Downfall

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers a commanding performance profile in Downfall, a horror title from 2016. This combo lands at rank 228 out of 1,741 tested combinations, placing it in the top 13% of all systems measured. The data shows a setup capable of extreme frame rates at every resolution, but the relationship between the CPU’s 12 cores and the GPU’s massive memory bandwidth reveals interesting bottlenecks at lower settings.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-12700KF brings 12 cores and 20 threads to the table, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28,979 and a single-core score of 4,091. For a horror game like Downfall, which relies on atmospheric tension rather than massive simulation workloads, the single-thread performance often matters more than raw multi-core muscle. The Geekbench single-core score of 2,526 supports this, as does the 3DMark single-thread result of 1,043.

The CPU sits at the 89th percentile against all processors, with an average benchmark score of 35,355. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14400 (0.1% ahead), the Intel Core i7-13800H (0.2% behind), and the Intel Core i9-12900HX (0.2% ahead). These deltas are tiny, implying that the 12700KF is essentially tied with several modern parts in general compute. In Downfall, the 12 cores are likely underutilized at 1080p Low settings, where the frame rate hits 362.1 FPS — a number that suggests the CPU is feeding frames as fast as the game engine allows. The 25 MB of shared L3 cache helps keep game data close, reducing latency in scenes with sudden enemy spawns or lighting changes.

At higher settings like Ultra, the CPU’s role shifts. The measured frame rates drop from 362.1 FPS at 1080p Low to 152.4 FPS at 1080p Ultra, a decline that indicates the GPU is taking over the workload. The 12700KF’s 3DMark max-thread score of 9,983 shows it can handle heavy multi-threaded tasks, but Downfall’s engine appears to scale more with clock speed than core count. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz is likely the key factor here, as it provides the rapid response needed for frame pacing in a horror title where stutter can ruin immersion.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured rows provide four presets — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — across three resolutions. At 1080p, Low hits 362.1 FPS, Medium reaches 298.3 FPS, High delivers 243.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 152.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 209.7 FPS, which is substantial but expected for a game where Ultra likely enables heavy post-processing and shadow effects. For a horror game, the data suggests High is the sweet spot: it retains 243.4 FPS at 1080p, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, while still offering visual fidelity improvements over Medium.

At 1440p, the pattern holds. Low produces 258.6 FPS, Medium 213.1 FPS, High 176.8 FPS, and Ultra 109.6 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p remains smooth, but the jump from High to Ultra costs 67.2 FPS — a 38% reduction. Given that Downfall is a horror game where dark scenes and fog effects benefit from higher settings, High at 1440p appears to balance frame rate and image quality well. At 4K, High yields 110.2 FPS, which is still playable, but Ultra falls to 68.3 FPS — a number that may cause noticeable frame drops in demanding scenes.

The data implies that High is the recommended preset for most users, as it maintains 110.2 FPS at 4K and 176.8 FPS at 1440p. Medium is a fallback for those seeking higher frame rates, but the visual trade-off in a horror game — where lighting and shadows set the mood — may not be worth the extra 23.4 FPS at 4K (134.3 FPS vs 110.2 FPS).

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 228th out of 1,741 tested combos in Downfall. That places it in the top 13.1% of all systems, a strong showing for a CPU released in late 2021 and a GPU released in late 2022. The rank reflects the overall capability of the pairing, but the individual components tell a more nuanced story. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 35,355 puts it just 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-14400, yet that i5 has fewer cores — 10 vs 12 — but similar clocks. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 44,019 places it 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile and 2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.

In the context of Downfall, the combo’s rank suggests it outperforms the vast majority of systems, likely because the RX 7900 XTX’s 24 GB of GDDR6 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth handle the game’s texture streaming with ease. The GPU’s percentile of 85 against all GPUs is slightly lower than the CPU’s 89, but the measured FPS numbers indicate that the GPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution tested. The rank of 228 could be influenced by other combos using newer CPUs or GPUs with higher raw scores, but the measured data shows this pair delivers exceptional frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 362.1 (Low), 298.3 (Medium), 243.4 (High), and 152.4 (Ultra). The difference between Low and Medium is 63.8 FPS, while Medium to High is 54.9 FPS, and High to Ultra is 91.0 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p is the only one below 200 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s rendering load increases significantly with the highest settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 258.6 (Low), 213.1 (Medium), 176.8 (High), and 109.6 (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low is 103.5 FPS (362.1 to 258.6), which is a 28.6% reduction. At High, the drop is 66.6 FPS (243.4 to 176.8), a 27.4% reduction. At Ultra, the drop is 42.8 FPS (152.4 to 109.6), a 28.1% reduction. These consistent percentage drops suggest that the scaling is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 159.2 (Low), 134.3 (Medium), 110.2 (High), and 68.3 (Ultra). The 4K Ultra result is the only measured value below 100 FPS, and it represents a 47.7% drop from 1440p Ultra (109.6 to 68.3). The 4K Low result of 159.2 FPS is still higher than the 1440p Ultra result of 109.6 FPS, showing that resolution affects performance more than preset at this level.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is built on the Navi 31 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, using a 5 nm process from TSMC. It packs 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1,929 MHz, with a boost clock of 2,498 MHz and a game clock of 2,365 MHz. This GPU’s 6,144 shading units and 192 ROPs provide a pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s, which is crucial for rendering the high-resolution textures and lighting effects in Downfall.

The GPU’s benchmark scores include a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,841 and a PassMark G3D score of 31,238, placing it at the 85th percentile against all GPUs. Its nearest rivals show a mixed picture: the AMD Radeon Pro 580 is 0.4% ahead, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is 0.8% behind, and the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 is 1.6% behind. The RX 7900 XTX’s 24 GB of VRAM is far beyond what Downfall requires, given the game’s 2016 release, but the high bandwidth ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU never runs out of memory or stalls on texture loads.

The FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS and FP16 of 122.8 TFLOPS (2:1) suggest that the GPU has headroom for compute-heavy effects. In Downfall, the measured 4K Ultra average of 68.3 FPS indicates that the GPU is working hard, likely due to advanced shadow mapping and ambient occlusion. The 2,498 MHz boost clock helps maintain high frame rates, but the 355 W TDP means the card draws significant power under load — a fact reflected in the suggested PSU of 750 W.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 362.1 (1080p) to 258.6 (1440p) to 159.2 (4K). That is a 56.0% reduction from 1080p to 4K (362.1 to 159.2). At High settings, the drop is from 243.4 to 176.8 to 110.2, a 54.7% reduction (243.4 to 110.2). At Ultra, the drop is from 152.4 to 109.6 to 68.3, a 55.2% reduction (152.4 to 68.3). These percentages are remarkably consistent, hovering around 55% across all presets.

This consistency indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The CPU’s performance remains constant, but the GPU must render more pixels at 4K (3,840x2,160) than at 1080p (1,920x1,080) — a 4x increase in pixel count. The measured FPS does not drop by 75% (which would indicate perfect scaling with pixel count), but rather by about 55%, suggesting that the GPU’s bandwidth and shading units handle the increased load more efficiently than a linear model would predict. The RX 7900 XTX’s 960.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely the reason, as it prevents memory bottlenecks even at 4K.

The fact that the CPU is not the limiter is evident from the 1080p Low result of 362.1 FPS. That number is high enough that the game engine or CPU thread scheduling becomes the constraint, not the GPU. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the CPU could theoretically push more frames if the GPU could render them faster. The consistent percentage drops across presets suggest that the GPU’s workload scales linearly with resolution, while the CPU’s contribution remains fixed.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 243.4 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14400?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35,355, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i5-14400’s score of 35,336.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s, using 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus.

Q: What is the combo’s rank in this game?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX combination ranks 228th out of 1,741 tested combos in Downfall.

Q: What is the FPS difference between 1440p High and 4K High?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 176.8 at 2560x1440 to 110.2 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 66.6 FPS.

Q: Which settings preset yields the highest FPS at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields the highest average FPS at 159.2, followed by Medium at 134.3, High at 110.2, and Ultra at 68.3.