Downfall

# Downfall — Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB

The pairing of Intel's six-core Rocket Lake desktop processor with NVIDIA's entry-level Ampere GPU produces a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions, yet shows surprising CPU headroom at 1080p. Benchmark data for this 2016 horror title reveals a combo that ranks 1561st out of 1741 tested combinations, placing it in the lower 10% of all tested systems. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets paint a clear picture of a GPU-bound configuration that can still deliver playable performance when settings are managed appropriately.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals the RTX 3050 4 GB as the primary limiting factor. At Low settings, the system delivers 137 FPS at 1920x1080, dropping to 99.2 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 62 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 55% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets: High settings show 87.9 FPS at 1080p, 66.4 FPS at 1440p, and 37.7 FPS at 4K — a 57% drop from the lowest to highest resolution tested.

The resolution scaling curve steepens with Ultra settings, where the system produces 59.7 FPS at 1080p, 43.1 FPS at 1440p, and 26.7 FPS at 4K. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 55%, nearly identical to the Low preset decline. This uniform scaling behavior across all settings indicates a consistent bottleneck that does not shift between CPU and GPU depending on quality level. The 4K Ultra result of 26.7 FPS is below playable thresholds, while 4K Low at 62 FPS remains smooth. The data suggests that the 4 GB VRAM capacity and 192.0 GB/s memory bandwidth of the GPU become increasingly insufficient as pixel count rises, with the 128-bit memory bus struggling to feed the rendering pipeline at 3840x2160.

Interestingly, the transition from 1440p to 4K produces a larger absolute FPS loss than the transition from 1080p to 1440p at every settings level. For example, at High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p costs 21.5 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K costs 28.7 FPS. This accelerating degradation indicates that the GPU's memory subsystem and pixel throughput — rated at 55.68 GPixel/s — are progressively overwhelmed as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F brings six cores and twelve threads based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide solid single-threaded performance for a game released in 2016, which likely relies more on fewer, faster cores than massive parallelism. The processor's 3dmark single-thread score of 868 and passmark single-thread score of 2981 indicate respectable per-core capability, while the cinebench r23 multicore score of 14372 shows ample multi-threaded headroom.

In this benchmark dataset, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 137 FPS, which suggests the processor can feed the graphics card well beyond what the RTX 3050 4 GB can render at higher resolutions. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for this horror title's engine. The CPU's percentile ranking of 75 versus all CPUs places it above three-quarters of tested processors, yet the combo still ranks low due to GPU limitations.

The nearest rivals for the i5-11400F include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U with an average benchmark score of 17189 (0% delta), the Intel Core i7-1260P at 17212 (-0.2% delta), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U at 17215 (-0.2% delta). These comparisons show the i5-11400F performing essentially identically to these mobile-oriented processors in aggregate benchmarks, with the Intel Core i5-1240U slightly behind at 17141 (0.2% delta). None of these rivals are meaningful differentiators in the Downfall results, as the GPU dominates the performance equation.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is built on the Ampere architecture with 2048 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units. Its base clock of 1545 MHz and boost clock of 1740 MHz, combined with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, produce a memory bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s. The GPU's 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores are present but largely irrelevant for this 2016 title. The pixel rate of 55.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 111.4 GTexel/s define its fill-rate limits, which the resolution scaling data shows being exceeded at 4K Ultra.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity is a critical constraint in Downfall. At 4K Ultra, the system produces only 26.7 FPS, which likely reflects both memory capacity pressure and bandwidth limitations. The 8 nm process GPU from Samsung packs 8,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, giving a density of 43.5 million transistors per square millimeter. The GPU's percentile ranking of 50 places it at the median of all tested GPUs, yet its performance in this horror title at high resolutions falls well below what many would consider playable.

The GPU's FP32 compute of 7.127 TFLOPS and FP16 of 7.127 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) provide reasonable raw compute for a 2016 game engine. However, the 90 W TDP and dual-slot cooling solution indicate a modest power envelope that limits sustained performance. The PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, while newer than what the game would have originally targeted, does not appear to create a bottleneck given the GPU-bound nature of the results. The 1x 6-pin power connector and 250 W suggested PSU show this is designed as an entry-level card, which aligns with its measured performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers playable frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 137 FPS, Medium 110.5 FPS, High 87.9 FPS, and Ultra 59.7 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is a 56% reduction, showing that quality presets significantly impact performance even at the lowest resolution tested. All four presets exceed 60 FPS at 1080p, making this the only resolution where Ultra settings remain smooth.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low settings yield 99.2 FPS, Medium 78 FPS, High 66.4 FPS, and Ultra 43.1 FPS. The Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold, while High settings remain playable at 66.4 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each preset is approximately 28% for Low, 29% for Medium, 24% for High, and 28% for Ultra — a consistent penalty that reflects the increased pixel workload.

At 3840x2160, only Low settings remain above 60 FPS, with a measured 62 FPS. Medium produces 46.6 FPS, High 37.7 FPS, and Ultra 26.7 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly below ideal playability except for Low settings. The gap between Medium and High at 4K is 8.9 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 11 FPS, showing that the highest quality preset exacts the steepest toll on this GPU. The data indicates that players targeting 4K must use Low settings to maintain fluid motion, while 1440p users can comfortably run High and 1080p users can enable Ultra without issue.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1561st out of 1741 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 10% of all systems benchmarked in Downfall. This low ranking is primarily attributable to the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions, as the CPU's 75th percentile standing would suggest a more favorable position if the graphics card were not the bottleneck. The rank reflects the measured data across all resolutions and settings, meaning the system's 4K performance drags down its overall standing despite respectable 1080p results.

In the context of the benchmark database, this combo sits near the bottom quartile of tested configurations. The 1561st rank out of 1741 means 180 combinations performed worse, while 1560 performed better. Given that the RTX 3050 4 GB has a median percentile ranking of 50 among all GPUs, the combo's low rank in this specific game indicates that Downfall is particularly demanding on the GPU's memory bandwidth and pixel throughput. The CPU's nearest rivals — the Ryzen 7 5700U, Core i7-1260P, Core Ultra 7 164U, and Core i5-1240U — all have average scores within 0.2% of the i5-11400F, suggesting that swapping the processor for any of these would produce nearly identical results in this title.

The measured data shows a system that excels at 1080p gaming, remains competent at 1440p with reduced settings, and struggles at 4K except at the lowest quality preset. The rank of 1561 reflects this mixed performance profile, with the 4K Ultra result of 26.7 FPS being particularly detrimental to the overall standing. For a 2016 horror game, this combo delivers acceptable performance at mainstream resolutions, but the GPU's 4 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory interface cap its potential in more demanding scenarios.