Downfall

# Downfall with AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER

The data for Downfall with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER reveals a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings, but with some surprising twists in the low and ultra presets. Measured across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, this combo demonstrates extreme headroom at lower resolutions, suggesting the CPU is doing more heavy lifting than one might expect for a horror title. The benchmark results show a clear hierarchy: low settings produce massive frame rates, while ultra settings cut performance nearly in half at every resolution, indicating that the game's ultra preset is disproportionately demanding on the GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic but follows a consistent pattern across all settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 368.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 161.6 FPS at 3840x2160 — a reduction of roughly 56%. This steep decline at the lowest preset suggests that even at Low, the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel count quadruples. At Medium settings, the drop is from 304.2 FPS to 133.2 FPS, a 56% reduction as well, showing a nearly identical scaling curve. High settings see a drop from 248.5 FPS to 108.3 FPS, again around 56%. Ultra settings follow suit, falling from 152.8 FPS to 68.6 FPS, a 55% reduction.

The consistency of this ~55-56% scaling across all presets is telling. It implies that Downfall is not a game where resolution scaling interacts with settings in a complex way; rather, the frame rate penalty for moving to 4K is almost purely a function of pixel throughput. At 1440p, the frame rates are substantially higher than 4K but still show the same relative pattern: Low hits 263.7 FPS, Medium 216.5 FPS, High 177.3 FPS, and Ultra 112.7 FPS. The gap between 1440p and 4K is roughly 40% in every case, reinforcing that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions. Interestingly, the 1080p Ultra score of 152.8 FPS is actually lower than the 1440p Low score of 263.7 FPS, highlighting that the Ultra preset imposes a heavier load than resolution alone.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 brings 8 cores and 16 threads to the table, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its benchmark scores are robust: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29302 and a single-core score of 4136, placing it in the 91st percentile against all CPUs. In Downfall, these specs appear to prevent any CPU bottleneck even at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 300 FPS on Low settings. The 3DMark scores are equally strong — 8484 for 16 threads and 8479 for max threads — suggesting that the processor's multi-threaded capabilities are well-utilized when the game demands it.

At 1080p Low, the 368.3 FPS average indicates the CPU can feed the GPU far beyond what most displays can show. The single-thread score of 1049 in 3DMark and 4063 in PassMark single-thread tests corroborate that per-core performance is sufficient for this horror title's logic. The L3 cache of 32 MB shared likely helps with scene data, but the data shows the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution tested. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly stressed, the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are more than adequate to maintain 68.6 FPS without dropping into CPU-bound territory.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 368.3 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 4K, the maximum drops to 161.6 FPS, also on Low settings.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra produces 112.7 FPS while High delivers 177.3 FPS, a difference of 64.6 FPS. This suggests the Ultra preset imposes a significant additional GPU load.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No, the data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 7700's boost clock of 5.30 GHz and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4136 support frame rates above 300 FPS at 1080p Low.

Q: What is the frame rate penalty for moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 177.3 at 1440p to 108.3 at 4K, a reduction of 69 FPS or approximately 39%.

Q: Does the Low preset at 4K outperform the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: Yes, 4K Low averages 161.6 FPS, which is higher than 1080p Ultra's 152.8 FPS. This indicates that resolution scaling is less punishing than the Ultra preset's effects.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance relate to in-game results?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700 scores 29302 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 34470 in PassMark multithread, which aligns with its ability to maintain high frame rates even at 4K, where the GPU is the primary constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration ranks 182nd out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the top 10.5% of all systems benchmarked. Given the game's 2016 release date, this ranking is notably high, suggesting that modern mid-to-high-end hardware can still dominate this horror title. The rank reflects a system that delivers consistently high frame rates across all tested settings and resolutions. The GPU's 86th percentile against all GPUs and the CPU's 91st percentile against all CPUs both contribute to this strong standing. Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing sits well above average, likely due to the GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and the CPU's 8-core Zen 4 architecture. The data implies that for Downfall, this combo offers near-flagship-level performance without requiring the absolute top-tier components.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS values suggest that the High preset offers the best balance for most users. At 4K, High yields 108.3 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while Medium only improves this to 133.2 FPS — a marginal gain that may not justify the visual downgrade. At 1440p, High delivers 177.3 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays, while Medium reaches 216.5 FPS for those seeking even higher refresh rates. The Ultra preset is the outlier: at 4K it drops to 68.6 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 37% reduction from High. Given that Ultra at 1080p only reaches 152.8 FPS, the preset's demands appear disproportionate to its visual benefits. Low settings, while producing the highest frame rates, are likely unnecessary except for competitive play or extremely high refresh rate monitors. The data recommends High as the default, with Medium as a fallback for 4K users wanting extra headroom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are: Low 368.3 FPS, Medium 304.2 FPS, High 248.5 FPS, and Ultra 152.8 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a stepwise decline, with the largest single drop occurring between High and Ultra (95.7 FPS). At 2560x1440, the scores are: Low 263.7 FPS, Medium 216.5 FPS, High 177.3 FPS, and Ultra 112.7 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows slightly to 64.6 FPS. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 161.6 FPS, Medium 133.2 FPS, High 108.3 FPS, and Ultra 68.6 FPS. The High-to-Ultra drop here is 39.7 FPS, the smallest absolute difference of any resolution, indicating that at 4K the GPU is so saturated that the preset choice has less relative impact. The data shows that 1080p Low is the only configuration exceeding 350 FPS, while 4K Ultra is the only one below 70 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 8448 shading units and a boost clock of 2610 MHz. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivers a bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s, which is critical for Downfall's texture-heavy horror environments. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 31811 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5569 place it in the 86th percentile against all GPUs. In this game, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully utilized at Low settings, given the 368.3 FPS result, but at 4K Ultra, the 68.6 FPS average shows the GPU is working near its limits. The 44.10 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 689.0 GTexel/s texture rate provide ample raw power, yet the Ultra preset's demands still cut performance by 55% compared to Low at 4K. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 66 RT cores and 264 tensor cores are present but appear irrelevant to this game's rendering, as Downfall likely does not use ray tracing extensively based on the frame rate behavior. The GPU's end-of-life production status and 2024 release date suggest it is a mature product, and the data confirms it remains highly capable for this title.