Downfall

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen family, built on Intel's Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. Its base clock runs at 2.50 GHz, and it can boost up to 4.70 GHz. The chip carries 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 20 MB L3 cache, with support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus.

For Downfall, a horror title released in early 2016, the CPU's role is not heavily stressed. The measured FPS data shows a pattern where frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution and graphics settings, not with CPU throughput. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 102 FPS; at 4K Ultra, it falls to 19 FPS. This massive drop — over 80% — points to the GPU as the primary limiter, with the i5-14400F providing ample headroom.

The processor's benchmark scores support this interpretation. In Cinebench R23, it scores 21,645 multi-core and 3,055 single-core. Its PassMark single-thread score is 3,701, and its multithread score is 25,470. These numbers place it in the 83rd percentile among all CPUs, meaning it outpaces the vast majority of processors in general workloads. Its average benchmark score of 32,279 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (32,233, 0.1% slower), the Intel Core i9-11900 (32,226, 0.2% slower), and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (32,354, 0.2% faster). This near-tie with older high-end parts and modern midrange mobile chips underscores that the i5-14400F is not the bottleneck in Downfall.

Given that the game is from 2016, its threading demands are modest. A 10-core, 16-thread CPU with a 4.70 GHz boost clock is far beyond what a horror title of that era requires. The data confirms this: when moving from 1080p Low to 4K Low, the FPS drops from 102 to 45, a 56% reduction. If the CPU were limiting, the drop would be far less severe, as resolution scaling would not change CPU workload. Instead, the consistent scaling across settings — Low, Medium, High, Ultra — at every resolution indicates the GPU is doing the heavy lifting.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p Medium settings?

A: The combo delivers an average of 83 FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 71 FPS and a maximum of 96 FPS.

Q: How does the i5-14400F compare to its closest rival in raw CPU performance?

A: The i5-14400F has an average benchmark score of 32,279, which is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (32,233) and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i9-11900 (32,226). It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (32,354) by 0.2%.

Q: Does the game run better at 1440p than at 4K?

A: Yes, significantly. At 1440p High, the average FPS is 49, while at 4K High it drops to 30. The 1440p Medium setting yields 60 FPS, versus 37 FPS at 4K Medium.

Q: What is the highest FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The highest average FPS is 102, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 83 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: What GPU is paired with the i5-14400F in this data?

A: The GPU is the AMD Radeon RX 580, featuring 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. Its average benchmark score is 12,928.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RX 580's average benchmark score of 12,928 is 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12,940) and 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12,986). It is 0.5% faster than the AMD Radeon 740M (12,870).

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Downfall provides a clear picture of how the i5-14400F and RX 580 combination scales across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields 102 FPS, Medium yields 83 FPS, High yields 68 FPS, and Ultra yields 43 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers drop to 73, 60, 49, and 31 FPS respectively. At 3840x2160, they fall further to 45, 37, 30, and 19 FPS.

The pattern is consistent: each jump in resolution reduces FPS by roughly the same percentage regardless of settings. For instance, from 1080p Low to 1440p Low, the drop is from 102 to 73 FPS, a 28% reduction. From 1440p Low to 4K Low, the drop is from 73 to 45, a 38% reduction. From 1080p High to 1440p High, the drop is from 68 to 49, a 28% reduction. From 1440p High to 4K High, the drop is from 49 to 30, a 39% reduction.

This near-uniform scaling is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. The RX 580's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth — 42.88 GPixel/s and 256.0 GB/s respectively — are being saturated as pixel count rises. The CPU, with its 83rd percentile standing, does not show any sign of bottlenecking; if it were, the FPS would plateau at higher resolutions, not continue to fall proportionally.

The data also reveals that the RX 580 is more sensitive to settings changes at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 59 FPS (102 to 43). At 4K, that gap narrows to 26 FPS (45 to 19). This is because at 4K, the GPU is already near its limits, and reducing settings cannot fully compensate for the quadrupled pixel count. In contrast, at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom that lowering settings from Ultra to Low nearly doubles performance.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured rows offer four presets at each resolution: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The best experience depends on the target resolution, but the data suggests a clear sweet spot.

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset provides 83 FPS on average, with a minimum of 71 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the jump from Low (102 FPS) to Medium costs only 19 FPS while presumably improving visual quality. High drops to 68 FPS, still playable, but Ultra falls to 43 FPS, which may introduce noticeable stutter in a horror game where responsiveness matters. The data shows that Medium is the balanced choice at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, Medium yields 60 FPS exactly, with a minimum of 51 FPS. This is borderline but workable. High drops to 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, and Low at 73 FPS is the only preset that provides clear headroom. However, the 1440p Medium result of 60 FPS matches the 1080p High result of 68 FPS closely, suggesting that the GPU is the limiting factor. For a consistent 60 FPS at 1440p, Medium is the maximum viable preset.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets reach 60 FPS. Low hits 45 FPS, Medium hits 37 FPS, High hits 30 FPS, and Ultra hits 19 FPS. The 4K Medium result of 37 FPS, with a minimum of 32 FPS, is the most playable of the higher-quality options, but even Low at 45 FPS is far from ideal. The data indicates that 4K is not a practical target for this combo in Downfall, and users should stick to 1080p or 1440p for acceptable performance.

Overall, the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance of performance and quality, with 83 FPS and a tight minimum of 71 FPS. At 1440p, Medium is the ceiling for 60 FPS. At 4K, the game is effectively unplayable at smooth frame rates regardless of settings.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-14400F combined with the AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 3,395 out of 3,716 tested combos in Downfall. This places it in the bottom 9% of all configurations, which is a telling statistic given the individual components' standings.

The CPU alone ranks in the 83rd percentile among all processors, and its average benchmark score of 32,279 puts it in a dead heat with several high-end chips. The GPU, however, ranks in the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 12,928. The RX 580 is a midrange card from 2017, and its performance is roughly equivalent to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12,940) and the GTX 1660 SUPER (12,986), both of which are newer or mobile parts.

The low combo rank stems from the GPU's relative weakness in this specific title. Downfall is a GPU-bound game, as evidenced by the resolution scaling analysis. A strong CPU like the i5-14400F cannot compensate for a GPU that is only slightly above the median. The combo rank of 3,395 out of 3,716 indicates that the vast majority of tested systems outperform this pairing in Downfall.

This is not a criticism of the CPU. The data shows that the i5-14400F is more than capable, but the RX 580 holds the combo back. At 1080p Low, the system hits 102 FPS, which is respectable. At 1080p Ultra, it drops to 43 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The combo's rank reflects this: it is a mid-to-low tier system for this game, with the GPU being the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data for Downfall is provided across three resolutions and four settings presets, with some rows including minimum and maximum values.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: average 102 FPS, no min/max recorded.
• Medium: average 83 FPS, minimum 71 FPS, maximum 96 FPS.
• High: average 68 FPS, no min/max recorded.
• Ultra: average 43 FPS, no min/max recorded.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: average 73 FPS, no min/max recorded.
• Medium: average 60 FPS, minimum 51 FPS, maximum 69 FPS.
• High: average 49 FPS, no min/max recorded.
• Ultra: average 31 FPS, no min/max recorded.

At 3840x2160:

• Low: average 45 FPS, no min/max recorded.
• Medium: average 37 FPS, minimum 32 FPS, maximum 43 FPS.
• High: average 30 FPS, no min/max recorded.
• Ultra: average 19 FPS, no min/max recorded.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data at every resolution, which is useful for understanding frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 71 FPS is 85% of the average, indicating stable performance. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 51 FPS is 85% of the average, still solid. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 32 FPS is 86% of the average, showing that even at lower frame rates, the performance is consistent. This suggests that the RX 580 does not suffer from severe frame time spikes in this title.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die with a transistor density of 24.6M / mm². The GPU operates at a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, with memory running at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). It has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's compute resources include 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. Its pixel rate is 42.88 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 193.0 GTexel/s. It delivers 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and the same for FP16 (1:1). The card has a TDP of 185 W, requires a single 8-pin power connector, and is a dual-slot design with a length of 241 mm (9.5 inches). It supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3.

In Downfall, the RX 580's role is decisive. The game's GPU-bound nature means that the card's raw throughput, memory bandwidth, and VRAM capacity determine the FPS at each resolution. At 1080p, the card's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient, and its 256 GB/s bandwidth allows for smooth performance up to High settings (68 FPS). At 1440p, the card begins to struggle with High settings (49 FPS), and at 4K, even Low settings only reach 45 FPS.

The RX 580's benchmark results place it just below the median of all GPUs, at the 53rd percentile. Its average score of 12,928 is nearly identical to the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12,940) and the GTX 1660 SUPER (12,986), both of which are considered entry-to-midrange parts. In the context of this 2016 horror game, the card is adequate for 1080p but insufficient for high-refresh or high-resolution play.

The GPU's 8 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor in this title, as the measured FPS does not show any signs of texture thrashing or memory-related stutters. However, the card's pixel rate and texture rate are clearly the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The data shows that this GPU, despite its age, is still capable of delivering playable frame rates at 1080p Medium, but cannot handle 4K Ultra (19 FPS) without significant compromises.