Downfall

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 delivers a highly capable 1080p experience in Downfall, with the data showing that the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the optimal balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, producing 196 FPS average with a minimum of 167 FPS. At higher resolutions, the combo remains playable, but the measured results indicate that the graphics card becomes the primary constraint as pixel count rises, making Medium the best choice across all tested resolutions for consistent performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combination in Downfall clearly identifies the Medium preset as the sweet spot. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 196 FPS, which is 35 FPS higher than High (161 FPS) and nearly double the Ultra preset’s 101 FPS. The Medium preset also provides the only complete min/max data in the entire dataset—167 FPS minimum and 226 FPS maximum—which indicates a stable frame delivery without significant drops. This consistency is critical for a Horror game where sudden scene changes can cause stuttering; the 167 FPS floor ensures that even the most demanding moments remain well above the refresh rate of standard 144Hz monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, Medium again proves superior. The average drops to 140 FPS, but this remains comfortably above the 115 FPS of High and the 72 FPS of Ultra. The minimum of 119 FPS on Medium at 1440p is still higher than the average of High at the same resolution, meaning that Medium offers not just more frames but also better frame pacing. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. While High at 4K manages 72 FPS average, the Medium preset’s 87 FPS average and 74 FPS minimum provide a more stable experience for 4K displays, which typically run at 60Hz. The Ultra preset at any resolution is not recommended—it produces 45 FPS at 4K, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 101 FPS at 1080p—all of which are significantly lower than Medium and introduce unnecessary strain on the GPU.

The Low preset, while yielding the highest frame rates (240 FPS at 1080p, 171 FPS at 1440p, 107 FPS at 4K), sacrifices too much visual quality for a horror title where atmospheric lighting and shadows matter. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 44 FPS (from 240 to 196), but the improvement in rendering quality is substantial, and the resulting 196 FPS still exceeds what most displays can show. At 4K, Low’s 107 FPS versus Medium’s 87 FPS represents a 23% difference, but the Medium preset’s minimum of 74 FPS remains above 60 FPS, making it the safest choice for maintaining a locked 60Hz experience without visual compromises. The data supports Medium as the default recommendation for this combo across all resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark results place it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19039. In the context of Downfall, a horror game released in 2016, the CPU’s role is primarily to maintain a high frame rate ceiling, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380 and single-core score of 1680 indicate strong per-thread performance, which is essential for a game that likely relies on a few primary threads for physics and AI calculations. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5895 and 4-thread score of 3067 show that the processor scales well with thread count, but the single-thread score of 909 in 3DMark suggests that individual core speed is the limiting factor for older game engines.

At 1920x1080, the data shows that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough frames to reach 240 FPS on Low settings. This suggests that even at the highest frame rates measured, the i5-12400F is not the bottleneck. The transition from Low to Medium at 1080p reduces FPS from 240 to 196, a 44 FPS drop, which is more attributable to increased GPU load than CPU limitations, given that the CPU’s performance is constant across settings. The fact that the CPU reaches 240 FPS at 1080p Low indicates headroom remains; the processor could likely push higher if the GPU allowed. However, at 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes further. The measured FPS at 4K ranges from 45 (Ultra) to 107 (Low), and these numbers are far below the CPU’s capabilities, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The CPU’s 65W TDP and 10nm process node suggest efficient operation, and its 18 MB of shared L3 cache provides adequate memory hierarchy for game data, though the exact cache impact on Downfall is not directly measured. The benchmark results place this CPU close to rivals like the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (deltaPct 0) and Intel Core 3 201E (deltaPct -0.1), indicating that its overall compute performance is on par with those parts, though the i5-12400F’s desktop-oriented design with DDR4/DDR5 support gives it flexibility.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, is the dominant factor in this combo’s Downfall performance, especially as resolution increases. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a 2016 horror title. Its clocks include a base of 1900 MHz, a game clock of 2041 MHz, and a boost of 2459 MHz, with memory running at 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective). The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 20974 places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15852. The benchmark results show that the RX 7700 outperforms its nearest rivals in some metrics—it is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 and 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 370X, while trailing the AMD Radeon RX 9060 by 1% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti by 1.7% in average score.

In Downfall, the GPU’s role is clear from the resolution scaling. At 1080p, the GPU produces 240 FPS on Low, 196 FPS on Medium, 161 FPS on High, and 101 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra is 139 FPS, which demonstrates that the GPU’s shading units (2560), texture mapping units (160), and raster operation units (96) are heavily taxed by the Ultra preset’s increased effects. The GPU’s 25.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 393.4 GTexel/s texture rate are the key specifications driving these numbers. At 1440p, the same settings produce 171, 140, 115, and 72 FPS respectively, showing a proportional drop that aligns with the 2.25x pixel increase from 1080p. At 4K, the pattern continues: 107 FPS on Low, 87 FPS on Medium, 72 FPS on High, and 45 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra result of 45 FPS is particularly telling—it represents a 55% drop from 1080p Ultra (101 FPS), and the GPU’s 16 GB VRAM is not the issue here, as Downfall from 2016 would not require that capacity. Instead, the compute load from Ultra settings at 4K overwhelms the GPU’s 96 ROPs and 2560 shaders, evidenced by the pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s. The GPU’s 200W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a mid-range power profile, but the measured FPS shows that it is the bottleneck at every resolution above 1080p when using High or Ultra settings. The RX 7700’s 16 GB VRAM is more than adequate for this game, and the bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s ensures memory is never a constraint. The GPU’s performance relative to its rivals—being 1.7% behind the RTX 3060 Ti in average benchmark score—suggests that in Downfall, the RX 7700’s raw compute is sufficient for high frame rates, but the Ultra preset’s demands expose its limits.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 combination ranks 1308 out of 2928 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all configurations. This rank of 1308 out of 2928 means the combo outperforms approximately 55% of all tested pairs, which is a respectable position given that the CPU is from 2022 and the GPU from 2025. The rank reflects the balance between the components: the CPU’s 73rd percentile standing among all CPUs and the GPU’s 58th percentile among all GPUs combine to produce a system that is stronger in processing than in graphics rendering. The fact that the combo ranks higher than the GPU’s individual percentile (58th) suggests that the CPU’s above-average performance helps boost the overall experience, particularly in CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p.

However, the rank also indicates that there are 1619 combos that perform better, which is expected given that more powerful CPUs and GPUs exist. The combo’s position in the 1308th spot out of 2928 is not a reflection of weakness but rather of the mid-range nature of both components. The CPU’s nearest rivals—the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, Intel Core 3 201E, Intel Core i5-1335U, and AMD EPYC 7773X—all have average benchmark scores within 0.3% of the i5-12400F, meaning the CPU is well-matched against its peers. Similarly, the GPU’s nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon R9 370X, AMD Radeon RX 9060, AMD Radeon Pro W5500, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti—are all within 1.7% of the RX 7700’s average score. This tight clustering suggests that the combo’s rank is not anomalous but representative of a stable, predictable pairing. In Downfall, the measured FPS data confirms this: the combo delivers playable frame rates at all resolutions and settings except 4K Ultra, where 45 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold, and 1440p Ultra at 72 FPS, which is borderline. The rank of 1308 out of 2928 is a fair assessment of a system that excels at 1080p and 1440p Medium/High settings but struggles with maximum settings at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which reveals the GPU as the limiting component. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 (a 1.78x increase in pixel count) results in frame rate drops that are roughly proportional. At Medium settings, the average drops from 196 FPS to 140 FPS, a 28.6% decrease. At High settings, the drop is from 161 FPS to 115 FPS, a 28.6% decrease as well. At Low settings, the drop is from 240 FPS to 171 FPS, a 28.75% decrease. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 101 FPS to 72 FPS, a 28.7% decrease. This uniform ~28.7% reduction across all settings indicates that the GPU’s compute units are being scaled linearly with pixel count, with no other bottleneck interfering. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the drop from 1080p to 1440p would be smaller, because the CPU’s workload does not scale with resolution in the same way.

The scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 (a 2.25x increase in pixel count) shows a more pronounced drop, further confirming the GPU bottleneck. At Medium settings, the average falls from 140 FPS to 87 FPS, a 37.9% decrease. At High settings, it drops from 115 FPS to 72 FPS, a 37.4% decrease. At Low settings, the drop is from 171 FPS to 107 FPS, a 37.4% decrease. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 72 FPS to 45 FPS, a 37.5% decrease. The larger percentage drop from 1440p to 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p suggests that the GPU is approaching its limits at 4K, where the sheer number of pixels (8.3 million) exceeds the GPU’s ability to maintain the same efficiency. The 4K Low result of 107 FPS is still high, indicating that the GPU has enough raw power to handle 4K at lower settings, but the Ultra preset at 4K (45 FPS) shows that the combination of high pixel count and heavy shading effects overwhelms the GPU’s 2560 shading units. The resolution scaling data points to a clear conclusion: the RX 7700 is the primary constraint in this combo. The CPU’s performance is sufficient to support frame rates up to 240 FPS at 1080p, but the GPU cannot deliver the same proportional performance at higher resolutions. For users targeting 4K, the data suggests sticking to Low or Medium settings to maintain 60+ FPS, while 1440p High (115 FPS) is the highest fidelity setting that remains comfortably above 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset averages 240 FPS, which is the absolute maximum measured in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 196 FPS, with a minimum of 167 FPS and a maximum of 226 FPS, providing the only complete frame time data at this resolution. The High preset averages 161 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 101 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 139 FPS, representing a 58% reduction in performance when enabling the highest settings. This range shows that the CPU (with its 6 cores and 12 threads boosting to 4.40 GHz) is not a bottleneck at 1080p, as even the Ultra preset’s 101 FPS is well above the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset’s 196 FPS average with a 167 FPS minimum is the most consistent option, as the 29 FPS gap between minimum and average is small, indicating stable frame delivery.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down as expected. The Low preset averages 171 FPS, which is a 69 FPS drop from 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 140 FPS, with a minimum of 119 FPS and a maximum of 161 FPS. The High preset averages 115 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 72 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 99 FPS, a narrower range than at 1080p, which suggests that the GPU is beginning to feel the pressure of more pixels. The Medium preset’s minimum of 119 FPS is notable because it is higher than the High preset’s average of 115 FPS, meaning that choosing Medium over High provides both a higher average and a higher floor. The Ultra preset’s 72 FPS average is just above the 60 FPS threshold, but its lack of min/max data in the measured results leaves uncertainty about its stability. For 1440p gaming, Medium is the clear choice, offering 140 FPS average with a 119 FPS minimum, which is 25 FPS higher than High’s average.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly. The Low preset averages 107 FPS, which is still playable but 133 FPS lower than 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. The High preset averages 72 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 45 FPS. The 4K Medium result is the most interesting: its minimum of 74 FPS is higher than the High preset’s average of 72 FPS, meaning that Medium at 4K provides a better experience than High at 4K in terms of both average and worst-case performance. The Ultra preset’s 45 FPS is below the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay, making it unsuitable for 4K. The Low preset’s 107 FPS at 4K shows that the GPU can handle high frame rates at 4K when visual effects are minimized, but the Medium preset’s 87 FPS with a 74 FPS minimum is the recommended choice for 4K displays. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the best balance of performance and stability, with the 1080p Medium (196 FPS) and 1440p Medium (140 FPS) being the standout results. The data confirms that this combo is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K viable only at lower settings.