Downfall

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Downfall with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and AMD Radeon RX 570 reveals a steep performance curve as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 93.3 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops that to 65.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 29%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields 43.9 FPS, which is about 33% below the 1440p result and 53% below the 1080p number. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component, as the frame rate falls nearly linearly with the increasing pixel count.

The High preset tells a similar story. At 1080p, the average is 63.7 FPS. At 1440p, it falls to 41.5 FPS, a 35% drop. At 4K, the average is 28.5 FPS, which is 55% lower than the 1080p figure. The Ultra preset is even more punishing: 41.2 FPS at 1080p, 25.5 FPS at 1440p, and 16 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is less than half the 1080p Ultra number, confirming that the Radeon RX 570's 4 GB frame buffer and 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are being saturated at higher resolutions.

The scaling behavior also reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low to Ultra is a 52.1 FPS difference. At 1440p, that gap is 40.3 FPS. At 4K, it narrows to 27.9 FPS. This compression at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes so constrained by pixel throughput that even lowering settings cannot fully recover performance, a hallmark of a graphics-bound scenario.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It carries 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The base clock is 1168 MHz, boosting to 1244 MHz. Memory runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 7 Gbps effective on a 256-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The 4 GB GDDR5 frame buffer is the standout limiting factor in Downfall, a horror title that appears to demand more capacity at higher settings.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 74th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 with a deltaPct of 0.2%, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT also at 0.2%, the NVIDIA Tesla M60 at 0.6%, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile at 0.8%. These are essentially statistical ties, meaning the RX 570's raw compute capacity is comparable to those parts in synthetic workloads, though real-world gaming results will diverge based on driver optimization and memory configuration.

In Downfall specifically, the GPU's 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput and 159.2 GTexel/s texture rate are sufficient for 1080p Medium at 75.9 FPS, but the 4K Ultra result of 16 FPS demonstrates that the card is far outside its comfort zone at that resolution. The pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and the 32 ROPs are the likely bottlenecks when rendering at 3840x2160, where fill rate demands are quadruple those of 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows suggest that the Low preset at 1080p, delivering 93.3 FPS, is the only configuration that approaches high-refresh-rate territory. However, for a horror game where atmosphere matters, the Medium preset at 1080p offers 75.9 FPS, which remains comfortably playable while presumably improving visual fidelity over Low. The High preset at 1080p drops to 63.7 FPS, still above the 60 FPS threshold but with less headroom.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 55.1 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay but may feel less smooth during action sequences. The Low preset at 1440p is the safer choice at 65.8 FPS. The High preset at 1440p, at 41.5 FPS, is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 25.5 FPS should be avoided.

At 4K, no preset achieves a playable frame rate by typical standards. The Low preset at 43.9 FPS is the best option, but even that falls below 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 33.6 FPS and High at 28.5 FPS are marginal, while Ultra at 16 FPS is effectively a slideshow. For 4K play, the data indicates this combo is not viable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows: Low at 93.3 FPS, Medium at 75.9 FPS, High at 63.7 FPS, and Ultra at 41.2 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 17.4 FPS, Medium to High costs 12.2 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 22.5 FPS. The Ultra preset is disproportionately expensive, suggesting that it enables effects that heavily tax the RX 570.

At 2560x1440, results are: Low at 65.8 FPS, Medium at 55.1 FPS, High at 41.5 FPS, and Ultra at 25.5 FPS. The relative drop from Low to Medium is 10.7 FPS, Medium to High is 13.6 FPS, and High to Ultra is 16 FPS. The increasing cost of each settings tier at higher resolution further confirms the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

At 3840x2160, the numbers are: Low at 43.9 FPS, Medium at 33.6 FPS, High at 28.5 FPS, and Ultra at 16 FPS. Here, the drop from Low to Medium is 10.3 FPS, Medium to High is 5.1 FPS, and High to Ultra is 12.5 FPS. The Medium-to-High gap narrows considerably at 4K, indicating that the GPU is already so saturated that additional settings changes have diminishing returns.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 1639 out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall. This places it in the bottom 6% of all configurations, which is a poor result for a pairing that includes a high-end CPU. The CPU itself ranks in the 90th percentile among all processors with an average benchmark score of 39453, while the GPU sits in the 74th percentile with an average score of 30158. The disparity between the two components' individual standings and the combo's low rank in this game indicates that the GPU is severely bottlenecking the system in Downfall.

The low combo rank is particularly striking given the CPU's nearest rivals. The AMD EPYC 4245P scores 39383 with a deltaPct of 0.2%, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS scores 39747 with a deltaPct of -0.7%, the Intel Core i7-13700F scores 39095 with a deltaPct of 0.9%, and the Intel Core i7-13700 scores 39857 with a deltaPct of -1%. These are all within 1% of the Ryzen 9 5900X's average benchmark score, confirming that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. The GPU's rivals, including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at 0.2% deltaPct, are also statistical ties in synthetic benchmarks, yet the real-world Downfall results show that the RX 570 cannot translate its compute capabilities into playable frame rates at higher settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on Zen 3 architecture with the Vermeer codename. It operates on the AMD Socket AM4 platform with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. The 7 nm process from TSMC packs 8,300 million transistors across a dual-die design with a 64 MB L3 cache. Memory support includes DDR4 with dual-channel access and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth.

In Downfall, the CPU's role is largely secondary, as the benchmark results show that the GPU is the clear bottleneck. The Ryzen 9 5900X delivers strong synthetic scores, including a Cinebench R23 multicore result of 33150 and a single-core score of 4680. Its PassMark multithread score is 39002, with single-thread at 3469. These numbers indicate ample headroom for gaming workloads, and the CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all processors suggests it is not holding back the RX 570.

The 12 cores and 24 threads are far more than Downfall likely requires, and the 64 MB L3 cache helps with data locality. However, the measured FPS results across all resolutions and settings show that the CPU is never the limiting component. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the 93.3 FPS result is below what this CPU could theoretically support with a more powerful graphics card. The bottleneck is unequivocally the Radeon RX 570, whose 4 GB frame buffer and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the demands of this horror title at higher resolutions and settings.