24 lanes (CPU only) provides ample bandwidth for discrete GPUs, but the Arc B370's bus interface is listed as "IGP," meaning it does not use PCIe at all. This further emphasizes that the graphics solution is integrated into the system, relying on shared resources. The CPU's 32 MB L3 cache and 512 KB L2 per core (with 64 KB L1 per core) provide solid caching for game data, but the bottleneck remains downstream at the GPU.

The 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34260, places this processor in the upper tier of desktop CPUs. Its nearest rivals — AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (delta 0.1%), AMD EPYC 4244P (delta 0.1%), Intel Core i5-13450HX (delta -0.2%), and Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (delta 0.5%) — all show virtually identical average scores, confirming that the 3700X remains competitive. In Downfall, the CPU is clearly not the limiting component; the GPU's 5th percentile ranking is the overwhelming performance constraint.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset for this combo depends heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering 78 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS and maximum of 90 FPS. This provides smooth, consistent performance for a horror game where frame pacing matters for atmosphere. The High preset at 64 FPS is also acceptable, but Medium's higher average and tighter minimum (67 FPS vs. no min data for High) suggest better consistency.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset at 68 FPS is the only clearly smooth option, while Medium at 56 FPS (min 48, max 64) is borderline playable. High at 46 FPS may be tolerable for a slower-paced horror title, but the data suggests Low or Medium for smoother motion. The 4K resolution is not recommended for this combo — even Low settings only achieve 43 FPS average, and Medium drops to 35 FPS with a 30 FPS minimum. For the best experience, users should prioritize 1080p with Medium settings, which yields 78 FPS average and stays above 67 FPS at all times.

The Ultra preset is not viable at any resolution — it produces 40 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. The performance gap between High and Ultra is substantial (64 to 40 FPS at 1080p), suggesting that Ultra settings introduce effects that the Arc B370 cannot handle. Given that this is a 2016 horror game, Medium settings likely still provide a visually acceptable experience while maintaining playable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS across settings is as follows: Low preset achieves 96 FPS average, Medium achieves 78 FPS (with minimum 67 and maximum 90), High achieves 64 FPS, and Ultra achieves 40 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 58% performance reduction, indicating that settings have a major impact at this resolution. The minimum FPS data for Medium (67 FPS) suggests the game maintains reasonably stable performance, while the maximum of 90 FPS shows there is headroom in lighter scenes.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 68 FPS, Medium at 56 FPS (minimum 48, maximum 64), High at 46 FPS, and Ultra at 29 FPS. The relative performance between settings is consistent with 1080p, but every preset is roughly 28-30% lower. The Medium preset's minimum of 48 FPS indicates occasional dips that could be noticeable in gameplay, though the average remains above 55 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 43 FPS, Medium at 35 FPS (minimum 30, maximum 40), High at 29 FPS, and Ultra at 18 FPS. The 4K results reveal the GPU's fundamental limitations, with even the lowest settings failing to maintain 60 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 30 FPS shows significant frame drops, and the Ultra preset at 18 FPS is effectively unplayable for most users.

The overall pattern across all twelve measured data points shows a consistent relationship: going from Low to Medium reduces FPS by roughly 19%, from Medium to High by 18%, and from High to Ultra by 38%. The Ultra preset's disproportionate penalty suggests it enables particularly demanding effects. Resolution scaling follows a consistent 28% penalty for 1440p and 55% for 4K across all settings, confirming the GPU as the limiting component. The data paints a clear picture: this combo is suitable for 1080p gaming at Medium settings, marginal at 1440p with Low settings, and not viable for 4K in Downfall.