Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core i5-14400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a fascinating split-personality result in Downfall, a 2016 horror title that clearly rewards both CPU headroom and GPU brute force. Across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions with four quality presets, the measured frames per second range from a low of 84.8 (4K Ultra) to a high of 411.8 (1080p Low), revealing a system that can obliterate the game’s demands at lower settings but still respects the heavier visual workloads. This analysis digs into what the data says about the CPU’s role, the GPU’s dominance, and where the sweet spot lies.

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

The Intel Core i5-14400F brings 10 cores and 16 threads to the table, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This Raptor Lake-R architecture chip, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, carries 20 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. For a horror game like Downfall, which was released in 2016, the CPU’s single-threaded strength often matters more than raw multi-core muscle, and the benchmark scores reflect a capable performer: a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3093 and a multi-core score of 21914, with a Geekbench single-core result of 2333 and multi-core of 11209.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU’s influence is most visible at 1080p, where the GPU is rarely the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system hits 411.8 FPS average; at 1080p Medium, 372.4 FPS; at 1080p High, 304.5 FPS. These numbers suggest that Downfall’s engine can be pushed to extremely high frame rates, and the i5-14400F’s 4.70 GHz boost clock provides the per-core performance needed to feed the RTX 5090 without stalling. The CPU’s 88th percentile rank against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32508, places it in the upper tier, and its nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-12800H (deltaPct 0), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (deltaPct 0.2), AMD Ryzen 7 250 (deltaPct -0.2), and Intel Core i7-13705H (deltaPct -0.2) — all show near-identical aggregate scores, indicating that this chip is solidly mid-to-high-end for gaming.

However, the data also shows a ceiling. Moving from 1080p Low to 1080p Ultra drops the average FPS from 411.8 to 192.2, a 53% reduction, which is far more than the CPU’s clock variations would explain. This indicates that while the CPU sets the upper bound for frame generation, the GPU and settings dictate the actual workload. The i5-14400F’s 65 W TDP and unlocked multiplier (false) suggest it’s not an overclocking monster, but its boost behavior is sufficient for Downfall’s demands, as evidenced by the consistently high frame rates even at 4K High (138.5 FPS). In essence, the CPU is never the limiting factor in this pairing; it provides ample headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential.

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

The measured FPS data offers a clear hierarchy of quality versus performance, and the optimal preset depends on the user’s display and preference for smoothness versus visual fidelity. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 411.8 FPS, which is excessive for almost any monitor — even 360 Hz panels would be saturated. Medium at 372.4 FPS and High at 304.5 FPS are both far beyond playable thresholds, making Ultra at 192.2 FPS the only preset that meaningfully trades performance for visual quality. For 1080p users, Ultra is the recommended choice because it still exceeds 144 Hz refresh rates comfortably while providing the best image quality.

At 1440p, the story shifts. Low produces 325.1 FPS, Medium 266.3 FPS, and High 220.6 FPS — all still well above 144 Hz. Ultra drops to 134.3 FPS, which is just below the 144 Hz mark but still smooth for most players. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot at 1440p: it offers a substantial visual upgrade over Medium (which is only 45.7 FPS faster) while staying well clear of Ultra’s performance penalty. The 86.3 FPS gap between High and Ultra at this resolution indicates a significant graphical load increase, but High’s 220.6 FPS average leaves plenty of headroom.

At 4K, the recommendations change dramatically. Ultra falls to 84.8 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced horror sequences. High at 138.5 FPS is the standout — it’s the only 4K preset that comfortably exceeds 120 Hz, and it does so while maintaining a high visual tier. Medium at 167.9 FPS and Low at 206 FPS are also viable, but they sacrifice too much visual quality for marginal gains. The measured data points to 4K High as the best balance, offering 138.5 FPS average, which is 53.7 FPS higher than Ultra and only 29.4 FPS lower than Medium. For users with 4K 120 Hz or 144 Hz displays, High is the definitive recommendation.

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

The resolution scaling pattern reveals where the bottleneck lies in this system. At High settings, the FPS drops from 304.5 at 1080p to 220.6 at 1440p (a 27.6% reduction) and then to 138.5 at 4K (a 37.2% reduction from 1440p). This is a classic GPU-bound scaling curve — the CPU can maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the RTX 5090’s workload increases exponentially with pixel count. The fact that 1080p High (304.5 FPS) is only 27.6% faster than 1440p High (220.6 FPS), rather than the ~50% difference seen in purely GPU-limited scenarios, hints that the CPU is still contributing to the frame generation at 1080p.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more telling. 1080p Ultra delivers 192.2 FPS, 1440p Ultra 134.3 FPS, and 4K Ultra 84.8 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 30.1%, and from 1440p to 4K is 36.9%. This consistent ~30-37% reduction per resolution step is characteristic of a GPU that is fully saturated at higher resolutions, with the CPU providing stable frame pacing. The RTX 5090’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 512-bit bus width (1.79 TB/s bandwidth) mean that even at 4K Ultra, memory bandwidth is not a constraint — the 84.8 FPS result is purely a function of shader and rasterization throughput.

The data also suggests that Downfall is not a CPU-heavy title at high resolutions. If the i5-14400F were the limiting factor, we’d expect the 1080p to 1440p drop to be much smaller (since the CPU work doesn’t change much with resolution). Instead, the consistent scaling across all presets points to the GPU as the primary driver of frame rate variation. The only exception is 1080p Low, where 411.8 FPS likely approaches the CPU’s maximum frame generation capability, given the i5-14400F’s single-threaded Cinebench R23 score of 3093. This is a system where the RTX 5090 is the star, and the CPU merely needs to keep up — which it does admirably.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-14400F strong enough to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 5090 in Downfall?

A: Yes. The measured data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 411.8 FPS, and at 4K High, 138.5 FPS. The CPU’s 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, provide sufficient single-threaded performance to feed the GPU, as evidenced by its 88th percentile rank and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3093.

Q: What is the best 4K preset for this combo?

A: High is the best 4K preset, delivering 138.5 FPS average. Ultra drops to 84.8 FPS, which is a 53.7 FPS penalty for visual gains, while Medium (167.9 FPS) and Low (206 FPS) sacrifice too much quality. High offers the best balance at 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 5090’s memory configuration affect performance at 4K?

A: The RTX 5090 has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, offering 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for Downfall at 4K Ultra, as the 84.8 FPS result is not memory-limited — the bottleneck is compute throughput, not bandwidth.

Q: Can this system hit 240 FPS at 1080p?

A: Yes, but only at lower presets. At 1080p Low, the system averages 411.8 FPS, and at Medium, 372.4 FPS. High (304.5 FPS) and Ultra (192.2 FPS) both fall below 240 FPS, so users targeting 240 Hz would need to stick with Medium or Low.

Q: How does the i5-14400F compare to its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The i5-14400F has an average benchmark score of 32508, placing it at 0% deltaPct versus the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513), 0.2% versus the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446), and -0.2% versus both the AMD Ryzen 7 250 (32584) and Intel Core i7-13705H (32586). Performance is effectively identical.

Q: What does the combo’s rank of 15 out of 1741 combos indicate?

A: This combo ranks in the top 1% of all tested CPU-GPU combinations in Downfall, confirming that the i5-14400F and RTX 5090 form an elite pairing for this game, with only 14 other combos outperforming it in the database.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a monster of a GPU, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB202 chip fabricated on TSMC’s 5 nm process. It packs 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, with 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The base clock runs at 2017 MHz, boosting to 2407 MHz, and the memory operates at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) across a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. With 32 GB of GDDR7 VRAM, this card has far more memory than Downfall — a 2016 horror title — could ever need, which explains why the 4K Ultra preset still averages 84.8 FPS without any memory-related stutter.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reinforce its dominance: a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 380114, and a PassMark G3D score of 39650. Its percentile rank of 94 against all GPUs places it near the top, with an average benchmark score of 84306. The nearest rivals are the RTX 5090 D (deltaPct 0.1), RTX 5050 Mobile (deltaPct 0.2), AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (deltaPct 1.3), and NVIDIA CMP 40HX (deltaPct -1.6) — all within 1.6% of the 5090’s aggregate score, which is remarkable given the name differences.

In Downfall, the RTX 5090’s role is clear from the resolution scaling analysis. At 4K, the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rate, with the 84.8 FPS Ultra result representing the card’s maximum throughput under heavy shader load. The 2407 MHz boost clock and 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance provide the raw compute needed to push 138.5 FPS at 4K High, while the 176 ROPs handle pixel fill rates (423.6 GPixel/s) efficiently. The 575 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate this is a power-hungry card, but the measured FPS data shows that power translates directly into performance in this title.

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

At 1920x1080, the system delivers extraordinary frame rates across all presets. Low averages 411.8 FPS, Medium 372.4 FPS, High 304.5 FPS, and Ultra 192.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 219.6 FPS, a 53% reduction, showing that Downfall’s Ultra preset imposes substantial graphical penalties. At 2560x1440, the numbers scale down predictably: Low hits 325.1 FPS, Medium 266.3 FPS, High 220.6 FPS, and Ultra 134.3 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p is the first to dip below 200 FPS, and the 86.3 FPS difference between High and Ultra emphasizes the cost of maxing out settings.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more moderate but remain impressive. High averages 138.5 FPS, Medium 167.9 FPS, and Low 206 FPS. Ultra falls to 84.8 FPS, which is the lowest measured result but still comfortably playable. The 4K data shows a clear tiering: Low and Medium are overkill for most displays, High is the sweet spot, and Ultra is for users who prioritize visuals over frame rate. Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently offers the highest FPS, while Ultra offers the lowest, with Medium and High falling in between. The measured data is complete with no min or max FPS values provided, so the analysis relies solely on average FPS, which is sufficient to identify these trends.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 15th out of 1,741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the top 0.9% of all configurations in the database. This is an exceptional result, especially considering that the CPU is a mid-range 10-core part with a launch MSRP of $196, while the GPU is a flagship 32 GB card with a launch MSRP of 1,999 USD. The ranking suggests that Downfall is more GPU-dependent than CPU-dependent, as the 5090’s massive compute advantage (104.8 TFLOPS FP32) drives the system to near-top-tier status despite the i5-14400F’s more modest specifications.

The rank of 15 implies that 14 other combos outperform this pairing, likely featuring even higher-end CPUs (e.g., flagship Core i9 or Ryzen 9 parts) paired with the RTX 5090 or equivalent GPUs. However, the delta between this combo and the top-ranked ones is likely small, given that the measured FPS at 1080p Low (411.8 FPS) and 4K High (138.5 FPS) are already near the practical limits of most displays. The combo’s percentile placement (top 0.9%) means that 99.1% of tested combos deliver lower performance in Downfall, making this an elite configuration for competitive or high-refresh-rate play.

The data also reveals that the CPU’s aggregate benchmark rank (88th percentile) is lower than the GPU’s (94th percentile), yet the combo still ranks 15th overall. This suggests that in Downfall, the GPU’s dominance outweighs any CPU limitations. The i5-14400F’s nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks — the i7-12800H, Ryzen 5 PRO 7645, Ryzen 7 250, and i7-13705H — all show near-identical scores, so any of these CPUs paired with the RTX 5090 would likely yield similar in-game results. The combo’s rank confirms the RTX 5090’s sheer performance, making the i5-14400F a cost-effective partner that doesn’t hold the GPU back in this title.