Downfall

The Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination delivers a highly playable experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title, with performance scaling predictably across resolutions and settings. The data shows this pairing ranks 2937th out of 3716 tested combos, placing it in the lower middle tier of the database, yet the measured frame rates indicate that the hardware is well-matched for the game’s demands at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K requiring careful settings selection to maintain smoothness. The RTX 2060’s 6 GB of VRAM and the i5-10400F’s six-core architecture both contribute to the observed results, which range from 174 FPS at 1080p Low to 32 FPS at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

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

A: The data indicates that 1920x1080 offers the highest frame rates across all settings, with an average of 174 FPS at Low and 117 FPS at High, while 2560x1440 still provides smooth play (83 FPS High) and 3840x2160 dips to 52 FPS High, making 1080p the most fluid option.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 15290, which is virtually identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283) and AMD Radeon 680M (15270), with a delta of 0.1% or less; it is 0.6% ahead of the RTX 3050 OEM and 0.8% ahead of the Radeon RX 7600.

Q: What is the CPU’s multi-threaded performance like for this game?

A: The i5-10400F scores 10283 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6257 in Geekbench multi-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 12115, indicating solid six-core processing that handles the horror title’s background tasks without bottlenecking the GPU at tested resolutions.

Q: Does the RTX 2060’s memory bandwidth affect high-resolution performance?

A: The GPU’s 6 GB GDDR6 memory with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth and 192-bit bus is sufficient for 4K at Low (77 FPS) and Medium (63 FPS), but the Ultra preset at 4K drops to 32 FPS, suggesting VRAM capacity or bandwidth limits under maximum load.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most balanced experience at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 102 FPS average with a minimum of 86 FPS, which is smoother than High (83 FPS) and far better than Ultra (52 FPS), making Medium the sweet spot for frame consistency.

Q: How does the combo’s overall rank reflect its gaming capability?

A: Ranking 2937th out of 3716 combos places it in the 21st percentile of tested systems, yet the measured FPS shows it exceeds 60 FPS at 1080p High and 1440p Medium, proving that rank does not fully capture real-world playability in Downfall.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, built on the Turing architecture with a TU106 chip, provides the graphical muscle for this combo. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory operates at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus, yielding 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is directly relevant to Downfall’s results: at 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 32, while 4K Low maintains 77 FPS, indicating that the VRAM capacity or bandwidth is strained by the highest texture and shader loads. The GPU’s base clock of 1365 MHz and boost clock of 1680 MHz drive its 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s.

The RTX 2060’s FP32 performance of 6.451 TFLOPS and its support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 are evident in the benchmark scores: a Passmark G3D score of 14111 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1242. These figures place the GPU at the 58th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rivals—the GTX 580 (15283), Radeon 680M (15270), RTX 3050 OEM (15199), and RX 7600 (15171)—are all within 0.8% of its score, showing that the RTX 2060 sits in a tightly contested performance band. In Downfall, this translates to 52 FPS at 4K High and 83 FPS at 1440p High, demonstrating that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates as settings increase, with the 4K Ultra result (32 FPS) exposing its limits.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F and RTX 2060 combination ranks 2937th out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the lower 21% of the database. This rank reflects the hardware’s mid-range status: the CPU sits at the 68th percentile of all processors with an average benchmark score of 14185, while the GPU is at the 58th percentile with a score of 15290. The combo’s rank is lower than either component’s individual percentile, suggesting that the pairing does not synergize perfectly for this horror title, likely due to the GPU’s VRAM limitations at high settings.

Despite the modest rank, the measured FPS data tells a more favorable story. At 1080p, the combo achieves 117 FPS on High and 73 FPS on Ultra, both well above playable thresholds. At 1440p, it maintains 83 FPS on High and 52 FPS on Ultra, while 4K High yields 52 FPS. This discrepancy between rank and actual performance indicates that Downfall is not exceptionally demanding, and the combo’s low rank is influenced by the large number of higher-end systems in the database rather than a fundamental weakness. The nearest CPU rivals—Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% higher), Core 7 160UL (0.3% lower), EPYC 7552 (0.5% higher), and Ryzen 3 7320C (0.6% lower)—show that the i5-10400F is competitive with enterprise and newer parts, but the GPU’s rivals (GTX 580, Radeon 680M) are older or integrated solutions, highlighting that the RTX 2060 is the bottleneck in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo in Downfall span three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a complete picture of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 174 FPS, followed by Medium at 142 FPS (with a minimum of 121 and maximum of 164), High at 117 FPS, and Ultra at 73 FPS. This represents a 58% drop from Low to Ultra, indicating that the GPU handles the 1080p workload efficiently, with the CPU providing adequate headroom.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 124 FPS at Low, 102 FPS at Medium (min 86, max 117), 83 FPS at High, and 52 FPS at Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by approximately 29% across presets, with the Ultra setting falling below the 60 FPS threshold. At 3840x2160, the results are 77 FPS at Low, 63 FPS at Medium (min 54, max 73), 52 FPS at High, and 32 FPS at Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the only unplayable measurement, while 4K Low remains smooth, showing that the RTX 2060’s 6 GB VRAM is sufficient for lower settings but not for maximum quality.

The Medium preset at each resolution includes min and max FPS data, revealing consistency: at 1080p, the range is 121–164 FPS (a 43 FPS spread), at 1440p it is 86–117 FPS (31 FPS spread), and at 4K it is 54–73 FPS (19 FPS spread). This tightening range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more uniformly loaded, reducing frame time variance as pixel count increases.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience on this combo, the data points to the Medium preset as the optimal balance between visual quality and frame rate consistency. At 1080p, Medium produces 142 FPS average with a minimum of 121 FPS, which is 25 FPS higher than High (117 FPS) and only 32 FPS lower than Low (174 FPS), making it the clear choice for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1440p, Medium delivers 102 FPS with a 86 FPS minimum, keeping the experience above the 60 FPS threshold while providing better visuals than High (83 FPS) and far better than Ultra (52 FPS).

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the High preset is viable at 1080p (117 FPS) and 1440p (83 FPS), but at 4K it drops to 52 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced horror title. The Ultra preset is only recommended at 1080p (73 FPS), as 1440p (52 FPS) and 4K (32 FPS) fall below playable levels. The Low preset offers the highest frame rates—174 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 77 FPS at 4K—but sacrifices visual detail that enhances the horror atmosphere. Given the genre’s reliance on lighting and shadows, the Medium preset at 1440p (102 FPS) provides the best compromise, ensuring smooth gameplay while retaining enough visual fidelity for immersion.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F, a Comet Lake processor on the 14 nm process, provides six cores and twelve threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (42.7 GB/s bandwidth) are sufficient for Downfall’s CPU demands, as evidenced by the frame rates at 1080p where the GPU is not the limiting factor. The CPU’s benchmark scores—Cinebench R23 multi-core of 10283 and single-core of 1451, Geekbench multi-core of 6257 and single-core of 1420—indicate strong single-thread performance for game logic and adequate multi-thread capability for background processes.

The 3DMark thread scaling tests show a progression from 1350 (2 threads) to 3929 (8 threads) and 4748 (16 threads), demonstrating that the six-core design scales efficiently with thread count. In Downfall, the CPU’s role is most apparent at lower resolutions: at 1080p Low, the 174 FPS average suggests the CPU can feed the GPU fast enough, while at 4K Ultra (32 FPS), the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and PCIe Gen 3 interface (16 lanes) are standard for this class, and its rank at the 68th percentile of all CPUs (average score 14185) places it above the Xeon 6756E (0.2% higher) and EPYC 7552 (0.5% higher), showing it is a capable gaming processor for this era.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K in Downfall reveals the scaling behavior of this combo. At Low settings, the average FPS declines from 174 at 1080p to 124 at 1440p (a 29% drop) and further to 77 at 4K (a 56% drop from 1080p). At High settings, the progression is 117 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p (29% drop), and 52 FPS at 4K (56% drop). This consistent percentage reduction across settings indicates that the GPU is the primary scaling factor, as the CPU’s workload remains constant while pixel count increases.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 73 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p (29% drop), and 32 FPS at 4K (56% drop). The uniformity of these drops—roughly 29% from 1080p to 1440p and 56% from 1080p to 4K—suggests that the RTX 2060’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are the limiting components, not the CPU. The i5-10400F’s six cores and 4.30 GHz boost clock provide sufficient headroom, as evidenced by the fact that 1080p Low (174 FPS) does not exceed the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls. The scaling pattern confirms that Downfall is GPU-bound at all resolutions above 1080p, with the 4K Ultra result (32 FPS) representing the absolute limit of this hardware configuration. For users seeking higher 4K performance, the data suggests reducing settings to Medium (63 FPS) or Low (77 FPS) rather than upgrading the CPU, as the GPU is the clear bottleneck at this resolution.