Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a playable experience in Downfall, but the data reveals a system that is consistently GPU-limited at higher resolutions and settings, while the CPU provides ample headroom. Measured frame rates show a clear progression: the combo averages 226 FPS at 1080p Low, yet this drops to 42 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating that the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory interface become the primary bottleneck as resolution and graphical demands increase. The Ryzen 7 9700F, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, never appears to constrain performance in this horror title, as even the most demanding 4K Ultra setting still yields a playable 42 FPS average, a figure that aligns with the GPU’s 61st percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards.

Resolution Scaling

The performance trajectory from 1080p to 4K in Downfall is steep and revealing. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 226 FPS, which is nearly maxed out for a 240 Hz display, showing the RTX 4060 is not the limiting factor at this low graphical preset. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 162 FPS, a 28% reduction, and at 4K Low, it falls further to 101 FPS, a 55% decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario at lower settings, where the CPU can feed frames quickly, but the graphics card’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth become the ceiling.

When settings are raised to Ultra, the resolution scaling becomes even more pronounced. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 95 FPS, which drops to 68 FPS at 1440p Ultra (a 28% reduction) and then to 42 FPS at 4K Ultra (a 56% reduction from 1080p). The fact that the 1080p-to-1440p drop and the 1440p-to-4K drop are nearly identical in percentage terms suggests that the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM is being saturated at all Ultra resolutions, with the 4K Ultra result of 42 FPS indicating severe memory pressure. The 8 GB frame buffer is likely insufficient for 4K Ultra textures in Downfall, as the average frame rate falls below the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider playable.

The data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (226 FPS) and Ultra (95 FPS) is 131 FPS, a 58% reduction. At 1440p, the same comparison shows 162 FPS versus 68 FPS, a 58% reduction as well. At 4K, Low achieves 101 FPS while Ultra drops to 42 FPS, again a 58% reduction. This consistent percentage drop across resolutions indicates that the performance penalty from increasing settings is proportional, and it is the absolute frame rates that suffer most at 4K, where even the Low preset cannot maintain 120 FPS.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4691 and multi-thread score of 36470 place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, far above what Downfall, a 2016 horror title, would require. The game’s release date of 2016-02-28 suggests it is not a multi-threaded beast, and the Ryzen 7 9700F’s 8 cores at 3.80 GHz base and 5.50 GHz boost provide far more processing power than the title can utilize. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302 and PassMark G3D score of 19545 are modest, placing it in the 61st percentile, which aligns with the observed frame rates that scale steeply with resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a Zen 5 architecture processor built on TSMC’s 4 nm process, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz are high for a 65 W TDP part, and the 32 MB shared L3 cache provides ample low-latency access for game data. In Downfall, the CPU’s role is minimal, as the game’s horror genre typically features limited on-screen entities and physics calculations compared to strategy or simulation titles. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low, which reach 226 FPS, show that the CPU can drive the GPU to its limits at lower resolutions, where the graphics card’s pixel fill rate is the bottleneck.

The CPU’s benchmark scores reinforce its capability. The PassMark multi-thread score of 36470 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875 average score, +0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163 average score, -0.2% delta), indicating that the 9700F trades blows with high-end laptop and desktop parts from previous generations. The single-thread score of 4691 is also strong, and the PassMark physics score of 2122 suggests that the CPU can handle game physics calculations without issue. In Downfall, the CPU’s 8 cores and 16 threads are likely underutilized, but this is not a problem; it means the CPU is never the cause of frame rate drops.

The memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s from DDR5 dual-channel support is more than sufficient for this game, and the PCIe Gen 5 interface with 24 lanes ensures that the RTX 4060, which uses PCIe 4.0 x8, can communicate without bandwidth limitations. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.50 GHz is particularly relevant for single-threaded game logic, and the PassMark single-thread score of 4691 is in the top tier of processors. When comparing to rivals, the 9700F’s average benchmark score of 69996 is within 0.9% of the Intel Core i7-14700K (69355 average score, +0.9% delta), meaning that in CPU-bound scenarios, this processor would perform identically to that Intel part. However, Downfall is not such a scenario, as the frame rates scale more with resolution than with CPU load.

The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 4 nm process node mean it runs cool and efficiently, but this has no direct impact on measured FPS. What matters is that the 9700F’s architecture, with 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die, provides enough instruction throughput to keep the RTX 4060 fed at 1080p, where the GPU’s 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the limiting factor. The data shows that at 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 185 FPS, and at 1080p High, 152 FPS, both well above 144 Hz, indicating that the CPU is not holding back the GPU even at these moderate settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the primary determinant of Downfall’s performance, and its specs reveal why it struggles at 4K. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. While this is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, the 8 GB capacity is a known limitation for 4K Ultra textures in modern titles, and Downfall is no exception. The 4K Ultra average of 42 FPS is a clear sign of VRAM saturation, as the GPU must constantly swap textures between VRAM and system memory, causing stutters and frame rate drops.

The GPU’s clock speeds are 1830 MHz base and 2460 MHz boost, with memory running at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective). These clocks are typical for the Ada Lovelace architecture, and the 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs provide a balanced compute-to-output ratio. The texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s are moderate, and they explain why the 1080p Low preset hits 226 FPS—the ROPs can output pixels quickly, but the shading units are not overloaded at low settings. At 4K Ultra, the pixel rate becomes strained, and the 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is insufficient to maintain high frame rates.

The GPU’s benchmark scores corroborate its mid-range positioning. The PassMark G3D score of 19545 places it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666 average score, -0.2% delta) and the AMD Radeon 780M (17588 average score, +0.3% delta). This is a tight cluster, indicating that the RTX 4060’s raw compute performance is similar to these older or integrated parts, despite its modern features like ray tracing and DLSS. In Downfall, which does not heavily utilize ray tracing, the RTX 4060’s 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are not fully leveraged, meaning the GPU’s traditional rasterization performance is what matters.

The 8 GB VRAM is the most critical spec for this game. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 95 FPS, which is playable, but at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 68 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 42 FPS. The step from 1440p to 4K represents a 26 FPS drop, which is more severe than the 1440p-to-1080p drop of 27 FPS, suggesting that the VRAM capacity is being exceeded at 4K. The memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s is also a factor, as 4K requires more data to be passed to the frame buffer, and the 128-bit bus limits the throughput. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302 is low, reflecting the GPU’s limitations in modern API workloads, and the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 76 is particularly weak, indicating that the RTX 4060 may not be optimized for the latest graphics features.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo in Downfall are comprehensive, covering three resolutions and four settings levels, with some entries including min and max FPS. At 1080p, the results are as follows: Low averages 226 FPS, Medium averages 185 FPS with a min of 157 and max of 213, High averages 152 FPS, and Ultra averages 95 FPS. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 157 shows that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays above 144 Hz, making this resolution ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. The gap between High and Ultra is 57 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings impose a significant cost, likely due to increased texture quality and shadow detail.

At 1440p, the performance drops are more noticeable. Low averages 162 FPS, Medium averages 132 FPS with a min of 112 and max of 152, High averages 108 FPS, and Ultra averages 68 FPS. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 112 is still above 100, providing smooth gameplay, but the Ultra preset’s 68 FPS is below the 72 FPS threshold often cited for console-like smoothness. The 1440p High setting, at 108 FPS, is a balanced choice for players who want visual quality without sacrificing too much frame rate.

At 4K, the RTX 4060’s limitations become apparent. Low averages 101 FPS, Medium averages 82 FPS with a min of 70 and max of 95, High averages 68 FPS, and Ultra averages 42 FPS. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 70 is the only 4K result that stays above 60 FPS, but the average of 82 FPS is still playable. The High preset at 68 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 42 FPS is not recommended for smooth gameplay. The 4K results show that the GPU is the bottleneck, as the frame rates scale almost linearly with the pixel count, and the VRAM limitation becomes critical at Ultra settings.

Comparing settings within each resolution, the percentage drop from Low to Ultra is consistent: 58% at 1080p, 58% at 1440p, and 58% at 4K. This consistency suggests that the game’s settings scale uniformly, and the GPU’s performance is predictable. The min and max FPS values for Medium preset at each resolution show a tight range: 157-213 FPS at 1080p, 112-152 FPS at 1440p, and 70-95 FPS at 4K. The range narrows as resolution increases, indicating that the GPU is more consistently saturated at higher resolutions, with less headroom for frame rate spikes.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos, this pairing of AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 1531 out of 2928 total combinations for Downfall. This places it in the 52nd percentile, meaning it outperforms slightly more than half of all tested combos. The rank is surprising given the CPU’s high percentile (94th) and the GPU’s moderate percentile (61st), but it reflects the game’s age and the fact that many combos with higher-end GPUs (like RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XTX) would naturally score higher. The combo’s rank is dragged down by the GPU, as the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor, but the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM and mid-range compute prevent it from achieving higher frame rates at 4K Ultra.

The combo’s position can be interpreted by comparing its components to rivals. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 69996 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, +0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163, -0.2% delta), meaning that in CPU-bound scenarios, this combo would perform identically to those with those CPUs. However, the GPU’s average benchmark score of 17639 is only 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon 780M (17588, +0.3% delta), an integrated graphics solution, and 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551, +0.5% delta). This suggests that the RTX 4060’s raw compute is not significantly better than some integrated or older discrete GPUs, which explains why the combo’s rank is not higher.

In Downfall specifically, the combo’s rank of 1531 indicates that there are 1397 other combos that achieve higher frame rates. This is expected, as the game is from 2016 and many modern GPUs, even mid-range ones, can easily exceed the RTX 4060’s performance in a title that is not graphically demanding. The data shows that the combo is capable of 60 FPS at 4K Medium (82 FPS) and 4K High (68 FPS), which is a solid result for a mid-range GPU, but the Ultra preset’s 42 FPS is below the 60 FPS target. The rank would likely be higher if the game were more CPU-bound, as the 9700F is a top-tier processor, but Downfall is clearly GPU-limited at higher settings.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings for this combo in Downfall to maintain 60 FPS or higher?*

A: The measured data shows that 4K Medium averages 82 FPS, 4K High averages 68 FPS, and 1440p Ultra averages 68 FPS, all of which exceed 60 FPS. For a solid 60 FPS experience, 4K High is the limit, while 4K Ultra at 42 FPS is not recommended.

Q: Does the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F bottleneck the RTX 4060 in this game?

A: No. The CPU’s PassMark multi-thread score of 36470 and single-thread score of 4691 are far above the game’s requirements, and the 1080p Low average of 226 FPS shows the CPU can push the GPU to its limits. The bottleneck is the GPU at all resolutions.

*Q: How does the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM affect 4K performance in Downfall?*

A: The 8 GB VRAM is insufficient for 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 42. At 4K Medium, the average is 82 FPS, but the 128-bit memory bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth limit texture streaming, causing performance to degrade as settings increase.

*Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming in Downfall?*

A: The data shows that 1080p Ultra averages 95 FPS, which is excellent, while 1440p Ultra averages 68 FPS, which is still playable. For high-refresh-rate displays, 1080p Medium (185 FPS) or Low (226 FPS) are ideal, while 1440p Medium (132 FPS) offers a good balance.

*Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested combinations in Downfall?*

A: It ranks 1531 out of 2928 combos, placing it in the 52nd percentile. This is due to the RTX 4060’s mid-range performance (61st percentile of GPUs), while the CPU is in the 94th percentile, meaning the GPU limits the combo’s overall rank.

*Q: What CPU and GPU scores are relevant for predicting Downfall performance?*

A: For the CPU, the PassMark single-thread score of 4691 and multi-thread score of 36470 are key, as they show ample headroom. For the GPU, the PassMark G3D score of 19545 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302 are relevant, with the latter indicating moderate DirectX 12 performance.