Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB

This pairing of a six-core Coffee Lake CPU with an Ada Lovelace GPU lands at rank 718 out of 1,741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it comfortably in the upper-middle tier of the database. The combination of an older mid-range processor and a modern 40-series card produces a system that handles this 2016 horror title with substantial headroom at most settings, though the data reveals a clear bottleneck shift as resolution climbs. With the GPU sitting at the 17th percentile among all tested graphics cards and the CPU at the 50th percentile, this is a balanced pairing where neither component dramatically outclasses the other in synthetic benchmarks, but real-world frame rates tell a more nuanced story.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 718 out of 1,741 tested configurations places this system in the 59th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings tested in Downfall. That is a respectable position, but not an elite one — the data suggests this setup delivers strong 1080p performance yet loses ground at higher resolutions where the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 2,305 puts it nearly identical to the Intel Core i3-10305 (2,300, only 0.2% ahead) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2,299, also 0.2% ahead), while trailing the Intel Core i7-8809G by 0.6% (2,319). This effectively places the i5-9400 in a statistical dead heat with its nearest rivals, meaning the CPU is not a differentiator in this ranking. The GPU, meanwhile, scores 2,913 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is identical to the GeForce GT 555M (2,913, 0% delta) and just 0.2% ahead of the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (2,907). This odd clustering suggests the benchmark data for the GPU may be tightly grouped, but in actual Downfall gameplay the 8 GB card performs well above those synthetic comparisons suggest.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is built on TSMC’s 5 nm process with the AD106 chip, featuring 4,352 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. Its base clock of 2,310 MHz boosts to 2,535 MHz, and memory runs at 2,250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Downfall, a horror game that relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow work, the 34 RT cores and 136 tensor cores provide hardware-accelerated features that this title does not appear to leverage heavily — the frame rates are driven primarily by raw rasterization throughput. The GPU’s 22.06 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 121.7 GPixel/s pixel rate are more than sufficient for this engine, as evidenced by the measured results. At 1080p Ultra, the card produces 109.8 FPS average, and at 1440p Ultra it drops to 81.1 FPS. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory capacity is adequate for this game, though the 128-bit bus width limits bandwidth compared to wider-memory cards; the 288.0 GB/s figure is modest by 40-series standards but does not appear to constrain performance in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, but the slope is steepest at Ultra settings. From 1080p to 1440p at Ultra, average FPS drops from 109.8 to 81.1 — a 26.1% reduction. From 1440p to 4K Ultra, it falls further to 51.1, a 37.0% drop from 1440p and a total 53.5% decline from 1080p. This scaling pattern indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K Ultra, where the pixel throughput demands exceed what the 4060 Ti can sustain at high frame rates. At Low settings, the scaling is far more dramatic: 1080p Low produces 263.4 FPS, 1440p Low yields 189.3 FPS, and 4K Low still manages 116.6 FPS. The smaller percentage drops at lower settings — 28.1% from 1080p to 1440p and 38.4% from 1440p to 4K — suggest that at Low settings the CPU begins to matter more at 1080p, but the GPU still dominates the scaling curve. The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is telling: at 1080p, Ultra delivers 109.8 FPS versus 263.4 FPS at Low (a 58.3% reduction); at 4K, Ultra delivers 51.1 FPS versus 116.6 FPS at Low (a 56.2% reduction). This consistency indicates the GPU workload scales predictably with settings, and the CPU does not introduce a hard ceiling at any resolution tested.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 263.4 FPS, Medium reaches 212.9 FPS, High settles at 176.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 109.8 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at Ultra, the 1080p experience is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and at Medium and below the system is capable of driving high-refresh-rate displays. The 1080p Ultra figure of 109.8 FPS is worth noting — it shows the GPU can handle this horror title with all visual features enabled without dropping below triple digits.

Moving to 2560x1440, Low settings yield 189.3 FPS, Medium produces 154.7 FPS, High maintains 125 FPS, and Ultra falls to 81.1 FPS. The 1440p results show a consistent ~28% reduction from 1080p at each settings tier, which aligns with the increased pixel count. The Ultra setting at 1440p remains playable for smooth gameplay, though it no longer reaches the 100+ FPS territory seen at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limits become apparent. Low settings still produce a respectable 116.6 FPS, Medium drops to 94.2 FPS, High manages 78.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 51.1 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration in the entire measured set that dips below 60 FPS, indicating that this combo is not ideal for maximum-fidelity 4K gaming in Downfall. However, the 4K High figure of 78.5 FPS and 4K Medium of 94.2 FPS demonstrate that with slight settings adjustments, 4K remains viable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides six cores and six threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Built on Intel’s 14 nm Coffee Lake architecture with a 65 W TDP, this processor features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s over dual-channel DDR4 is modest by modern standards, but the data shows it does not bottleneck this GPU in Downfall at most settings. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 scores — 7,969 multi-core and 1,125 single-core — place it at the 50th percentile among all tested CPUs. In this game, the single-core performance matters more for frame pacing, and the 4.10 GHz boost clock provides adequate headroom.

The measured FPS patterns confirm the CPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system produces 263.4 FPS, which would stress many older processors, yet the i5-9400 keeps up. The fact that 1080p Ultra only drops to 109.8 FPS — a 58.3% reduction from Low — indicates the GPU workload scaling, not CPU limitations. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates regardless of resolution at the same settings; instead, the data shows clear resolution-dependent scaling. The nearest CPU rivals — the i3-10305, i3-1125G4, and Xeon E-2134 — all score within 0.4% of the i5-9400 in average benchmarks, confirming this processor is squarely in the mid-range tier. For Downfall, the six physical cores are sufficient since the game does not appear to leverage multi-threading heavily; the 6-thread configuration matches the 6-core count without hyper-threading, which is adequate for this title’s engine.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 60 FPS at 4K in Downfall?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 51.1, which falls short of 60 FPS. However, dropping to 4K High raises the average to 78.5 FPS, and 4K Medium reaches 94.2 FPS, both comfortably above 60 FPS.

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

A: The i5-9400 scores 2,305 on average, which is only 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i3-10305 (2,300) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2,299), and 0.6% behind the Intel Core i7-8809G (2,319). These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: What is the best settings tier for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra settings produce 81.1 FPS, which is playable. For higher frame rates, High settings yield 125 FPS and Medium reaches 154.7 FPS. All settings tiers at 1440p exceed 60 FPS.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM capacity limit performance in this game?

A: The measured data does not indicate VRAM-related performance drops. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth supports the highest tested settings at all resolutions, with the 4K Ultra result of 51.1 FPS being limited by GPU computation rather than memory capacity.

Q: How does the GPU’s benchmark score compare to its closest rival?

A: The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB scores 2,913 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is identical to the GeForce GT 555M (2,913, 0% delta) and 0.2% ahead of the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (2,907). These synthetic results cluster tightly, but real-world Downfall performance is strong.

Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming?

A: The data shows excellent performance at both resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 109.8, while at 1440p Ultra it drops to 81.1. For competitive play, 1080p Low reaches 263.4 FPS, but for a balance of fidelity and speed, 1440p High at 125 FPS is the sweet spot.