Downfall

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT delivers a robust performance profile in Downfall, demonstrating a clear division of labor between CPU and GPU depending on resolution and settings. The measured data indicates that this combination is well-balanced for high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p play, while 4K Ultra presents a significant challenge that shifts the bottleneck firmly to the graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the frame rate scales from 240 FPS at 1920x1080 down to 172 FPS at 2560x1440, a decrease of 68 FPS (approximately 28%). Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields 107 FPS, which is 133 FPS lower than the 1080p result—a substantial 55% reduction in performance from the lowest to highest tested resolution.

The scaling pattern at Medium settings is more moderate in absolute terms but still steep. The average FPS drops from 197 at 1080p to 140 at 1440p, and finally to 87 at 4K. This represents a total loss of 110 FPS when moving from 1080p to 4K. The High preset shows a similar relative trend, with 161 FPS at 1080p, 115 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K, reflecting a 55% performance hit from 1080p to 4K.

Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic resolution sensitivity. At 1080p, the card manages 101 FPS, but this falls to 72 FPS at 1440p—a 29 FPS drop. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 45, which is less than half of the 1080p score. This steep curve indicates that at Ultra settings, the GPU is the primary limiting component, as the pixel throughput demands overwhelm the Radeon RX 6750 XT's capabilities.

The data suggests that the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck at 4K across all settings, while at 1080p and even 1440p, the CPU still has headroom to feed the graphics card. The transition from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing: at High settings, the drop is 43 FPS, compared to only 46 FPS when moving from 1080p to 1440p. This non-linear scaling points to the memory bandwidth and pixel fill rate of the GPU being the limiting factors at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F provides a solid foundation for Downfall, with its 6 cores and 12 threads ensuring that the game's logic and physics calculations are never starved for processing power. The processor's boost clock of 4.40 GHz, combined with its Alder Lake architecture, delivers strong single-threaded performance that is critical for this horror title's frame pacing. Benchmark scores reinforce this: the CPU achieves a single-thread score of 909 in 3dmark and 1680 in Cinebench R23, indicating robust per-core capabilities.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 240 FPS, a figure that suggests the CPU is capable of directing the GPU to produce very high frame rates. The multi-threaded performance, evidenced by a 3dmark max-threads score of 5912 and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380, ensures that background tasks and game engine threads do not cause stutters. The L3 cache of 18 MB shared across the cores provides adequate data sharing for the game's asset streaming.

The CPU's percentile rank of 73 among all tested processors places it in the upper tier, and its nearest rivals—such as the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with a deltaPct of 0—show that it is competitive with other mid-range options. However, the data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios tested. At 4K Ultra, where the GPU produces only 45 FPS, the CPU is likely idle waiting for the graphics card to finish rendering frames, as evidenced by the fact that the same CPU can drive 240 FPS at 1080p Low.

For a horror game like Downfall, which often relies on sudden visual stimuli and complex lighting, the CPU's consistent frame delivery is more important than raw core counts. The 65W TDP suggests the chip runs efficiently, but the architecture's 10 nm process and 163 mm² die size contribute to its balanced performance. The data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck until frame rates exceed approximately 200 FPS, which only occurs at the lowest settings and resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS values, the optimal settings preset depends heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers an excellent balance, delivering 197 FPS average with a minimum of 167 FPS. This ensures smooth gameplay well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common in gaming monitors, while still providing better visual fidelity than Low. The High preset at 1080p, with 161 FPS average, is also viable and provides a richer visual experience, though it sacrifices 36 FPS compared to Medium.

At 2560x1440, the High preset is the recommended choice, yielding 115 FPS average. This is sufficient for high-refresh-rate gaming, though not quite enough for 144 Hz displays at maximum settings. The Medium preset at 1440p produces 140 FPS, which is superior for competitive play, but the visual downgrade may not be worth the 25 FPS gain for a horror game where atmosphere is key. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 72 FPS, which is playable but may feel less fluid during fast camera movements.

For 3840x2160, the data strongly suggests avoiding Ultra settings, as the 45 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 4K provides 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS, making it the best option for maintaining playability while preserving some visual quality. The High preset at 4K, at 72 FPS, is also acceptable but offers no advantage over Medium in terms of frame rate stability, as the minimum FPS is not recorded.

The Low preset is only recommended for competitive scenarios where frame rate is paramount, such as 4K gaming where it produces 107 FPS. However, given the genre of Downfall, the atmospheric benefits of Medium or High settings likely outweigh the marginal FPS gains from Low. The data indicates that the Medium preset provides the most consistent experience across all resolutions, with the smallest gap between average and minimum FPS in the measured rows.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Downfall?*

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which deliver an average of 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS. High settings at 4K are playable at 72 FPS, but Ultra settings drop to 45 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU pairing?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at High settings provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, with 115 FPS average. This resolution avoids the steep performance penalties seen at 4K while offering significantly better image clarity than 1080p.

Q: How does the CPU perform relative to similar processors?

A: The Core i5-12400F ranks in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 19039 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, which scores 19047, and it is 0.3% faster than the Intel Core i5-1335U.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck at any resolution?

A: Yes, particularly at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate drops to 45 FPS. The GPU's performance scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a 37% reduction at High settings, indicating that the Radeon RX 6750 XT's pixel processing capabilities are the limiting factor.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p?

A: The measured data shows 240 FPS at Low, 197 FPS at Medium, 161 FPS at High, and 101 FPS at Ultra settings. The Medium preset offers the best balance with a minimum FPS of 167, ensuring no drops below 144 Hz.

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

A: The Radeon RX 6750 XT has an average benchmark score of 26011, placing it 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M395X and 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile. It ranks in the 71st percentile of all GPUs.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is the primary driver of Downfall's visual output, and the measured FPS data confirms that its capabilities define the performance envelope. With 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the GPU provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game's texture streaming at 1440p and even 4K Medium. The 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs, operating at a boost clock of 2600 MHz, deliver a pixel rate of 166.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 416.0 GTexel/s.

The GPU's 13.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is adequate for the DirectX 12 Ultimate workload that Downfall presents, but the data shows that Ultra settings at high resolutions exceed its capabilities. The transition from High to Ultra at 1440p results in a 43 FPS drop (from 115 to 72), and at 4K, the drop is even more severe—from 72 FPS at High to 45 FPS at Ultra. This suggests that the Ultra preset imposes effects that stress the ROPs and memory subsystem beyond their comfort zone.

The GPU's 40 ray tracing cores are present, though their impact on Downfall is not directly measured in the FPS data. However, the 71st percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates that this card is positioned in the upper-midrange tier. Its nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro W7100 (0.6% slower) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile (1.1% slower), which shows that the desktop RX 6750 XT holds its own against mobile high-end parts. The GPU's 250W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for this performance class, and the 7 nm process from TSMC with 17,200 million transistors allows for efficient power delivery.

The VRAM capacity of 12 GB proves ample for Downfall at all tested settings, as there is no evidence in the FPS data of memory-related stuttering or texture pop-in. The minimum FPS values recorded at Medium settings (74 FPS at 4K, 119 FPS at 1440p, 167 FPS at 1080p) suggest that the memory bandwidth is sufficient to maintain consistent frame delivery. The GPU's role is unambiguous: it is the bottleneck at 4K Ultra and the primary determinant of performance at all resolutions above 1080p Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RX 6750 XT exhibits its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 240 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 197 FPS average, with a narrow range of 167 to 226 FPS, indicating stable frame delivery. High settings achieve 161 FPS average, while Ultra settings drop to 101 FPS. The 139 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p highlights the significant impact of the Ultra preset's additional effects.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance decreases proportionally. Low settings average 172 FPS, which is 28% lower than at 1080p. Medium settings produce 140 FPS average, with a minimum of 119 FPS and a maximum of 162 FPS, showing a wider variance than at 1080p. High settings average 115 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 72 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p is 25 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 43 FPS, demonstrating that the Ultra preset is disproportionately demanding.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings average 107 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 55% reduction from 1080p. Medium settings average 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS, providing the most stable 4K experience. High settings average 72 FPS, which is exactly at the 60 FPS playability threshold but offers no headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra settings plummet to 45 FPS average, making this preset effectively unplayable for a smooth experience in Downfall.

The data reveals that the Medium preset offers the most consistent minimum FPS values across all resolutions, with 167 FPS at 1080p, 119 FPS at 1440p, and 74 FPS at 4K. This consistency is crucial for a horror game where sudden frame drops can break immersion. The High preset provides higher average FPS than Medium at 1080p and 1440p but lacks recorded minimum values, making its frame pacing less certain.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT ranks 1695th out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the 54th percentile of all systems tested. This mid-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the individual component scores, but it reflects the specific demands of this game and the balance between CPU and GPU.

The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests that it is a stronger performer relative to its peers than the GPU, which ranks in the 71st percentile. However, the combo's overall rank of 1695 indicates that Downfall is more sensitive to GPU performance than CPU performance, as the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions drag down the overall ranking. The fact that the combo sits just past the midpoint of all tested systems suggests that there are many configurations with stronger GPUs that achieve better results in this horror title.

The gap between the combo's rank and the top performers is likely due to the GPU's inability to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra, where it produces only 45 FPS. Systems with higher-end graphics cards would achieve better scores at this resolution, pushing them higher in the rankings. Conversely, the CPU's strong single-thread performance ensures that the combo does not fall further down the rankings, as it can drive high frame rates at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed.

The measured data confirms that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it ranks more favorably than at 4K. At 1080p Medium, the 197 FPS average is competitive with many higher-ranked systems, and the minimum FPS of 167 ensures smooth gameplay. The combo's overall rank of 1695 out of 3716 reflects its position as a solid mid-range option that excels at mainstream resolutions but struggles with the most demanding settings.