Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a highly playable experience in Downfall, but the data shows that the game’s Ultra preset is a significant performance trap for this combination. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing is best treated as a high-refresh-rate 1080p machine or a solid 1440p performer, provided you stay away from the most demanding settings. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions and presets to help you find the sweet spot.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data makes the choice of settings clear: Medium is the optimal preset for this combo across the board. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 156.6 FPS, which is a 23% improvement over High’s 127.5 FPS, while still offering a substantial visual upgrade over Low’s 192.7 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs you 29.1 FPS on average, which is a steep price for what is typically a marginal visual gain in a horror title where atmosphere matters more than texture detail.

At 2560x1440, the story remains consistent. Medium produces 109.4 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while High drops to 90.9 FPS. Ultra is essentially unplayable at this resolution, falling to 55.3 FPS. For 3840x2160, even Medium struggles to maintain a locked 60 FPS at 70.7 FPS, making it a viable option only if you have a variable refresh rate monitor. The data strongly suggests avoiding Ultra entirely: it produces 34.8 FPS at 4K, 55.3 FPS at 1440p, and 82.6 FPS at 1080p. While 82.6 FPS at 1080p is technically playable, the 74 FPS drop from Medium to Ultra represents a 47% performance penalty that is not justified for this hardware.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the primary constraint in this pairing. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for High settings at 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions and Ultra presets. The GPU’s 2176 shading units and 64 ROPs, running at a boost clock of 1650 MHz, produce a measured 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. This places the card in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774.

The data shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER sits just 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 in average benchmark score, and only 0.3% ahead of the GTX TITAN. This tells you that the card is essentially at the performance ceiling of its class. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 16462 and DirectX 12 score of 61 highlight that while it can handle modern APIs, it is not built for the most demanding rasterization workloads. In Downfall, this translates to the GPU being the bottleneck at 4K and Ultra settings, where the frame rates drop below playable thresholds. The 12 nm Turing architecture, with 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, provides some future-proofing, but the raw throughput is what matters most for this title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is far more powerful than this game requires. With 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, this CPU operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. Its benchmark scores are exceptional: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 33150 and a single-core score of 4680. The 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39453, places it well above the performance demands of Downfall.

The data shows that the CPU is essentially idle overhead in this pairing. At 1080p with Low settings, where the GPU load is lightest, the combo achieves 192.7 FPS. This high frame rate indicates that the CPU is not holding the system back, as it has the headroom to feed the GPU frames well beyond what the RTX 2060 SUPER can render. The Ryzen 9 5900X’s 64 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth ensure that memory bandwidth is never a constraint. Compared to its nearest rivals, the CPU is 0.2% faster than the AMD EPYC 4245P and 0.9% faster than the Intel Core i7-13700F, but 0.7% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS. These deltas are negligible for gaming, meaning the CPU is not the deciding factor in any of the measured results.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Ryzen 9 5900X and RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1232nd out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall. That places it in the bottom 29% of all tested systems, which is a direct reflection of the GPU’s limitations rather than the CPU’s capabilities. The CPU is overqualified for this task, and the data indicates that this ranking is entirely due to the GPU’s mid-range status.

The combo rank becomes more meaningful when you consider the GPU’s performance percentile. The RTX 2060 SUPER is in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, which means it outperforms the majority of graphics cards, but the sheer number of combos tested (1741) includes many with more powerful GPUs paired with similar or weaker CPUs. This ranking is a cautionary tale: if you are building for Downfall, the GPU choice matters far more than the CPU. The 5900X ensures you will never be CPU-bound, but the RTX 2060 SUPER caps your experience at Medium settings for smooth gameplay, regardless of resolution.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo good for 4K gaming in Downfall?

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 85.5 FPS. At Medium, it drops to 70.7 FPS, and at High, it falls to 57.4 FPS. Ultra is unplayable at 34.8 FPS. For a consistent 60 FPS experience, stick to 1440p or lower.

Q: What is the best resolution for this setup?

A: 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides the best balance at 156.6 FPS. If you prefer 1440p, Medium still delivers 109.4 FPS, which is smooth enough for most players.

Q: How much performance do I lose by using Ultra instead of Medium?

A: At 1080p, Ultra drops from 156.6 FPS to 82.6 FPS, a loss of 74 FPS. At 1440p, the drop is from 109.4 FPS to 55.3 FPS. At 4K, it falls from 70.7 FPS to 34.8 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 33150 and 90th percentile ranking indicate it has far more performance than needed. The GPU’s 63rd percentile ranking and 8 GB memory capacity are the limiting factors.

Q: Can I achieve 144 FPS at 1080p with this combo?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which yields 192.7 FPS. At Medium, you get 156.6 FPS. High settings drop to 127.5 FPS, which falls short of 144 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to the RTX 2070?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 19774, which is 0.5% higher than the RTX 2070’s score of 19680. In practice, they perform nearly identically in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 192.7 FPS
• Medium: 156.6 FPS
• High: 127.5 FPS
• Ultra: 82.6 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 138.1 FPS
• Medium: 109.4 FPS
• High: 90.9 FPS
• Ultra: 55.3 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 85.5 FPS
• Medium: 70.7 FPS
• High: 57.4 FPS
• Ultra: 34.8 FPS

The data reveals a consistent scaling pattern across all resolutions. Moving from Low to Medium costs roughly 19% performance, while moving from Medium to High costs another 17%. The jump from High to Ultra is the most punishing, costing an additional 30-35% performance at every resolution. For example, at 1440p, the progression from Low (138.1 FPS) to Medium (109.4 FPS) to High (90.9 FPS) to Ultra (55.3 FPS) shows a clear linear degradation that accelerates at the top end. At 4K, the Ultra preset’s 34.8 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS result outside of High’s borderline 57.4 FPS, confirming that this resolution is only suitable for Low or Medium settings on this hardware.