Downfall

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is a balanced mid-range combination that delivers playable performance in Downfall at most settings, but demands careful preset selection to avoid dipping below 60 FPS. The data shows that this pairing ranks 1463rd out of 1741 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier, which is expected for a 2016 GPU paired with a 2022 CPU. The GTX 1070’s 8 GB of VRAM and 256-bit memory interface are sufficient for this horror title, yet the benchmark results reveal that the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher settings and resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows indicate that the High preset offers the most consistent experience without sacrificing visual quality, provided you are targeting 1080p or 1440p. At 1920x1080, High yields 107.8 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and only 21.6% slower than the Low preset’s 155 FPS. However, the jump from High to Ultra is punishing: at 1080p, Ultra drops to 66.3 FPS, a 38.5% reduction from High, which is a significant cost for marginal visual gains in a horror game where lighting and shadows matter more than texture density.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the sweet spot. It delivers 92.8 FPS, which is 26.8% faster than High (73.2 FPS) and keeps the experience smooth. Pushing to High at 1440p is still viable for those with 60 Hz monitors, but Medium provides headroom for stutter-free gameplay. At 3840x2160, the story changes drastically: even the Medium preset only achieves 56.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The Low preset at 4K is the only option that breaks 60 FPS, reaching 69.9 FPS, but the visual downgrade is substantial.

Ultra is not recommended at any resolution with this combo. At 1080p it barely clears 60 FPS, at 1440p it falls to 49.7 FPS, and at 4K it plummets to 30 FPS exactly, which is a hard floor for playability. The data suggests that Ultra is designed for hardware with significantly more GPU headroom, and the GTX 1070 simply lacks the raw throughput to maintain fluid motion. For the best balance of fidelity and performance, select High at 1080p or Medium at 1440p; for 4K, Low is the only practical choice.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Downfall at 4K resolution?*

A: Yes, but only at the Low preset, which averages 69.9 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 56.6 FPS, High to 45.1 FPS, and Ultra to exactly 30 FPS, making the latter three unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How much performance is lost when switching from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings?

A: At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 107.8 to 73.2, a 32.1% reduction. At Low, it falls from 155 to 112.6, a 27.4% decrease. The scaling is consistent across settings, indicating a GPU-bound workload.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using on this hardware?

A: No. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 66.3 FPS, which is only 3.6% faster than the 60 FPS baseline, but it costs 38.5% of the High preset’s performance. At 1440p and 4K, Ultra falls to 49.7 and 30 FPS respectively, which are both below playable thresholds.

Q: What is the best preset for a 144 Hz monitor at 1080p?

A: The Low preset achieves 155 FPS, which exceeds 144 Hz. Medium reaches 128.2 FPS, which is close but not fully saturating a 144 Hz display. High at 107.8 FPS is better suited for a 100 Hz monitor.

*Q: How does this CPU-GPU combo rank among all tested systems in Downfall?*

A: It ranks 1463rd out of 1741 combos, placing it in the 16th percentile. This suggests that roughly 84% of tested systems deliver higher average FPS, reflecting the GTX 1070’s age relative to modern GPUs.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM on the GTX 1070 cause issues at higher settings?

A: The benchmark data does not show VRAM-related stutters or crashes, but the significant FPS drops from High to Ultra at all resolutions suggest the GPU’s memory bandwidth (256.3 GB/s) and compute power are the limiting factors, not necessarily capacity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the dominant component in this pairing, as evidenced by the sharp FPS declines when rendering resolution increases. The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for Downfall’s textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows that Ultra settings at 4K push the card to its limits, achieving only 30 FPS. The boost clock of 1683 MHz and base clock of 1506 MHz are typical for Pascal architecture, and the 1920 shading units deliver 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is modest by modern standards.

The measured results show a clear pattern: scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p costs 57.2% of performance (155 to 66.3 FPS), while at 4K the same scaling costs 57.1% (69.9 to 30 FPS). This linearity indicates that the GPU is consistently the bottleneck, regardless of resolution, because the workload scales uniformly with pixel count and shading complexity. The GTX 1070’s 64 ROPs and 120 TMUs are sufficient for the game’s lighting effects, but the texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s becomes strained at Ultra settings, which explains the steep FPS penalty.

The GPU’s percentile rank of 51 among all GPUs shows it sits exactly at the median, but its nearest rivals include the GTX 1650 SUPER, which scores 1.4% higher in average benchmarks, and the GTX 880M, which scores 1.3% lower. This indicates that the GTX 1070 is still competitive with entry-level Turing cards, but it lacks the headroom for demanding presets in Downfall at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings is playable, but with varying margins. The Low preset delivers 155 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors. Medium follows at 128.2 FPS, still above 120 FPS, while High drops to 107.8 FPS, which remains smooth for most displays. Ultra is the outlier at 66.3 FPS, which is playable but leaves little headroom for frame-time spikes, especially in a horror game where sudden scenes can tax the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the performance curve steepens. Low achieves 112.6 FPS, which is still high, but Medium falls to 92.8 FPS, a 17.6% reduction. High at 73.2 FPS is the first setting that feels closer to a console-like 60 FPS target, while Ultra at 49.7 FPS is below the playable threshold for many users. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 55.8%, showing that the GTX 1070 has to work progressively harder as pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the results are stark. Low is the only setting above 60 FPS, hitting 69.9 FPS, which is surprising given the 4K resolution. Medium drops to 56.6 FPS, High to 45.1 FPS, and Ultra to exactly 30 FPS. The 4K data reveals that the GTX 1070’s memory bandwidth is not the primary limiter, since Low at 4K outpaces High at 1440p (69.9 vs 73.2 FPS), but the shading complexity at Ultra settings overwhelms the GPU’s 6.4 TFLOPS of compute.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p at the High preset reduces average FPS from 107.8 to 73.2, a 32.1% drop. This aligns closely with the theoretical pixel count increase of 78%, but the FPS loss is less severe, indicating that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound at 1080p—there is some CPU headroom that gets absorbed. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High, the FPS falls from 73.2 to 45.1, a 38.4% reduction, which is more severe relative to the 2.25x pixel increase, suggesting the GPU is hitting a compute or bandwidth wall.

At the Low preset, the scaling is more efficient: 155 to 112.6 FPS (27.4% drop) from 1080p to 1440p, and then 112.6 to 69.9 FPS (37.9% drop) from 1440p to 4K. This shows that at lower settings, the GPU has more headroom, but the 4K resolution still demands significant resources. The data indicates that the limiting component is unequivocally the GTX 1070, as the i5-12400’s strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249) is more than sufficient to feed the GPU at these frame rates.

The scaling pattern also reveals that Ultra settings magnify the resolution penalty. At 1080p Ultra, the FPS is 66.3; at 1440p Ultra, it drops 25% to 49.7; and at 4K Ultra, it collapses another 39.6% to 30 FPS. This progressive degradation is characteristic of a GPU that is running out of shader throughput and memory bandwidth, rather than a CPU bottleneck, since the i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads are unlikely to be saturated at these frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides a robust foundation for this gaming setup, with 6 cores and 12 threads based on Alder Lake architecture. Its boost clock of 4.40 GHz and base clock of 2.50 GHz are well-suited for gaming workloads, and its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15935 demonstrates strong parallel performance, while the single-core score of 2249 ensures that lightly-threaded games like Downfall receive adequate instructions per cycle. The CPU’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for horror games that often stream assets.

Despite the CPU’s capabilities, the measured FPS data shows that the i5-12400 is not the limiting factor in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 155 FPS, which is high enough that the CPU’s frame delivery time becomes relevant, but the GTX 1070’s 6.463 TFLOPS of compute still caps performance. The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-9700, which has a similar average benchmark score (19831 vs 19850, a 0.1% difference), and the i7-8700, which is 0.2% faster. This places the i5-12400 in a strong position among its peers, but the GPU remains the bottleneck for Downfall.

The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and 16-thread score of 5873 indicate that it has ample headroom for this game. In fact, the data suggests that the i5-12400 could drive higher FPS if paired with a more powerful GPU, as the 1080p Low result of 155 FPS is likely close to the CPU’s practical limit for this title, but the GTX 1070 prevents reaching that ceiling at higher settings. For this combo, the CPU is a silent partner: it provides consistent frame pacing, but the GTX 1070 determines the final output.