Downfall

Downfall, a 2016 horror title, presents an interesting case study in component scaling. The pairing of the six-core Intel Core i5-9400 with the flagship-class NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER yields a dataset that reveals significant bottlenecks and a wide performance spread across resolutions and presets. The data suggests that while the GPU is capable of extreme frame rates, the aging CPU often dictates the ceiling, leading to a unique set of recommendations for players.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions, particularly because it is the only setting level that includes both minimum and maximum FPS data, providing a clearer picture of frame pacing stability. At 1080p, Medium delivers an average of 252 FPS with a minimum of 214 FPS and a maximum of 290 FPS. This tight range suggests a consistent experience without the extreme variance that might be found elsewhere. While the Low preset achieves higher averages (271 FPS at 1080p), the jump to Medium provides a substantial visual upgrade for a relatively small cost in average frame rate.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the High preset is the optimal choice. At 1440p, High maintains an average of 190 FPS, which is still exceptionally high for a horror game, while at 4K it drops to 118 FPS. This suggests that High is the highest setting tier that remains comfortably playable on high-refresh-rate displays at all tested resolutions. In contrast, the Ultra preset shows a dramatic performance penalty. At 1440p, Ultra yields 119 FPS, which is a 37% drop from High, and at 4K it falls to 74 FPS. The data implies that the visual gains from Ultra do not justify the significant FPS loss, making High the superior choice for a quality-to-performance ratio.

The Low preset, while producing the highest frame rates (271 FPS at 1080p, 242 FPS at 1440p, 177 FPS at 4K), is only recommended for competitive play or for users with very high refresh rate monitors who prioritize raw speed over visual fidelity. Given that Medium provides a substantial improvement in likely visual quality with a minimal average FPS penalty (252 vs. 271 at 1080p), the data strongly points to Medium as the baseline for a stable, high-performance experience, with High as the recommended ceiling for visual quality.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a powerhouse, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process. Its specifications include 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. The GPU's boost clock is rated at 2550 MHz. In the context of Downfall, this hardware is immense. The data shows that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor at lower resolutions; it is only when the resolution increases to 4K that the GPU's workload becomes more significant.

The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 16 GB VRAM buffer is more than sufficient for a 2016 title, ensuring that texture memory is never a constraint even at the highest settings. The benchmarks for the GPU are stellar, with a Passmark G3D score of 34245 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 260075, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. This raw power is evident in the 4K Low preset, where the card still manages an average of 177 FPS, indicating that even at high resolutions, the game’s engine is not demanding enough to fully stress this GPU. The GPU's nearest rival in terms of average benchmark score is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, with a delta of -0.1%, showing that the SUPER variant offers a marginal performance improvement in synthetic tests, though in this game, the difference is likely imperceptible.

The data suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER is operating well within its comfort zone. The transition from High to Ultra at 4K causes a massive frame rate drop (from 118 to 74 FPS), which is more indicative of the CPU struggling to feed the GPU with draw calls at the higher preset's increased object complexity, rather than the GPU running out of compute power. The GPU is a massive resource that is being held back by the platform it is paired with.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database for Downfall, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER holds a combo rank of 602 out of 3716 tested combinations. This places it in the top 16% of all systems tested for this game, which is a respectable position, but it is not in the top tier. The ranking is likely dragged down by the CPU, which sits in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, despite the GPU being in the 86th percentile. This creates an imbalance where the system’s overall performance is capped by its weakest link.

The high combo rank confirms the sheer power of the GPU, but the data implies that the system is not achieving its full potential. The CPU's average benchmark score of 2254 is very close to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (deltaPct -0.2%) and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (deltaPct 0.4%), indicating that the i5-9400 is a mid-pack performer. When paired with a top-tier GPU, this mid-pack performance becomes the limiting factor. A system with a more modern, higher-core-count CPU would likely rank significantly higher, as the GPU would be given more headroom to stretch its legs. The 602nd rank suggests that while the experience is fast, it is not the fastest possible, and the bottleneck is clearly the processor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high. The Low preset averages 271 FPS, Medium averages 252 FPS (with a min of 214 and max of 290), High averages 235 FPS, and Ultra drops to 167 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 104 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset is demanding even at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, we see a similar hierarchy but with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 242 FPS, Medium 225 FPS (min 191, max 259), High 190 FPS, and Ultra 119 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra here is 71 FPS, which is a more pronounced percentage decrease than at 1080p. This suggests that the Ultra preset is heavily taxing the system, likely due to increased CPU draw calls and GPU shader complexity.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the performance is still very playable on High, with an average of 118 FPS. Medium achieves 144 FPS (min 123, max 166), while Low reaches 177 FPS. The Ultra preset, however, craters to 74 FPS. This is the only resolution where the Ultra setting falls below the 100 FPS threshold, indicating that at 4K, the combination of the CPU and GPU is strained by the highest settings. The min FPS data for Medium at each resolution (214 at 1080p, 191 at 1440p, 123 at 4K) provides a good indication of the consistency of the experience, showing that even at the lowest points, the frame rate remains high.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is telling. For the High preset, the average FPS drops from 235 at 1080p to 190 at 1440p, and then to 118 at 4K. This represents a 19% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 50% drop from 1080p to 4K. This scaling is relatively modest, suggesting that the game is not purely GPU-bound at lower resolutions. If the GPU were the sole bottleneck, we would expect a more significant drop when increasing the pixel count by 2.25x (from 1080p to 4K).

The fact that the 4K High average (118 FPS) is still so high indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER has plenty of spare capacity. The limiting factor is the CPU. At 1080p, the CPU is likely maxed out trying to maintain 235 FPS, and as the resolution increases, the GPU takes on more work, but the CPU is still working at its limit. The data suggests that the CPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions, but it becomes slightly less pronounced at 4K where the GPU has more work to do. This is a classic case of a CPU bottleneck, where the processor cannot keep up with the GPU's frame generation capabilities, preventing the system from achieving even higher frame rates at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, clocked at a base of 2.90 GHz and a boost of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache is typical for this generation. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 6629 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 935 in single-core, placing it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs. This is a solid mid-range performance level, but it is clearly not sufficient to fully unlock the RTX 4080 SUPER in a game like Downfall.

The benchmark data for this combo shows that the CPU is the primary limiting factor. The high frame rates at 1080p (235 FPS on High) are likely hitting the CPU's processing limit for the game's engine. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-10710U, has a delta of 0.3%, indicating they are essentially equivalent in processing power. The fact that the system cannot maintain 240+ FPS on High at 1080p, despite the GPU being capable of much more, points directly to the CPU being the bottleneck. The 6-core, 6-thread configuration lacks the extra threads that modern games can utilize, and its older architecture has lower instructions per clock (IPC) compared to newer designs. This results in the CPU being saturated, limiting the overall system performance and preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a smooth experience at 1440p?

A: Based on the data, the High preset provides an excellent balance at 1440p, averaging 190 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 119 FPS, which is a significant decrease for likely minimal visual improvement, making High the most sensible choice for high refresh rate gaming.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this system for Downfall?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the primary bottleneck. At 1080p High, the system averages 235 FPS, but the RTX 4080 SUPER is capable of far more. The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K on the High preset is only 50%, which is less than expected if the GPU were the sole limiting factor, suggesting the Intel Core i5-9400 is constraining performance.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54209, which puts it 0.1% behind the standard RTX 4080 (score 54247). It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.7% and the AMD Radeon 8060S by 2.8% in these tests.

Q: What kind of frame rates can I expect at 4K resolution?

A: At 4K, the system remains very capable. The Medium preset averages 144 FPS, High averages 118 FPS, and even the demanding Ultra preset maintains a playable 74 FPS average. The Low preset pushes this to 177 FPS, showing the GPU's strength even at high resolutions.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using in this game?

A: The data suggests it is not. At every resolution, the Ultra preset shows a massive performance penalty compared to High. For example, at 1440p, High averages 190 FPS while Ultra only manages 119 FPS, a 37% drop. The visual difference between High and Ultra is rarely worth sacrificing that much performance.

Q: How does this system rank overall for playing Downfall?

A: This specific combo ranks 602nd out of 3716 tested combinations. This places it in the top 16% of all systems, which is a strong showing. However, the ranking is held back by the CPU, which is in the 47th percentile, compared to the GPU, which is in the 86th percentile.