Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER produces a playable experience in Downfall, but the settings menu requires careful attention. The data shows that the jump from Low to Medium presets is highly efficient, while the Ultra preset demands a disproportionate performance cost. For a 60 FPS target, the Medium preset is the clear choice, delivering 119.6 FPS at 1080p, 83.8 FPS at 1440p, and 56.3 FPS at 4K. The High preset also works well, offering 96.9 FPS at 1080p and 73.2 FPS at 1440p, but it only manages 43.7 FPS at 4K, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold. Low settings are only necessary for 4K gaming, where the preset achieves 64.9 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that Medium is the optimal preset for this combination, balancing visual quality with a smooth frame rate across all tested resolutions. At 1080p, Medium produces 119.6 FPS, which is 23.4% faster than High and more than double the 61.9 FPS seen on Ultra. The scaling from Medium to Low at 1080p yields 149.5 FPS, a 25% increase, but the visual downgrade is rarely worth the extra frames when Medium already clears the 60 FPS target with a wide margin.

At 1440p, Medium delivers 83.8 FPS, which is solid for high-refresh-rate monitors. High settings drop this to 73.2 FPS, still playable, but Medium offers a safer buffer for demanding scenes. Ultra at 1440p falls to 45.1 FPS, making it unsuitable for consistent gameplay. At 4K, the situation inverts: Medium produces 56.3 FPS, just shy of 60 FPS, while Low achieves 64.9 FPS. For 4K owners, Low is the only preset that guarantees a locked 60 FPS experience.

The Ultra preset is the outlier in this dataset. It costs roughly half the frame rate of Medium at every resolution: 61.9 FPS vs 119.6 FPS at 1080p, 45.1 FPS vs 83.8 FPS at 1440p, and 28.6 FPS vs 56.3 FPS at 4K. The data strongly suggests that Ultra is not intended for this hardware combination. Stick with Medium for the best experience, or drop to Low only when targeting 4K.

GPU Role

The GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary bottleneck in this pairing, and the benchmark results confirm it. The GPU features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock runs at 1530 MHz with a boost clock of 1785 MHz. The card is built on the Turing architecture with 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s are modest figures that align with the measured performance.

The 6 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for Downfall at 1080p and 1440p, but the frame rate drops at 4K suggest the GPU is running out of headroom. The 4K Ultra result of 28.6 FPS indicates severe GPU limitation, while the 4K Low result of 64.9 FPS shows that lowering settings relieves the pressure on the memory subsystem. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 12699 places it at the 55th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics, both within 0.5% of its average benchmark score. This is a mid-range card, and the data shows it behaves accordingly.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 119.6 FPS at 1080p to 83.8 FPS at 1440p, a 30% reduction, and then to 56.3 FPS at 4K, a further 33% reduction. The same pattern appears on High settings: 96.9 FPS at 1080p, 73.2 FPS at 1440p, and 43.7 FPS at 4K. The 4K result on High is less than half the 1080p result, which is a stark indicator of the GPU's limits.

The Low preset shows the smallest relative drop, from 149.5 FPS at 1080p to 105 FPS at 1440p and 64.9 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is still 43% of the 1080p Low result, confirming that even at the lowest settings, the GPU struggles to maintain performance at higher resolutions. The CPU, an 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 9700X with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, is clearly not the limiting factor here. Its passmark multithread score of 37161 and single-thread score of 4654 are far above what Downfall requires. The data shows that every resolution step increases the load on the GPU, and the GTX 1660 SUPER responds predictably.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for a 60 FPS target at 1440p?

A: Medium is the only preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS at 1440p, delivering 83.8 FPS. High settings achieve 73.2 FPS, which is also above 60 FPS, but Medium provides a larger margin for stability.

*Q: Can this combo run Downfall at 4K?*

A: Yes, but only on Low settings, which produce 64.9 FPS. Medium at 4K falls to 56.3 FPS, and High drops to 43.7 FPS, making them less suitable for consistent gameplay.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700X's single-thread performance compare to its rivals?

A: The CPU's passmark single-thread score is 4654. Its nearest rivals, the Intel Core i5-14500HX and Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, have average benchmark scores within 0.2% and 0.4% of the 9700X, respectively, indicating comparable overall performance.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER is at the 55th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14286. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11, scores 14314, a 0.2% difference.

Q: Is the 6 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: The data shows playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p on Medium and High settings, suggesting 6 GB is adequate for these resolutions. The significant drop at 4K Ultra (28.6 FPS) indicates VRAM or bandwidth limitations at the highest settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low produces 149.5 FPS, while Ultra produces 61.9 FPS. This is a 58.6% reduction in frame rate when moving to the highest preset.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Ryzen 7 9700X and GTX 1660 SUPER ranks 1526 out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall. That places it in the bottom 12.3% of all tested configurations. The ranking reflects the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 7 9700X is a high-end processor, scoring in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, but the GTX 1660 SUPER sits at the 55th percentile of GPUs. The performance gap between the two components is substantial, and the combo's rank is dragged down by the GPU.

The benchmark results confirm this imbalance. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 119.6 FPS, which is playable, but the CPU is capable of far more. The Ryzen 7 9700X's cinebench r23 multicore score of 31588 and single-core score of 4459 suggest it could drive a much faster GPU without bottlenecking. The 1526 rank out of 1741 combos is a direct consequence of pairing a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU. For users considering this setup, the data indicates that the GPU is the component to upgrade first to improve the ranking and overall performance.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 9700X is a formidable processor that is not the limiting factor in this pairing. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The Zen 5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process, includes 32 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory. Its benchmark scores are impressive: cinebench r23 multicore reaches 31588, while single-core hits 4459. The passmark multithread score of 37161 and single-thread score of 4654 further cement its position as a high-end CPU.

In Downfall, the CPU's role is to feed frames to the GPU, and the data shows it does so without breaking a sweat. The frame rates at 1080p Low (149.5 FPS) and Medium (119.6 FPS) are well within the CPU's capabilities. The CPU's percentile ranking of 89% places it among the top processors, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14500HX and AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, with average benchmark scores within 0.6% of the 9700X. The CPU's 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth and dual-channel DDR5 support ensure that the GPU receives data without stalling.

The data confirms that the Ryzen 7 9700X is overqualified for the GTX 1660 SUPER in this game. The CPU's availability of 16 threads is more than sufficient for Downfall, and its single-thread performance ensures that even the most demanding game logic runs smoothly. The bottleneck lies entirely with the GPU, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops at higher resolutions and settings. For builders, this combo represents a CPU that leaves substantial performance on the table, waiting for a more capable GPU to unlock its full potential.