Downfall

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 presents a fascinating study in component imbalance within the horror title Downfall. This combination secures a rank of 166 out of 1741 tested combos, placing it in the top 10% of all configurations. The data suggests that while the RTX 5090 is a dominant force, the six-core i5-9400 from the Coffee Lake era creates a bottleneck at lower resolutions, a dynamic that shifts as the resolution increases and the GPU takes on more of the rendering load.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's overall rank of 166 out of 1741 is impressive, but it is essential to contextualize this within the hardware's individual standings. The RTX 5090 sits in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, evidence of its raw power. In contrast, the Core i5-9400 finds itself at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, a middle-of-the-pack standing for a processor from 2018. The performance delta between the CPU and GPU is stark, and the benchmark results reflect this tension. While the GPU is capable of producing massive frame rates, the CPU's ceiling can prevent it from reaching its full potential in certain scenarios. This is not a balanced pairing, but rather one where the GPU is clearly the dominant partner, pulling the combo's rank upward. The processor's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305, show a negligible 0.2% difference in average score, indicating the i5-9400's performance class is firmly in the mainstream tier, a stark contrast to the halo-tier RTX 5090.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Ultra is significant, but the most interesting inflection point is the drop from High to Ultra. At 1920x1080, High settings deliver 234.5 FPS, while Ultra drops to 190.6 FPS, a difference of 43.9 frames. This suggests that Ultra preset introduces graphical features that are disproportionately heavy on the system. For the best experience, High settings at 1440p appears to be the sweet spot. It delivers 209.9 FPS, which is well above the 144Hz refresh rate that many high-end monitors use, while maintaining a high level of visual fidelity. Pushing to Ultra at this resolution yields 137.6 FPS, which is still playable but sacrifices a significant amount of performance for marginal visual gains. At 4K, the choice is more constrained. High settings produce 136.7 FPS, which is the most balanced option for a smooth experience. Ultra at 4K drops to 86 FPS, which, while playable, is a substantial performance penalty. The data implies that the High preset offers the most efficient balance of visual quality and frame rate across all resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides critical insight into which component is the limiting factor. At High settings, the performance drops from 234.5 FPS at 1080p to 209.9 FPS at 1440p, a relatively modest 24.6 FPS decrease. However, the jump to 4K is more dramatic, falling to 136.7 FPS, a 73.2 FPS drop from 1440p. This nonlinear decline is a classic indicator of a GPU bottleneck emerging at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU is likely the primary constraint, limiting the frame rate to around 234 FPS. As the resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, and it begins to become the limiting factor. This is even more evident at Low settings, where 1080p yields 271.6 FPS, but 4K only produces 201.9 FPS. The 69.7 FPS difference between these two resolutions shows that even at the lowest settings, the 4K workload is substantial for the GPU. The i5-9400, with its 6 cores and 6 threads, can feed frames at a rate that the RTX 5090 can easily exceed at lower resolutions, but the GPU's rendering power is what ultimately dictates performance at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete data set reveals a consistent pattern of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 271.6 FPS on Low, 252.8 FPS on Medium, 234.5 FPS on High, and 190.6 FPS on Ultra. The spread of 81 FPS between the lowest and highest settings shows the game's scalability. Moving to 2560x1440, the figures become 241.6 FPS (Low), 223.3 FPS (Medium), 209.9 FPS (High), and 137.6 FPS (Ultra). The most notable drop here is between High and Ultra, a 72.3 FPS difference, which is the largest single-setting jump at this resolution. At 3840x2160, the performance landscape shifts dramatically. Low settings yield 201.9 FPS, Medium drops to 168.1 FPS, High settles at 136.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 86 FPS. The 4K Ultra figure is the lowest in the entire dataset, showing that this setting combination is exceptionally demanding. The data across all resolutions shows that the Ultra preset consistently has the largest performance penalty, while the difference between Low and Medium is generally smaller, suggesting that the game's medium preset offers a solid baseline for performance.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 is the undisputed performance driver in this pairing. Its specifications are staggering: 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This memory configuration is crucial for 4K gaming, as it prevents texture streaming bottlenecks. The GPU's boost clock of 2407 MHz and its massive 21760 shading units contribute to its 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power. In Downfall, the GPU's dominance is clear at 4K, where it maintains high frame rates even when the CPU is not the primary constraint. The difference between the 4K Low (201.9 FPS) and 4K High (136.7 FPS) settings shows that the GPU has the headroom to handle the additional graphical load. The RTX 5090's nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, is only 0.1% faster in average benchmark scores, indicating that this is the top tier of graphics hardware. The GPU's 94th percentile ranking underscores its position, but the benchmark results show that its full potential is not always realized due to the CPU's limitations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It lacks hyper-threading, which is a significant limitation in modern games that can use more than six threads. In this benchmark, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p and 1440p. The fact that 1080p Low (271.6 FPS) and 1440p Low (241.6 FPS) are relatively close suggests that the CPU is hitting its limit around the 240-270 FPS range. At 4K, the CPU has less of an impact, as the GPU takes on more work. The CPU's 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 42.7 GB/s are adequate for this game, but they are not modern. The processor's average benchmark score of 2305 places it in a tie with the Intel Core i3-10305 and i3-1125G4, both with a 0.2% delta. This confirms that the i5-9400 is a mid-range performer from its generation, and its inability to keep up with the RTX 5090's raw output at lower resolutions is expected. The data shows that the CPU is a limiting factor, but only when the GPU is not fully saturated.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combination in Downfall?*

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combo is ranked 166 out of 1741 tested combinations.

Q: Which settings preset provides the highest frame rate at 4K resolution?

A: The Low preset provides the highest average frame rate at 3840x2160, yielding 201.9 FPS.

Q: What is the most significant frame rate drop between settings at 1440p?

A: The largest drop at 2560x1440 is between High (209.9 FPS) and Ultra (137.6 FPS), a difference of 72.3 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i3-10305's score of 2300.

Q: Does the data indicate a CPU or GPU bottleneck at 1080p?

A: Yes, the relatively small frame rate difference between 1080p Low (271.6 FPS) and 1440p Low (241.6 FPS) suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the frame rate at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The average frame rate at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 86 FPS.