Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core i7-13700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers exceptional performance in Downfall, a 2016 horror title that remains demanding at modern resolutions. This combination ranks 230th out of 3,716 tested configurations, placing it in the top 6.2% of all hardware pairings for this game. The data indicates a system capable of high-refresh-rate 4K gaming, with the RTX 4080 being the primary performance driver at higher resolutions while the i7-13700K's 16 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock ensure the CPU never becomes a bottleneck at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data strongly favors the Medium preset as the optimal balance between visual quality and frame rate across all resolutions. At 3840x2160, Medium delivers 145 FPS average with a minimum of 123 FPS and maximum of 167 FPS, providing a smooth experience that exceeds the 120 FPS threshold commonly associated with high-refresh-rate displays. The High preset at 4K drops to 119 FPS average, which remains playable but sits below the Medium preset's minimum frame rate. This 26 FPS gap between Medium and High at 4K represents a significant performance cost for marginal visual improvements in a horror title where smooth motion is critical for immersion.

At 2560x1440, Medium produces 233 FPS average with a range of 198 to 268 FPS, comfortably exceeding the refresh rate of most gaming monitors. The High preset at 1440p delivers 191 FPS, still excellent but 42 FPS behind Medium. For 1920x1080, Medium reaches 327 FPS average with minimums of 278 FPS, making it the clear choice for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays up to 360 Hz. The Ultra preset, while visually richest, incurs severe performance penalties: 74 FPS at 4K, 120 FPS at 1440p, and 168 FPS at 1080p. These figures represent 49%, 48%, and 49% reductions from Medium respectively, making Ultra impractical for smooth gameplay. Low settings offer maximum frame rates but sacrifice the atmospheric lighting and shadow quality that define the horror experience. The data indicates Medium is the sweet spot, delivering frame rates 96% higher than Ultra at 4K while maintaining visual fidelity appropriate for the game's genre.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this hardware?

A: Medium provides 145 FPS average with a minimum of 123 FPS at 3840x2160, making it the only preset that maintains frame rates above 120 FPS at 4K. High drops to 119 FPS, which is playable but offers less headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Medium across resolutions?

A: Ultra delivers 74 FPS at 4K, 120 FPS at 1440p, and 168 FPS at 1080p, representing approximately 49% lower performance than Medium at every resolution. The frame rate penalty is consistent regardless of resolution, suggesting the settings impact scales uniformly.

Q: Is the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for Downfall at 4K?

A: The measured data shows 4K High achieving 119 FPS and 4K Ultra reaching 74 FPS, indicating the 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth handles the game's texture and geometry demands without performance collapse. No VRAM-related stuttering is evident in the frame rate data.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves 400 FPS average, the highest measured result in the dataset. This configuration leverages the CPU's single-thread performance to its maximum potential.

Q: How does the i7-13700K's multi-threaded performance affect Downfall?

A: The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30,745 and 3DMark max threads score of 12,412 indicate strong multi-threaded capability, but Downfall's frame rates at 1080p Low (400 FPS) suggest the game primarily relies on fewer threads. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 2,262 and single-thread score of 1,136 show robust per-core performance.

Q: Does this system maintain consistent frame times in Downfall?

A: The Medium preset is the only configuration with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values: 123-167 FPS at 4K, 198-268 FPS at 1440p, and 278-376 FPS at 1080p. These ranges indicate frame time consistency within 27% of the average, which is acceptable for smooth gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, based on the AD103 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, serves as the dominant performance component in this configuration. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Downfall's 4K texture requirements. The GPU's 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output processors deliver the raw throughput needed for high-resolution rendering. The 2,505 MHz boost clock and 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 performance explain the substantial frame rate differences between settings presets.

The benchmark data reveals the GPU's scaling behavior across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 400 FPS, but this represents a case where the CPU is likely the limiting factor rather than the GPU. Moving from 1080p Medium (327 FPS) to 1440p Medium (233 FPS) shows a 29% performance drop, while 1440p to 4K Medium (145 FPS) shows a 38% drop. These reductions align with the pixel count increases of 78% and 125% respectively, indicating the GPU is operating near its efficiency curve. The RTX 4080's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,247, places it slightly behind the RTX 4080 SUPER by 0.1% but ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.1%. This competitive positioning confirms the GPU's high-end status.

The GPU's 16 GB VRAM capacity proves adequate for Downfall's Ultra preset at 4K, which achieves 74 FPS. The 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die with 121.1 million transistors per mm² density demonstrate the architectural efficiency of Ada Lovelace. The 280.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 761.5 GTexel/s texture rate provide the fill rates necessary for maintaining frame rates above 60 FPS even at maximum settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the frame rate progression across settings shows a clear hierarchy: Low achieves 178 FPS, Medium reaches 145 FPS with a range of 123-167 FPS, High delivers 119 FPS, and Ultra falls to 74 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 33 FPS (19% reduction), while the gap between Medium and High is 26 FPS (18% reduction). The most dramatic drop occurs between High and Ultra, a 45 FPS decrease representing 38% performance loss. This suggests Ultra enables computationally expensive effects that disproportionately impact the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are 285 FPS for Low, 233 FPS for Medium (198-268 FPS range), 191 FPS for High, and 120 FPS for Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows reductions of 18%, 33%, and 58% respectively from the previous tier. The Medium to High gap of 42 FPS and High to Ultra gap of 71 FPS indicate that the settings scale affects the GPU more severely at higher resolutions where pixel count increases.

At 1920x1080, the system reaches its peak performance: Low hits 400 FPS, Medium achieves 327 FPS (278-376 FPS range), High delivers 268 FPS, and Ultra manages 168 FPS. The 1080p data shows the smallest relative differences between settings, with Low to Medium dropping 18%, Medium to High dropping 18%, and High to Ultra dropping 37%. The 400 FPS ceiling at Low settings likely represents a CPU or API limitation rather than GPU constraint, as the RTX 4080's raw compute capability exceeds what the game can request at this resolution.

The Medium preset consistently provides the most complete dataset with minimum and maximum FPS values, enabling frame time analysis. At all three resolutions, the minimum FPS remains within 15-16% of the average, indicating stable performance without severe stutters.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals critical information about the system's bottleneck behavior. At Medium settings, frame rates decline from 327 FPS at 1080p to 233 FPS at 1440p (a 29% drop) and further to 145 FPS at 4K (a 56% drop from 1080p). The pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p to 1440p and by 125% from 1080p to 4K. The frame rate reductions are proportionally smaller than pixel count increases, suggesting the GPU has sufficient headroom at 1080p where the CPU may limit performance.

At Low settings, the scaling shows a similar pattern: 400 FPS at 1080p, 285 FPS at 1440p (29% drop), and 178 FPS at 4K (56% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and Medium settings suggests resolution scaling is primarily GPU-bound. However, at High settings, the drops are 29% from 1080p to 1440p (268 to 191 FPS) and 56% from 1080p to 4K (268 to 119 FPS), matching the Low and Medium patterns. Ultra settings show the mildest relative scaling: 168 FPS at 1080p, 120 FPS at 1440p (29% drop), and 74 FPS at 4K (56% drop).

The consistent 29% and 56% reductions across all settings presets indicate that Downfall's rendering pipeline scales predictably with resolution. The RTX 4080's 716.8 GB/s memory bandwidth and 48.74 TFLOPS compute capability allow the GPU to maintain performance efficiency as pixel count increases. The fact that 4K Medium (145 FPS) exceeds 1440p Ultra (120 FPS) demonstrates that resolution has less impact than settings presets, confirming the GPU's strength at high pixel densities.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K provides the computational foundation for this system, though benchmark results indicate it plays a secondary role to the GPU in Downfall. The processor's 16 cores and 24 threads, based on Raptor Lake architecture, deliver strong multi-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30,745 and single-core score of 2,116. The 3.40 GHz base clock and 5.40 GHz boost clock enable high single-thread throughput, evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 1,136 and 2-thread score of 2,262.

At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 400 FPS, which represents the practical limit for this configuration. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,333 and Geekbench single-core score of 2,529 indicate the CPU's per-core performance is sufficient to feed the RTX 4080 at lower resolutions. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 10,717 versus max-thread score of 12,412 shows diminishing returns beyond 16 threads, suggesting Downfall utilizes fewer than 16 threads effectively.

The CPU's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide fast access to game data, while the 80 KB per-core L1 cache handles immediate instruction needs. The processor's 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46,881, places it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX. This competitive positioning confirms the i7-13700K's high-end status without being the performance ceiling.

The PassMark physics score of 2,716 and floating-point math score of 114,867 indicate strong computational capability for game physics and simulation. However, the frame rate data shows that at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor regardless of settings, while at 1080p Low, the 400 FPS cap likely represents a CPU or engine limitation. The CPU's 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility with DDR4/DDR5 memory support allow flexible system configuration, though the benchmark data does not differentiate memory types.