Downfall

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 delivers a playable experience in Downfall, but the data reveals a sharp performance cliff at higher settings and resolutions. The measured rows show that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this combination, offering the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate across all tested resolutions. At 1080p, Medium produces an average of 83 FPS, which is a substantial improvement over the 68 FPS of High and only 19 FPS shy of the Low preset’s 102 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs 15 FPS at 1080p, while the jump from Low to Medium costs 19 FPS, suggesting that Medium captures most of the visual gains without the severe performance penalty seen at High or Ultra. At 1440p, Medium still holds at 60 FPS, which is exactly the baseline for smooth gameplay, while High drops to 49 FPS and Ultra falls to 31 FPS. At 4K, Medium is the only preset that maintains a minimum frame rate above 30, with an average of 37 FPS and a min of 32 FPS; High averages 30 FPS but lacks a reported minimum, and Ultra collapses to 19 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The data strongly indicates that the Medium preset is the optimal choice for this hardware combination in Downfall. Across all three resolutions, Medium provides the highest average FPS that still respects the visual hierarchy of the settings. At 1080p, Medium’s 83 FPS average is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, and its minimum of 71 FPS ensures that frame time spikes are unlikely to cause noticeable stutter. The High preset at 1080p, averaging 68 FPS, is playable but offers diminishing returns, as the 15 FPS drop from Medium is significant for a horror title where smooth motion is critical for immersion. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 43 FPS, is a poor trade-off, as it sacrifices over half the frame rate of Low for marginal visual improvements.

At 1440p, Medium is the only preset that keeps the average at exactly 60 FPS, with a minimum of 51 FPS. High drops to 49 FPS, which is below the ideal smoothness threshold, and Ultra falls to 31 FPS, which is barely playable. The Low preset at 1440p, averaging 73 FPS, is the only other option that clears 60 FPS, but it does so by stripping away the atmospheric effects that likely define Downfall’s horror aesthetic. At 4K, Medium is the only viable preset, with an average of 37 FPS and a minimum of 32 FPS. High averages 30 FPS exactly, which is borderline, and Low averages 45 FPS but sacrifices too much visual quality at that resolution. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 19 FPS, is effectively unplayable. For users prioritizing a consistent experience, Medium is the clear recommendation; for those with a 1080p display who want maximum fidelity and can tolerate occasional dips, High is acceptable, but the data shows Medium as the best overall experience per the measured rows.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580’s specifications directly explain the observed performance scaling in Downfall. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with a memory clock of 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). This memory configuration is sufficient for the game’s assets at 1080p and 1440p, but the data suggests it becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where the Ultra preset averages only 19 FPS. The GPU’s base clock of 1257 MHz and boost clock of 1340 MHz, combined with 2304 shading units, deliver a peak FP32 throughput of 6.175 TFLOPS. This raw compute power is what drives the 102 FPS average at 1080p Low, but it is insufficient to maintain high frame rates when the pixel count increases.

The relationship between the GPU’s memory bandwidth and the resolution scaling is evident. At 1080p, the RX 580 can feed its shading units efficiently, as shown by the 83 FPS average at Medium. At 1440p, the pixel count increases by 78%, and the average FPS at Medium drops to 60, which is a 28% reduction—a proportionally smaller drop than the pixel increase, indicating that the GPU’s compute capacity, not memory bandwidth, is the primary constraint at this resolution. At 4K, the pixel count doubles from 1080p, and the Medium preset’s average FPS drops to 37, a 55% reduction. This steeper decline suggests that the 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is becoming saturated, as the ROPs (32) and texture units (144) struggle to keep up with the fill rate demands. The GPU’s 42.88 GPixel/s pixel rate and 193.0 GTexel/s texture rate are adequate for 1080p but are clearly exceeded at 4K Ultra, where the 19 FPS average indicates the card is completely overwhelmed.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Downfall with this combo?*

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all presets exceed 40 FPS on average. At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 31 FPS, and at 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 19 FPS, making 1080p the most consistent experience.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rival in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928. Its closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, which scores 12940, a delta of -0.1%. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12986, a delta of -0.4%.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data implies the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. The i5-12400F has a passmark single-thread score of 3481, which is high, and the frame rates scale consistently with resolution, indicating the GPU is the limiting component. At 1080p Low, the 102 FPS average shows the CPU can feed the GPU adequately.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 Medium, the average FPS is 60, with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS. This 18 FPS spread indicates moderate frame time variance, but the 51 FPS minimum is above the 30 FPS playability threshold.

*Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM sufficient for Downfall at 4K?*

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the High preset averages 30 FPS and Ultra averages 19 FPS. While the 8 GB VRAM is not explicitly measured, the severe performance drop at 4K suggests the memory subsystem and compute units are overwhelmed, regardless of VRAM capacity.

Q: How does the GPU’s DirectX 12 performance relate to the game’s results?

A: The RX 580’s Passmark DirectX 12 score is 43, which is lower than its DirectX 11 score of 60. Downfall likely uses an older API, as the GPU performs better at lower settings, but the data does not specify which API the game uses.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 3395 out of 3716 tested combinations in Downfall. This places the system in the bottom 8.6% of all tested hardware pairings, which is a poor showing for a horror game that is not typically demanding. The rank is driven by the GPU’s limitations, as the CPU is a mid-range part with a percentile of 73 among all CPUs. The RX 580, however, has a percentile of 53 among all GPUs, indicating it is an average card, but the combination’s low rank suggests that Downfall’s specific engine characteristics do not favor this GPU’s architecture. The i5-12400F’s average benchmark score of 19039 places it close to the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19047, delta 0%), but the GPU’s average score of 12928 is nearly 6,000 points lower, creating a significant imbalance.

The rank of 3395 implies that most other combinations, even those with weaker CPUs, achieve higher frame rates in this game. The data suggests that the game is heavily GPU-bound, and the RX 580’s GCN 4.0 architecture, with its 6.175 TFLOPS, is not well optimized for Downfall’s rendering path. The combo’s rank is not entirely surprising given the GPU’s age, but it is noteworthy that the CPU’s strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1680) does not translate into a better rank. This indicates that the game does not rely on CPU performance for its frame rate, as even a high-scoring CPU cannot compensate for the GPU’s fill rate limitations. For users with this combo, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield a much larger performance gain than upgrading the CPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, with the most severe drop occurring between 1440p and 4K. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 83. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 60, a 27.7% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K Medium, the average drops to 37, a 38.3% reduction. This accelerating decline indicates that the GPU’s compute resources are being exhausted, and the memory bandwidth becomes a critical constraint at 4K. At 1080p High, the average is 68 FPS; at 1440p High, it drops to 49 FPS (a 27.9% reduction); and at 4K High, it drops to 30 FPS (a 38.8% reduction). The percentage drops are remarkably consistent between Medium and High, suggesting that the scaling factor is resolution-dependent, not settings-dependent.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. The i5-12400F has a boost clock of 4.40 GHz and can process 12 threads, which is more than sufficient for a 2016 horror game. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain flat across resolutions, as the CPU would be maxed out. Instead, the FPS drops monotonically with resolution, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound workload. The 4K Ultra preset’s 19 FPS average is particularly telling, as it represents a 77% drop from the 1080p Ultra’s 43 FPS. This demonstrates that the RX 580’s 32 ROPs and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are simply not enough to handle the 8.3 million pixels at 4K with high-quality lighting and shadows. The data suggests that for this combo, 1080p is the native resolution, 1440p is a stretch with Medium settings, and 4K is only viable at Low settings, which average 45 FPS but likely look washed out.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS table for this combo is as follows:

• 3840x2160 High: Average 30 FPS
• 3840x2160 Low: Average 45 FPS
• 3840x2160 Medium: Average 37 FPS, minimum 32 FPS, maximum 43 FPS
• 3840x2160 Ultra: Average 19 FPS
• 2560x1440 High: Average 49 FPS
• 2560x1440 Low: Average 73 FPS
• 2560x1440 Medium: Average 60 FPS, minimum 51 FPS, maximum 69 FPS
• 2560x1440 Ultra: Average 31 FPS
• 1920x1080 High: Average 68 FPS
• 1920x1080 Low: Average 102 FPS
• 1920x1080 Medium: Average 83 FPS, minimum 71 FPS, maximum 96 FPS
• 1920x1080 Ultra: Average 43 FPS

At 1080p, the data shows a clear hierarchy: Low is the fastest at 102 FPS, followed by Medium at 83 FPS, High at 68 FPS, and Ultra at 43 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 15 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs 25 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately expensive on this GPU. The Medium preset’s minimum of 71 FPS is the only setting at 1080p that provides a reported minimum above 60, suggesting that it is the safest choice for avoiding stutter. At 1440p, Low is the only preset that exceeds 70 FPS, at 73 FPS, while Medium holds at 60 FPS with a minimum of 51. High at 49 FPS and Ultra at 31 FPS are below the smoothness threshold. At 4K, Low is the fastest at 45 FPS, but Medium’s 37 FPS average with a 32 FPS minimum is the only preset that stays above 30 FPS consistently. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 19 FPS, is unplayable, and the High preset at 30 FPS is marginal at best.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F plays a supporting role in this combo, as the benchmark data indicates that the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates in Downfall. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark results are impressive for a mid-range part: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380 and a single-core score of 1680, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 9472. These scores suggest that the CPU has ample headroom for gaming, as Downfall is a 2016 title that is unlikely to utilize more than a few threads. The CPU’s passmark single-thread score of 3481 is particularly relevant, as it indicates strong per-core performance that can drive high frame rates in less demanding scenes.

However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 102 FPS, which is a high frame rate that requires good CPU performance to feed the GPU. If the CPU were weak, we would see frame rates cap out around 60-70 FPS regardless of resolution. Instead, the FPS scales down with resolution, which is a GPU-limited behavior. The CPU’s L3 cache of 18 MB (shared) and L2 cache of 1.25 MB per core provide fast data access for game logic, but the horror genre’s typically static environments mean that draw calls and physics are not the primary load. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 10 nm process node keep it efficient, but the data suggests that its performance is not a differentiator in this game. The nearest rival, AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, has an average score of 19047, which is nearly identical to the i5-12400F’s 19039, yet the combo’s rank of 3395 is due to the GPU, not the CPU. For users considering an upgrade, the data implies that replacing the RX 580 would have a far greater impact on Downfall performance than swapping the i5-12400F.