Downfall

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER pairing in Downfall produces a combination that ranks 1534th out of 1741 tested combos, placing it in the lower tier of systems evaluated for this horror title. The data shows a system where the GPU is the definitive performance ceiling, with the CPU’s substantial compute resources going largely underutilized at every resolution tested.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, backed by a 64 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. This processor sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs benchmarked, with an average benchmark score of 50556 — placing it within 0.1% of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT in aggregate CPU performance.

In Downfall, however, the CPU’s role is heavily constrained by the graphics card. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 149.3 FPS, but this is far from the CPU’s potential. The 7900X’s multi-threaded capabilities are demonstrated by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 43695 and a single-core score of 6168, while 3DMark tests show strong scaling from 2137 in 2-thread workloads to 12536 at max threads. These figures suggest the processor could handle far more demanding frame rates than what the GTX 1660 SUPER allows.

The 7900X supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s and features PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes, all of which are forward-looking specifications that the older GTX 1660 SUPER cannot exploit. The processor also includes integrated Radeon Graphics, though the discrete GPU handles all rendering here. Benchmark results indicate that in this specific game, the CPU is never the limiting factor — even at 4K Ultra where the frame rate drops to 27.2 FPS, the bottleneck is clearly the graphics card, not the 12-core processor.

FAQ

Q: What is the CPU’s performance percentile relative to all tested processors?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 50556. This places it marginally behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 by 0.1% and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The GPU holds a 55th percentile ranking among all graphics cards, with an average score of 14286. It is within 0.2% of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon Vega 11, showing it sits in a tightly contested performance cluster.

Q: What frame rate does this combo achieve at 1080p High settings?

A: At 1080p with High settings, the system delivers 97 FPS on average. This drops to 64.4 FPS at Ultra settings, showing a 32.6 FPS penalty for the highest quality preset at this resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting component at 4K resolution?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting component. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces only 27.2 FPS, while the CPU’s capabilities are far beyond what is being utilized. The Ryzen 9 7900X scores 43695 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, indicating massive headroom that the GTX 1660 SUPER cannot feed.

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

A: The combination ranks 1534th out of 1741 total tested combos, placing it in the bottom 12% of all systems evaluated. This low ranking is attributable to the GPU’s mid-range position rather than any CPU deficiency.

Q: What is the GPU’s VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p gaming but becomes a constraint at higher resolutions and quality settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance curve as resolution increases. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 149.3 FPS, which drops to 102.5 FPS at 1440p Low — a 46.8 FPS reduction. Moving to 4K Low yields 63 FPS, representing a further 39.5 FPS decline from 1440p. This pattern shows that even at the lowest quality settings, the GTX 1660 SUPER’s rendering throughput diminishes rapidly with pixel count.

At High settings, the scaling is similarly pronounced: 97 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p, and 42.3 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop of 24 FPS indicates the GPU’s fill rate limits begin to bind, while the 1440p to 4K drop of 30.7 FPS confirms that the card’s 6 GB VRAM and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are overwhelmed at higher resolutions. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, from 64.4 FPS at 1080p to 42.6 FPS at 1440p and finally 27.2 FPS at 4K.

These numbers indicate that the limiting component is unambiguously the GPU. If the CPU were the constraint, frame rates would show less variation across resolutions. Instead, the average FPS scales inversely with resolution in a manner consistent with a graphics card that has 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s. The 7900X’s single-thread performance, measured at 6168 in Cinebench R23 and 2952 in Geekbench, is never approached as a bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s position at 1534th out of 1741 combos places it in the bottom 12% of all tested systems in Downfall. This ranking reflects the GPU’s modest standing — the GTX 1660 SUPER sits at the 55th percentile of all GPUs, whereas the CPU is at the 93rd percentile. The disparity between these two components creates an imbalanced system where the graphics card holds back the processor’s potential.

The data indicates that the GPU’s average benchmark score of 14286 places it within 0.2% of the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics and 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT. None of these rivals represent high-end performance, and the GTX 1660 SUPER’s position in this cluster explains the combo’s low ranking. For comparison, the CPU’s nearest rivals — the Intel Core Ultra 5 235, AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT, Intel Core i7-13850HX, and Intel Core i9-13980HX — all have average scores within 0.8% of the 7900X, showing the processor is competitive with top-tier chips.

This combination would perform markedly better with a more powerful GPU, as the CPU alone accounts for a 93rd percentile standing. The measured frame rates, however, reflect the system as configured: playable at 1080p Medium (122.8 FPS) and High (97 FPS), but struggling at 4K Ultra where it falls to 27.2 FPS. The rank of 1534 out of 1741 accurately captures this reality — the system is functional but far from the top of the database’s tested configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, featuring 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. Its base clock runs at 1530 MHz with a boost clock of 1785 MHz, and memory operates at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The card has 1408 shading units, 88 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, delivering 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s.

In Downfall, the GPU’s role is to render a horror environment that demands consistent frame rates for atmosphere and responsiveness. The data shows the card handles 1080p well — 149.3 FPS at Low and 122.8 FPS at Medium indicate smooth performance. At High settings, the average drops to 97 FPS, and Ultra brings it down to 64.4 FPS. These figures demonstrate that the GTX 1660 SUPER can manage 1080p gaming across all quality presets, though Ultra settings push it closer to the edge of playability.

The GPU’s 6 GB VRAM and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth become limiting factors at higher resolutions. At 1440p, the card manages 102.5 FPS at Low but only 42.6 FPS at Ultra. At 4K, results fall to 63 FPS at Low and 27.2 FPS at Ultra — the latter being borderline unplayable for a horror title requiring responsive controls. The GPU’s 55th percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 14286, places it in the mid-range of all graphics cards, which aligns with these measured results.

The GTX 1660 SUPER supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which are sufficient for Downfall’s 2016 release date. Its predecessor is the GeForce 10 series and its successor is the GeForce 20 series, situating it as a transitional product. The card is end-of-life in production status, and its launch MSRP was 229 USD. The power requirements are a 125 W TDP with a suggested 300 W PSU, and it connects via PCIe 3.0 x16. For this game, the GPU is the definitive constraint, and the measured performance reflects a mid-range card struggling as resolution and quality settings increase.