Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core i5-14600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The measured frame rates for this combination in Downfall reveal a system that scales predictably across resolutions and settings, with the RTX 4070 clearly acting as the dominant performance driver. At 1080p Low, the pair delivers 314 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 61 FPS — a five-fold reduction that points squarely at GPU-bound rendering. The Intel Core i5-14600KF, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, never appears to bottleneck the GeForce RTX 4070 even at the lowest settings, where CPU overhead typically becomes more visible. This combination ranks 407th out of 1,741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it comfortably in the top quarter of all pairings in the database.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces average frame rate from 314 to 225 FPS, a 28.3% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low brings the average down further to 138.9 FPS, another 38.3% reduction. The cumulative effect — from 314 FPS at 1080p Low to 138.9 FPS at 4K Low — represents a 55.8% loss in raw throughput. This pattern strongly indicates that the GPU's rendering pipeline, rather than the CPU, is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more dramatic. The 1080p Ultra result of 133.9 FPS falls to 94.5 FPS at 1440p (a 29.4% drop), then to 61 FPS at 4K (a 35.4% drop from 1440p). The total loss from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 54.4%. Notably, the percentage drops between resolution steps are remarkably consistent across all settings tiers, suggesting that Downfall's rendering workload scales linearly with pixel count rather than introducing resolution-specific bottlenecks. The fact that even at 1080p Low the system reaches 314 FPS — well beyond typical display refresh rates — suggests the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them, but the GPU still governs the ceiling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 brings 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. In Downfall, a horror title from 2016, this memory configuration appears more than sufficient; the measured frame rates do not suggest any memory capacity or bandwidth constraint even at 4K Ultra. The GPU's boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1920 MHz, built on TSMC's 5 nm process with the AD104 chip, provide the computational muscle driving these results. The RTX 4070's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 455.4 GTexel/s texture rate translate directly into the high fill rates Downfall demands.

The RTX 4070's benchmark profile shows it ranks at the 81st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,283. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, scores 37,507 — a 0.6% delta that places the RTX 4070 effectively at parity with that older card in synthetic tests. However, in Downfall specifically, the RTX 4070's modern architecture with 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores likely contributes to the strong 4K performance, even though this 2016 title predates widespread ray tracing adoption. The GPU's end-of-life production status and 200 W TDP suggest it remains a capable choice, though the data shows its successor generation has arrived.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 133.9 FPS — well above the 60 FPS threshold and smooth on most displays. Dropping to High at 1080p yields 211.4 FPS, a 57.9% improvement over Ultra, while Medium reaches 254.1 FPS and Low tops out at 314 FPS. For players with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, High or Medium offers the best balance, as the jump from Ultra to High is substantial while the step from High to Medium adds only 42.7 FPS.

At 1440p, Ultra holds at 94.5 FPS, which remains playable but leaves little headroom. High at 1440p produces 151.6 FPS, a 60.4% gain over Ultra, making it the recommended tier for this resolution. Medium at 179.5 FPS and Low at 225 FPS provide increasingly higher headroom for competitive play, though the visual trade-offs in a horror title may not be worth the extra frames. At 4K, Ultra drops to 61 FPS — exactly at the edge of playability — while High delivers 91.3 FPS, Medium 111.7 FPS, and Low 138.9 FPS. The 4K High setting offers the best experience per the measured rows, providing nearly 50% more performance than Ultra while maintaining most visual fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

This Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 pairing ranks 407th out of 1,741 tested combinations in Downfall, placing it in the 76.6th percentile of all combos. This ranking reflects a strong but not top-tier position; the CPU's 93rd percentile standing among all processors and the GPU's 81st percentile among all GPUs suggest the combination slightly underperforms what the individual component percentiles might predict. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, scores 49,166 in average benchmarks — a mere 0.4% delta from the 14600KF's 49,367 average.

The GPU's nearest rivals tell a more interesting story. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37,507, only 0.6% higher than the RTX 4070's 37,283 average, despite being from an older generation. The NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A scores 38,008 (1.9% higher), and the RTX 4080 Mobile scores 38,135 (2.2% higher). These narrow deltas in synthetic benchmarks do not translate to Downfall's measured results, where the RTX 4070's modern feature set and 12 GB frame buffer likely provide advantages in real-world rendering that older architectures cannot match. The combination's rank in the top quarter of all tested combos indicates that for Downfall specifically, this pairing delivers consistently high frame rates across all tested configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Downfall?

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 314, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra in Downfall?

A: Yes, but just barely — the 4K Ultra setting produces an average of 61 FPS, which is exactly at the common 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49,367, which is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K's 49,166, making the two effectively identical in performance.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield 151.6 FPS while Ultra yields 94.5 FPS — a 60.4% advantage for High over Ultra.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 4070 have?

A: The GPU is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Where does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 407th out of 1,741 total combinations tested in Downfall, placing it in the top quarter of all pairings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are as follows: Low settings produce 314 FPS, Medium produces 254.1 FPS, High produces 211.4 FPS, and Ultra produces 133.9 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline, with each settings tier costing roughly 15-20% of the previous tier's performance. At 2560x1440, Low delivers 225 FPS, Medium 179.5 FPS, High 151.6 FPS, and Ultra 94.5 FPS. The 1440p results show a similar pattern, though the gap between High and Ultra widens to 60.4%. At 3840x2160, Low achieves 138.9 FPS, Medium 111.7 FPS, High 91.3 FPS, and Ultra 61 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that even the most demanding configuration remains playable, while the lowest setting at 4K still exceeds 120 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF features 14 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data locality for game logic and physics calculations. In Downfall, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU; even at 1080p Low where the GPU has the least work, the system reaches 314 FPS, suggesting the CPU can comfortably feed frames at that rate. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,889 and single-core score of 4,643 indicate strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for game engine main-thread workloads.

The 14600KF's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, scores 49,062 in average benchmarks — a 0.6% delta that places the Intel part slightly ahead. The AMD EPYC 4345P scores 49,595, 0.5% higher than the 14600KF. These narrow margins in synthetic benchmarks suggest that in Downfall, the CPU choice among these rivals would have minimal impact on measured FPS, as the GPU dominates the performance envelope across all tested settings and resolutions. The CPU's 93rd percentile rank among all processors confirms it is a high-end part, and the data shows no evidence of CPU-induced bottlenecks in this pairing.