Downfall

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers a playable experience in Downfall, but the data shows that the game’s Ultra preset is a trap for this combination. The most practical choice is the High preset, which balances visual fidelity with frame rates that remain fluid across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, High produces an average of 102.3 FPS, which is comfortable for a horror title where smooth camera movement matters. Moving down to Medium only yields a modest increase to 120 FPS, while Low pushes to 149.6 FPS—useful for competitive play but unnecessary for the genre’s typically slower pacing. At 2560x1440, High still holds at 69.1 FPS, which is acceptable for a single-player experience, while Medium drops to 87.1 FPS. The real problem emerges at 3840x2160, where High falls to 47.1 FPS and Medium to 55.1 FPS; these are borderline but workable if you prioritize visuals over strict smoothness. The Ultra preset, however, is not viable: it produces 60.2 FPS at 1080p, 44.4 FPS at 1440p, and a stuttering 25.7 FPS at 4K. That last number is the clearest signal—avoid Ultra entirely. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot for this combo, offering a consistent experience that scales reasonably well as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows make the decision straightforward: choose High for the best overall experience. At 1080p, High delivers 102.3 FPS, which is nearly double the 60 FPS target and leaves headroom for drops during intense scenes. The jump from High to Medium only adds 17.7 FPS (120 vs. 102.3), which is a marginal gain that does not justify the visual downgrade in a horror game where atmosphere relies on lighting and shadows. Low at 149.6 FPS is technically the fastest, but the visual compromise is unnecessary given that High already clears the threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p, High’s 69.1 FPS is still above the 60 FPS mark, making it the clear pick for users with 1440p monitors. Medium at 87.1 FPS is tempting, but High remains the better balance. For 4K, the situation changes: High at 47.1 FPS is playable on adaptive-sync displays, but Medium at 55.1 FPS is the safer choice if you need to stay above 50 FPS. Ultra is never recommended—the 25.7 FPS at 4K is a slideshow, and even at 1080p, the 60.2 FPS average is too close to the minimum threshold for comfort. In summary, High is the default recommendation, with Medium as a fallback for 4K users.

GPU Role

The GTX 1660 Ti is the primary driver of Downfall’s performance, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU’s 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game’s textures at 1080p and 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The core clocks are 1500 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost, and the data shows that the GPU scales predictably with resolution: at 1080p Low, the 149.6 FPS result indicates the GPU is not the bottleneck, but at 4K Ultra, the 25.7 FPS reveals the card is fully saturated. The 1536 shading units and 48 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s, which is why High at 1080p (102.3 FPS) is roughly 2.2 times faster than High at 4K (47.1 FPS)—a scaling pattern consistent with a GPU that is compute-bound at higher resolutions. The 12 GB/s effective memory speed (1500 MHz) is adequate for this 2016 title, but the 6 GB capacity may cause texture thrashing at Ultra settings, explaining the disproportionate drop from High to Ultra at 4K (47.1 to 25.7 FPS). The GPU’s percentile ranking at 55 versus all GPUs places it in the mid-range, and its nearest rivals—AMD Radeon RX 570X (0.4% faster), NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (0.8% slower)—confirm that this card is competitive but not exceptional. In this game, the GPU is the dominant component, especially above 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are steep and reveal a GPU-limited system. At High settings, the progression is 102.3 FPS (1080p) → 69.1 FPS (1440p) → 47.1 FPS (4K). This represents a 32.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 31.8% drop from 1440p to 4K, for a total 54% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is nearly linear, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario where the CPU has enough headroom. At Low settings, the numbers are 149.6 FPS (1080p) → 106.2 FPS (1440p) → 66.8 FPS (4K). The drop from 1080p to 4K here is 55.3%, similar to High, indicating that the GPU is still the bottleneck even at Low. However, the gap between Low and High at each resolution is revealing: at 1080p, Low is 47.3 FPS faster than High (149.6 vs. 102.3), but at 4K, the gap shrinks to 19.7 FPS (66.8 vs. 47.1). This narrowing suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so saturated that the settings have less impact on absolute frame rates. The Ultra preset breaks this pattern: 60.2 FPS at 1080p, 44.4 FPS at 1440p, and 25.7 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop is 57.3%, the largest of any preset, confirming that Ultra’s extra effects (likely shadows and reflections) disproportionately tax the GPU. The conclusion is clear: this combo is GPU-bound at all resolutions, and the CPU is not the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are strong across the board. Low delivers 149.6 FPS, which is the highest measured for this combo. Medium follows at 120 FPS, High at 102.3 FPS, and Ultra at 60.2 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 17.7 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 42.1 FPS—a massive penalty for the Ultra preset. At 2560x1440, Low produces 106.2 FPS, Medium 87.1 FPS, High 69.1 FPS, and Ultra 44.4 FPS. The relative ordering is consistent, but the absolute numbers show that 1440p High is roughly equivalent to 1080p Ultra in terms of frame rate (69.1 vs. 60.2). At 3840x2160, Low hits 66.8 FPS, Medium 55.1 FPS, High 47.1 FPS, and Ultra 25.7 FPS. The 4K results are the most telling: even Low struggles to maintain 60 FPS, and Ultra is unplayable. The data shows that this combo can handle 1080p and 1440p at High settings, but 4K requires dropping to Medium or Low. The pattern across all resolutions is that Medium offers the most consistent scaling: it is always roughly 20-30% faster than High, while Ultra is always roughly 40-50% slower than High. This makes Medium the safe fallback, but High remains the recommended preset for visual quality.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos, this pairing ranks 1511 out of 1741, placing it in the 13th percentile of all configurations. This is a low ranking, but it is important to interpret it in context: the combo is competing against systems with far more powerful CPUs and GPUs, and Downfall is a 2016 horror title that does not demand modern hardware. The rank of 1511 suggests that many other combos achieve higher frame rates, but the measured FPS data shows that this combo still delivers playable performance at 1080p and 1440p. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 75 versus all CPUs is solid for a mid-range part, while the GPU’s percentile of 55 is average. The combination of a strong CPU and a mid-range GPU results in a GPU-bound system, which is reflected in the rank. Compared to other combos, this setup is likely held back by the GTX 1660 Ti, which is now several generations old. The data indicates that users with this combo should expect to run Downfall at High settings for 1080p/1440p, but should not expect top-tier performance. The rank is a reminder that this is a budget-conscious pairing, not a high-end one.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F plays a supporting role in Downfall, but its specifications ensure it does not bottleneck the GPU. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the CPU has enough parallelism for the game’s engine, which is unlikely to use more than 8 threads. The base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2029. These scores are higher than those of the i5-11400F’s nearest rivals in the database—AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (0% delta), Intel Core i7-1260P (-0.2% delta), and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (-0.2% delta)—meaning the CPU is competitive in this segment. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for feeding the GTX 1660 Ti. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 149.6 FPS, which is a frame rate that would likely be higher if the CPU were the bottleneck. However, the FPS scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p (149.6 to 60.2) shows that the game becomes GPU-bound as settings increase, meaning the CPU is not the limiting factor in any measured configuration. The CPU’s 65W TDP and 14nm process also indicate it runs cool enough to sustain boost clocks during gameplay, further reducing the chance of CPU-induced stutter. In short, the i5-11400F provides a solid foundation, and the measured results confirm that the GPU is the component to upgrade for higher frame rates in Downfall.