Downfall

# Downfall with AMD Ryzen 7 7700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 represent a pairing of two high-end components from the same era, and their combined performance in Downfall reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions while still capable of exceptional frame rates. This 8-core, 16-thread Zen 4 processor with a 5.40 GHz boost clock sits at the 89th percentile among all CPUs, while the RTX 4090 with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 throughput ranks at the 91st percentile among GPUs. The measured data across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions with four quality presets shows a system that can push well beyond 400 FPS at low settings in 1080p, yet still demands careful settings selection at 4K to maintain smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the system delivers 443.8 FPS at 1920x1080, which falls to 313.4 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 29.4% reduction), and further to 196.4 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 55.7% reduction from the 1080p figure). This scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is doing much of the heavy lifting, with the RTX 4090 having headroom to spare. The gap between resolutions narrows as settings increase: at Ultra, 1080p yields 188.7 FPS, 1440p yields 130.3 FPS, and 4K yields 80.9 FPS. That 4K Ultra result is only 42.9% of the 1080p Ultra number, indicating that the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated.

The transition from Medium to High settings at each resolution shows a smaller absolute FPS impact than the jump from High to Ultra. At 1440p, Medium produces 260.8 FPS while High produces 214.9 FPS — a difference of 45.9 FPS. Moving from High to Ultra at the same resolution drops from 214.9 to 130.3 FPS, a much steeper 84.6 FPS decline. This nonlinear scaling suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are particularly taxing on the RTX 4090, possibly related to ray tracing or high-resolution shadow techniques common in horror titles. The data implies that at 4K, even this flagship GPU cannot maintain 100+ FPS at Ultra, and users targeting high refresh rates will need to consider Medium or High presets instead.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 7700X brings 8 cores and 16 threads on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provide a solid foundation for feeding the RTX 4090. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30325 and a single-core score of 4281, with Geekbench scores of 15538 multi-core and 2985 single-core. The 3DMark results show scaling from 2112 at 2 threads to 8859 at 16 threads, demonstrating that the processor gains substantial performance from additional threads, though the curve flattens after 8 threads (7057 at 8 threads vs 8859 at max threads).

The CPU's percentile ranking of 89 versus all CPUs places it slightly above the Intel Core i5-13500 (average score 34175, delta 0.4%) and Intel Core i7-12800HX (34136, delta 0.5%). It trails the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34584, delta -0.8%) and AMD EPYC 4244P (34599, delta -0.8%) by narrow margins. These rival comparisons suggest the 7700X is competitive but not class-leading in general compute, yet in Downfall the measured FPS at 1080p Low (443.8 FPS) indicates the CPU is keeping pace with what the GPU can render at that resolution. At 1080p Ultra (188.7 FPS), the CPU clearly has headroom remaining, as the GPU is the limiting factor at higher settings.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 26th out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the top 1.5% of all configurations tested. The comboRankInGame of 26 out of 1741 is notable given that the RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product per its production status, yet it still outperforms nearly all other pairings. The GPU's average benchmark score of 66473 places it at the 91st percentile, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66733, delta -0.4%), NVIDIA Tesla P40 (66127, delta 0.5%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67097, delta -0.9%), and NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (67320, delta -1.3%). These rivals are all professional or workstation-class cards, which underscores how the RTX 4090 sits in a performance tier above typical gaming GPUs.

The rank of 26 suggests that a small number of combinations — likely those pairing the RTX 4090 with even faster CPUs or configurations using multiple GPUs — achieve higher scores in Downfall. However, for a single-GPU horror game setup, this combo sits near the top of what is achievable. The measured FPS data confirms that the combo delivers playable frame rates at every resolution and settings combination tested, with the only sub-100 FPS result being 80.9 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 443.8 FPS at Low, 363.6 FPS at Medium, 298.7 FPS at High, and 188.7 FPS at Ultra. The ratio between Low and Ultra is approximately 2.35:1, showing that the Ultra preset exacts a heavy toll even at the lowest resolution. At 2560x1440, the numbers are 313.4 FPS (Low), 260.8 FPS (Medium), 214.9 FPS (High), and 130.3 FPS (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Low loses 130.4 FPS, Medium loses 102.8 FPS, High loses 83.8 FPS, and Ultra loses 58.4 FPS. This pattern indicates that higher settings reduce the relative performance penalty of increasing resolution, because the GPU becomes the limiting factor sooner.

At 3840x2160, the results are 196.4 FPS (Low), 161.6 FPS (Medium), 130.5 FPS (High), and 80.9 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result of 196.4 FPS is still well above typical 144Hz display refresh rates, making Low settings at 4K a viable option for competitive play. The 4K Ultra result of 80.9 FPS is playable on a 60Hz display but falls short of 100 FPS targets. Notably, the gap between High and Ultra grows from 110.0 FPS at 1080p to 84.6 FPS at 1440p to 49.6 FPS at 4K, suggesting that at 4K the Ultra preset's additional rendering demands are partially masked by the resolution's inherent GPU load.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play with this combo?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 443.8 FPS, which is more than enough for any high-refresh-rate monitor. The 2560x1440 Low result of 313.4 FPS also provides ample headroom.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, at 4K the system delivers 196.4 FPS at Low, 161.6 FPS at Medium, and 130.5 FPS at High settings. Only the Ultra preset falls below 100 FPS, at 80.9 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 7700X compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The 7700X has an average benchmark score of 34313, which is 0.4% above the Intel Core i5-13500 (34175) and 0.5% above the Intel Core i7-12800HX (34136). It is 0.8% below the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34584) and AMD EPYC 4244P (34599).

Q: Is the RTX 4090 still competitive despite being end-of-life?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 66473 places it at the 91st percentile. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66733, delta -0.4%) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67097, delta -0.9%), showing it remains within 1% of those workstation cards.

Q: What is the performance ratio between 1080p and 4K at the same settings?

A: At Low settings, 1080p delivers 443.8 FPS while 4K delivers 196.4 FPS, meaning 4K achieves 44.3% of 1080p performance. At Ultra, 1080p yields 188.7 FPS and 4K yields 80.9 FPS, or 42.9%.

Q: How many total combos does this pairing rank above?

A: This combo ranks 26th out of 1741 tested combinations in Downfall, placing it ahead of 1715 other configurations.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 144Hz or higher refresh rates, the 1080p High preset at 298.7 FPS provides an excellent balance of visual quality and performance, while 1080p Ultra at 188.7 FPS still exceeds 144Hz targets. At 1440p, the High preset at 214.9 FPS is the recommended choice for high-refresh displays, while Ultra at 130.3 FPS remains viable for 120Hz monitors. At 4K, the Medium preset at 161.6 FPS offers the best experience for 144Hz displays, while High at 130.5 FPS works well for 120Hz panels. The Ultra preset at 4K (80.9 FPS) is best reserved for 60Hz displays or players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate. The data suggests that the Medium preset provides the most consistent experience across all resolutions, with FPS ranging from 363.6 at 1080p to 161.6 at 4K, a ratio of 2.25:1 that indicates balanced scaling. Players should avoid Ultra at 4K if they require smooth motion, as the 80.9 FPS result sits below common 100 FPS targets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for high-resolution textures in horror games like Downfall that often use detailed environmental assets. The GPU's 16384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines deliver a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s. The boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz, combined with 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores, enable the demanding effects that drive the Ultra preset's performance penalty.

The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 66473 and 91st percentile ranking place it just below the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66733, delta -0.4%) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67097, delta -0.9%), though these deltas are within 1%. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS and FP16 performance at 82.58 TFLOPS (1:1) indicate substantial compute capability that benefits both rasterization and compute-heavy effects. The measured FPS data shows the GPU scaling nearly linearly with resolution when settings are held constant — at High settings, the 1440p result of 214.9 FPS is 72.0% of the 1080p result (298.7 FPS), while 4K at 130.5 FPS is 43.7% of 1080p. This scaling indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as expected with a processor that can sustain over 400 FPS in CPU-light scenarios. The 450 W TDP and 850 W suggested PSU reflect the power demands of maintaining such performance, though the data confirms the GPU delivers on its architectural promises in this horror title.