Downfall

FAQ

Q: What is the best-performing settings preset for this CPU/GPU combo in Downfall?

A: Low settings produce the highest average frame rates at every resolution, reaching 299 FPS at 1920x1080, 214 FPS at 2560x1440, and 133 FPS at 3840x2160. However, the Medium preset delivers a more balanced experience with 245 FPS at 1080p, 175 FPS at 1440p, and 109 FPS at 4K, while including minimum FPS data that the Low preset lacks.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations in Downfall?

A: This pairing of AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 776th out of 2,928 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the top 26.5% of all configurations evaluated for this game.

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

A: At High settings, the combo delivers 201 FPS at 1920x1080, 143 FPS at 2560x1440, and 89 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 55.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that resolution scaling has a substantial impact on performance.

Q: Does the RTX 3080's VRAM capacity affect performance at higher resolutions?

A: The RTX 3080 features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K Ultra settings, the combo drops to 56 FPS average, which is the lowest measured result across all configurations, suggesting that the combination of memory capacity and bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at the highest settings.

Q: What is the difference between the CPU's multi-core and single-core performance?

A: The Ryzen 7 9850X3D scores 22,807 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,228 in single-core, while PassMark shows 41,318 for multithread and 4,704 for single-thread. The multi-core to single-core ratio indicates strong scaling across its 8 cores and 16 threads.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's DirectX performance compare across API versions?

A: PassMark results show the GPU scores 258 in DirectX 9, 207 in DirectX 11, and 100 in DirectX 12. The lower DirectX 12 score relative to older APIs suggests that the card's raw throughput in legacy APIs is higher, though modern game engines may utilize features differently.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear performance hierarchy across the four available presets. Low settings provide the maximum frame rates at every resolution, with 299 FPS at 1080p, 214 FPS at 1440p, and 133 FPS at 4K. This preset is ideal for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays, though it lacks the visual fidelity that most players would expect from a modern horror title.

Medium settings strike the most effective balance between visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 245 FPS average with a minimum of 208 FPS and maximum of 282 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 175 FPS with a 149 FPS minimum and 201 FPS maximum. At 3840x2160, the average sits at 109 FPS with 92 FPS minimum and 125 FPS maximum. The Medium preset is the only one that includes minimum and maximum FPS data, providing a more complete picture of frame time consistency.

High settings reduce performance by roughly 18-22% compared to Medium across resolutions. The combo still delivers 201 FPS at 1080p, 143 FPS at 1440p, and 89 FPS at 4K. These numbers remain playable, especially at 1440p where the average exceeds 140 FPS.

Ultra settings impose a significant performance penalty. At 1080p, the average drops to 125 FPS, which is 49% lower than Medium. At 1440p, the average falls to 90 FPS, and at 4K, it plummets to 56 FPS. While 4K Ultra remains technically playable, the substantial frame rate reduction makes it the least desirable option for maintaining smooth gameplay.

For the best experience, Medium settings at 2560x1440 offer the optimal combination of visual fidelity and performance. The 175 FPS average with a 149 FPS minimum ensures consistent frame pacing, while the resolution provides sharper image quality than 1080p without the steep cost of 4K. Players with 4K displays should consider Medium settings, as the 109 FPS average remains above standard 60 Hz refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals important characteristics about this combo's balance. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p to 4K reduces the average FPS from 299 to 133, a 55.5% decrease. Medium settings show a similar pattern: 245 FPS at 1080p drops to 109 FPS at 4K, a 55.5% reduction. High settings follow suit with 201 FPS at 1080p falling to 89 FPS at 4K, a 55.7% decrease. Ultra settings experience the steepest relative drop: 125 FPS at 1080p down to 56 FPS at 4K, a 55.2% reduction.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings presets is notable. The frame rate reduction from 1080p to 1440p averages around 29% across presets, while the drop from 1440p to 4K averages around 37%. This scaling pattern suggests that the rendering workload increases predictably with pixel count, and neither the CPU nor GPU becomes disproportionately bottlenecked at any single resolution.

The Ryzen 7 9850X3D's high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 2,228 Cinebench R23 single-core score and 4,704 PassMark single-thread score, ensures that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately even at lower resolutions where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. At 1080p Low, the 299 FPS result indicates that the CPU is not the primary limiting factor, as the GPU's rendering capabilities are being fully utilized.

However, the sharp drop at 4K Ultra (56 FPS) compared to 4K Medium (109 FPS) highlights that the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth become constraining at the highest settings. The difference between Medium and Ultra at 4K is 53 FPS, whereas at 1080p the same settings gap is 120 FPS. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's memory subsystem becomes a more significant limitation as pixel count increases.

How This Combo Ranks

In Downfall's comprehensive testing database, this combination of AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a rank of 776 out of 2,928 tested combos. This places the pairing in the 73.5th percentile of all configurations, meaning it outperforms roughly three-quarters of the tested systems while being surpassed by about a quarter.

The CPU's individual standing provides context for this result. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D holds the 92nd percentile among all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 58,386. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M with an average score of 58,323 (0.1% behind), the Intel Xeon w5-2545 at 58,504 (0.2% ahead), the Intel Core i9-14900 at 58,115 (0.5% behind), and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 at 58,826 (0.7% ahead). These margins are remarkably tight, with less than 1% separating the top contenders.

The GPU's standing is less dominant. The RTX 3080 holds the 68th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,172. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P106-100 at 23,249 (0.3% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 at 23,250 (0.3% ahead), the AMD Radeon RX 6600M at 23,273 (0.4% ahead), and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X at 23,276 (0.4% ahead). These differences are negligible, suggesting the RTX 3080 sits in a tightly contested performance tier.

The gap between the CPU's 92nd percentile and the GPU's 68th percentile explains why the combo ranks lower than the CPU alone would suggest. In Downfall, which appears to be a GPU-intensive horror title, the RTX 3080's relative position among GPUs weighs heavily on the final ranking. The combo's 776th place out of 2,928 reflects this imbalance, where a top-tier CPU is paired with a mid-to-upper-tier GPU.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, plays a critical role in Downfall's performance. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1440 MHz and boosts to 1710 MHz, with memory clocked at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). These clock speeds, combined with 8,704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, determine the card's raw rendering throughput.

The memory subsystem is particularly relevant to Downfall's performance. The card features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing and AI-based features, though the measured FPS data does not distinguish between standard and ray-traced rendering.

The GPU's PassMark results show a G3D score of 25,086 and a GPU compute score of 14,397. In DirectX 12, the card scores 100, while DirectX 11 yields 207 and DirectX 9 produces 258. These scores suggest that the card's performance in legacy APIs is stronger relative to its DirectX 12 results, which may reflect driver optimizations or architectural preferences.

The card's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs is reflected in its measured performance in Downfall. At 4K Ultra, the combo's 56 FPS average represents the lowest measured result across all settings and resolutions. This suggests that the GPU's 10 GB memory capacity becomes a bottleneck at the highest settings, where texture detail and shadow quality likely exceed what the memory can efficiently handle.

The RTX 3080's FP32 throughput of 29.77 TFLOPS and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s provide substantial raw compute power. However, in Downfall, the performance scaling from Medium to Ultra at 4K (109 FPS to 56 FPS) indicates that the additional visual features enabled by Ultra settings impose a heavy cost on the GPU's resources.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. Low settings produce an average of 299 FPS, representing the maximum measured performance in the entire dataset. Medium settings achieve 245 FPS average with a minimum of 208 FPS and maximum of 282 FPS. High settings reach 201 FPS average, while Ultra settings drop to 125 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 174 FPS, demonstrating the significant impact of quality settings on performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales downward consistently. Low settings deliver 214 FPS average, which is 28.4% lower than 1080p Low. Medium settings achieve 175 FPS average with a 149 FPS minimum and 201 FPS maximum, representing a 28.6% reduction from 1080p Medium. High settings produce 143 FPS average, down 29.0% from 1080p High. Ultra settings yield 90 FPS average, a 28.0% reduction from 1080p Ultra. The consistency of these percentage drops across presets indicates that resolution scaling affects all quality settings similarly.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates continue their downward trend but remain playable at most settings. Low settings deliver 133 FPS average, which is 37.9% lower than 1440p Low. Medium settings achieve 109 FPS average with a 92 FPS minimum and 125 FPS maximum, representing a 37.7% reduction from 1440p Medium. High settings produce 89 FPS average, down 37.8% from 1440p High. Ultra settings yield 56 FPS average, a 37.8% reduction from 1440p Ultra.

The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, shows that the combo maintains reasonable frame consistency. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 208 FPS represents 84.9% of the average. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 149 FPS is 85.1% of the average. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 92 FPS is 84.4% of the average. This consistency suggests that frame pacing remains stable across resolutions, with only minor dips below the average.

The maximum FPS figures for Medium settings follow a similar pattern. At 1080p, the maximum of 282 FPS exceeds the average by 15.1%. At 1440p, the maximum of 201 FPS is 14.9% above average. At 4K, the maximum of 125 FPS is 14.7% above average. The narrowing spread between minimum and maximum at higher resolutions indicates that 4K rendering creates a more consistent workload for the GPU, with less variance in frame times.