Downfall

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Downfall with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti reveals a steep performance curve as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 74 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 53 FPS, a 28% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 33 FPS, which is just 45% of the 1080p Low figure. This pattern strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as the resolution scaling penalty far exceeds what would be expected if the CPU were the bottleneck.

The Medium preset tells a similar story. At 1080p Medium, the average is 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS. Dropping to 1440p Medium yields 43 FPS average with a 37 FPS minimum and 50 FPS maximum. At 4K Medium, the average collapses to 27 FPS with a 23 FPS minimum and 31 FPS maximum. The gap between 1080p and 4K Medium is 33 FPS, a 55% loss. This is consistent with a GPU that has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 112.1 GB/s bandwidth — at higher resolutions, the pixel throughput demand simply overwhelms the card's capacity.

High settings amplify the trend. The 1080p High average is 50 FPS, dropping to 35 FPS at 1440p and 22 FPS at 4K. That means 4K High runs at less than half the frame rate of 1080p High. The Ultra preset is the most punishing: 31 FPS at 1080p, 22 FPS at 1440p, and only 14 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure is barely playable by any standard, and even 1080p Ultra falls short of the 60 FPS target that many users consider the baseline for smooth gameplay.

What does this say about the limiting component? The GTX 1050 Ti has a boost clock of 1392 MHz, a base clock of 1291 MHz, and delivers 2.138 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The i5-9400, by contrast, is a 6-core, 6-thread Coffee Lake CPU with a 4.10 GHz boost clock and a 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs. In a horror title like Downfall, which is unlikely to stress six physical cores heavily, the CPU has ample headroom. The data supports this: the delta between 1080p and 1440p at any given settings preset is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect smaller FPS drops at higher resolutions, since the GPU would be waiting on the CPU less often. Instead, the FPS falls proportionally with pixel count, a textbook GPU-limited signature.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti ranks 3666 out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall. That places it in the bottom 1.3% of all tested combinations, a result that reflects the GPU's modest standing more than the CPU's. The GTX 1050 Ti sits at the 25th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 4193. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon R5 M330 (0.6% higher), NVIDIA Quadro K2100M (1% higher), NVIDIA Quadro K3000M (1.1% lower), and AMD Radeon Vega 3 (1.8% lower). The GTX 1050 Ti is essentially at parity with mobile and entry-level parts from previous generations.

The CPU, on the other hand, performs far better relative to its peers. The i5-9400 ranks at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 is 0.2% faster, the Intel Core i7-10710U is 0.3% slower, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 is 0.4% slower, and the Intel Core i3-10305 is 0.4% faster. This puts the i5-9400 in a dead heat with a range of 10th-gen mobile and desktop parts, all within a fraction of a percent of each other. In Cinebench R23, the i5-9400 scores 6629 multi-core and 935 single-core; in Geekbench, it scores 5141 multi-core and 1389 single-core. These are respectable numbers for a 2018-era desktop chip.

The stark contrast between CPU and GPU rankings explains the combo's low overall standing. A 47th-percentile CPU paired with a 25th-percentile GPU will inevitably land near the bottom of the combo leaderboard in a GPU-bound title. The 3666th rank out of 3716 combos is not a surprise; it is the predictable outcome of pairing a mid-tier CPU with an entry-level GPU that was already at the low end when it launched in 2016. The data shows that this combo is suitable for 1080p gaming at Low to Medium settings in Downfall, but it is not competitive with the vast majority of tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience in Downfall for this combo is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings. The 60 FPS average with a 51 FPS minimum and 69 FPS maximum provides a playable frame rate that stays above 50 FPS even in the worst measured moments. Horror games benefit from consistent frame pacing, and the 51 FPS minimum suggests that the Medium preset avoids the severe dips that plague higher settings. At 1080p High, the average drops to 50 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less margin for demanding scenes. The 20% gap between Medium and High averages is meaningful in a genre where sudden frame drops can break immersion.

The Low preset at 1080p delivers 74 FPS average, which is smooth but comes at the cost of visual fidelity. For a horror game, atmosphere matters, and Low settings may strip away lighting and shadow effects that contribute to the tension. The Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot: it offers a 60 FPS average while presumably retaining enough visual detail to maintain the intended mood. The measured data cannot quantify visual quality, but the frame rate headroom at Medium (60 average, 51 minimum) suggests that there is some buffer for demanding scenes without dropping below acceptable playability.

At 1440p, the situation is less favorable. The Medium preset at 2560x1440 yields 43 FPS average with a 37 FPS minimum, which is borderline for a horror title where smooth motion is important for both gameplay and atmosphere. The Low preset at 1440p gives 53 FPS average, which is playable but requires accepting reduced visuals. At 4K, no settings preset achieves a playable frame rate. Even Low at 3840x2160 only reaches 33 FPS average, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset is effectively unplayable at every resolution, with 31 FPS at 1080p, 22 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K.

The recommendation is clear: run Downfall at 1920x1080 with Medium settings. This provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality based on the measured data. If the user prioritizes frame rate over visuals, Low at 1080p offers 74 FPS average. If they insist on higher resolution, 1440p Low at 53 FPS is the only viable option, and 4K should be avoided entirely.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its best results. Low settings deliver 74 FPS average, Medium delivers 60 FPS average with a 51 FPS minimum and 69 FPS maximum, High delivers 50 FPS average, and Ultra delivers 31 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra is 43 FPS, which represents a 58% reduction in frame rate between the lowest and highest quality presets. The Medium preset's measured range (51-69 FPS) shows that the system can maintain a reasonably tight frame time distribution at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low settings produce 53 FPS average, Medium produces 43 FPS average with a 37 FPS minimum and 50 FPS maximum, High produces 35 FPS average, and Ultra produces 22 FPS average. The delta between 1080p and 1440p is consistent across settings: Low drops by 21 FPS, Medium by 17 FPS, High by 15 FPS, and Ultra by 9 FPS. Interestingly, the absolute drop is larger at lower settings, but the percentage drop is larger at higher settings. Ultra loses 29% of its frame rate going from 1080p to 1440p, while Low loses 28%. This suggests that the GPU is hitting a performance ceiling at higher resolutions regardless of settings.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playability. Low settings yield 33 FPS average, Medium yields 27 FPS average with a 23 FPS minimum and 31 FPS maximum, High yields 22 FPS average, and Ultra yields 14 FPS average. The 4K Medium minimum of 23 FPS is the lowest measured minimum in the entire data set, indicating that the system can dip well below the average in demanding scenes. The gap between 1440p and 4K is severe: Low drops by 20 FPS, Medium by 16 FPS, High by 13 FPS, and Ultra by 8 FPS. The percentage losses are 38%, 37%, 37%, and 36% respectively, showing that the GPU's performance scales almost linearly with pixel count at this resolution range.

The full data set reveals a consistent pattern: each settings tier costs roughly 15-25% of the frame rate compared to the tier below it, and each resolution jump costs roughly 25-40% of the frame rate. This is characteristic of a GPU that is saturated at all but the lowest resolution and settings combination. The i5-9400's CPU performance is sufficient to feed the GTX 1050 Ti at every resolution tested; the bottleneck is entirely on the graphics side.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the defining component in this combo's Downfall performance. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 112.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions. The memory clock is 1752 MHz, running at 7 Gbps effective. The GPU has 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. Its pixel rate is 44.54 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 66.82 GTexel/s. These specifications place it firmly in the entry-level segment, which is reflected in its 25th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The GPU's boost clock of 1392 MHz and base clock of 1291 MHz are typical for the Pascal architecture. The chip is manufactured on a 14 nm process by Samsung, with 3,300 million transistors on a 132 mm² die. The FP32 performance of 2.138 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards but was acceptable for 1080p gaming at low-to-medium settings when the card launched in 2016. The card's launch MSRP was 139 USD, and it has since been discontinued.

In Downfall specifically, the GPU's limitations are exposed at higher resolutions. The measured FPS data shows that the card cannot maintain 60 FPS at 1440p even on Low settings (53 FPS average), and cannot maintain 30 FPS at 4K on any settings (33 FPS average on Low, 14 FPS on Ultra). The VRAM capacity of 4 GB is not the primary constraint — the card runs out of compute and memory bandwidth before it runs out of memory. The 112.1 GB/s bandwidth is the more likely bottleneck, as higher resolutions require more memory transactions per frame.

The GPU's benchmark results corroborate its modest gaming performance. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 305. In PassMark, it scores 6340 in G3D, 45 in DirectX 11, 26 in DirectX 12, and 104 in DirectX 9. Its Geekbench scores are 7834 in Metal, 18129 in OpenCL, and 10001 in Vulkan. These numbers are consistent with a card that is roughly 25th percentile overall, and the Downfall results align with that positioning. The GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution above 1080p, and even at 1080p it cannot handle High or Ultra settings at 60 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Downfall at 60 FPS at 1080p?

A: Yes, but only on Low or Medium settings. The measured data shows 74 FPS average on Low and 60 FPS average on Medium at 1920x1080. High settings drop to 50 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 31 FPS average.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo in Downfall?

A: Based on the measured FPS, Medium at 1920x1080 provides the best balance, with a 60 FPS average and a 51 FPS minimum. This keeps frame rates above 50 FPS while presumably retaining more visual detail than Low settings.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in Downfall?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The GTX 1050 Ti ranks at the 25th percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-9400 ranks at the 47th percentile among all CPUs. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent with GPU-bound performance.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested combos in Downfall?

A: It ranks 3666 out of 3716 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 1.3% of all tested configurations. This reflects the GPU's low performance tier more than the CPU's capabilities.

Q: Can this combo handle 1440p gaming in Downfall?

A: At 2560x1440, the best result is 53 FPS average on Low settings. Medium delivers 43 FPS average, and High drops to 35 FPS. If 50+ FPS is the target, Low settings at 1440p is the only viable option.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and how does it affect Downfall?

A: The GTX 1050 Ti has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 112.1 GB/s bandwidth. The bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p Medium settings (60 FPS average) but becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions, where the measured FPS drops sharply.