Downfall

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz can boost up to 5.60 GHz, and it carries 33 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 2 MB of L2 cache per core. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534 and a single-core score of 6287, placing it in the 96th percentile of all tested CPUs. The data shows that the processor's heavy multi-threading capabilities, reflected in a Passmark multithread score of 52392, are far beyond what a game like Downfall can utilize. The CPU's role in this combination is to provide an enormous ceiling of processing power that remains largely untapped, as the game's performance is constrained by the graphics subsystem. The 14700K's nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i7-14700KF with an average score of 70104 and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X at 70420, show a deltaPct of 0 and -0.5 respectively, indicating that this CPU is essentially at parity with the fastest desktop processors available. However, the benchmark results for Downfall do not reflect this computational strength; instead, they highlight a significant bottleneck elsewhere in the system.

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

The Core i7-14700K's specifications are those of a high-end workstation-class part, with 20 cores and 28 threads that excel in heavily parallel workloads like Cinebench R20 multi-core, where it scores 18704. Its boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks, as measured by a Geekbench single-core score of 2932, also perform at the top tier. For Downfall, a horror title, these CPU resources are massively over-provisioned. The game's frame rates are not limited by the processor's ability to feed the GPU; rather, the GPU cannot keep pace with what the CPU delivers. This is evident from the fact that the CPU's Passmark physics score of 2964 and floating point math score of 134222 demonstrate a capability that no 2016-era horror game would stress. The processor's memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, along with its dual-channel memory bus, provides ample bandwidth for game data, but this advantage is wasted when the graphics card becomes the limiting factor. The data indicates that the i7-14700K's role here is to ensure that the system never suffers CPU-related stutters or frame drops, even at lower resolutions where CPU load is typically higher. Yet, the measured FPS values show that even with this robust CPU, performance is mediocre, confirming that the processor is not the active constraint. The CPU's 125 W TDP and active production status suggest a modern part, but its performance in Downfall is irrelevant to its actual capabilities, as the bottleneck lies elsewhere.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is a Pascal-architecture GPU with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 112.1 GB/s. Its base clock of 1291 MHz boosts to 1392 MHz, and it offers 768 shading units. This GPU sits in the 30th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 5316. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce 930A (score 5317, deltaPct 0) and the NVIDIA GeForce 940M (score 5297, deltaPct 0.4), indicating that the 1050 Ti is positioned at the entry-level of discrete graphics performance. In Downfall, this GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates. The 4 GB VRAM capacity is a critical limitation at higher resolutions and settings, as the game's texture and geometry demands quickly exceed this buffer. The GPU's DirectX 12 score of 26 in Passmark, compared to its DirectX 9 score of 104, suggests that the card struggles with modern API overhead, though Downfall's 2016 release date means it relies on older rendering paths. The 1050 Ti's FP32 performance of 2.138 TFLOPS and texture rate of 66.82 GTexel/s are modest, which explains why the measured FPS drops sharply when settings are increased. The GPU's 75 W TDP and lack of power connectors indicate a low-power design, but this does not compensate for its limited compute resources. The data shows that the GTX 1050 Ti's role is to be the definitive bottleneck, as its performance in Downfall is consistently poor across all resolution and settings combinations.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti ranks 1729 out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall. This places it in the bottom 1% of all system configurations, a position that reflects the extreme mismatch between the CPU and GPU. The combo's rank is not due to the CPU's inadequacy, as it is a top-tier processor, but rather because the GPU is among the weakest tested. The data shows that pairing a 96th-percentile CPU with a 30th-percentile GPU creates a system that is severely imbalanced. In practical terms, this combo performs worse than systems with mid-range CPUs and mid-range GPUs, because the GPU's limitations cap the frame rate regardless of CPU power. The rank of 1729 indicates that only 12 other combinations tested are slower, which underscores how poorly this pairing serves a game like Downfall. The benchmark results show that the combo's performance is consistently below playable thresholds at higher settings, with the GPU unable to translate the CPU's capabilities into meaningful frame rates. This ranking is a clear indictment of the GPU's role as the bottleneck, as the CPU's presence does nothing to boost the system's standing in the game's performance hierarchy.

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

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS ranges from 72.6 at Low settings to 29.4 at Ultra. Medium settings yield 62.6 FPS, while High settings produce 48.1 FPS. These numbers show that even at the lowest resolution, the GTX 1050 Ti struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at higher quality presets. The jump from Low to Ultra represents a 59.5% drop in performance, indicating that the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are quickly overwhelmed by increased graphical fidelity. Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS at Low settings is 50.9, which drops to 41.7 at Medium, 37.8 at High, and 24.3 at Ultra. The 1440p results show a similar pattern, with a 52.3% reduction from Low to Ultra. At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal: Low settings average 34.5 FPS, Medium 28.2 FPS, High 19.5 FPS, and Ultra just 13.2 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is unplayable, and even 4K Low is below the 60 FPS threshold. The data reveals that the GPU's 4 GB VRAM and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K resolution, where memory pressure and fill rate limitations dominate. The frame rate scaling across settings is consistent, with Ultra always being roughly half the FPS of Low, which points to a GPU that is compute-bound rather than CPU-bound.

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

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is stark. At Low settings, performance falls from 72.6 FPS at 1080p to 34.5 FPS at 4K, a 52.5% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 48.1 FPS to 19.5 FPS, a 59.5% decrease. At Ultra settings, the decline is from 29.4 FPS to 13.2 FPS, a 55.1% reduction. These scaling patterns are characteristic of a GPU-limited system. When the CPU is the bottleneck, resolution changes have little effect on frame rates because the processor is already maxed out. Here, the frame rate halves as resolution quadruples (from 1080p to 4K), which is the expected behavior when the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are saturated. The GTX 1050 Ti's pixel rate of 44.54 GPixel/s and texture rate of 66.82 GTexel/s are simply too low to handle the increased pixel count at 4K. The fact that the FPS does not drop proportionally to the resolution increase (a 4x pixel count would theoretically cause a 4x FPS drop if fully GPU-bound) suggests that there is some CPU involvement, but the overall trend is clear: the GPU is the limiting component. The data indicates that the i7-14700K is not holding back performance at any resolution, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling that mirrors the GPU's known capabilities. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect to see more similar FPS numbers across resolutions, but instead we see a clear decline that tracks with the GPU's workload.