Downfall

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a commanding performance profile in Downfall, a horror title from 2016. Benchmark data shows this combination is capable of extreme frame rates, particularly at 1080p, while maintaining playable performance even at 4K Ultra settings. The following analysis breaks down the measured results, component roles, and how this setup compares against the broader database of tested combinations.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo in Downfall?*

A: The highest average frame rate is 400 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is followed closely by 327 FPS at Medium settings and 268 FPS at High settings for the same resolution.

Q: Does the game scale well with resolution for this hardware?

A: Yes, but with diminishing returns at lower settings. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 400 at 1080p to 285 at 1440p and further to 178 at 4K. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 168 at 1080p to 120 at 1440p and 74 at 4K.

Q: What is the only setting level that provides a minimum FPS reading?

A: The Medium settings preset is the only one with recorded minimum FPS values. At 1080p, the minimum is 278 FPS; at 1440p, it is 198 FPS; and at 4K, it is 123 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER (score 54209). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.6% and the AMD Radeon 8060S by 2.7%.

Q: What is the processor's percentile ranking among all CPUs?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F ranks in the 83rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32279. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U, scores 32233, a 0.1% difference.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 support modern graphics APIs?

A: Yes, the GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which are all relevant for a 2016 title running on modern drivers.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of frame rates in Downfall, especially at higher resolutions. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This memory configuration is substantial for a horror game from 2016, likely ensuring that texture streaming and high-resolution assets do not become a bottleneck. The GPU's base clock is 2205 MHz with a boost clock of 2505 MHz, and memory operates at an effective speed of 22.4 Gbps.

The benchmark results indicate that the RTX 4080 is rarely constrained by VRAM capacity in this title. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate drops to 74 FPS, suggesting that the GPU's compute and rendering capabilities—rather than memory size—are the limiting factor. The GPU's FP32 performance is 48.74 TFLOPS, and it has 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. These specifications translate to raw throughput that easily handles Downfall's graphical demands, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K High settings, the average FPS remains above 100.

The RTX 4080's ray tracing cores (76) and tensor cores (304) are present but likely underutilized in this older title, which probably does not leverage such features heavily. The data shows that the GPU scales well with settings changes: from 4K Low (178 FPS) to 4K High (119 FPS), the performance drop is about 33%, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs reinforces its position as a high-end part capable of delivering excellent results in this game.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which is typical for a GPU-intensive workload. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 400 FPS at 1080p to 285 FPS at 1440p, a 28.75% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops from 285 to 178, a 37.5% decrease. This non-linear scaling suggests that at 4K, the GPU is working significantly harder to fill the additional pixels, and the frame rate impact is more pronounced.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 327 FPS at 1080p, 233 FPS at 1440p (a 28.7% drop), and 145 FPS at 4K (a 37.8% drop from 1440p). The High settings preset shows a slightly different pattern: 268 FPS at 1080p, 191 FPS at 1440p (a 28.7% drop), and 119 FPS at 4K (a 37.7% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings levels indicates that resolution scaling is independent of the graphics preset, pointing to a purely pixel-throughput-limited scenario.

For Ultra settings, the drops are more severe in absolute terms but similar in percentage: 168 FPS at 1080p, 120 FPS at 1440p (a 28.6% drop), and 74 FPS at 4K (a 38.3% drop from 1440p). The fact that the 4K-to-1440p drop is consistently larger than the 1440p-to-1080p drop across all settings suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth (716.8 GB/s) and pixel fill rate (280.6 GPixel/s) are being taxed heavily at 4K. The CPU does not appear to be the limiting factor, as the frame rates at 1080p are extremely high (400 FPS), indicating the i5-14400F can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are overwhelmingly high. Low settings deliver an average of 400 FPS, which is the maximum recorded for this combo. Medium settings average 327 FPS with a minimum of 278 and a maximum of 376. High settings average 268 FPS, while Ultra settings average 168 FPS. These numbers demonstrate that at 1080p, the RTX 4080 is never challenged, and the CPU's performance becomes more relevant, as frame rates exceed typical monitor refresh rates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages remain high but begin to show the GPU's workload. Low settings produce 285 FPS, Medium averages 233 FPS (minimum 198, maximum 268), High averages 191 FPS, and Ultra averages 120 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result is notable because it is exactly double the 4K Ultra average of 74 FPS, highlighting the pixel count difference. At 1440p, the GPU is still delivering smooth performance, with even the lowest recorded minimum (198 FPS at Medium) being well above playable thresholds.

At 3840x2160, the performance is still respectable but shows the limits of the hardware. Low settings average 178 FPS, Medium averages 145 FPS (minimum 123, maximum 167), High averages 119 FPS, and Ultra averages 74 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only one below 100 FPS in the entire dataset. The minimum FPS for 4K Medium (123 FPS) is still high enough for a smooth experience, but the Ultra preset's average of 74 FPS suggests that players seeking 60 FPS or higher should consider dropping to High settings for a more comfortable margin.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance varies by resolution. At 1080p, all presets deliver well over 150 FPS on average, so the Ultra preset (168 FPS) is the recommended choice for the best visual experience without sacrificing smoothness. The High preset (268 FPS) is also excellent, but Ultra offers the maximum fidelity while still maintaining frame rates far above typical display refresh rates.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset averages 120 FPS, which is still very smooth. However, for users who prioritize higher frame rates, the High preset (191 FPS) provides a significant boost with only a moderate reduction in visual quality. The Medium preset (233 FPS) is unnecessary unless targeting extremely high refresh rate monitors, but the data shows that even Ultra is viable for most gaming scenarios at this resolution.

At 4K, the choice becomes more critical. The Ultra preset averages 74 FPS, which is playable but may dip into lower territory in demanding scenes, though no minimum FPS is recorded for Ultra to confirm this. The High preset (119 FPS) is the recommended choice for 4K, as it offers a substantial 60.8% increase in average frame rate over Ultra while still providing high visual fidelity. The Medium preset (145 FPS) is also an option for those who prefer even higher frame rates, but High strikes the best balance for a 4K experience, ensuring frame rates remain well above 100 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F plays a supporting role in Downfall, providing enough processing power to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4080. The CPU has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its architecture is Raptor Lake, built on a 10 nm process, and it supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus. The L3 cache is 20 MB shared, which is ample for game logic and physics calculations in a 2016 title.

The CPU's benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance: Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 21645, and Geekbench multi-core is 11268. Single-thread performance is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3055 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3701. In Downfall, the data suggests the CPU is not a limiting factor, as frame rates at 1080p Low reach 400 FPS, which is near the practical limit for many game engines.

The CPU's 83rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32279, places it slightly above the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (32233, 0.1% higher) and the Intel Core i9-11900 (32226, 0.2% higher). It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS by 0.2% and the Intel Core i7-12800H by 0.5%. However, these differences are minimal and unlikely to produce noticeable performance variations in Downfall. The CPU's 65 W TDP and support for PCIe Gen 5 (16 lanes) make it a capable match for the RTX 4080, though the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensures compatibility.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 230th out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the top 6.2% of all configurations. This is a strong result, indicating that this pairing is well-suited for high-performance gaming in this title. The rank reflects the dataIsMeasured field set to true, meaning these are actual benchmark results rather than estimates.

In context, the RTX 4080's individual GPU ranking is 86th percentile, and the i5-14400F's CPU ranking is 83rd percentile. The combo's rank of 230 out of 3716 suggests that the pairing is synergistic, with neither component dragging the other down significantly. The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% ahead in synthetic benchmarks, which explains why the combo rank is not higher—the differences between top-tier GPUs are minimal.

The high frame rates measured in Downfall (e.g., 400 FPS at 1080p Low) are consistent with a combination that ranks in the top percentile. The 4K Ultra result of 74 FPS, while lower, still places this combo well above average for 4K gaming, as many systems would struggle to maintain 60 FPS at that resolution and settings level. Overall, the data indicates that this combo is an excellent choice for Downfall, offering headroom for high refresh rate monitors at lower resolutions and solid performance at 4K.