Downfall

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Downfall with the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti reveals a clear progression of performance degradation as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the system produces 194 FPS; scaling to 1440p Low drops this to 137.7 FPS (-29%), and at 4K Low the average falls to 84.7 FPS (-56% from the 1080p baseline). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound workload at higher resolutions, where the rendering load on the graphics card grows faster than the CPU's ability to feed frames.

The difference between settings tiers at the same resolution is more revealing. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium reduces average FPS from 194 to 157.4 (-19%), while High drops to 126 (-35% vs Low) and Ultra falls to 77.5 (-60% vs Low). At 1440p, the same progression shows 137.7 → 109.6 → 91.5 → 54.5, with Ultra representing a 60% reduction from Low. At 4K, the ladder is 84.7 → 70.1 → 57.3 → 35. The Ultra preset at 4K is the most demanding configuration measured, producing only 35 FPS.

The resolution-to-FPS relationship suggests that the RTX 3060 Ti becomes the limiting component as pixel count rises. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 116.5 FPS, but at 4K that gap narrows to 49.7 FPS. This compression indicates that at 4K, even the Low preset saturates the GPU's capabilities, leaving less headroom for additional visual effects. Conversely, the CPU's role is more apparent at 1080p Low, where the 194 FPS figure approaches the practical ceiling for a 6-core, 12-thread processor in this title.

The benchmark data shows that 1440p Medium (109.6 FPS) and 1080p High (126 FPS) offer broadly similar performance, suggesting that users targeting 100+ FPS can choose between higher resolution or higher settings with comparable results. The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered playable, indicating that this combination requires settings reduction for smooth 4K operation.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution/settings combination for 60+ FPS in Downfall?*

A: All measured 1080p and 1440p configurations exceed 54 FPS. The lowest 1440p result (Ultra) still produces 54.5 FPS, while every 1080p setting from Medium upward stays above 77 FPS. At 4K, only Low (84.7 FPS) and Medium (70.1 FPS) clear the 60 FPS mark; High (57.3 FPS) and Ultra (35 FPS) fall short.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 25120, placing it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6700M with an average score of 25180, a difference of -0.2%. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 (25235, -0.5%) and AMD Radeon 890M (25246, -0.5%) are similarly close, while the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP trails at 25287 (-0.7%).

Q: What is the CPU's synthetic benchmark standing relative to comparable processors?

A: The Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17181, placing it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival is the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U with a score of 17189 (0% difference). The Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, -0.2%) and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17215, -0.2%) are marginally ahead, while the Intel Core i5-1240U (17141, +0.2%) sits slightly behind.

Q: Does the game favor CPU or GPU performance at 1080p?

A: The 1080p Low result of 194 FPS suggests the CPU is capable of feeding high frame rates, but the significant drop to 77.5 FPS at Ultra indicates the GPU becomes the bottleneck when visual effects are enabled. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372 and single-core score of 2029 provide ample processing power for a horror title like Downfall.

Q: Is the RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: The measured 4K results show playable frame rates at Low (84.7 FPS) and Medium (70.1 FPS), indicating that 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for this game at 4K when settings are moderated. The Ultra preset's 35 FPS suggests VRAM or compute limitations at maximum settings.

Q: How does the measured FPS data compare to the GPU's percentile ranking?

A: The GPU sits in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU ranks higher at the 75th percentile. This ranking disparity aligns with the measured FPS data, which shows the GPU limiting performance at higher resolutions while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom at lower settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture using the GA104 chip, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors across a 392 mm² die. Its 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines are complemented by 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores, providing dedicated hardware for ray tracing and AI-accelerated features. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1410 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, delivering 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

Memory configuration consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for a total bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory subsystem is directly relevant to Downfall's 4K performance, where the measured results show a steep drop from Medium (70.1 FPS) to High (57.3 FPS) and Ultra (35 FPS). The pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s suggest the card can handle high-resolution textures, but the Ultra preset's demands exceed what the 8 GB frame buffer can efficiently manage.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores provide context for its in-game performance. Its PassMark G3D score of 20349 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2626 indicate strong DirectX 12 capability, which aligns with the game's measured results. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 109075 and Vulkan score of 107543 show balanced compute performance across APIs. The card's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are all AMD products, with the RX 6700M just 0.2% ahead and the RX 6600, RX 890M, and RX 580 2048SP all within 0.7% — indicating the RTX 3060 Ti sits at a highly competitive performance tier.

The 200 W TDP and dual-slot design with a 12-pin power connector require a 550 W suggested PSU, but the benchmark data indicates the card delivers consistent performance across the settings spectrum. The GPU's percentile ranking of 69th places it firmly in the mid-to-upper range, which matches its measured ability to handle 1440p gaming comfortably while requiring settings discipline at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 3060 Ti and i5-11400F combination delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 194 FPS, which drops to 157.4 FPS at Medium (-19% from Low), 126 FPS at High (-35%), and 77.5 FPS at Ultra (-60%). The 1080p results show a smooth scaling curve, with each settings tier reducing performance by 19-31% from the previous tier.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same settings ladder yields 137.7 FPS at Low, 109.6 FPS at Medium (-20%), 91.5 FPS at High (-34%), and 54.5 FPS at Ultra (-60%). The percentage drops between settings tiers are nearly identical to 1080p, confirming that the settings impact scales consistently regardless of resolution. However, the absolute FPS values are 26-32% lower at 1440p compared to 1080p for each settings tier.

At 3840x2160, the performance ceiling drops significantly. Low settings produce 84.7 FPS, Medium reduces to 70.1 FPS (-17%), High falls to 57.3 FPS (-32%), and Ultra bottoms out at 35 FPS (-59%). The 4K results show a slightly smaller percentage drop from Low to Medium compared to lower resolutions, suggesting the GPU is becoming the dominant constraint even at Low settings.

The full resolution comparison reveals that 1080p Ultra (77.5 FPS) outperforms 1440p High (91.5 FPS) by a smaller margin than the resolution difference might suggest, and 4K Medium (70.1 FPS) is only 9.5% slower than 1080p Ultra. This compression of performance across resolutions indicates that the GPU's rendering capabilities, rather than memory bandwidth or CPU throughput, are the primary limitation at higher settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process with a die size of 276 mm². It operates at a base clock of 2.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, and its 12 MB of shared L3 cache (along with 80 KB L1 and 512 KB L2 per core) provides adequate data locality for gaming workloads. The CPU's 65 W TDP and Socket 1200 compatibility make it a mainstream desktop part, and its dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for feeding the GPU's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth.

Synthetic benchmarks show the i5-11400F performs strongly relative to its peers. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372 and single-core score of 2029 indicate balanced performance across both multi-threaded and lightly-threaded workloads. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 868 (single-thread) to 5652 (max threads), with 4-thread (3171) and 8-thread (4691) results demonstrating good scaling as thread count increases. PassMark tests reveal particular strengths in integer math (57624) and floating-point math (34127), while the find prime numbers score of 51 is notably low.

In the context of Downfall, the CPU's 75th percentile ranking (avg benchmark score 17181) places it slightly ahead of its nearest rivals. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700U matches it exactly (17189, 0% delta), while the Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, -0.2%) and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17215, -0.2%) are marginally faster. The Intel Core i5-1240U (17141, +0.2%) is the closest competitor from behind. This clustering indicates that the i5-11400F sits at a performance level where small architectural differences determine ranking.

The measured FPS data shows the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this game. At 1080p Low, the 194 FPS result demonstrates the processor's ability to drive high frame rates. However, the 4K results show that even with the CPU providing 6 cores and 12 threads, the GPU's capabilities cap performance at 84.7 FPS on Low settings. The combination's overall rank of 1287 out of 1741 combos in Downfall reflects the mid-range positioning of both components, with the CPU's 75th percentile ranking suggesting it has headroom that the GPU cannot fully exploit at higher resolutions.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and PCIe Gen 4 connectivity (20 lanes) provide adequate data transfer for the RTX 3060 Ti, and the 12 threads are sufficient for a 2016 horror title that likely does not scale heavily beyond 4-6 cores. The benchmark data indicates that users seeking higher 4K performance would benefit more from a faster GPU than a faster CPU, as the processor's single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core 2029) is already sufficient to exceed the GPU's 4K frame delivery capabilities.