Downfall

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Downfall with the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 reveals a clear hierarchy across presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 340.2 FPS, Medium drops to 274.2 FPS, High sits at 224.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 139.6 FPS. The step from High to Ultra is particularly steep—a 85.3 FPS reduction—suggesting that Ultra enables effects that disproportionately tax the GPU. For players prioritizing smoothness, High at 1080p offers 224.9 FPS, which remains far above any display refresh rate concerns while retaining visual fidelity over Medium.

At 2560x1440, the pattern holds: Low produces 240.9 FPS, Medium 196.1 FPS, High 161.7 FPS, and Ultra 102.6 FPS. The High preset here still clears 160 FPS, making it the balanced choice for 1440p displays. Ultra at this resolution remains playable at 102.6 FPS, but the margin over High narrows to 59.1 FPS—the same relative gap as 1080p. The data suggests that for most users, High provides the best experience-per-frame tradeoff, as the visual jump to Ultra does not justify the performance cost.

At 3840x2160, the story changes. High delivers 104.1 FPS, Medium 124.8 FPS, and Low 148.4 FPS, but Ultra collapses to 62.1 FPS. This is the only resolution where Ultra falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for 4K gaming. Medium at 4K is the pragmatic pick—124.8 FPS is smooth and the visual difference from High is modest. The recommendation across all resolutions is to favor High or Medium, avoiding Ultra unless the user is on a 1080p panel and craves maximum settings.

GPU Role

The RTX 5070’s specifications directly explain the measured results. It carries 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Downfall, a horror title from 2016, this bandwidth appears ample—the GPU never seems constrained by memory throughput in the data. The boost clock of 2512 MHz and base clock of 2325 MHz, combined with 6144 shading units, drive the frame rates observed. The 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are present, but Downfall’s age suggests ray tracing is unlikely to be a factor; the performance scaling across presets reflects raw rasterization workload.

The GPU’s 83rd percentile among all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 41687 place it in strong standing, but the nearestRivals list is telling. The RTX 5070 scores within 0.6% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (avgScore 41441) and 0.2% of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (avgScore 41610). This indicates that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5070 is essentially tied with a previous-generation flagship, yet in Downfall it achieves 340.2 FPS at 1080p Low—a number that suggests the game is not GPU-bound at lower resolutions. The GPU’s 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 201.0 GPixel/s pixel rate provide ample headroom for a 2016 title, which explains why 4K High still hits 104.1 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, 1080p yields 340.2 FPS, 1440p yields 240.9 FPS (a 29.2% drop), and 4K yields 148.4 FPS (a 56.4% drop from 1080p). This scaling is not linear—the jump to 4K quadruples pixel count but only halves frame rate, indicating the CPU still has influence at higher resolutions. At Ultra settings, the drops are steeper: 1080p at 139.6 FPS, 1440p at 102.6 FPS (26.5% drop), and 4K at 62.1 FPS (55.5% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K, particularly with Ultra’s heavier shader load.

The data implies that at 1080p and 1440p, the i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 5070, as frame rates exceed 200 FPS even at Medium. At 4K, the GPU’s workload dominates, and the CPU’s role diminishes. The 62.1 FPS at 4K Ultra versus 148.4 FPS at 4K Low shows a 86.3 FPS swing purely from settings, confirming that resolution scaling amplifies preset differences. For users targeting 4K, the GPU is the primary constraint, but the i5-12400’s 4.40 GHz boost clock prevents it from becoming a serious bottleneck at any resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 produce 161.7 FPS, which is smooth and visually strong. Ultra drops to 102.6 FPS, still playable but with a 59.1 FPS penalty that most users will notice less than the graphical gains.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra in Downfall?

A: The data shows 62.1 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra, which is technically above 60 FPS but leaves little headroom. Medium at 4K delivers 124.8 FPS, a much safer choice for consistent frame pacing.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to the RTX 3090 in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5070’s average benchmark score is 41687, while the RTX 3090 scores 41441—a deltaPct of 0.6% in favor of the 5070. This places them effectively at parity in general compute workloads.

Q: Is the i5-12400 holding back the RTX 5070 in this game?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo hits 340.2 FPS, which is extremely high. The CPU’s 3dmark single-thread score of 910 and max-thread score of 5890 suggest it can keep up; the bottleneck shifts to the GPU primarily at 4K Ultra.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p Medium?

A: The measured average is 274.2 FPS, which is well above any standard 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitor’s refresh rate. This makes Medium a viable option for competitive play.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: No—the 4K High preset achieves 104.1 FPS, and the 672.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient. The 12 GB capacity is not a limiting factor in this 2016 title, as frame rates remain high across all 4K presets.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combo—Intel Core i5-12400 paired with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070—ranks 339th out of 1741 tested combinations in Downfall. That places it in the top 19.5% of all combos, a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a newer GPU. The rank reflects the CPU’s 77th percentile among all CPUs and the GPU’s 83rd percentile, with the combo outperforming many systems that feature higher-end processors but older graphics cards.

The ranking suggests that Downfall is GPU-favoring at higher resolutions, but the i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads prevent it from being a weak link. The CPU’s nearest rivals—the Intel Core i7-9700 (deltaPct 0.1%), Intel Core i7-8700 (deltaPct -0.2%), and Intel Core i5-11600K (deltaPct 0.4%)—all score within 0.4% in average benchmarks, meaning any of these CPUs would perform nearly identically in this game. The RTX 5070’s rivals also cluster tightly, with the RTX 3090 within 0.6%, so the combo’s rank is driven more by the GPU’s raw throughput than by CPU choice. For a 2016 horror title, this rank is respectable, and the data indicates that upgrading the CPU would yield minimal gains while upgrading the GPU would have diminishing returns at 1080p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 brings 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its architecture is Alder Lake, built on a 10 nm process, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In Downfall, the CPU’s role is evident in the lower-resolution results: at 1080p Low, the 340.2 FPS figure is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for this title, as the GPU has ample headroom to render more frames if the CPU could feed them faster.

The CPU’s benchmark scores provide context. Its 3dmark single-thread score of 910 and cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249 indicate strong per-core performance, which matters for a horror game that may rely on single-threaded game logic. The multithreaded scores—cinebench R23 multicore at 15935 and passmark multithread at 18747—show that the CPU can handle background tasks without impacting frame rates. The 18 MB shared L3 cache is sufficient for the game’s data needs, and the 65 W TDP means thermal throttling is unlikely to affect sustained performance. The CPU’s percentile of 77 places it above most desktop processors, and its nearest rival, the i7-9700, scores within 0.1%—confirming that Downfall does not heavily differentiate between these mid-range CPUs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full preset range is as follows: Low averages 340.2 FPS, Medium averages 274.2 FPS, High averages 224.9 FPS, and Ultra averages 139.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 200.6 FPS, showing how dramatically settings impact frame rate at this resolution. The step from High to Ultra is 85.3 FPS, the largest single-preset drop, indicating that Ultra enables expensive post-processing effects.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low at 240.9 FPS, Medium at 196.1 FPS, High at 161.7 FPS, and Ultra at 102.6 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 138.3 FPS, a smaller absolute gap than 1080p but a similar percentage reduction. The High-to-Ultra drop is 59.1 FPS, again the steepest transition. At 3840x2160, Low produces 148.4 FPS, Medium 124.8 FPS, High 104.1 FPS, and Ultra 62.1 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 86.3 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra drop is 42.0 FPS.

Across all resolutions, the data shows a consistent pattern: Medium and High offer the best balance, while Ultra imposes a disproportionate cost. The 4K Ultra figure of 62.1 FPS is the only measured result below 100 FPS, reinforcing that this setting is only viable for users with 60 Hz displays. The 1080p Low result of 340.2 FPS is the highest measured, and 1440p Low at 240.9 FPS remains excellent for high-refresh monitors. The measured FPS values are all averages, with no min or max data provided, so frame-time consistency cannot be assessed, but the averages suggest a system capable of smooth gameplay across all tested configurations.