Downfall

# Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rate data for Downfall with the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 201 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium drops to 165 FPS, High to 135 FPS, and Ultra falls to 84 FPS. The Medium preset also provides a minimum FPS of 140 and a maximum of 189, giving the only complete frame time range at this resolution among the presets that lack such data for Low and High.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with Low at 144 FPS, Medium at 118 FPS, High at 96 FPS, and Ultra at 60 FPS. The Medium preset again includes a minimum of 100 FPS and a maximum of 135 FPS. At 3840x2160, the averages compress: Low delivers 89 FPS, Medium 73 FPS, High 60 FPS, and Ultra 37 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 84 FPS.

The data suggests that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience. At 1080p, it stays well above the 144 Hz refresh threshold with a 165 FPS average, while at 1440p it maintains a 118 FPS average that suits high-refresh displays. Even at 4K, Medium holds a playable 73 FPS average with a 62 FPS minimum that never dips below common 60 FPS V-Sync targets. Ultra, by contrast, drops to 84 FPS at 1080p and 37 FPS at 4K, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay at higher resolutions. The recommendation is to use Medium for consistent frame pacing, with Low as a fallback for maximum frame rates on 144 Hz or higher monitors.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this CPU-GPU combo in Downfall?

A: The highest measured average is 201 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: Does the RTX 5050 maintain 60 FPS at 4K in this game?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 with the High preset the average is exactly 60 FPS. The Medium preset provides a higher 73 FPS average, while Ultra falls below 60 FPS at 37 FPS.

Q: How much performance drops when moving from 1080p to 1440p on the Medium preset?

A: The average FPS decreases from 165 at 1920x1080 to 118 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 47 FPS. The minimum FPS also drops from 140 to 100.

Q: Are there any settings where the minimum FPS is reported?

A: Only the Medium preset includes minimum and maximum FPS values at all three resolutions. At 1080p the minimum is 140, at 1440p it is 100, and at 4K it is 62.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: Ultra averages 60 FPS, while High averages 96 FPS. This represents a 36 FPS advantage for High, making it the better choice for smoother motion at this resolution.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: Low averages 89 FPS, while Ultra averages 37 FPS. The Low preset is 52 FPS faster, a substantial margin that highlights the heavy cost of Ultra settings on this GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the RTX 5050 and Core i7-12700KF scale across the three tested resolutions. Starting with the Low preset, the average FPS goes from 201 at 1920x1080, to 144 at 2560x1440, and finally to 89 at 3840x2160. This represents a drop of 57 FPS from 1080p to 1440p, and another 55 FPS from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is nearly linear in absolute terms, suggesting that the GPU is the primary limiter at higher pixel counts.

For the Medium preset, the progression is 165 FPS at 1080p, 118 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K. The relative drop from 1080p to 1440p is 47 FPS, while from 1440p to 4K it is 45 FPS. Again, the decreases are consistent, pointing to a GPU-bound scenario. The High preset shows 135 FPS at 1080p, 96 FPS at 1440p, and 60 FPS at 4K, with drops of 39 FPS and 36 FPS respectively. The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest relative decline: 84 FPS at 1080p, 60 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K.

The pattern indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at 1080p, since even the most demanding Ultra preset achieves 84 FPS. As resolution increases, the pixel throughput demands grow, and the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The fact that the Low preset at 4K (89 FPS) is faster than the Ultra preset at 1080p (84 FPS) further demonstrates that the GPU workload scales directly with resolution, while the CPU handles the game logic and draw calls without creating a ceiling at these frame rates. The RTX 5050's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to keep the frame buffer fed, but the raw pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s limits how many pixels can be shaded per second at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Core i7-12700KF paired with the RTX 5050 achieves a combo rank of 2281 out of 3716 tested combinations in Downfall. This places the pairing in the bottom 39% of all tested combos, indicating that while it is capable of playable frame rates, it is far from the top tier. The rank reflects the GPU's position in the overall performance hierarchy, as the RTX 5050 sits at the 66th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 85th percentile among all CPUs.

The disparity between the CPU and GPU percentiles suggests that the combo is imbalanced in favor of the processor. The i7-12700KF's strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 28838 and a Geekbench multicore score of 14367, means it can easily feed the GPU with draw calls and physics data. However, the RTX 5050's average benchmark score of 21035 places it near graphics cards like the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, which has a deltaPct of 1.6 relative to the RTX 5050, and the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, which is 0.6% slower.

In the context of Downfall, a horror game that likely favors single-threaded performance for scripting and AI, the CPU's single-core Cinebench R20 score of 1709 and 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 provide ample headroom. The combo rank of 2281 indicates that many other pairings, likely with faster GPUs, achieve higher frame rates in this title. The RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM and 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are modest by current standards, and the combination's rank reflects this limitation in a game that scales heavily with GPU load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, providing strong single-threaded performance that is critical for game logic in titles like Downfall. The CPU's L3 cache is 25 MB shared, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though the measured FPS data does not specify which memory type was used.

Benchmark results indicate that the i7-12700KF excels in multi-threaded workloads, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 28838 and a Passmark multithread score of 34092. In terms of relative CPU performance, the i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35365, placing it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-13700T with a deltaPct of -0.1, and the Intel Core i5-13600T with a deltaPct of 0.2, meaning the i7-12700KF sits between these two in overall performance.

For Downfall, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent drop across all settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload. However, at 1080p with the Low preset, the 201 FPS average suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high frame rates. The single-thread score of 4071 in Cinebench R23 and 2255 in Geekbench single-core indicate that the processor can handle the game's main thread without becoming a bottleneck, even at frame rates above 200 FPS.

The 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample parallel processing for background tasks and any multi-threaded game systems, but Downfall's horror genre typically relies more on sequential logic and AI, which favor the high boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 3984 confirms that it is in the upper tier for single-threaded performance, ensuring that the game's simulation loop does not constrain the frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured data shows the following average FPS values: Low preset delivers 201 FPS, Medium delivers 165 FPS with a minimum of 140 and maximum of 189, High delivers 135 FPS, and Ultra delivers 84 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 36 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 30 FPS. The most significant drop is from High to Ultra, which is 51 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings impose a heavy cost on the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 144 FPS, Medium at 118 FPS with a minimum of 100 and maximum of 135, High at 96 FPS, and Ultra at 60 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 26 FPS, between Medium and High is 22 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 36 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p matches the High preset at 4K in terms of average FPS, both at 60, showing how resolution and settings trade off against each other.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 89 FPS, Medium at 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 and maximum of 84, High at 60 FPS, and Ultra at 37 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 16 FPS, from Medium to High is 13 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 23 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only measured configuration that falls below 60 FPS, making it unsuitable for standard refresh rate displays.

Looking at the complete dataset, the Medium preset is the only one that provides minimum and maximum FPS values at every resolution. This allows for a more complete picture of frame time consistency. At 1080p, the Medium preset's 140-189 FPS range shows a 49 FPS spread, while at 1440p the range is 100-135 FPS, a 35 FPS spread, and at 4K the range is 62-84 FPS, a 22 FPS spread. The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more uniformly loaded, reducing frame time variance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a chip designated GB207. It has 2560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, along with 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores. The GPU's base clock is 2317 MHz with a boost clock of 2572 MHz, and it features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

In terms of raw compute, the RTX 5050 delivers 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 13.17 TFLOPS of FP16 performance at a 1:1 ratio. The pixel rate is 82.30 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 205.8 GTexel/s. The GPU has a TDP of 130 W and requires a 300 W power supply, with a single 8-pin connector. It uses a PCIe 5.0 x8 interface and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Benchmark results show that the RTX 5050 has an average benchmark score of 21035, placing it at the 66th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL with a deltaPct of -0.6, the AMD Radeon HD 8970M with a deltaPct of -1, and the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT with a deltaPct of 1.6. The RTX 5050 is also 1.6% slower than the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile. In Passmark's G3D test, it scores 17326, while in Geekbench OpenCL it scores 90334.

In Downfall, the GPU's role is dominant, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. The 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game's needs, as the measured data does not indicate any memory-related stuttering or frame drops. The 320.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K the pixel throughput demands stress the GPU's 82.30 GPixel/s pixel rate. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 37 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that the GPU's shading units are overwhelmed by the combination of high resolution and maximum settings.

The RTX 5050's 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the main limiting factor at higher settings. The drop from High to Ultra at 1080p (135 to 84 FPS) and at 4K (60 to 37 FPS) shows that Ultra settings impose a significant load on the GPU that the 2560 shading units cannot sustain at playable frame rates. The GPU's 66th percentile ranking aligns with the combo's overall rank of 2281 out of 3716, confirming that the graphics card is the constraining component in this pairing.