Downfall

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread desktop processor from Intel’s Core 12th Gen family, built on the Alder Lake architecture and 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, drawing 58 W TDP. In Downfall, a horror title from 2016, this CPU’s thread count is a decisive factor. The game’s measured performance shows a wide spread between Low and Ultra settings, which is typical for a title where the engine’s CPU workload scales with graphical complexity. At 1080p Low, the system delivers 186.3 FPS, indicating that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower settings. However, the data shows that as settings increase to Ultra, the frame rate drops sharply to 80 FPS, suggesting that the GPU becomes the limiting component, but the CPU’s 4 cores still manage to feed the graphics card adequately at these levels. The i3-12100F’s single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681, which helps in a game like Downfall where frame pacing and draw calls often rely on single-threaded efficiency. The processor’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 8 threads provide sufficient headroom for the game’s logic, but the benchmark results indicate that the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU in this pairing, especially at higher resolutions and settings where the frame rate drops are more pronounced.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p High settings for this combo?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT achieves an average of 124.9 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings in Downfall.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 1.8% higher than the Intel Core i7-7700K (13280). Its 3DMark 16-thread score is 4051, showing a strong scaling from its 4-core, 8-thread design.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS drops to 35.9. This is a significant reduction from the 54.9 FPS at 4K High, indicating that the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is the primary bottleneck at this extreme resolution and settings level, as the CPU’s performance remains constant.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations in Downfall?

A: This specific combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 1325 out of 1741 tested combos in the game, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems.

Q: How does the GPU’s memory bandwidth support performance?

A: The RX 5700 XT features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for the game’s textures, as seen in the 132.4 FPS average at 1440p Low, but the GPU’s compute power becomes a limiting factor at higher presets.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate at Low settings is 132.4 FPS, while at Ultra it falls to 57.5 FPS. This 74.9 FPS drop highlights the GPU’s workload scaling with graphical details.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark data for Downfall reveals a clear pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases, which points directly to the GPU as the scaling bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system produces 124.9 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 High, the average drops to 92 FPS, a 26.3% decrease. At 3840x2160 High, the frame rate further falls to 54.9 FPS, which is a 56% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling behavior is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT’s raw compute power (9.754 TFLOPS FP32) and memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s) are insufficient to maintain higher frame rates as pixel count increases. The CPU’s performance remains static across these resolutions, so the FPS drops are attributable to the graphics card’s rendering load. The gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution underscores this: at 1080p, the spread is 106.3 FPS (186.3 vs 80), while at 4K, the spread narrows to 45.9 FPS (81.8 vs 35.9). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is already saturated, and further increasing settings has a diminishing absolute impact on frame rate, but a larger relative one, as the Ultra preset at 4K yields only 35.9 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT combination holds a rank of 1325 out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall. This percentile placement suggests that the system performs below the median of all tested configurations. The CPU itself is not the primary drag, as its average benchmark score of 13516 places it in the 72nd percentile among all CPUs, with rivals like the Intel Core i7-7700K (score 13280) being 1.8% slower on average. The GPU, however, is more of a limiting factor; its average benchmark score of 24731 puts it in the 68th percentile among all GPUs, trailing the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (24763) by 0.1% and the Intel Arc A350M (24647) by 0.3%. The combination’s rank of 1325 suggests that while each component is individually mid-pack, their pairing does not synergize to produce top-tier results in this specific horror title. The measured FPS data supports this, as even at 1080p High, the system does not exceed 125 FPS, which is respectable but not exceptional for a 2016 game. The rank also reflects the GPU’s age, as the RX 5700 XT is an end-of-life product with a successor in the Navi II generation, and its performance ceiling is evident in the 4K Ultra result of 35.9 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture with a 7 nm process and features 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory operates at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The GPU’s base clock is 1605 MHz, with a boost clock of 1905 MHz and a game clock of 1755 MHz. In Downfall, the GPU’s role is dominant, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The card’s measured performance shows a steep decline in average FPS as settings are raised: at 1080p, it ranges from 186.3 FPS at Low to 80 FPS at Ultra, and at 4K, it drops from 81.8 FPS at Low to 35.9 FPS at Ultra. This indicates that the GPU’s compute throughput (9.754 TFLOPS FP32) and pixel rate (121.9 GPixel/s) are the primary drivers of performance. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, has an average score of 24763, which is 0.1% higher, suggesting that the RX 5700 XT’s performance is competitive within its class, but its 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs reflects its older architecture. The 225 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with the power requirements, and the card’s support for DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4 ensures compatibility with Downfall’s rendering demands. The data shows that at lower settings, the GPU can easily push frame rates above 130 FPS at 1440p, but at Ultra presets, particularly at 4K, the frame rate falls below 60 FPS, making the GPU the clear limiting factor in this configuration.