Downfall

The pairing of the Intel Core i7-13700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER in Downfall presents a clear study in component bottlenecking. The processor, a 16-core Raptor Lake part with a 5.40 GHz boost clock, possesses immense headroom, while the GPU, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, becomes the primary constraint as resolution and settings increase. The measured data reveals that this combination's strengths lie in high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the CPU's power can be fully utilized.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific hardware combination, the data indicates that High settings offer the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the jump from High to Ultra is severe, costing 45.5 FPS (from 128.1 to 82.6), a 35.5% performance hit for what is typically a marginal visual gain. Conversely, dropping from High to Medium only yields a 28.5 FPS increase, which is less impactful than the loss incurred by moving to Ultra.

The pattern repeats at 2560x1440, where High produces a smooth 92.1 FPS average. Ultra drops this to 56 FPS, which, while playable, introduces a significant frame time penalty. At 3840x2160, High is the only viable preset for a consistent experience, hitting exactly 60 FPS. Medium at 4K provides 67.5 FPS, but the difference between Medium and High is often more noticeable in texture quality and shadow detail, making the 7.5 FPS sacrifice for High a worthwhile trade. Low settings should be avoided on this hardware, as the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU; the 190.5 FPS at 1080p Low reflects the CPU's ceiling, but the visual degradation is unnecessary for the performance gain.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting factor in this configuration. Its 8 GB VRAM buffer is sufficient for Downfall at these tested settings, but its compute capability dictates the frame rates. The GPU's 7.181 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 224.4 GTexel/s texture rate are the metrics that matter here. The data shows that as settings increase, the GPU's workload scales disproportionately.

At 1080p Low, the GPU is not the bottleneck; the frame rate of 190.5 FPS suggests the CPU is feeding frames faster than the GPU can render, but the GPU is still keeping up. However, at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate collapses to 82.6 FPS, indicating the GPU is now saturated. The 34 RT cores and 272 Tensor cores are present but are not heavily utilized in this title at standard rasterization settings. The GPU’s 175 W TDP and dual-slot design are standard, but the performance ceiling is clearly the 2060 SUPER's Turing architecture, which trails more modern parts in raw throughput. The GPU's percentile rank of 63 against all GPUs places it in the mid-range, which is consistent with the observed performance drops at higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the classic transition from a CPU-bound to a GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the scaling is steepest: 190.5 FPS at 1080p drops to 135.1 FPS at 1440p (a 29% reduction) and then to 83.7 FPS at 4K (a further 38% reduction). This shows that even at low graphical fidelity, the GPU struggles to maintain pace as pixel count increases.

At High settings, the scaling is more linear. The 128.1 FPS at 1080p drops to 92.1 FPS at 1440p (28% reduction) and then to 60 FPS at 4K (35% reduction). This consistent degradation indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor at all resolutions when using High settings. The most telling data point is the Ultra preset: 82.6 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p, and 37.6 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is nearly unplayable, showing that the RTX 2060 SUPER simply does not have the memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s) or shading power to handle the extreme pixel and shader load. The CPU, with its 30 MB of L3 cache and high single-thread score, is never the bottleneck in these scenarios; the data shows the GPU is the sole arbiter of performance at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The data shows a wide spread across presets. Low settings deliver 190.5 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors. Medium yields 156.6 FPS, a 17.8% drop from Low. High produces 128.1 FPS, which is still very smooth. Ultra drops significantly to 82.6 FPS, a 35.5% reduction from High. This indicates that the jump to Ultra is not cost-effective on this GPU.

2560x1440: At this resolution, the GPU load increases. Low settings average 135.1 FPS, which is still very playable. Medium hits 109.7 FPS, and High maintains a solid 92.1 FPS. Ultra falls to 56 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for many users. The performance delta between Medium and High is 17.6%, while the delta between High and Ultra is 39.2%, showing a non-linear scaling of GPU workload.

3840x2160: This is where the RTX 2060 SUPER struggles. Low settings average 83.7 FPS, which is acceptable. Medium provides 67.5 FPS, and High hits exactly 60 FPS, making it the sweet spot for 4K on this hardware. Ultra plummets to 37.6 FPS, which is a 37.3% drop from High and is not a smooth experience for a horror title that relies on atmosphere. The 4K results confirm that this GPU is not designed for maximum settings at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database, this specific configuration ranks 1255th out of 1741 tested combos for Downfall. This places it in the 28th percentile of all tested systems, indicating that while it is functional, it is not a high-performance contender. The ranking is dragged down by the GPU, which has an average benchmark score of 19774 and sits in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (0.3% faster), the RTX 2070 (0.5% faster), the Quadro K5200 (0.8% faster), and the Tesla K40m (1.3% faster), showing that it is closely matched with older high-end parts.

The CPU, in contrast, is a top-tier performer. The Intel Core i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 47282 and is in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Core i7-13700KF (0.1% slower), AMD EPYC 4364P (0.3% faster), and Core i9-12900F (0.4% faster). This massive disparity between the CPU's high percentile and the GPU's mid-range percentile explains the combo's overall ranking. The system is effectively a high-end processor paired with a mid-range graphics card, and the benchmark results reflect that the GPU is the performance limiter across all tested settings. The rank of 1255 out of 1741 suggests that while this combo is far from the bottom, it is outpaced by systems with more balanced or GPU-heavy pairings, especially in a game like Downfall where visual fidelity is paramount.