Downfall

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB delivers a robust experience in Downfall, a horror title from 2016. The measured data indicates that the combination is best utilized at the High preset, which provides a balanced experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the High preset yields an average of 154.7 FPS, which is a significant jump from the 98 FPS at Ultra but retains a substantial portion of the visual fidelity that Low and Medium sacrifice. Moving to 2560x1440, High still produces a smooth 113 FPS, and even at 3840x2160, the average remains playable at 70.2 FPS. The Ultra preset, while visually demanding, pushes the system to its limits, with averages dropping to 45.9 FPS at 4K, making it the only preset to fall below the 60 FPS threshold at that resolution. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot, offering a playable experience at 4K and high refresh-rate capability at 1440p and 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows reveal a clear hierarchy in performance scaling with settings. For users prioritizing a consistent high-refresh-rate experience at 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 234.3 FPS, which is exceptionally high, but the Medium preset at 193.8 FPS and High at 154.7 FPS both offer ample headroom above the 144 Hz mark. The Ultra preset at 1080p, with an average of 98 FPS, is still smooth but represents a steep performance cost for the highest visual quality. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset (136.4 FPS) and High preset (113 FPS) both provide excellent fluidity, while Low reaches 164.7 FPS, indicating that the GPU is well-utilized at this resolution. The most balanced recommendation across all resolutions is the High preset; it delivers 70.2 FPS at 4K, which is the minimum requirement for a playable experience on standard 60 Hz displays, while simultaneously providing over 100 FPS at 1440p and over 150 FPS at 1080p. The data implies that High is the optimal choice for this specific combo, as it scales gracefully without the dramatic performance penalties seen when transitioning to Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of tested hardware configurations for Downfall, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB holds a combo rank of 904 out of 1741 total combos. This places it in the 51.9th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms just over half of the configurations in the database for this game. The ranking suggests that while this is a capable setup, it is not at the top tier for Downfall, likely due to the game's age and the strong performance of newer, higher-end hardware. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus is 73, indicating it is a solid mid-range processor, but the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 50, which is exactly average. This combination of an above-average CPU and an average GPU results in a system that handles Downfall well, but the data shows there is significant room for improvement if one were to pair a stronger GPU with this CPU, as the CPU has more headroom to push higher frame rates in this title.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Downfall with this hardware for a 144 Hz monitor?*

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 154.7 FPS, which is above 144 Hz. At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 113 FPS, which is below 144 Hz but still smooth. For a 144 Hz monitor, 1080p High is the recommended choice.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Downfall?*

A: Yes, but with limitations. The High preset at 3840x2160 produces an average of 70.2 FPS, which is playable on a 60 Hz display. The Ultra preset drops to 45.9 FPS, which is not ideal for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14168. It is 0.4% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7552 (score 14115), but 0.8% behind the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (score 14277) and 1.1% behind the Intel Core i5-8500 (score 14332).

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

A: The Low preset averages 164.7 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 69.8 FPS. This represents a drop of 94.9 FPS, or 57.6% lower performance when moving from Low to Ultra.

Q: Is the GPU's memory bandwidth sufficient for this game?

A: The Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB has a memory bandwidth of 322.3 GB/s. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 45.9, suggesting that the 8 GB VRAM and bandwidth may become a limiting factor at the highest settings and resolution.

Q: How does the 1080p High preset compare to the 4K High preset?

A: At 1080p High, the average is 154.7 FPS, while at 4K High, the average is 70.2 FPS. This is a significant drop of 84.5 FPS, which is expected due to the four-fold increase in pixel count.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive look at performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 234.3 FPS for Low, 193.8 FPS for Medium, 154.7 FPS for High, and 98 FPS for Ultra. This shows a clear scaling pattern, with the gap between Medium and High being 39.1 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra being 56.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, the averages are 164.7 FPS for Low, 136.4 FPS for Medium, 113 FPS for High, and 69.8 FPS for Ultra. The transition from High to Ultra at this resolution incurs a massive penalty of 43.2 FPS. At 3840x2160, the averages are 105.1 FPS for Low, 86 FPS for Medium, 70.2 FPS for High, and 45.9 FPS for Ultra. The data indicates that the performance hit from 1440p to 4K is substantial, particularly at the High and Ultra settings, where the drops are 42.8 FPS and 23.9 FPS respectively. This breakdown suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings, as the frame rate declines steeply with increased graphical load.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a predictable yet steep decline in performance as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 154.7 FPS at 1080p to 113 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of 41.7 FPS, and then further to 70.2 FPS at 4K, a further decrease of 42.8 FPS. This represents a total drop of 84.5 FPS from 1080p to 4K, which is a 54.6% reduction in performance. At the Low preset, the drop is from 234.3 FPS at 1080p to 164.7 FPS at 1440p, and then down to 105.1 FPS at 4K, showing a similar pattern of diminishing returns. The scaling suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, as the frame rate drops are largely proportional to the increase in pixel count. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, does not appear to be a limiting factor at lower resolutions, evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low, but the GPU's VRAM and bandwidth constraints become more evident as the resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its L3 cache is 12 MB shared, and it supports DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 10297 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1453 in single-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 12115. The data from Downfall suggests that this CPU is more than adequate for the game, as the frame rates at 1080p Low (234.3 FPS) are exceptionally high, indicating that the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 73 places it above average, and its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552 and the Intel Core i5-8500, with the i5-10400F being 0.4% faster than the former and 1.1% slower than the latter. Given that Downfall is a horror game from 2016, it likely does not utilize more than a few cores effectively, and the i5-10400F's strong single-thread performance (1453 in Cinebench R23) is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB is the primary driver of performance in this combination. It is based on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 44 chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process. It features 2048 shading units, 32 RT cores, and a boost clock of 3130 MHz, with a game clock of 2530 MHz. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 322.3 GB/s. Its FP32 performance is 25.64 TFLOPS. In Downfall, the GPU's role is evident in the scaling of frame rates with settings. The Ultra preset at 4K yields only 45.9 FPS, likely because the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus become saturated. The GPU has a percentileVsAllGpus of 50, which is exactly average, and it has no nearest rivals listed. The measured results show that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings, as the CPU is capable of delivering over 200 FPS at 1080p Low, but the GPU cannot maintain that performance when the graphical load increases. The transition from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows a 54.6% drop in FPS, confirming that the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power are the primary constraints in this pairing.