Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 delivers a playable but constrained experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title that stresses lighting and shadow rendering. This combination ranks 1694th out of 1741 tested hardware configurations for this game, placing it in the bottom 3% of all possible pairings. The CPU, a 4-core/8-thread Alder Lake part with a 3.30 GHz base and 4.30 GHz boost clock, is far more capable than the GPU, which creates a pronounced graphics-bound bottleneck across most resolutions and settings. The data shows a system that can handle 1080p at medium settings comfortably but struggles to maintain playable framerates at 4K or with ultra-quality presets.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Downfall at 60 FPS?*

A: Yes, but only at 1080p with Low settings, where the measured average FPS is 91.4. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 77.7 FPS, while High settings yield 58.7 FPS — just below the 60 FPS threshold. No 1440p or 4K configuration reaches 60 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 8713 is within 0.5% of the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (8671, +0.5% delta) and essentially tied with the AMD Radeon 550X (8749, -0.4% delta). It sits slightly behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (8746, -0.4% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (8761, -0.5% delta).

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck at 4K?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 14.5 (Ultra) to 43.4 (Low), and the framerate scales almost entirely with GPU load. The CPU's 4-core/8-thread design with a 4.30 GHz boost is more than sufficient for this title; the GPU is the limiting factor at all 4K settings.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this hardware?

A: At 1080p, Medium settings provide the best balance with 77.7 FPS average. Stepping up to High drops to 58.7 FPS, while Low settings push to 91.4 FPS. At 1440p, Low settings are required for smooth gameplay at 63.9 FPS, as Medium drops to 51 FPS.

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

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, placing it 72nd percentile among all CPUs. It is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534, -0.1% delta) and 1.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-7700K (13280, +1.8% delta).

Q: Does the GPU support ray tracing or DLSS?

A: No. The GTX 1650 is based on the Turing architecture but has no RT cores or tensor cores listed in its specifications. It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but lacks hardware-accelerated ray tracing features.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the primary performance limiter in this configuration for Downfall. The GPU features 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation units, operating at a base clock of 1485 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. Memory is 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, providing 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The card's FP32 throughput is 2.984 TFLOPS, with a pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s.

These specifications translate into a GPU that ranks 43rd percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 8713. The nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro P2200, scores 8671 (a 0.5% delta), while the AMD Radeon 550X scores 8749 (-0.4% delta). The GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for Downfall at 1080p and 1440p, but the 128-bit memory interface and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth become evident at higher resolutions.

In Downfall, the GPU's role is most visible in the framerate differences between settings presets. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 13.7 FPS (91.4 to 77.7), while High to Ultra costs 20.4 FPS (58.7 to 38.3). The Ultra preset at any resolution produces sub-40 FPS averages, indicating that the GPU's shading and fillrate capabilities are overwhelmed by the game's high-end visual effects. The 12 nm TU117 chip, with 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, delivers consistent but modest performance that aligns with its 75 W TDP and lack of external power connectors.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. At Low settings, the average framerate drops from 91.4 FPS at 1080p to 63.9 FPS at 1440p (a 30.1% reduction), then to 43.4 FPS at 4K (a further 32.1% reduction). This scaling indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput is the dominant constraint, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed the graphics pipeline.

At High settings, the pattern is similar: 58.7 FPS at 1080p, 44.9 FPS at 1440p (23.5% drop), and 24.5 FPS at 4K (45.4% drop). The steeper decline from 1440p to 4K at High settings suggests that the game's higher-quality textures and shadow maps are consuming additional memory bandwidth and fillrate, pushing the GTX 1650 beyond its comfortable operating range.

The Medium settings curve shows 77.7 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p, and 33.5 FPS at 4K. Interestingly, the 1080p to 1440p drop is 26.7 FPS (34.4%), while the 1440p to 4K drop is 17.5 FPS (34.3%) — nearly identical percentage losses. This consistency indicates that the GPU is scaling linearly with pixel count, a hallmark of a fillrate-bound scenario. The CPU's 4 cores and 8 threads, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache, are not introducing any measurable bottleneck at any resolution tested.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the GTX 1650 delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 91.4 FPS, Medium drops to 77.7 FPS, and High falls to 58.7 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only option that fails to maintain playability, averaging just 38.3 FPS. The gap between Medium and High (19 FPS) is larger than the gap between Low and Medium (13.7 FPS), suggesting that High settings introduce a significant increase in shader complexity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low settings average 63.9 FPS, which is still smooth, but Medium drops to 51 FPS — marginal for a horror title where quick reactions matter. High averages 44.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28.1 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay. The 1440p results show that this combination is best reserved for Low or Medium settings, with High being a compromise for slower-paced sections.

At 3840x2160, the system is clearly out of its depth. Low settings average 43.4 FPS, Medium drops to 33.5 FPS, High falls to 24.5 FPS, and Ultra produces just 14.5 FPS. None of these results are ideal for a horror game that relies on atmospheric tension and sudden scares. The 4K data confirms that the GTX 1650's 128.1 GB/s memory bandwidth and 2.984 TFLOPS of compute are insufficient for this resolution, regardless of quality settings.

The complete FPS table shows a monotonic decline across every settings preset as resolution increases. The most playable configuration is 1080p Medium at 77.7 FPS, while the least playable is 4K Ultra at 14.5 FPS. For users targeting 60 FPS, only 1080p Low (91.4 FPS) exceeds the threshold, though 1080p Medium (77.7 FPS) and 1440p Low (63.9 FPS) also provide smooth framerates that many players would find acceptable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F plays a supporting role in this configuration, and its performance headroom is substantial. This Alder Lake-S processor features 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes.

Benchmark data shows the i3-12100F scoring 11912 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1681 in single-core, with a Geekbench multicore score of 7413 and single-core of 2224. Its 3DMark scores are 4051 for 16 threads and 893 for single-thread. The average benchmark score of 13516 places it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, with the closest rival being the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX at 13534 (-0.1% delta) — a remarkable result for a quad-core part.

In Downfall, the CPU's role is best understood by examining the framerate consistency across resolutions. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect similar FPS at 1080p and 4K for the same settings, since the CPU workload would remain constant while the GPU load scales with resolution. Instead, the data shows FPS dropping by roughly half from 1080p to 4K at every settings preset, which indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The i3-12100F's 4.30 GHz boost clock and 8 threads provide ample single- and multi-threaded performance for this game's physics and AI calculations, which are not particularly demanding for a 2016 title.

The CPU's passmark multithread score of 14015 and single-thread score of 3444 further confirm its capability. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the FPS reaches 91.4 — well below the CPU's theoretical maximum. This suggests that even if the GTX 1650 were replaced with a faster GPU, the i3-12100F would have headroom to feed it, at least for this game. The CPU's 72nd percentile ranking and close proximity to much more expensive processors like the Threadripper PRO 3975WX underscore that this is a balanced pairing where the GPU, not the CPU, defines the performance ceiling.