Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

The measured performance of this pairing in Downfall reveals a system with considerable headroom across all tested resolutions, though the scaling pattern exposes where the bottleneck shifts as pixel count rises. With an average FPS range spanning from 65 at 4K Ultra to 348 at 1080p Low, the data indicates a configuration that can dominate at lower resolutions while remaining perfectly playable at 4K with adjusted settings. The combo ranks 631st out of 3716 tested combinations, placing it in the top 17% of all systems evaluated for this horror title.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic and consistent drop in frame rates across every settings tier, but the shape of that decline tells a clear story about component limits. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 348 at 1080p to 248 at 1440p, a reduction of 100 frames, and then further to 155 at 4K. That represents a 55% decrease from 1080p to 4K, which is substantial but not as severe as the Ultra preset’s scaling.

The Ultra settings curve is particularly revealing: 146 FPS at 1080p drops to 104 at 1440p (a 29% decline) and then plummets to 65 at 4K (another 37% drop). The 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS is less than half of the 1080p Ultra figure, indicating that the RTX 4070 SUPER’s rendering load grows faster than linear when maximum quality is applied. This pattern suggests that at Ultra, the GPU’s shading units, texture mapping units, and memory bandwidth are being pushed to their practical limits.

Medium settings show a similar trajectory: 284 FPS at 1080p, 203 at 1440p, and 126 at 4K. The 1440p to 4K drop of 77 frames is the largest absolute decline among all settings tiers, underscoring how the pixel count increase from 3.7 million to 8.3 million pixels taxes the render pipeline. High settings follow the expected intermediate path: 233 at 1080p, 167 at 1440p, and 104 at 4K.

The data implies that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the limiting component at 4K, particularly at Ultra where the 65 FPS average suggests the GPU’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are heavily engaged. At 1080p, however, the CPU’s role becomes more prominent—the 348 FPS Low result approaches the practical ceiling for many displays, and the relatively small gap between Medium and Low at 1080p (284 vs 348) hints at CPU-side constraints beginning to emerge in the highest frame rate scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer clear guidance on which preset delivers the optimal experience relative to the hardware’s capability. At 4K, the choice between Medium and High is the most consequential decision available. Ultra at 65 FPS is technically playable but leaves no headroom for frame time spikes in a horror game where sudden scene changes are common. High at 104 FPS provides a far more comfortable margin while still maintaining substantial visual quality, and Medium at 126 FPS with a recorded minimum of 107 FPS shows excellent consistency. For 4K users, High represents the best balance—it nearly doubles the Ultra frame rate while preserving most of the visual improvements that matter in atmospheric horror lighting.

At 1440p, the situation improves considerably. High hits 167 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most standard 144Hz monitors, while Ultra at 104 FPS remains above 100 FPS for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset’s minimum of 173 FPS with a 234 FPS maximum indicates tight frame pacing, but the jump to High only costs 36 frames on average. Given that High at 1440p (167 FPS) outperforms Medium at 4K (126 FPS) by 33%, users with 1440p displays can afford to prioritize visual fidelity. Ultra at 1440p is the recommended choice for those with high-refresh-rate panels who want maximum image quality, as 104 FPS still clears the 100 FPS threshold comfortably.

At 1080p, even Ultra delivers 146 FPS, making it the only resolution where the highest preset is unambiguously recommended. The Low preset’s 348 FPS is far beyond any display’s refresh rate and offers no practical benefit, while Medium’s 284 FPS and High’s 233 FPS both exceed 240Hz capabilities. The data suggests that 1080p users should select Ultra without hesitation, as the 65% frame rate penalty compared to Low (146 vs 348) is irrelevant when the absolute value remains so high.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER’s specifications are directly reflected in the measured results. With 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation pipelines, the AD104 chip provides substantial raw compute muscle. The boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz drive these units, and the 35.48 TFLOPS FP32 throughput explains why even 4K Medium achieves 126 FPS. The 12 GB GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s, which becomes increasingly relevant as resolution rises—at 4K Ultra, the 65 FPS result likely reflects both compute and bandwidth pressure.

The GPU’s 83rd percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 43223, places it in the upper tier of graphics hardware. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB, RTX 5050 Mobile, and RTX 4090 Mobile—all score within 1% of the 4070 SUPER, yet the gaming results in Downfall show this card outpacing what those synthetic scores might suggest. The passmark G3D score of 29995 and DirectX 12 score of 110 provide additional context, though the game’s specific engine clearly favors this architecture’s strengths.

The measured FPS data indicates that the GPU is the dominant factor at 4K across all settings. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low (348 to 155, a 55% reduction) versus the same scaling at Ultra (146 to 65, a 55% reduction) shows remarkably consistent proportional drops, suggesting the GPU’s compute and memory resources scale predictably with pixel count. The 21 Gbps effective memory speed and 1313 MHz memory clock are put to heavy use at 4K, and the 220 W TDP reflects the power required to sustain these frame rates in a horror title likely featuring dynamic lighting and shadow effects.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the complete picture emerges across four presets. Low delivers 155 FPS average, providing a high-refresh experience even at 4K. Medium improves visual quality while maintaining 126 FPS, with a minimum of 107 and maximum of 145 FPS showing solid consistency. High reaches 104 FPS, still above the 100 FPS threshold for smooth playback. Ultra drops to 65 FPS, which represents the only sub-100 FPS result in the entire measured dataset. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K shows a 58% reduction in average FPS (155 to 65), illustrating the substantial cost of maximum quality settings.

At 2560x1440, all presets remain above 100 FPS. Low achieves 248 FPS, Medium hits 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 and maximum of 234, High reaches 167 FPS, and Ultra maintains 104 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p (36 FPS) is smaller than the gap between High and Ultra (63 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset introduces disproportionately expensive effects. The Medium preset’s minimum of 173 FPS ensures no noticeable stutter even during intense horror sequences.

At 1920x1080, the numbers reach their peak. Low produces 348 FPS, Medium achieves 284 FPS with a minimum of 242 and maximum of 327, High hits 233 FPS, and Ultra still delivers 146 FPS. Every preset at 1080p exceeds 144 FPS, and all but Ultra exceed 233 FPS, making this resolution ideal for competitive or high-refresh gameplay. The Medium preset’s maximum of 327 FPS approaches the Low preset’s average, indicating that Medium’s additional visual features have minimal impact at this resolution.

FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes, but barely. The measured Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces an average of 65 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold with only 5 FPS of headroom. For consistent frame pacing in a horror game, High settings at 104 FPS provide a safer margin.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 43223 is within 1% of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43262, -0.1%), the RTX 5050 Mobile (43268, -0.1%), and the Quadro M6000 (43301, -0.2%). The RTX 4090 Mobile scores 43667, just 1% higher.

Q: What is the biggest FPS drop when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Low settings, the drop is from 348 to 155 FPS, a 55% reduction. At Ultra, it falls from 146 to 65 FPS, also a 55% reduction. The proportional decline is consistent across all presets, indicating GPU-bound scaling.

Q: Which resolution offers the best balance of quality and performance?

A: 2560x1440 with High settings provides 167 FPS average, which exceeds most high-refresh monitors while maintaining substantial visual quality. The Medium preset at 1440p offers 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 FPS for those prioritizing consistency.

Q: Is the CPU holding back performance at any resolution?

A: The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the 348 FPS result may approach CPU limits, as the Intel Core i5-12600KF’s 10 cores and 16 threads with a 4.90 GHz boost clock are sufficient for high frame rates. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 631st out of 3716 tested combos, placing it in the top 17% of all systems evaluated for Downfall. This indicates strong overall performance relative to the broader hardware landscape.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF provides 10 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its Alder Lake architecture on Intel’s 10 nm process includes 20 MB of shared L3 cache, with 80 KB L1 and 1.25 MB L2 per core. The CPU’s 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27799, places it just 0.3% below the Intel Core i9-10900K (27872) and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (27896), while sitting 0.3% above the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (27712).

In Downfall, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p where frame rates reach 348 at Low settings. The 3DMark benchmarks show strong multi-threaded performance—7956 in the 16-thread test and 7952 at max threads—which supports the game’s background simulation and AI systems typical of horror titles. The single-thread score of 1016 in 3DMark and 3925 in Passmark indicates solid per-core performance, which matters for games that rely on a primary rendering thread. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23391 and single-core of 3302 further underscore the CPU’s capabilities.

The measured FPS data reveals that the CPU is not a bottleneck at 4K, where the GPU’s workload dominates. However, the difference between 1080p Low (348 FPS) and 1440p Low (248 FPS) shows a 100 FPS drop that cannot be fully attributed to pixel count alone—some of this scaling reflects the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. The 16 threads and 4.90 GHz boost clock ensure that even the highest frame rates in the dataset do not hit a hard CPU ceiling, though the 348 FPS result at 1080p Low suggests the system is approaching practical limits for frame generation.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 631 out of 3716 tested combinations places it in the 83rd percentile of all systems tested in Downfall. This positioning is notably strong, outperforming roughly 83% of all combinations benchmarked for this game. The rank reflects the balanced pairing of the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 83rd percentile GPU standing with the i5-12600KF’s 79th percentile CPU ranking. The slight gap between the two component percentiles suggests the GPU is the stronger contributor to gaming performance, which aligns with the resolution scaling data showing GPU-bound behavior at 4K.

Compared to other potential pairings, this combo’s strength lies in its consistency across resolutions. While many combinations might excel at 1080p but falter at 4K, this system maintains playable frame rates at every tested preset and resolution. The 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS, while modest, is higher than what many systems achieve at 1440p, indicating that the GPU’s 12 GB memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth provide sufficient resources for high-resolution horror gaming. The rank of 631 out of 3716 means that 3085 tested combinations delivered worse performance in Downfall, placing this system in the upper echelon of hardware configurations for this specific title.