Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers a fascinating performance profile in Downfall, a 2016 horror title that clearly scales well beyond typical expectations. The data reveals a combo that is heavily GPU-bound at 4K but transitions into a more balanced, CPU-influenced state at lower resolutions, resulting in frame rates that range from a highly playable 90 FPS at 4K Ultra to a blistering 368 FPS at 1080p Low. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS rows to explore how resolution, settings, and the specific characteristics of this CPU and GPU shape the final experience, and where this pairing stands among the 2,928 tested combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable but steep decline in performance as resolution increases, though the magnitude of the drop is heavily dependent on the graphics preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 368 FPS at 1920x1080 to 329 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 39 FPS, and then further down to 214 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 42% decrease in performance from 1080p to 4K, indicating that even at the lowest visual fidelity, the GPU is still being pushed harder by the higher pixel count.

The scaling becomes more dramatic at higher settings. With High settings, the average FPS drops from 319 at 1080p to 231 at 1440p, and then to 144 at 4K — a 55% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The Medium preset shows a similar pattern, with averages of 343, 282, and 175 FPS across the three resolutions, respectively. The most severe scaling occurs at Ultra settings, where performance plummets from 202 FPS at 1080p to 144 FPS at 1440p and finally to 90 FPS at 4K, a 55% total drop. This pattern suggests that as the settings increase, the workload becomes exponentially more demanding on the GPU, while the CPU's role in frame pacing becomes less of a limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The data implies that at 1080p, the system is likely not fully GPU-bound, as the RTX 5090 D's immense compute power is partially held back by the Ryzen 7 5700's Zen 3 architecture. The relatively small FPS gain from 319 at 1080p High to 368 at 1080p Low (a 15% increase) suggests that the CPU is starting to cap the maximum frame rate. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the unequivocal bottleneck, as the frame rate differences between presets are more pronounced, with Ultra (90 FPS) being exactly half the speed of Low (214 FPS). This indicates that the 4K resolution is leveraging the RTX 5090 D's full capabilities, while the CPU has more headroom to feed frames.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a monstrous GPU, and its specifications align perfectly with the high frame rates observed. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, it offers a massive 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth, which is critical for feeding the 170 RT cores and 21,760 shading units at high resolutions. The card's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with its 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, provide the raw computational horsepower needed to push Downfall to over 200 FPS at 1080p and maintain 144 FPS at 4K High.

The GPU's role becomes clearer when examining the 4K results. At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 175, with a minimum of 149 and a maximum of 202. This 53 FPS variance between min and max suggests that the GPU is working hard to maintain frame times, and the 32 GB VRAM is likely sufficient to handle the game's textures without any memory-related stuttering. The fact that the GPU maintains a 90 FPS average at 4K Ultra, despite the massive workload, highlights its brute-force approach to rendering. Comparatively, the RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score of 77,712 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, and it sits just 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT in synthetic tests, though these rivals are clearly not in the same performance tier in real-world gaming scenarios.

At lower resolutions, the GPU's role shifts. The 1080p results show that the RTX 5090 D is not the primary constraint, as the frame rates cap out around 368 FPS at Low settings. This indicates that the GPU is rendering frames faster than the CPU can issue draw calls, making the processor the limiting component. The GPU's high pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are more than enough to handle the 1920x1080 resolution, but the data shows that the system cannot fully utilize this power due to the CPU bottleneck.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is a capable 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provide a solid foundation for gaming, but its PCIe Gen 3 interface (20 lanes) could theoretically limit data transfer speeds to the GPU. However, the benchmark results indicate that the CPU's role in Downfall is more about frame pacing than raw data throughput.

At 1080p, the CPU's influence is evident. The difference between Low (368 FPS) and High (319 FPS) is only 49 FPS, which is a relatively small gap compared to the 4K results. This suggests that the Ryzen 7 5700 is struggling to keep up with the RTX 5090 D's frame generation, capping the maximum FPS around the 350-370 range. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by a 3DMark single-thread score of 901 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1,907, is decent but not exceptional for a high-end gaming rig. The game likely relies on a few primary threads, and the CPU's 3DMark 16-thread score of 6,628 shows that multi-threaded scaling is not a bottleneck, but the per-core performance is what limits the maximum frame rate.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 78th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25,517, places it in the upper-midrange tier. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (0.1% slower) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U (0.1% faster), which shows that the Ryzen 7 5700 is competitively positioned. However, in a game like Downfall where high FPS is achievable, the CPU's boost clock of 4.60 GHz is the key factor, and the data indicates that it is holding the system back from achieving even higher frame rates at 1080p. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU's role diminishes, as the GPU's workload increases and the frame rate drops to a level where the CPU can keep up.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. For users with a 4K display, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, delivering an average of 175 FPS with a minimum of 149 FPS. This is significantly better than the High preset (144 FPS average) and far superior to Ultra (90 FPS average). The 4K Medium setting provides a smooth, high-refresh-rate experience that is well above the 144 Hz threshold, making it the recommended choice for most players.

At 1440p, the High preset is the sweet spot, achieving an average of 231 FPS. This is a 60% improvement over the Ultra preset (144 FPS) and only a 18% reduction from the Medium preset (282 FPS). The High preset offers a better visual experience than Medium while still maintaining frame rates that exceed 200 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Low preset at 1440p (329 FPS) is unnecessary for most users, as the visual quality degradation is not worth the marginal FPS gain over High.

For 1080p users, the High preset is the clear winner, providing 319 FPS on average. The Ultra preset (202 FPS) is a significant step down and may not be worth the visual upgrade, while the Medium preset (343 FPS) offers only a 7% improvement over High. The data suggests that the CPU bottleneck at 1080p makes the choice between Medium and High less impactful, as both are well above 300 FPS. The Low preset (368 FPS) is only 15% faster than High, indicating that the CPU is the limiting factor, not the GPU. Therefore, High settings at 1080p provide the most visually pleasing experience without sacrificing meaningful performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 54th out of 2,928 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the top 1.8% of all systems. This is an impressive ranking, but it is not the absolute top, which raises questions about what other combinations are achieving higher frame rates. Given the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking and the CPU's 78th percentile ranking, one might expect this combo to rank higher, but the data indicates that the CPU is a slight bottleneck in this specific game.

The combo's rank suggests that other pairings with faster CPUs, such as those with higher single-thread performance, can extract more performance from the RTX 5090 D in Downfall. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% faster) and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (2.4% faster), are not likely to achieve the same real-world frame rates due to their different architectures and driver support. However, the ranking implies that the Ryzen 7 5700's 4.60 GHz boost clock is not sufficient to fully unlock the RTX 5090 D's potential at lower resolutions, which is where the combo loses ground to higher-ranked systems.

The data shows that this combo is exceptionally well-suited for 4K gaming, where the GPU is the dominant factor and the CPU's limitations are masked. At 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 90 FPS, which is playable, but at 4K High and Medium, it delivers 144 FPS and 175 FPS, respectively, making it a top-tier 4K gaming setup. The ranking of 54 out of 2928 reflects the GPU's raw power, but the CPU's midrange positioning prevents it from breaking into the top 50, likely due to other combos using higher-clocked or more gaming-optimized processors.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo in Downfall?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 368, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the peak performance of the combo in the tested scenarios.

*Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 4K gaming in Downfall?*

A: The data shows that the combo excels at 4K gaming, where it maintains 144 FPS on High settings and 175 FPS on Medium. At 1080p, the CPU becomes a bottleneck, limiting frame rates to around 368 FPS maximum, which is still excellent but shows diminishing returns.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, placing it 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT. It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 2.4% in average score.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 214 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 90 FPS. This represents a 58% reduction in performance, highlighting the massive workload increase from the Ultra preset.

Q: Does the Ryzen 7 5700 limit the RTX 5090 D's performance?

A: Yes, at 1080p, the CPU appears to cap the frame rate around 368 FPS, as the difference between Low and High settings is only 49 FPS. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's role is less significant.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: The minimum FPS for the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is 240, with a maximum of 324 and an average of 282 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact measured average FPS for each resolution and settings combination:

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------|----------|-------------|---------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 144 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 214 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 175 | 149 | 202 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 90 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | High | 231 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 329 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 282 | 240 | 324 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 144 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | High | 319 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 368 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 343 | 291 | 394 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 202 | — | — |

The data reveals a clear trend: the combo provides playable frame rates at all settings and resolutions, with the 4K Ultra preset being the most demanding at 90 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K offers the best balance of quality and performance, while the 1080p High preset is the recommended choice for high-refresh-rate gaming. The min and max FPS values for the Medium preset across all resolutions show a consistent variance, indicating stable frame pacing without severe drops. Overall, this pairing delivers exceptional performance in Downfall, with the GPU's power dominating at higher resolutions and the CPU's limitations becoming apparent only at 1080p.