Downfall

FAQ

Q: How does this CPU+GPU combination rank in Downfall?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 1478 out of 1741 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the lower portion of the performance distribution. The GPU sits at the 51st percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, indicating a substantial imbalance.

Q: What is the best playable configuration at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 158.1 FPS average, Medium delivers 126.3 FPS, and High delivers 103 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 65.1 FPS, which remains playable, but the High preset offers a better balance for visual quality versus frame rate.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in raw compute?

A: The GTX 1070's average benchmark score is 12331, placing it 0.7% above the NVIDIA Quadro K4200, 1.3% below the GeForce GTX 880M, 1.4% below the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, and 1.7% below the Tesla K20Xm. These are very tight margins, indicating the GPU is at parity with its closest competitors.

Q: What is the CPU's multithreaded performance relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X has an average benchmark score of 50556, which is 0.1% below the Intel Core Ultra 5 235, 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT, 0.5% below the Intel Core i7-13850HX, and 0.8% below the Intel Core i9-13980HX. The CPU is essentially tied with all four rivals.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM on the GTX 1070 become a limiting factor in Downfall?

A: The data shows a clear frame rate drop at 4K Ultra (27.8 FPS) compared to 4K High (45.1 FPS), and the GPU's memory bandwidth is 256.3 GB/s with a 256-bit bus. The 8 GB GDDR5 capacity appears sufficient at lower presets, but the Ultra preset at 4K shows the steepest performance penalty, suggesting memory pressure compounds with the GPU's compute limits.

Q: What is the expected FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 109.9 FPS, while Ultra averages 45.2 FPS. This represents a 64.7 FPS drop, or roughly 59% lower performance, when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the High preset provides the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, High delivers 103 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and only 55.1 FPS below Low's 158.1 FPS. The Medium preset at 126.3 FPS offers a modest frame rate improvement over High but with reduced visual quality, making High the better trade-off.

For 2560x1440, High achieves 75.4 FPS, which remains smooth for most gameplay scenarios. The Medium preset at 88.9 FPS is viable for users prioritizing frame rate, but the difference between Medium and High (13.5 FPS) is smaller than the difference between High and Ultra (30.2 FPS). Ultra at 45.2 FPS is below the ideal threshold for a horror title where responsiveness matters.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes significantly. High drops to 45.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 27.8 FPS, both below the 60 FPS target. Medium at 60 FPS exactly hits the playability threshold, while Low at 72 FPS provides headroom. For 4K users, the Medium preset appears to be the optimal choice, as it maintains playable frame rates without the substantial quality loss of Low.

The Ultra preset is only recommended at 1080p, where it achieves 65.1 FPS. At 1440p and 4K, Ultra's frame rate penalties (45.2 and 27.8 FPS respectively) make it unsuitable for consistent gameplay. The data suggests that High at 1080p or 1440p, and Medium at 4K, offer the best experience per measured FPS row.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 103 at 1920x1080 to 75.4 at 2560x1440, then to 45.1 at 3840x2160. This represents a 27.6 FPS reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 30.3 FPS reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is nearly linear in pixel count terms, with 1440p having 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p and 4K having 4 times the pixels.

The Low preset shows the same pattern: 158.1 FPS at 1080p, 109.9 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 30.5% from 1080p to 1440p and 34.5% from 1440p to 4K. This consistency across presets indicates the GTX 1070's rendering throughput is the primary constraint, not memory bandwidth or CPU limitations.

The CPU's high benchmark scores (43695 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 6168 in single-core) suggest it is not the bottleneck. The 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 7900X with 5.60 GHz boost clock provides ample headroom for this 2016 horror title. The data confirms the GPU is the limiting component, as frame rates scale inversely with resolution while the CPU remains constant.

The steepest drop occurs between 1440p and 4K at Ultra settings, where the frame rate falls from 45.2 to 27.8 FPS, a 38.5% reduction. This disproportionate decline at the highest preset suggests the GPU's 6.463 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 202.0 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for the combined load of 4K resolution and Ultra-quality effects.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The Low preset achieves 158.1 FPS average, the highest of any configuration tested. Medium delivers 126.3 FPS, High reaches 103 FPS, and Ultra drops to 65.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 93 FPS, indicating the settings range has a substantial impact on GPU load.

2560x1440: Low averages 109.9 FPS, Medium 88.9 FPS, High 75.4 FPS, and Ultra 45.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 64.7 FPS, narrower than at 1080p, showing that resolution scaling compresses the settings-based differences. The High preset at 75.4 FPS remains above the 60 FPS threshold, while Ultra falls below it.

3840x2160: Low averages 72 FPS, Medium 60 FPS, High 45.1 FPS, and Ultra 27.8 FPS. This is the only resolution where Medium drops to exactly the 60 FPS threshold and High falls below it. The Ultra preset at 27.8 FPS is the lowest recorded value across all configurations, representing a 57.2% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently provides roughly 1.5 to 1.6 times the frame rate of High. The Medium preset sits approximately 20-25% above High in FPS terms. The Ultra preset incurs the largest penalty, being roughly 37-40% slower than High at each resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, based on the GP104 chip with Pascal architecture, is the clear performance limiter in this combination. Its 8 GB GDDR5 memory operates at 2002 MHz with 8 Gbps effective speed, delivering 256.3 GB/s bandwidth over a 256-bit bus. The GPU's base clock is 1506 MHz with a boost clock of 1683 MHz, and it offers 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 13498 and a DirectX 12 score of 48, with the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score at 1082. The GPU sits at the 51st percentile among all GPUs, squarely in the middle of the performance distribution. Its nearest rivals are within 1.7% in either direction, confirming this is a mid-pack GPU by modern standards.

The combination of 8 GB VRAM and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth appears adequate for 1080p and 1440p across all settings, as the frame rate drops are consistent with compute-bound scaling. However, at 4K Ultra, the 27.8 FPS result indicates the GPU's 6.463 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 202.0 GTexel/s texture rate are overwhelmed. The GPU's pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s also limits fill-rate-heavy scenes at high resolutions.

The CPU's 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and DDR5 support provide a strong platform, but the data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. The GTX 1070's 150 W TDP and PCIe 3.0 x16 interface are consistent with its performance class, and the GPU's end-of-life production status aligns with its 2016 release date predating the game's 2016 launch by several months.