Downfall

FAQ

Q: What is the Intel Core i5-12400's position among CPUs tested in the database?

A: The Core i5-12400 sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19850. It is effectively tied with the Intel Core i7-9700 (deltaPct 0.1), while trailing the Intel Core i7-8700 by -0.2% and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by -0.4%.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 4090 holds a 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs with an average score of 66473. Benchmark results show it is 0.4% behind the NVIDIA Tesla T4, 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P40, 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, and 1.3% behind the NVIDIA Quadro P6000.

Q: What is the best 4K setting for this combo in Downfall?

A: At 3840x2160, High settings deliver 134.8 FPS, which is the strongest playable configuration. Ultra drops to 82.3 FPS, while Medium and Low produce 160.7 and 199.2 FPS respectively, but High offers the best visual quality within a still very high frame rate.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: Yes, evidence points to CPU limitation at 1920x1080. The gap between Low (389.2 FPS) and Medium (361.5 FPS) is only 27.7 FPS, while the jump from High (296.9 FPS) to Ultra (185.7 FPS) is a massive 111.2 FPS, indicating the CPU caps performance at lower settings where GPU load is lighter.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 42nd out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the top 2.4% of all configurations.

Q: What is the RTX 4090's memory configuration and how does it affect Downfall?

A: The RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. This large frame buffer and high bandwidth prevent VRAM from being a limiting factor at any resolution tested in this horror title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and the data makes that clear. Its 24 GB GDDR6X frame buffer, paired with a 384-bit bus and 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, provides an enormous memory pipeline. The GPU's base clock runs at 2235 MHz with a 2520 MHz boost, and it houses 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. These specifications translate to a 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate, which are the raw throughput figures that drive Downfall's rendering.

The RTX 4090's FP32 compute reaches 82.58 TFLOPS, and its 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores handle any ray-traced or DLSS-enhanced workload the game might present. In Downfall specifically, the GPU's strength shows in the resolution scaling: at 4K Ultra, the card still produces 82.3 FPS, a figure most GPUs cannot approach at that settings level. The measured FPS data demonstrates that the RTX 4090 is the primary performance driver, with the CPU only becoming a factor at lower resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 42 out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall. This places the pairing in the top 2.4% of all configurations in the database. The ranking reflects the overwhelming GPU horsepower, as the RTX 4090's 91st percentile standing among GPUs outweighs the CPU's more modest 77th percentile among processors.

This rank is notable because the CPU is not a flagship part. The Core i5-12400's average benchmark score of 19850 places it in the same performance tier as the Core i7-9700 (19831, deltaPct 0.1) and Core i7-8700 (19894, deltaPct -0.2). Yet when paired with the top-tier RTX 4090, the combination still lands in the 42nd spot, demonstrating that in Downfall, the GPU carries the combo's ranking more heavily than the CPU. The data suggests that swapping in a higher-end CPU would likely improve the rank further, but the current pairing is already near the top of the field.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p and 1440p gaming, the data shows that High settings provide the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1920x1080, High delivers 296.9 FPS, which is already far beyond any display's refresh rate, while Ultra drops to 185.7 FPS — still excellent but with diminishing returns. At 2560x1440, High produces 214 FPS, and Ultra falls to 135.4 FPS, still very playable but less necessary given the High preset's performance.

At 4K, the recommendation changes. High settings yield 134.8 FPS, which is the sweet spot for 3840x2160. Ultra drops to 82.3 FPS, which is playable but represents a 39% performance hit compared to High. Medium at 4K produces 160.7 FPS, but the visual quality difference between Medium and High is typically worth the 25.9 FPS cost. Low settings are unnecessary at any resolution, as even the most demanding preset remains playable. The optimal configuration for this combo is High settings across all resolutions, with Ultra reserved for users who prioritize visuals over frame rate at 1440p or below.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4090 and Core i5-12400 produce staggering numbers. Low settings hit 389.2 FPS, Medium reaches 361.5 FPS, High delivers 296.9 FPS, and Ultra manages 185.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 27.7 FPS, but between High and Ultra the difference expands to 111.2 FPS, highlighting how the Ultra preset's additional effects strain the GPU even at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, Low produces 317.7 FPS, Medium 260.7 FPS, High 214 FPS, and Ultra 135.4 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 70-80 FPS across most settings: Low drops by 71.5, Medium by 100.8, High by 82.9, and Ultra by 50.3. This suggests the GPU is still the limiting factor, but the CPU begins to exert influence at lower settings.

At 3840x2160, Low yields 199.2 FPS, Medium 160.7 FPS, High 134.8 FPS, and Ultra 82.3 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-100 FPS figure in the entire dataset, showing that even the RTX 4090 meets its match when every effect is enabled at maximum resolution. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a near-halving of frame rates at Ultra (135.4 to 82.3), while Low settings drop from 317.7 to 199.2, a 118.5 FPS reduction.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It runs at a 2.50 GHz base clock with a 4.40 GHz boost, and its 18 MB of shared L3 cache helps feed the RTX 4090. The CPU's single-thread performance is solid, scoring 910 in 3DMark single-thread and 2249 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which matters for a horror game like Downfall that may have serial game logic.

In multi-threaded workloads, the i5-12400 scores 5890 in 3DMark max threads and 15935 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. Its 3DMark scores scale well from 2 threads (1692) to 8 threads (4745), but the jump to max threads (5890) is modest, indicating that the 6-core design saturates around 8 threads for this workload. The CPU's percentile rank of 77 places it above average, but its nearest rivals — the Core i7-9700 (deltaPct 0.1) and Core i7-8700 (deltaPct -0.2) — show that it is not a class-leading part.

The CPU's role in Downfall becomes apparent at 1080p Low settings, where the 389.2 FPS result is likely near the processor's maximum frame delivery capability. The fact that Medium only drops to 361.5 FPS, while High falls to 296.9 FPS, suggests that the GPU is still the primary bottleneck except at the very lowest settings where CPU limits surface.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling. From 1080p to 1440p, frame rates drop by 22-30% depending on settings — for example, High falls from 296.9 to 214 FPS, a 28% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, the drops become more severe: High goes from 214 to 134.8 FPS, a 37% reduction, while Ultra falls from 135.4 to 82.3 FPS, a 39% drop.

This scaling pattern indicates the GPU is the limiting component across most of the tested range. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see flat frame rates when lowering resolution, but instead we see consistent increases. However, at 1080p Low, the 389.2 FPS figure approaches the CPU's practical limit, as evidenced by the relatively small 27.7 FPS gain from Medium to Low compared to the 64.6 FPS gain from High to Medium. At 4K, the RTX 4090's performance drops by roughly half from Low to Ultra (199.2 to 82.3 FPS), a 116.9 FPS span that confirms the GPU handles the entire load at that resolution. The data strongly suggests that any CPU upgrades would yield minimal gains at 4K, while at 1080p Low, a faster processor could unlock additional frames.