Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination delivers exceptional performance in Downfall, a horror title from 2016 that clearly scales well with modern hardware. The benchmark data shows this pairing reaches an average of 459.2 FPS at 1080p Low, making it one of the fastest configurations ever tested for this game, ranking 2nd out of 1741 total combos. This is a system that completely overwhelms the game's demands at standard resolutions, with performance becoming more stratified as resolution and settings increase.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but reveals a system that remains GPU-bound at every resolution tested. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 308.5 at 1920x1080 to 218.9 at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 29%. The further drop to 4K High brings the average down to 138.4 FPS, which is 55% lower than the 1080p result. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 5090's graphics pipeline is the primary limiter as pixel count increases, despite its massive 32 GB GDDR7 memory pool and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth.

The Low preset tells a similar story with even higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the system produces 459.2 FPS, which falls to 328.3 at 1440p and 205.7 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is roughly 55% here as well, showing consistent scaling behavior regardless of settings. Medium settings follow the same trend: 375.7 FPS at 1080p, 268.1 at 1440p, and 165.1 at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 189.5 FPS at 1080p dropping to 138.6 at 1440p and finally 85.6 at 4K.

What stands out is that even at the most punishing configuration tested — 4K Ultra — the system still maintains an average above 85 FPS. The data suggests that the RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient to keep Downfall well within playable territory at all tested settings. The 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 9800X3D with its 96 MB of L3 cache appears to provide ample headroom, as the scaling curves show no signs of CPU-induced bottlenecks even at the highest frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance on which preset offers the best balance. At 4K, the jump from Low to Medium costs 40.6 FPS (205.7 to 165.1), while High costs another 26.7 FPS (165.1 to 138.4). The leap to Ultra is the most punishing, dropping 52.8 FPS from High to 85.6 average. For a horror game where atmosphere matters, High at 4K delivers 138.4 FPS, which is still far above standard 60 Hz display refresh rates while providing substantially better visual fidelity than Low or Medium.

At 1440p, the situation is more forgiving. Ultra maintains 138.6 FPS, which is nearly identical to the 4K High result, making it a viable choice for users with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors. The 1440p High preset at 218.9 FPS offers a massive margin for competitive play, while 1440p Medium at 268.1 FPS is nearly indistinguishable in frame rate terms from Low at 328.3 FPS but with better visuals.

For 1080p users, the Ultra preset at 189.5 FPS is the clear recommendation. It provides the best visual quality while still delivering frame rates that exceed the refresh rate of virtually all mainstream monitors. The 1080p High result of 308.5 FPS is only meaningful for users with extremely high refresh displays, and the 459.2 FPS Low figure is primarily a benchmark curiosity given that no consumer display can currently show all those frames. The data strongly suggests that the Ultra preset is the intended sweet spot for this hardware combination, regardless of resolution.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D's specifications explain why this processor never becomes a limiting factor in Downfall. With 8 cores and 16 threads running at a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost of 5.20 GHz, the CPU provides substantial single-threaded performance that is critical for game logic. The 3D V-Cache-equipped design features 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is particularly effective for gaming workloads that benefit from large, fast caches. The processor's Zen 5 architecture on a 4 nm TSMC process delivers strong per-core performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1212 and Geekbench single-core score of 3341.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are equally robust. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 34004 and Geekbench multicore score of 18413 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs tested. In Downfall, the combination of high boost clocks and large cache ensures that frame pacing remains consistent even when the game engine spawns numerous entities or computes complex lighting scenarios typical of horror titles. The processor's 120 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth provide sufficient data throughput for the GPU to remain fed.

The nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — including the Intel Core i9-13900HK and Intel Core i5-13600KF — score within 0.7% of the 9800X3D on average, but the AMD part's gaming-specific design with stacked L3 cache gives it an edge in latency-sensitive workloads like Downfall. The data shows no scenario in the measured FPS table where the CPU becomes the bottleneck, as even at 1080p Low with 459.2 FPS, the frame rate continues to scale with GPU workload rather than plateauing due to processor limits.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 2 out of 1741 tested combinations in Downfall. This places it in the top 0.1% of all configurations evaluated, a remarkable result for a game released in 2016. The only combo ranked higher would need to outperform this pairing's 4K Ultra result of 85.6 FPS and 1080p Low result of 459.2 FPS, which is a tall order given that the RTX 5090 is already the fastest GPU in the database with a 94th percentile standing among all GPUs.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 84306 places it just 0.1% ahead of the RTX 5090 D and 0.2% ahead of the RTX 5050 Mobile, though those deltas are within measurement noise. The CPU's average score of 37780 is nearly identical to the Intel Xeon 6353P and Intel Core Ultra 5 225, both within 0.1%. What boosts this combo above the pack is the synergy between the 9800X3D's gaming-optimized cache hierarchy and the RTX 5090's raw throughput. The ranking demonstrates that this is a near-optimal configuration for Downfall, with the data indicating that only one other hardware pairing out of 1741 can produce higher average frame rates across the tested resolution and settings matrix.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant force in this configuration, and its specifications explain the exceptional Downfall performance. The GB202 chip on TSMC's 5 nm process contains 92,200 million transistors across a 750 mm² die, with 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs. The GPU's 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores provide the architectural foundation for its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. Clock speeds of 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost drive the 32 GB GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth — more than enough for the 4K textures and effects that Downfall can throw at it.

The GPU's benchmark results reinforce its position at the top of the hierarchy. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411, Geekbench OpenCL score of 380114, and Vulkan score of 379571 all demonstrate massive compute capability. The PassMark G3D score of 39650 places it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rivals being the RTX 5090 D at 0.1% delta and the RTX 5050 Mobile at 0.2% delta — differences that are effectively negligible in real-world gaming. The 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth is particularly important for Downfall's high-resolution texture streaming, allowing the GPU to maintain consistent frame times even when the camera pans quickly through detailed environments.

The RTX 5090's 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU requirement are substantial, but the measured FPS data shows this power budget translates directly into performance. The 4K Ultra result of 85.6 FPS is particularly telling, as it shows the GPU handling a worst-case scenario with headroom to spare. The 1.6-inch slot width and 304 mm length make it a large physical presence, but its dual-slot design allows it to fit in most modern cases. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure it fully utilizes Downfall's rendering paths, resulting in the 2nd-place ranking this combo achieves.