Downfall

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers a formidable 1080p and 1440p experience in Downfall, but the data reveals a distinct shift in bottleneck behavior at 4K. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost up to 4.40 GHz, provide sufficient headroom for high frame rates at lower resolutions, while the GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth become the decisive factor at higher pixel counts. Benchmark results show the combo ranks 575th out of 1741 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of all systems evaluated for this title.

CPU Role

The Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on Intel’s Alder Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. Its performance profile, as measured by synthetic benchmarks, shows a single-thread score of 909 in 3dmark and a multi-thread score of 5912 in the max-threads test. In Cinebench R23, it scores 2332 single-core and 16518 multi-core, indicating a balanced capability that handles both lightly-threaded game logic and background tasks without issue.

In Downfall, the CPU’s influence is most visible at 1080p where frame rates are exceptionally high. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 293.4 FPS, and at Medium it reaches 238.6 FPS. These numbers suggest the processor can feed the GPU effectively at lower resolutions, as the frame rate scales primarily with settings rather than resolution. The CPU’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support for DDR4 and DDR5 further support consistent performance, though the data does not isolate memory type impact. Notably, the CPU’s percentile rank of 77 against all CPUs indicates it is comfortably above average, and its average benchmark score of 19221 places it within 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210) and 0.3% of the Intel Core i5-1335U (19167), showing it trades blows with older and newer designs alike.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data shows a clear hierarchy across settings presets, with the most balanced experience at 1440p Medium. At 2560x1440, Medium yields 171.4 FPS, which is 32.2 FPS higher than High (139.2) and 84.9 FPS higher than Ultra (86.5). This represents a sweet spot where visual quality remains respectable while maintaining frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1080p, Medium delivers 238.6 FPS versus 199.5 on High, making Medium the recommended choice for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays.

Ultra settings are only viable at 1080p, where the combo still achieves 126.7 FPS, but at 1440p Ultra drops to 86.5 FPS and at 4K it falls to 53.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. Low settings provide the highest frame rates but sacrifice too much visual fidelity for most users; the jump from Low to Medium at 1440p reduces FPS by 38.7 (from 210.1 to 171.4), a 18.4% penalty that is acceptable given the graphical gains. For 4K users, Medium at 107.6 FPS is the best option, as High drops to 85.3 FPS and Ultra is unplayable at 53.9 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals the GPU as the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 199.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 139.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a 30.2% reduction, and then to 85.3 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 38.7% drop from 1440p. This scaling pattern indicates that the RX 9070’s rendering throughput, not the CPU, dictates performance as pixel count increases.

At Low settings, the trend is even more pronounced: 293.4 FPS at 1080p, 210.1 FPS at 1440p, and 131.2 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is still high, but the relative drop of 55.3% from 1080p shows the GPU’s fill rate limits. Conversely, the CPU’s role diminishes at 4K, as frame rates across settings compress: at 3840x2160, the spread from Low to Ultra is 77.3 FPS (131.2 to 53.9), whereas at 1080p the spread is 166.7 FPS (293.4 to 126.7). This compression indicates that resolution, not settings, becomes the dominant factor, confirming the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K while the CPU has more influence at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall benchmark database for Downfall, this CPU-GPU combination ranks 575th out of 1741 tested combos, placing it in the 67th percentile of all systems. This rank reflects a strong but not elite position, suggesting there are many faster configurations above it, likely with higher-end CPUs or GPUs. The data does not provide specific rival combos for direct comparison, but the GPU’s average benchmark score of 34780 places it near the NVIDIA A2 (34866, delta -0.2%) and NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (34677, delta 0.3%), indicating the RX 9070 is competitive with professional and data-center cards in raw compute.

The CPU’s rank of 77th percentile against all CPUs aligns with the combo’s overall position, implying neither component is severely mismatched. However, the 4K results show the GPU is the weaker link, as frame rates at 3840x2160 Ultra (53.9 FPS) fall below playable thresholds, while 1080p results remain excellent. This suggests that for users targeting 4K, a more powerful GPU would improve the rank, whereas for 1080p or 1440p, the current pairing is well-balanced.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070, based on the Navi 48 chip with RDNA 4.0 architecture, is built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It features 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a game clock of 2070 MHz. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for texture-heavy horror titles like Downfall at high resolutions.

The GPU’s benchmark results show strong compute performance, with a 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 165532. Its Passmark G3D score of 25381 and GPU compute score of 14737 further indicate robust rasterization and compute capabilities. The GPU’s percentile rank of 79 against all GPUs is slightly higher than the CPU’s 77, reinforcing that the RX 9070 is a capable partner for the i5-12400F. However, the 4K Ultra result of 53.9 FPS shows the GPU’s limits, as the 36.13 TFLOPS FP32 performance is insufficient to maintain 60 FPS at maximum settings in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gameplay?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 provide 171.4 FPS, which is 32.2 FPS higher than High (139.2) and 84.9 FPS higher than Ultra (86.5), making it the optimal balance of quality and performance.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: No, 4K Ultra averages 53.9 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS standard. 4K Medium is viable at 107.6 FPS, and 4K High is playable at 85.3 FPS.

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

A: The Core i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19221, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-1335U (19167), while being 0.7% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (19364).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low averages 293.4 FPS and Ultra averages 126.7 FPS, a difference of 166.7 FPS, indicating that settings have a massive impact at this resolution.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the bottleneck at 4K?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, as evidenced by the FPS compression across settings (from 131.2 at Low to 53.9 at Ultra), which is a 77.3 FPS spread versus 166.7 FPS at 1080p.

Q: How does this combo rank overall in the game?

A: The combination ranks 575th out of 1741 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all systems evaluated for Downfall.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings average 293.4 FPS, Medium averages 238.6 FPS, High averages 199.5 FPS, and Ultra averages 126.7 FPS. These results indicate that the CPU and GPU combination is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p displays, with even Ultra settings remaining above 120 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but drops proportionally. Low averages 210.1 FPS, Medium averages 171.4 FPS, High averages 139.2 FPS, and Ultra averages 86.5 FPS. The 1440p results show that Medium and High are both excellent choices, with Ultra still playable at over 80 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low averages 131.2 FPS, Medium averages 107.6 FPS, High averages 85.3 FPS, and Ultra averages 53.9 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration below 60 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay. High settings at 4K remain playable, while Medium offers a comfortable margin above 100 FPS.