Downfall

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers an exceptional experience in Downfall, consistently producing frame rates that far exceed display refresh rate requirements across all tested resolutions and settings. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at 4K, but increasingly CPU-limited at lower resolutions, making the choice of graphics settings critical for maximizing visual fidelity without sacrificing the massive performance headroom this combination offers.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K Ultra HD, the High preset is the clear recommendation. It delivers an average of 133 FPS, which is a 54.7% improvement over the Ultra preset's 86 FPS, while providing a significantly better visual experience than the Medium preset's 161.8 FPS. The performance drop from High to Ultra is substantial, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects carry a heavy cost. For users with 1440p displays, the High preset is again the sweet spot, producing 214.6 FPS, which is more than sufficient. While the Medium preset at 259.8 FPS and Low at 316.8 FPS offer higher frame rates, the visual fidelity gains from High are generally worth the ~45 FPS reduction from Medium. At 1080p, the High preset at 295.5 FPS is recommended for most users, as it balances quality and speed. The Ultra preset at 187.9 FPS is still highly playable and offers the best image quality, but the data shows that the CPU begins to limit performance at this resolution, making the jump from High to Ultra a ~36% performance hit. The Low preset at 390.3 FPS is only relevant for competitive play where maximum frame rates are the sole priority.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 4K display?

A: The High preset is the optimal choice, averaging 133 FPS. It is 47 FPS faster than Ultra and only 28.8 FPS slower than Medium, making it the best balance of visual quality and performance.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: The Low preset averages 316.8 FPS, which is 139.5% faster than the Ultra preset's 132.3 FPS at 2560x1440 resolution.

Q: Does the frame rate drop significantly when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: Yes, at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 295.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 133 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of 55%. This indicates the workload shifts heavily onto the GPU at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's performance bottlenecked by the i5-12400F?

A: At 1080p, yes. The frame rate difference between Low (390.3 FPS) and Medium (360.4 FPS) is only 29.9 FPS, suggesting the CPU is reaching its limit. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the larger performance gaps between settings.

Q: What is the average frame rate on the Ultra preset at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces an average of 86 FPS, which is the lowest measured score in this dataset.

Q: How does the combo rank in this game compared to other tested systems?

A: This specific combination ranks 44th out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the top 2.5% of all configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic transition from CPU-bound to GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p High, the system averages 295.5 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the average drops to 214.6 FPS, a 27.4% decrease. The jump to 4K High yields 133 FPS, a further 38% drop from 1440p. This pattern shows that the RTX 4090 is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are likely being fully utilized at 4K, where the rendering load is immense. Conversely, at 1080p, the frame rates are so high that the 6-core, 12-thread i5-12400F, with its 4.40 GHz boost clock, becomes the limiting component. The data supports this: at 1080p, the difference between Low (390.3 FPS) and Medium (360.4 FPS) is just 7.7%, while at 4K, the difference between the same two presets is 21.6%. This indicates that the CPU cannot feed frames fast enough at 1080p to fully utilize the GPU, a common phenomenon with top-tier graphics cards.

How This Combo Ranks

In the Downfall benchmark database, this configuration of an Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 44 out of 1741 tested combinations. This places it in the top 2.5% of all systems, proof of the sheer power of the RTX 4090. The GPU's percentile rank of 91 versus all other GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 66,473, underscores its dominance. The CPU, while not as dominant in its own right (77th percentile), is more than adequate to keep the GPU fed at high resolutions. The ranking shows that this is a top-tier gaming system for Downfall, even if the CPU is not the absolute fastest available. The data suggests that while other combinations with more powerful CPUs might perform slightly better at 1080p, this pairing is a high-end solution that excels at 1440p and 4K gaming.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores show a strong single-threaded performance (3,481 in Passmark single-thread) which is critical for game logic and physics. In Downfall, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p resolution. Here, the system achieves 390.3 FPS on Low settings, indicating that the CPU can process the game's simulation fast enough to support very high frame rates. However, the relatively small performance increase from Medium (360.4 FPS) to Low (390.3 FPS) suggests that the CPU is nearing its limit, as the GPU is so powerful it is waiting for the CPU to provide data. At 4K, the CPU is less of a factor, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The CPU's 3dmark scores (5,912 for max threads) and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16,518 show it is a capable processor, but the data from Downfall reveals that it is the primary limiter for achieving the absolute highest frame rates at 1080p with an RTX 4090.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all settings and resolutions.

• 1920x1080: The Low preset delivers an average of 390.3 FPS. The Medium preset averages 360.4 FPS. The High preset averages 295.5 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 187.9 FPS.
• 2560x1440: The Low preset averages 316.8 FPS. The Medium preset averages 259.8 FPS. The High preset averages 214.6 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 132.3 FPS.
• 3840x2160: The Low preset averages 196.7 FPS. The Medium preset averages 161.8 FPS. The High preset averages 133 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 86 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: lowering settings yields higher frame rates, but the magnitude of the difference varies significantly by resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 202.4 FPS. At 1440p, this gap is 184.5 FPS. At 4K, the gap narrows to 110.7 FPS. This reinforces the idea that the GPU is the main constraint at 4K, as even the most demanding settings cannot reduce the frame rate as dramatically as at lower resolutions where the CPU is the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a powerhouse, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture. It features 16,384 shading units, 128 RT cores, and 512 tensor cores. Its memory subsystem consists of 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's benchmark scores are stellar, with a Passmark G3D score of 38,194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223. In Downfall, the GPU's role is dominant at 4K resolution. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is a direct result of the GPU's workload increasing. The 4K Ultra preset, which likely uses the most textures and advanced effects, brings the average frame rate down to 86 FPS, which is the only setting in the dataset that dips below 100 FPS. This shows that even the most powerful consumer GPU can be taxed by maxed-out settings at 4K in this title. The GPU's high boost clock of 2520 MHz and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power are the key factors enabling the high frame rates seen at 1440p and 1080p. Its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, have significantly lower average benchmark scores (66,733 and 67,097 respectively, compared to the RTX 4090's 66,473), which aligns with its superior gaming performance here.