Downfall

# Downfall with AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a dominant 1080p experience in Downfall, with the Low preset hitting 348 FPS average, but the Ultra preset at 4K drops to 65 FPS, revealing a steep scaling curve that favors high-refresh 1440p gaming. This combo ranks 447th out of 2,928 tested configurations in Downfall, placing it in the top 15% of all tested combos, and the data shows a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions while the CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads provide ample headroom at lower settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Downfall?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 on High preset delivers 167 FPS average, which balances visual quality with high refresh rates. At 1920x1080, the High preset reaches 233 FPS, but the jump to 1440p only costs 66 FPS while providing significantly more detail.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra drops to 104 FPS average, which is 63 FPS lower than High's 167 FPS. This is a 37.7% performance penalty for the Ultra preset, suggesting High is the sweet spot for this resolution.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER enough for 4K gaming in Downfall?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 155 FPS, but Ultra drops to 65 FPS. Medium hits 126 FPS with a minimum of 107 FPS, making it the only 4K preset that maintains a playable frame rate while offering moderate visual quality.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance affect Downfall?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 47,737 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, and its 12 cores and 24 threads ensure the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios. The 3DMark max-thread score of 13,795 indicates strong scaling for games that use multiple threads.

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: Medium settings drop from 284 FPS at 1080p to 126 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 158 FPS or 55.6%. This indicates the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as resolution rises, with the CPU maintaining consistent performance throughout.

Q: Does the GPU's 12 GB VRAM cause any issues in Downfall?

A: The data shows no VRAM-related bottlenecks, as even the Ultra preset at 4K produces playable frame rates. The 12 GB GDDR6X memory with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for this game's requirements across all tested settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 35,800 million transistors and a die size of 294 mm². The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1313 MHz, delivering 21 Gbps effective speed across a 192-bit bus. This configuration produces 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is critical for handling the texture-heavy environments of Downfall at high resolutions.

The GPU's 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs contribute to its raw processing capability, while 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores provide specialized acceleration for modern rendering features. The FP32 performance of 35.48 TFLOPS and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are reflected in the benchmark scores, with 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 scoring 4,627 and Geekbench Vulkan scoring 205,624. The GPU sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, with its average benchmark score of 43,223 placing it just 0.1% behind the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB and 0.2% ahead of the Quadro M6000.

In Downfall, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the system hits 348 FPS, but this drops to 248 FPS at 1440p Low and 155 FPS at 4K Low. This scaling pattern shows the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints at higher resolutions, while the CPU maintains frame delivery. The 80 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s, directly impact fill-rate-limited scenarios in this horror game's dark, detailed scenes.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals that High settings at 2560x1440 provide the best overall experience, delivering 167 FPS average with no reported minimum frame drop. This configuration offers a 63 FPS advantage over Ultra at the same resolution, while maintaining visual fidelity that is nearly indistinguishable in most gameplay scenarios. The High preset at 1440p also avoids the stutter risk seen in Medium, which reports a minimum of 173 FPS against its 203 FPS average.

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves 348 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play or extreme refresh rate displays. However, the 233 FPS at 1080p High is a more balanced choice, providing a 49.3% improvement over Low while maintaining better visual quality. At 4K, Medium is the only recommended preset, as it sustains 126 FPS with a minimum of 107 FPS, whereas High drops to 104 FPS and Ultra falls to 65 FPS.

The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p, where it reaches 146 FPS, but the 87 FPS penalty compared to High makes it a questionable trade-off. The data suggests that High settings across all resolutions offer the most consistent frame pacing, as evidenced by the lack of reported minimum FPS drops in those rows. For the best balance of visual quality and performance, 1440p High is the clear winner, with 4K Medium serving as a viable alternative for users with 4K displays who can tolerate Medium-level detail.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4070 SUPER demonstrates its full potential with the Ryzen 9 9900X3D. The Low preset achieves 348 FPS average, which is the highest score recorded in the entire dataset. Medium settings deliver 284 FPS with a minimum of 242 FPS and a maximum of 327 FPS, showing a 64 FPS drop from Low. High settings reach 233 FPS, while Ultra drops significantly to 146 FPS, representing a 58% reduction from Low. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 202 FPS, indicating that the GPU has substantial headroom at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings maintain 248 FPS, which is still exceptionally high for 1440p gaming. Medium settings produce 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 FPS and maximum of 234 FPS. High settings deliver 167 FPS, while Ultra drops to 104 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p widens to 144 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset's additional effects stress the GPU more significantly as pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings achieve 155 FPS, which is still playable on high-refresh 4K displays. Medium settings produce 126 FPS with a minimum of 107 FPS and maximum of 145 FPS, representing the only 4K preset with a reported minimum above 100 FPS. High settings drop to 104 FPS, while Ultra falls to 65 FPS, which is below the 70 FPS threshold many players consider smooth. The 90 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K demonstrates the GPU's diminishing capability at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at each setting reveals a consistent pattern of GPU limitation. At Low settings, performance falls from 348 FPS at 1080p to 248 FPS at 1440p, a 28.7% reduction, then to 155 FPS at 4K, a 37.5% further reduction from 1440p. This translates to a total 55.5% drop from 1080p to 4K. Medium settings show a similar trend: 284 FPS at 1080p drops to 203 FPS at 1440p (28.5% decrease) and then to 126 FPS at 4K (37.9% decrease from 1440p), totaling a 55.6% reduction.

High settings exhibit a slightly different scaling pattern. From 233 FPS at 1080p, performance falls to 167 FPS at 1440p, a 28.3% reduction, and then to 104 FPS at 4K, a 37.7% decrease from 1440p. The total drop is 55.4%. Ultra settings show the steepest relative decline: 146 FPS at 1080p drops to 104 FPS at 1440p (28.8% decrease), then to 65 FPS at 4K (37.5% decrease from 1440p), totaling a 55.5% reduction.

The consistent scaling pattern across all settings indicates that the limiting component is the GPU's rendering pipeline, not the CPU or memory system. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate become saturated as resolution increases, with the 4K pixel count being 4 times that of 1080p. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D's high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1,269 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6,739, ensures that frame delivery is never CPU-bound in this scaling analysis.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D provides the computational foundation for this gaming configuration. With 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), this processor operates on the AMD Socket AM5 platform with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The 128 MB of L3 cache, distributed across the dual-chiplet design with each die measuring 70.6 mm², provides substantial on-die storage for game data, while the 4 nm TSMC process node houses 16,630 million transistors.

The CPU's benchmark performance demonstrates its capability in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. Its 3DMark single-thread score of 1,269 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6,739 indicate strong per-core performance, which is essential for games that rely on a primary render thread. The Geekbench single-core score of 3,041 supports this, while the multi-core scores of 22,884 (Geekbench) and 47,737 (Cinebench R23) show excellent scaling across its 12 cores. The PassMark multi-thread score of 56,154 and 3DMark max-thread score of 13,795 further confirm this processor's ability to handle heavily threaded workloads.

In Downfall, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates. The data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the GPU produces 348 FPS, the CPU maintains frame delivery without bottlenecking. The 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,762, places this processor just 0.6% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF and 1.3% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K in average synthetic benchmarks. The 24 threads and 128 MB L3 cache provide substantial headroom for background tasks and future game updates, ensuring this configuration remains balanced across all tested resolutions and settings in Downfall.