Downfall

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Downfall reveals a clear hierarchy across the four settings presets, with the optimal choice depending on the target resolution and display refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination delivers 294.5 FPS on Low, 240 FPS on Medium, 200.8 FPS on High, and 126 FPS on Ultra. The step from High to Ultra costs 74.8 FPS, a 37% reduction, while the step from Medium to High costs 39.2 FPS, a 16% reduction. Given that the Ultra preset drops below the 144 Hz threshold at 1080p, High provides the best balance: it remains well above 144 Hz while offering substantially better visual fidelity than Medium or Low.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. High produces 138.7 FPS, which is just shy of a 144 Hz display's ceiling, while Medium produces 171.6 FPS and Ultra drops to 86.3 FPS. The data suggests High is the sweet spot for 1440p, as it maintains a playable frame rate above 120 FPS while the jump from Medium to High only costs 32.9 FPS. For users with 60 Hz displays, Ultra at 86.3 FPS remains viable, but the 52.4 FPS penalty over High makes it less attractive for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained. High yields 88.8 FPS, Medium yields 106.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 56.1 FPS. Low produces 131.8 FPS, which is the only preset that comfortably exceeds 120 FPS at 4K. The recommendation here is Medium for most users: it provides a 17.9% improvement over High while staying above the 100 FPS mark. Ultra should only be considered for cinematic experiences on 60 Hz displays, as the 32.7 FPS drop from High to Ultra is significant.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's clock behavior is notable: the base clock runs at 1330 MHz, the game clock at 2070 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2520 MHz. This spread indicates that the card can scale its frequency substantially under load, which is reflected in the measured FPS scaling across settings.

The memory configuration plays a critical role in Downfall's resolution scaling. At 4K, the GPU's 16 GB frame buffer is sufficient to avoid capacity-related stutters, as evidenced by the smooth FPS progression from Low (131.8) to Medium (106.8) to High (88.8). The 644.6 GB/s bandwidth supports the texture-heavy horror environments, and the pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s helps maintain fill rates at high resolutions. The 128 ROPs and 224 TMUs provide the geometry and texturing throughput needed for the game's lighting effects.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 25381 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290. The GPU sits at the 79th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA A2, scores 34866 in the average benchmark with a deltaPct of -0.2, meaning the RX 9070 trails by a negligible margin. The Quadro GV100 (34677, +0.3) and Radeon HD 7970 (34541, +0.7) are similarly close, indicating that the RX 9070's raw compute is competitive with a wide range of hardware.

The FP32 throughput of 36.13 TFLOPS and FP16 of 72.25 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) suggest strong shader performance. However, the measured FPS data indicates that Downfall's rendering workload is heavily influenced by resolution, with the 4K Ultra preset (56.1 FPS) representing a 56% drop from 4K Low (131.8 FPS). This scaling pattern points to the GPU being the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drops disproportionately when settings increase.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D provides 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The processor features a substantial 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is critical for gaming workloads that benefit from high cache hit rates. The CPU's 3DMark scores show strong multi-threaded performance: 7980 at 16 threads, 6539 at 8 threads, and 7967 at max threads, while single-thread performance reaches 959.

In Downfall, the CPU's influence is most apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p, the frame rates scale dramatically with settings: 294.5 FPS on Low, 240 FPS on Medium, 200.8 FPS on High, and 126 FPS on Ultra. The fact that Low settings at 1080p achieve nearly 300 FPS indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently even at very high frame rates. The 5.00 GHz boost clock and the large L3 cache likely contribute to maintaining consistent frame pacing in the game's horror sequences.

At 1440p and 4K, the CPU's role diminishes as the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The FPS drops from 1080p to 1440p are relatively modest for Low settings (294.5 to 211.2, a 28% reduction), suggesting the CPU can still keep up. However, the drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings (211.2 to 131.8, a 38% reduction) indicates the GPU is now the bottleneck. The CPU's benchmark profile places it at the 87th percentile among all CPUs, with an average score of 31580. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-12700F, scores 31543 with a deltaPct of 0.1, making the two effectively tied.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s and dual-channel DDR5 support provide adequate data throughput for the game's streaming requirements. The 64 KB L1 and 1 MB L2 per-core caches, combined with the 96 MB L3, create a memory hierarchy that reduces latency in CPU-bound scenes. The Cinebench R23 scores of 29149 multi-core and 4115 single-core further confirm the processor's capability to handle both multi-threaded background tasks and the single-threaded game logic.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 144 Hz 1080p monitor?

A: High settings deliver 200.8 FPS at 1920x1080, which comfortably exceeds 144 Hz. Ultra drops to 126 FPS, below the refresh rate, so High is the recommended preset for this display configuration.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RX 9070 has an average benchmark score of 34780, while the NVIDIA A2 scores 34866 with a deltaPct of -0.2, meaning the RX 9070 trails by 0.2%. The Quadro GV100 is 0.3% ahead, and the Radeon HD 7970 is 0.7% ahead.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at 3840x2160. The FPS drops from 131.8 on Low to 56.1 on Ultra, a 57% reduction, while the CPU's performance headroom is evident from the high frame rates achievable at lower resolutions.

Q: What frame rate can I expect on Medium settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combination produces 171.6 FPS. This is well above 144 Hz and provides a good balance between visual quality and smoothness.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance?

A: The CPU scores 959 in 3DMark single-thread and 7967 in max threads, showing strong scaling. The Cinebench R23 scores of 4115 single-core and 29149 multi-core confirm the processor excels in both areas, which benefits Downfall's mixed workload.

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

A: At 3840x2160, Low produces 131.8 FPS while Ultra produces 56.1 FPS, a difference of 75.7 FPS. This 57% reduction highlights the significant GPU load increase from the Ultra preset's enhanced effects.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression across resolutions reveals the balance between CPU and GPU load. At Low settings, the frame rates are 294.5 FPS at 1080p, 211.2 FPS at 1440p, and 131.8 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 83.3 FPS (28%), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 79.4 FPS (38%). This pattern indicates that the GPU is increasingly stressed as resolution rises, but the CPU still has headroom.

At High settings, the scaling is more pronounced: 200.8 FPS at 1080p, 138.7 FPS at 1440p, and 88.8 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 31% from 1080p to 1440p and 36% from 1440p to 4K, showing a consistent GPU-limited behavior. The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest scaling: 126 FPS at 1080p, 86.3 FPS at 1440p, and 56.1 FPS at 4K, with drops of 31% and 35% respectively.

The data suggests that the RX 9070's 16 GB memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth provide sufficient resources for 4K rendering, but the shader and ROP throughput become the limiting factor at higher settings. The boost clock of 2520 MHz helps at lower resolutions, where the GPU can sustain higher frequencies, but the increased pixel workload at 4K forces the card to operate closer to its limits. The CPU's 96 MB L3 cache and 5.00 GHz boost clock ensure that the processor does not become a bottleneck until frame rates exceed approximately 200 FPS, which only occurs at 1080p Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low produces 294.5 FPS, Medium produces 240 FPS, High produces 200.8 FPS, and Ultra produces 126 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 168.5 FPS, with the largest single-step drop occurring from High to Ultra at 74.8 FPS. This makes Ultra the most demanding preset at 1080p, while Medium offers a 39.2 FPS improvement over High.

At 2560x1440, the values are: Low at 211.2 FPS, Medium at 171.6 FPS, High at 138.7 FPS, and Ultra at 86.3 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 32.9 FPS, while the drop from High to Ultra is 52.4 FPS. This shows that the Ultra preset's additional effects at 1440p impose a heavier penalty than at 1080p, where the drop was 74.8 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the values are: Low at 131.8 FPS, Medium at 106.8 FPS, High at 88.8 FPS, and Ultra at 56.1 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 25 FPS, from Medium to High is 18 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 32.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay on most displays.

The data shows that the difference between Low and Medium is consistent across resolutions: 54.5 FPS at 1080p, 39.6 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K. This suggests that the Medium preset adds a fixed amount of graphical complexity that scales with resolution. In contrast, the High to Ultra transition becomes more expensive at higher resolutions, with the FPS penalty increasing from 74.8 at 1080p to 52.4 at 1440p and 32.7 at 4K, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects are resolution-dependent in their GPU cost.