Downfall

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the Intel Arc B390 produces a peculiar scaling curve in Downfall. From 1080p Low to 4K Low, the average frame rate drops from 106 FPS to 47 FPS — a 56% reduction. That is a steep cliff, and it points squarely at the GPU as the limiting factor. The Arc B390’s memory bandwidth is system-dependent, and its FP32 throughput is listed at 7.680 TFLOPS; those are modest figures for a horror title that clearly leans on pixel pushing at higher resolutions.

The 1080p to 1440p transition is gentler. At Low settings, the average drops from 106 FPS to 76 FPS, a 28% decline. Going from 1440p to 4K at Low, the average drops from 76 FPS to 47 FPS, a 38% decline. The scaling is not linear — the largest proportional hit occurs when crossing into 4K territory, which suggests the B390’s render pipeline saturates quickly beyond 1440p. At Medium settings, the pattern repeats: 1080p averages 87 FPS, 1440p drops to 62 FPS, and 4K falls to 39 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 25 FPS, but the gap between 1440p and 4K is only 23 FPS — a smaller absolute delta, but the percentage loss is larger at 37% versus 29%.

At High settings, the curve is similar but shallower. 1080p High averages 71 FPS, 1440p High averages 51 FPS, and 4K High averages 32 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 20 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 19 FPS. The fact that the absolute delta remains nearly constant across resolution steps at High suggests the CPU is not the bottleneck; if it were, the gaps would compress as resolution rises. Instead, the consistent ~19-20 FPS per step indicates the GPU is doing the heavy lifting, and its pixel throughput rate of 60 GPixel/s is being fully taxed.

Ultra settings are the outlier. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 44 FPS, which is only 62% of the 1080p High result. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 32 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it bottoms out at 20 FPS. This is a linear-ish collapse — each resolution step removes roughly 12 FPS. The Ultra preset appears to enable effects that crush the Arc B390’s shading units (1536) and ray-tracing cores (12), which are modest counts for a 2026 GPU. The data indicates that Ultra is not viable beyond 1080p, and even at 1080p it barely clears playable territory.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos, this pairing sits at rank 3303 out of 3716. That places it in the bottom 11% of all combos measured for Downfall. The percentile for the CPU alone is 83, meaning the Core i5-14400F is strong relative to all CPUs. The GPU percentile is 9, which drags the entire combo down. This is a textbook CPU-more-capable-than-GPU pairing: the i5-14400F’s 10 cores and 16 threads are overkill for a horror game that likely uses only a few threads, while the Arc B390’s 3nm Panther Lake die is constrained by its system shared memory and low shading unit count.

Looking at the nearestRivals for the GPU, the Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463) and 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M (1460). These are ancient, low-end parts, and yet the Arc only edges them out by a hair. The deltaPct values are positive but tiny — 1.3, 1.5, 2.5, and 2.7 against the GT 625 OEM and GT 710. This tells a clear story: the B390 is not a gaming powerhouse. In this horror game, it performs like a 2012-era budget card, regardless of its modern architecture.

The combo’s rank is not a surprise given the GPU’s percentile. The i5-14400F is in the 83rd percentile for CPU performance, with an average benchmark score of 32279, which is just 0.1% above the Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U and 0.2% above the Core i9-11900. But that CPU strength does not translate to high frame rates in Downfall because the game is pixel-bound. The data shows that the combo rank reflects the weakest link, not the average of the two parts.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 has a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. That boost clock is high, but the base is low, and the memory is system shared — a configuration that often results in limited bandwidth. The memory bus width is also system shared, and bandwidth is system dependent. In a horror game with dark, detailed scenes, memory bandwidth is critical for maintaining high resolutions. The measured FPS data supports this: at 1080p Low, the average is 106 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 47 FPS. That is a 59 FPS drop, which is more than double the 1080p-to-1440p drop of 30 FPS.

The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 texture memory units, and 24 render output units. These are modest numbers, and the FP32 throughput is 7.68 TFLOPS, while FP16 is 15.36 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio. The pixel rate is 60 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 120 GTexel/s. In Downfall, a horror game that likely uses heavy lighting and shadow effects, these rates are not enough. The 4K Ultra result of 20 FPS is a direct consequence of the GPU’s limited raw output.

The GPU’s nearest rival is the GT 520MX, which is 1.3% behind. That is a 2011 card with 1GB DDR3. The B390 is not even beating it by double digits. The data shows that the Arc B390 is not a high-end part by any measure — its 9th percentile rank means 91% of GPUs in the database are faster. For Downfall, this means the GPU is the limiting component in almost every scenario. The CPU’s high percentile does not compensate.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear trade-off. At 1080p, Low yields 106 FPS average, Medium yields 87 FPS, High yields 71 FPS, and Ultra yields 44 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 19 FPS, but from Medium to High costs 16 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 27 FPS. That last step is not worth it — the average drops by 38% while the visual gains are likely minimal. The best experience per the measured rows is Medium at 1080p, with an average of 87 FPS and a minimum of 74 FPS. That is the only resolution and preset combo where the minimum stays above 60 FPS, which is the standard for smooth gameplay.

At 1440p, Medium averages 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS. That minimum is borderline — it could be playable but might dip below 60 in intense scenes. High at 1440p averages 51 FPS, and Low averages 76 FPS. Low is the only 1440p preset that stays above 60 FPS average, but it requires giving up all the visual polish. If playability is the goal, 1440p Low is the last stop. 4K is not recommended — even Low only averages 47 FPS, which is below the typical smoothness threshold.

For a horror game, frame pacing is critical. The Medium preset’s minimum FPS at 1080p is 74, which is solid. At 4K, the Minimum is only 33 FPS at Medium, which is too low. The data suggests that the best experience is to cap at 1080p and use Medium. That gives a 87 FPS average and a minimum of 74 FPS, leaving headroom for the horror game’s occasional scripted drops. Ultra at 1080p is 44 FPS average, which is not worth it.

Measured FPS Breakdown

• 1920x1080: Low averages 106 FPS, no min/max. Medium averages 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 and a maximum of 100. High averages 71 FPS, no min/max. Ultra averages 44 FPS, no min/max. The Medium row is the only one that provides a minimum FPS value, and it is the only row that keeps the minimum above 60.

• 2560x1440: Low averages 76 FPS, no min/max. Medium averages 62 FPS, with a minimum of 53 and a maximum of 71. High averages 51 FPS, no min/max. Ultra averages 32 FPS, no min/max. The Medium minimum of 53 FPS is below 60, so that is a risk.

• 3840x2160: Low averages 47 FPS, no min/max. Medium averages 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 44. High averages 32 FPS, no min/max. Ultra averages 20 FPS, no min/max. The Medium row at 4K has the only min/max values for that resolution, and they are 33-44, which is not playable.

The data is complete: 3 resolutions, 4 settings each, and 12 measured rows. The outliers are clear — 1080p Low is the brightest spot at 106 FPS, and 4K Ultra is the darkest at 20 FPS. The minimum FPS values are only provided for Medium settings across all resolutions, which suggests that the test suite is more confident in those rows. The 1080p Medium minimum of 74 FPS is the best minimum in the entire dataset.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and setting for smooth gameplay?

A: 1920x1080 Medium is the only measured row where the average is above 60 FPS (87 FPS) and the minimum is above 60 FPS (74 FPS). That is the safest choice.

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

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463) and 1.5% above the GeForce 800M (1460). It is 2.5% above the GT 625 OEM and 2.7% above the GT 710.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck?

A: The data shows the GPU is the bottleneck, because frame rates drop drastically as resolution increases (106 FPS at 1080p Low to 47 FPS at 4K Low), while the CPU percentile is 83, indicating it is a strong performer.

Q: What is the combo’s rank in Downfall?

A: This combo ranks 3303 out of 3716 tested combos for Downfall, placing it in the bottom 11% of the database.

Q: Is 4K playable with this combo?

A: No. At 4K Low, the average is 47 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it drops to 39 FPS with a minimum of 33. That is not smooth enough for a horror game.

Q: What about 1440p Ultra?

A: 1440p Ultra averages 32 FPS, which is not playable. The highest 1440p average is Low at 76 FPS, but the minimum is not recorded, so it is less reliable.