Downfall

# Downfall Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a consistently playable experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title that scales well across resolutions and settings. The measured data shows average frame rates ranging from 34.1 FPS at 4K Ultra to 191.1 FPS at 1080p Low, with the combo ranking 1250th out of 1741 tested combinations in this game. This places the pairing in the lower-middle tier of tested systems, yet the actual frame delivery tells a more nuanced story about where this hardware excels and where it struggles.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear sweet spot for this hardware combination. At 1920x1080, every preset delivers playable performance, with High settings producing 128.6 FPS average and Medium reaching 157.8 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 45.5 FPS (from 128.6 to 83.1), a substantial drop that suggests diminishing returns from the highest preset. For most users, High settings at 1080p provide the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate headroom.

Moving to 2560x1440, the story shifts noticeably. High settings still deliver a comfortable 88.8 FPS average, while Medium sits at 109.7 FPS. Ultra drops to 59.6 FPS, which remains technically playable but offers less margin for demanding scenes. Low settings at 1440p produce 136.3 FPS, indicating that the CPU-GPU combination has ample headroom when visual effects are dialed back. The data suggests High at 1440p is the optimal choice for users prioritizing visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the limitations become apparent. High settings yield 56.9 FPS average, which is borderline for a horror game where frame pacing matters. Ultra plummets to 34.1 FPS, clearly not recommended for this resolution. Medium at 68.8 FPS offers the most viable 4K experience, though Low at 85.1 FPS provides a safer margin. The benchmark results indicate that 4K Ultra should be avoided entirely with this hardware, while Medium or Low presets are the only sensible choices at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame places this pairing at 1250th out of 1741 tested combinations, which translates to roughly the 28th percentile of all tested systems in Downfall. This rank reflects the hardware's mid-range positioning rather than any specific deficiency in this game. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 73 indicates the Intel Core i5-10400F outperforms 73% of all CPUs in the database, while the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 63 shows the RTX 2060 SUPER sits above 63% of all GPUs.

The rank disparity between this combo's position (28th percentile) and the individual component percentiles (73rd for CPU, 63rd for GPU) suggests that Downfall's performance profile rewards combinations with higher-end GPUs more than this pairing can provide. The nearestRivals data shows the CPU is closely matched with the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% higher score for the Intel) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% higher for the rival). On the GPU side, the RTX 2060 SUPER edges out the GeForce GTX TITAN by 0.3% and the RTX 2070 by 0.5% in average benchmark scores, making this a tightly contested hardware tier.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1470 MHz with a boost clock of 1650 MHz, and its 2176 shading units handle the rendering workload in Downfall. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), which proves sufficient for this game's texture demands across all tested resolutions.

The GPU's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 224.4 GTexel/s texture rate are directly relevant to Downfall's horror aesthetic, which relies heavily on detailed environmental textures and dynamic lighting. The 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s, and the measured FPS data shows the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck at 4K resolution. At 3840x2160, the frame rate drops from 85.1 FPS on Low to 34.1 FPS on Ultra, a reduction of 51 FPS that clearly demonstrates the GPU's limits when pixel count and effects scale simultaneously.

The GPU's passmark_g3d score of 16462 and percentiles position it close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (0.5% difference in average score), yet the measured game performance shows this pairing cannot maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not the limiting factor here, as even at 4K Ultra the memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s appears sufficient; instead, the raw compute throughput at high settings constrains performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of presets delivers playable results. Low settings produce 191.1 FPS average, Medium reaches 157.8 FPS, High achieves 128.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 83.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 108 FPS difference, with each preset step costing between 29.2 and 45.5 FPS. The largest single drop occurs between High and Ultra, where 45.5 FPS is lost, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces disproportionately heavy effects for this hardware.

The 2560x1440 measurements show similar progression with reduced absolute values. Low settings yield 136.3 FPS, Medium produces 109.7 FPS, High achieves 88.8 FPS, and Ultra settles at 59.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 76.7 FPS, with the High-to-Ultra transition again being the most costly at 29.2 FPS. These numbers indicate that 1440p High is the practical ceiling for maintaining frame rates above 60 FPS consistently.

At 3840x2160, the results compress significantly. Low settings deliver 85.1 FPS, Medium drops to 68.8 FPS, High falls to 56.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 34.1 FPS. The 4K data shows a 51 FPS spread across presets, but more importantly, only Low and Medium remain above the 60 FPS threshold. High at 56.9 FPS and Ultra at 34.1 FPS both fall short of smooth gameplay standards, making these presets unsuitable for this resolution with this hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At High settings, performance drops from 128.6 FPS at 1080p to 88.8 FPS at 1440p (a 31% reduction) and then to 56.9 FPS at 4K (a further 36% reduction). This scaling pattern indicates a GPU-bound scenario, as the frame rate decreases proportionally with pixel count increases. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads with a 4.30 GHz boost clock are evidently capable of feeding the GPU adequately at lower resolutions.

The Low settings data confirms this analysis. Performance goes from 191.1 FPS at 1080p to 136.3 FPS at 1440p and 85.1 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop of 106 FPS at Low settings demonstrates that even with minimal graphical load, the GPU cannot maintain high frame rates at higher resolutions. This is consistent with the RTX 2060 SUPER's 7.181 TFLOPS compute capability, which is simply insufficient for 4K at high refresh rates.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 83.1 FPS at 1080p, 59.6 FPS at 1440p, and 34.1 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop of 23.5 FPS and the 1440p-to-4K drop of 25.5 FPS indicate that the GPU's shading units and texture units are progressively overwhelmed as pixel count increases. The data suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER is optimally suited for 1080p gaming, acceptable at 1440p with reduced settings, and only marginally viable at 4K with the lowest presets.

FAQ

Q: Can this hardware run Downfall at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only with reduced settings. The measured data shows 85.1 FPS at 4K Low and 68.8 FPS at 4K Medium. High settings drop to 56.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 34.1 FPS, making Medium the highest recommended preset for 4K.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 deliver 88.8 FPS average, which provides smooth gameplay with good visual quality. Ultra drops to 59.6 FPS, so the performance cost of the highest preset is not justified at this resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to the RTX 2070 in this context?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER's average benchmark score is 19774, which is 0.5% higher than the RTX 2070's 19680. The measured game performance, however, shows this pairing ranks 1250th out of 1741 combos, indicating that real-world game performance may differ from synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-10400F a bottleneck for the RTX 2060 SUPER in Downfall?

A: The CPU's 3dmark_max_threads score of 4735 and cinebench_r23_multicore score of 10297 suggest it has sufficient compute headroom. The resolution scaling data indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, so the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this game.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured data shows 83.1 FPS average at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is playable but leaves less headroom compared to High settings at 128.6 FPS, which may be preferable for maintaining consistent frame times in a horror game.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems in Downfall?

A: The combo ranks 1250th out of 1741 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier. This is despite the CPU ranking in the 73rd percentile and the GPU in the 63rd percentile, suggesting Downfall is particularly demanding on GPU performance at higher settings.