Downfall

# Downfall with AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a playable but uneven experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title. Across the measured resolution and settings matrix, the combo lands at rank 2505 out of 2928 tested combinations, placing it in the lower tier of systems. The CPU is a modern 8-core/16-thread Zen 5 part with a 94th percentile standing among all processors, while the GPU is a Turing-based card sitting at the 53rd percentile. This pairing creates a significant bottleneck: the CPU is far more capable than the GPU can utilize, especially at higher resolutions where the graphics card becomes the clear limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves in Downfall?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 147, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This drops to 62 FPS at the same resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F compare to its nearest rivals in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69,996 on average, which is 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875), 0.2% below the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163), 0.7% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515), and 0.9% above the Intel Core i7-14700K (69,355).

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER stack up against its closest GPU competitors?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 12,986. It is 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12,940) and the AMD Radeon RX 580 (12,928), 0.7% behind the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 (13,075), and 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon 740M (12,870).

Q: Does this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution in Downfall?

A: At 3840x2160, only Low settings achieve an average above 60 FPS (65 FPS). Medium settings average 54 FPS, High averages 44 FPS, and Ultra drops to 27 FPS.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 120 at 1920x1080 to 86 at 2560x1440, then to 54 at 3840x2160. This represents a 55% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 SUPER's 6 GB VRAM sufficient for Downfall at Ultra settings?

A: The data shows Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates at every resolution, with 62 FPS at 1080p, 44 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. The 6 GB GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be a limiting factor, though the exact VRAM usage is not measured in this data.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary constraint in this pairing. This Turing-architecture card operates with a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz, paired with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivering 336.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs provide a raw compute capability of 5.027 TFLOPS FP32.

The GPU's performance ceiling becomes evident when examining the measured results. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 147 FPS, but this is the absolute peak. The card's 53rd percentile standing among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12,986, places it in the mid-range category. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.4% ahead), RX 580 (0.4% ahead), and Radeon 740M (0.9% behind).

The VRAM situation is notable. With 6 GB of GDDR6, the card meets the minimum requirements for modern gaming but shows strain at higher settings. The transition from High to Ultra at any resolution produces a severe frame rate penalty: at 1080p, High averages 99 FPS but Ultra drops to 62 FPS, a 37% reduction. At 4K, the penalty is even steeper, with High at 44 FPS and Ultra at 27 FPS. This pattern suggests the GPU's memory bandwidth and capacity are insufficient for the most demanding settings in Downfall.

The GPU's pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s are modest by modern standards. The card supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring compatibility with Downfall's rendering requirements. However, the absence of dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores means the card relies entirely on traditional rasterization, which is appropriate for a 2016 horror title but limits future-proofing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of playable configurations. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 147 FPS, Medium averages 120 FPS with a minimum of 102 FPS, and High averages 99 FPS. Ultra drops to 62 FPS. For a horror game where atmosphere and smoothness matter, Medium settings at 1080p offer the best balance: 120 FPS average with a 102 FPS minimum ensures consistent performance without visual compromises that would detract from the experience.

At 2560x1440, the options narrow. Low settings achieve 105 FPS, Medium averages 86 FPS with a minimum of 73 FPS, and High drops to 71 FPS. Ultra falls to 44 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. Medium at 1440p provides a solid experience, though the 73 FPS minimum indicates occasional dips that could be noticeable in tense moments.

At 3840x2160, only Low settings (65 FPS) clear the 60 FPS bar. Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a horror title where responsiveness matters. High (44 FPS) and Ultra (27 FPS) are not recommended for anything beyond screenshot purposes.

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the most consistent experience across all resolutions. The minimum FPS values are only recorded for Medium settings (45 at 4K, 73 at 1440p, 102 at 1080p), and these show acceptable frame pacing. For the best experience, 1080p Medium is the sweet spot, offering high frame rates with visual fidelity that does not overly tax the GTX 1660 SUPER.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ranks 2505 out of 2928 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the bottom 15% of systems. This ranking reflects the GPU's modest performance rather than the CPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 7 9700F is a top-tier processor, sitting at the 94th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 69,996. Its nearest rivals include the Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.2% ahead), Core i7-14700KF (0.2% behind), Ryzen 9 7950X (0.7% ahead), and Core i7-14700K (0.9% ahead).

The GPU, by contrast, sits at the 53rd percentile with an average score of 12,986. This disparity means the combo's ranking is almost entirely determined by the graphics card. The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads with a 5.50 GHz boost clock are far more than Downfall requires, even at 1080p. The bottleneck is unambiguous: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 147 FPS, but this is likely GPU-limited rather than CPU-limited, as the Ryzen 7 9700F's single-thread score of 4,691 and multithread score of 36,470 indicate substantial headroom.

The rank of 2505 out of 2928 suggests that many other combinations deliver better performance in this title. However, the data also shows that the combo is not entirely inadequate — it achieves playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with appropriate settings. The ranking reflects the GPU's age and position in the market, not a fundamental flaw in the pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Medium settings, the combo delivers 120 FPS at 1080p, 86 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28.3%, and from 1440p to 4K is 37.2%. The overall reduction from 1080p to 4K is 55%, which is consistent with a GPU that is running out of pixel throughput and memory bandwidth as resolution increases.

At Low settings, the scaling is similar: 147 FPS at 1080p, 105 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K drop is 55.8%. High settings show 99 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 4K, a 55.6% reduction. Ultra settings are the most punishing: 62 FPS at 1080p, 44 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K, a 56.5% drop.

This consistent ~55% reduction across all settings indicates that the limiting component is the GPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the scaling would be less severe at higher resolutions because the GPU would have more time to render each frame while the CPU waits. The fact that the percentage drop is nearly identical across settings — regardless of whether the GPU is heavily loaded (Ultra) or lightly loaded (Low) — confirms that the GTX 1660 SUPER is saturated even at 1080p Low.

The GPU's 192-bit memory bus and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are the likely culprits. At 4K, the card must move significantly more data per frame, and the bandwidth simply cannot keep up. The 6 GB VRAM capacity also becomes a concern at higher resolutions, though the exact VRAM usage is not measured in this data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 147 FPS average
• Medium: 120 FPS average, 102 FPS minimum, 138 FPS maximum
• High: 99 FPS average
• Ultra: 62 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 105 FPS average
• Medium: 86 FPS average, 73 FPS minimum, 99 FPS maximum
• High: 71 FPS average
• Ultra: 44 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 65 FPS average
• Medium: 54 FPS average, 45 FPS minimum, 62 FPS maximum
• High: 44 FPS average
• Ultra: 27 FPS average

The data reveals a consistent pattern: each settings tier reduces performance by roughly 17-20% at a given resolution. At 1080p, dropping from Low to Medium costs 27 FPS (18.4%), Medium to High costs 21 FPS (17.5%), and High to Ultra costs 37 FPS (37.4%). The Ultra penalty is notably larger, suggesting that the GTX 1660 SUPER struggles with the highest quality textures and effects.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds: Low to Medium costs 19 FPS (18.1%), Medium to High costs 15 FPS (17.4%), and High to Ultra costs 27 FPS (38.0%). At 4K, Low to Medium costs 11 FPS (16.9%), Medium to High costs 10 FPS (18.5%), and High to Ultra costs 17 FPS (38.6%).

The minimum FPS values, only recorded for Medium settings, show that the combo maintains reasonable frame pacing. At 1080p, the 102 FPS minimum against a 120 FPS average indicates only 15% variance. At 1440p, the 73 FPS minimum against 86 FPS average is 15.1% variance. At 4K, the 45 FPS minimum against 54 FPS average is 16.7% variance. This consistency suggests that the GPU does not experience severe stuttering, even when pushed to its limits.

The Ultra settings at 4K, with only 27 FPS average, are effectively unplayable for a horror title that requires responsive controls. The 1080p Low setting at 147 FPS is the only configuration that fully utilizes the combo's potential, and even then, the CPU is likely idle while the GPU works at maximum capacity. For the best experience, 1080p Medium provides the optimal combination of frame rate and visual quality, with the 120 FPS average and 102 FPS minimum ensuring smooth gameplay throughout.