Downfall

# Downfall with AMD Ryzen 7 7700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti delivers a strong performance profile in Downfall, a horror title from 2016. The measured data shows this combination ranks 970th out of 3,716 tested combos, placing it in the top quartile of all configurations. The CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on Zen 4 architecture, combines with the Ampere-based GPU to produce frame rates that range from 58 FPS at 4K Ultra to 311 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating a system that can handle both high-refresh-rate gaming and demanding visual settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Downfall?

A: The data shows the system delivers 93 FPS at 4K High, 149 FPS at 1440p High, and 208 FPS at 1080p High. For the most balanced experience, 1440p High at 149 FPS provides high detail with a frame rate well above 60 FPS, while 4K High at 93 FPS is also viable for those prioritizing resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41,187, which is 0.8% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870), 2% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40,377), and 1.2% lower than the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (41,707). It also sits 1.7% below the NVIDIA Tesla M40 (41,897).

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile relative to all processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 35,909. This places it ahead of most processors, with its nearest rival being the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 at 35,802, a 0.3% difference, and the Intel Core 7 250H at 35,728, a 0.5% difference.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of the CPU and how does it impact gaming?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700X supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. This high bandwidth helps feed the 8-core, 16-thread processor efficiently, which is relevant for maintaining consistent frame delivery in CPU-sensitive scenes.

Q: What are the minimum frame rates recorded for this combo?

A: The measured data includes minimum FPS values only for the Medium settings: 216 FPS at 1080p, 154 FPS at 1440p, and 96 FPS at 4K. These minimums indicate the floor for frame times at medium quality, ensuring a smooth experience without significant drops.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) at three resolutions provides a clear picture of the optimal balance between visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 208 FPS, while Ultra drops to 130 FPS — both are well above any playable threshold, but High offers a 60% higher frame rate with only a modest reduction in visual fidelity. At 1440p, High achieves 149 FPS versus 93 FPS for Ultra, making High the clear choice for maintaining a high refresh rate experience. At 4K, High produces 93 FPS, which is playable, while Ultra falls to 58 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay but risks noticeable judder.

For the best overall experience across all resolutions, the High preset stands out as the sweet spot. It maintains frame rates above 90 FPS at every resolution, from 93 FPS at 4K to 208 FPS at 1080p, while still providing a substantial visual upgrade over Medium. The Medium preset, with its recorded minimum FPS values of 96 at 4K, 154 at 1440p, and 216 at 1080p, also offers excellent consistency, but High adds visual polish without sacrificing playability. The Ultra preset should only be considered at 1080p (130 FPS) or 1440p (93 FPS) for users who prioritize maximum detail over frame rate, while 4K Ultra at 58 FPS is the only setting that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting this preset is best reserved for screenshot purposes or non-competitive play.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor built on the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Raphael) using a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features a base clock of 4.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a 105 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache, which provides ample on-die storage for game assets. The processor supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and an 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, ensuring that data can flow quickly to the cores.

In benchmark tests, the CPU shows strong scaling from 2 threads (3dmark score of 2,112) to 8 threads (7,057) and near-linear gains to max threads (8,852), with the 16-thread score at 8,859. The single-thread score of 1,090 in 3dmark and 1,987 in Cinebench R23 single-core indicates robust per-core performance, which is critical for games that rely on a few heavily loaded threads. The multi-thread scores, such as 19,088 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 12,451 in Geekbench multicore, demonstrate that the 8-core design can handle the broader workload of modern titles. For Downfall, a 2016 horror game, the CPU's high single-thread performance is likely the more relevant factor, as older games often have less optimized threading. The processor's 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35,909, confirms it is a high-end part that will not bottleneck the GPU in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti achieves a rank of 970 out of 3,716 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the 74th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong balance between the CPU and GPU, with neither component being a significant weak point. The CPU's 85th percentile standing among all processors is slightly higher than the combo's overall rank, suggesting that the GPU may be a minor limiting factor in certain scenarios, but the GPU's 83rd percentile among all graphics cards is nearly identical, indicating a well-matched pairing.

When compared to other combos in the database, this system outperforms roughly three-quarters of all tested configurations, which is an impressive result for a CPU released in September 2022 and a GPU released in May 2021. The combination's rank suggests that it can handle Downfall at high settings across all resolutions, as confirmed by the measured FPS data. The CPU's nearest rivals — the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, Intel Core 7 250H, AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350, and Intel Core Ultra 9 185H — all have average scores within 0.7% of the 7700X, indicating that any of these processors would likely produce similar results in this game. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, are within 2% of the RTX 3080 Ti's average score, so swapping the GPU for one of these would have a minimal impact on frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip at an 8 nm process from Samsung. It contains 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units, along with 80 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores. The GPU has a base clock of 1,365 MHz and a boost clock of 1,665 MHz, with memory running at 1,188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s, which is ample for high-resolution textures and large frame buffers. The GPU's pixel rate is 186.5 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 532.8 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 34.10 TFLOPS.

In benchmark tests, the RTX 3080 Ti achieves a Passmark G3D score of 26,896 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 192,697, with an average benchmark score of 41,187. This places it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (0.8% lower), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (2% lower), and NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (1.2% higher). For Downfall, the GPU's role is critical, as the game's horror atmosphere likely relies on detailed environments and lighting effects. The measured FPS shows that the GPU scales well with resolution, dropping from 311 FPS at 1080p Low to 138 FPS at 4K Low, a 56% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is more severe, from 130 FPS at 1080p to 58 FPS at 4K, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings and resolutions. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this 2016 title, even at 4K Ultra, as the game does not appear to exceed this allocation based on the measured performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the system delivers 311 FPS on Low, 254 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 216 and maximum of 292), 208 FPS on High, and 130 FPS on Ultra. These frame rates show that at 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-limited at lower settings, with the GPU having significant headroom. At 1440p, the frame rates drop to 222 FPS on Low, 182 FPS on Medium (minimum 154, maximum 209), 149 FPS on High, and 93 FPS on Ultra. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is approximately 29% on Low, 28% on Medium, 28% on High, and 28% on Ultra, showing a consistent scaling pattern. At 4K, the system achieves 138 FPS on Low, 113 FPS on Medium (minimum 96, maximum 130), 93 FPS on High, and 58 FPS on Ultra. The drop from 1440p to 4K is approximately 38% on Low, 38% on Medium, 38% on High, and 38% on Ultra, again showing uniform scaling.

The Minimum FPS values, available only for Medium settings, are 216 at 1080p, 154 at 1440p, and 96 at 4K. These minimums represent the worst-case frame times and indicate that the system maintains smooth performance without severe stuttering, even at 4K Medium. The gap between average and minimum FPS at Medium settings is 38 FPS at 1080p, 28 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K, suggesting that frame times become more consistent as resolution increases, likely due to the GPU becoming the dominant bottleneck and reducing CPU-induced variability.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides insight into the system's bottleneck dynamics. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 311 at 1080p to 222 at 1440p (a 29% reduction) and then to 138 at 4K (a 38% reduction from 1440p). At High settings, the reduction from 1080p to 1440p is 28% (208 to 149 FPS), and from 1440p to 4K is 38% (149 to 93 FPS). At Ultra settings, the reductions are 28% (130 to 93 FPS) and 38% (93 to 58 FPS), respectively. This uniform scaling pattern — approximately 28% for the resolution step from 1080p to 1440p and 38% for the step from 1440p to 4K — indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases.

The consistent scaling percentages across all settings presets suggest that the CPU is not introducing additional bottlenecks at higher resolutions. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see smaller FPS drops at higher settings, where the GPU workload increases and the CPU has more time to prepare frames. Instead, the proportional scaling indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti is the bottleneck across the board, with its performance scaling roughly with the pixel count increase. However, at 1080p Low (311 FPS) and 1080p Medium (254 FPS), the frame rates are so high that the CPU's single-thread performance (3dmark single-thread score of 1,090) may begin to cap the maximum achievable FPS. This is supported by the fact that the FPS difference between Low and Medium at 1080p is 57 FPS, while at 4K the difference is only 25 FPS, showing that the CPU has more influence at lower resolutions. Overall, the system is well-balanced for 1440p and 4K gaming, where the GPU's capabilities are fully utilized without the CPU becoming a limiting factor.