Downfall

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination produces a wide spread of frame rates in Downfall, depending almost entirely on the graphics preset rather than the resolution. The data shows a clear hierarchy where the Ultra preset imposes a severe performance penalty at every resolution, while the Low preset delivers the highest headroom. For a balanced experience that maintains high visual fidelity without sacrificing fluidity, the High preset is the optimal choice, offering average frame rates above 60 at 4K and above 120 at 1440p. The Medium preset provides a middle ground, but the gains over High are modest compared to the jump from Ultra to High.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows reveal a consistent pattern: Ultra settings are disproportionately demanding across all three resolutions. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset yields 48.4 FPS, which is the only sub-60 result in the entire dataset. This suggests that the combination of the i5-9400 and RTX 3070 Ti is not sufficient to maintain a smooth experience at 4K with maximum settings. Dropping to High at the same resolution increases the average to 80 FPS, a substantial improvement of 31.6 frames per second. The data indicates that High is the highest preset that keeps the experience above 60 FPS at 4K.

At 2560x1440, the story is similar. Ultra produces 78.5 FPS, which is playable, but High jumps to 129.6 FPS, a 65% increase in performance. This gap suggests that the Ultra preset is likely enabling effects that are particularly taxing on the GPU, such as ray tracing or high shadow quality. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 158.9 FPS, but the visual difference between Medium and High is often smaller than the performance difference, making High the better value in terms of perceived quality per frame. At 1920x1080, the High preset reaches 182.5 FPS, which is well beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. The Ultra preset at 1080p still achieves 117.1 FPS, but the drop from High to Ultra is a 36% reduction in frame rate for what is likely a marginal visual improvement.

Given the data, the High preset is the recommended starting point. It provides a stable platform across all resolutions, with the only sub-100 FPS result at 4K (80 FPS). For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p displays, the Medium preset offers even higher frame rates (221 and 158.9 FPS, respectively) without the steep cost of Ultra. The Low preset, while delivering the highest frame rates (269.5 at 1080p, 192.4 at 1440p, 120 at 4K), should be reserved for competitive play or when the visual quality is acceptable for the user.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, as evidenced by its 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth provide ample headroom for Downfall's textures at 4K, where the High preset still manages 80 FPS. The GPU's boost clock of 1770 MHz and 6144 shading units are the primary drivers of the frame rates seen in the measured data. The card's architecture, Ampere, supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which is relevant for modern graphical features. The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor when Ultra settings are enabled, as the frame rate drops by roughly 40% from High to Ultra at all resolutions, indicating that the additional visual effects are saturating the GPU's compute resources.

The RTX 3070 Ti's average benchmark score of 30849 places it in the same performance tier as the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (30755, deltaPct 0.3) and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (31112, deltaPct -0.8). This context is important because the measured FPS in Downfall aligns with this mid-to-high range positioning. The GPU's 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game's needs, as no resolution or preset in the dataset shows signs of memory-related stuttering or frame drops. The pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s indicate that the card can fill the screen at 4K, but the Ultra preset's demands on the shading units and RT cores (48 RT cores) are what cause the frame rate to dip to 48.4 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is not linear, and the data reveals how the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p High, the system produces 182.5 FPS. Moving to 1440p High reduces this to 129.6 FPS, a 29% drop. Moving to 4K High further reduces it to 80 FPS, another 38% drop. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU (with its 6 cores and 6 threads) is likely not saturated at these frame rates. The i5-9400 has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, which is sufficient to feed the GPU at these levels. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rate would stay relatively flat across resolutions.

The Low preset shows the most extreme scaling: 269.5 FPS at 1080p, 192.4 FPS at 1440p, and 120 FPS at 4K. This is a 55% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is steeper than the High preset's 56% reduction (182.5 to 80 FPS). The fact that both presets scale similarly suggests that the GPU is consistently the limiting component, even at lower settings where the CPU might have more room to work. The Ultra preset shows the least scaling in absolute terms (117.1 to 48.4 FPS, a 59% drop), but the low absolute numbers at 4K reinforce that the GPU is overwhelmed by the highest settings. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, the High preset is the ceiling for this combo, while 1440p and 1080p offer more headroom for higher frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 672nd out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the 61st percentile of all configurations tested. This is a respectable position, but it indicates that there are many faster combinations. The CPU itself sits at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300, deltaPct 0.2) and the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319, deltaPct -0.6), showing that the i5-9400 is a mid-range processor. The GPU, however, is stronger, sitting at the 74th percentile of all GPUs. This asymmetry suggests that the GPU is doing most of the heavy lifting in this pairing.

The combo's rank of 672 out of 1741 means that roughly 61% of tested configurations are faster. This is not surprising given the CPU's age (released in 2018) and the GPU's mid-2021 release. The data shows that the combo is capable of high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but it struggles to maintain high settings at 4K. The rank reflects this balanced but not top-tier performance. For users looking to upgrade, the CPU would be the first bottleneck, as the GPU is significantly more capable. The data from the measured FPS, particularly the 80 FPS at 4K High, supports the notion that the CPU is not holding back the GPU noticeably, as the frame rates are still respectable.

FAQ

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

A: The High preset is the only option that maintains an average FPS above 60 at 3840x2160, delivering 80 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 48.4 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300, deltaPct 0.2) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2299, deltaPct 0.2). It is slightly slower than the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319, deltaPct -0.6).

Q: Is the RTX 3070 Ti the limiting factor in this system?

A: Yes, the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent drop of 55-59% across all presets, indicating the GPU is saturated. The CPU’s 6-core configuration is not the bottleneck at the frame rates observed.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 158.9 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings. This is a smooth experience for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a playable experience at any resolution?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 the Ultra preset delivers 117.1 FPS, and at 2560x1440 it delivers 78.5 FPS. However, the 4K Ultra preset at 48.4 FPS is not recommended for smooth play.

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

A: The RTX 3070 Ti’s average benchmark score is 30849, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (30755) and 0.8% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (31112).

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average frame rates for the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti in Downfall is as follows.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves the highest average at 269.5 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 221 FPS, and the High preset at 182.5 FPS. The Ultra preset is the slowest at 1080p, producing 117.1 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 192.4 FPS, which is a 28.6% reduction from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset drops to 158.9 FPS, and the High preset to 129.6 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 78.5 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold but significantly lower than the other presets.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 120 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 100. The Medium preset drops to 100.7 FPS, and the High preset to 80 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the worst-case scenario, with an average of 48.4 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each step from Low to Medium to High to Ultra reduces the frame rate by a significant margin. The most dramatic drop is from High to Ultra, which averages a 37% reduction across all resolutions. The least dramatic drop is from Low to Medium, which averages a 19% reduction. This suggests that the Ultra preset is not optimized for this hardware combination, while the Low and Medium presets are more forgiving. The frame rate differences between resolutions are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load increases linearly with pixel count.