Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core i7-14700K + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

The combination of a 20-core, 28-thread Intel Core i7-14700K with the 4 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 produces a profoundly GPU-limited experience in Downfall, a horror title from 2016. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings show that the GTX 1650, which sits at the 40th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 7472, is the decisive bottleneck. At 1920x1080, the most common gaming resolution, the combo delivers a playable 61 FPS on High settings and 38 FPS on Ultra, while dropping to 27 FPS at 4K High. The CPU, which ranks at the 94th percentile among all processors and scores 33440.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, has ample headroom that the GPU cannot exploit in this title. This is a pairing where settings management becomes the difference between a smooth horror experience and a stuttering one.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data supports a clear hierarchy of settings for this combo. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 91 FPS, Medium produces 75 FPS, High produces 61 FPS, and Ultra produces 38 FPS. For a horror game where atmosphere and responsiveness matter, Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot: 75 FPS average with a minimum of 64 FPS and a maximum of 86 FPS, according to the measured frames. This keeps the experience above the 60 FPS threshold while leaving visual headroom over Low. High at 1080p, at 61 FPS average, is also viable if visual fidelity takes priority, but the lack of min/max data for that preset makes it harder to guarantee frame consistency.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes. Low produces 65 FPS, Medium produces 53 FPS with a 45 FPS minimum, High produces 44 FPS, and Ultra drops to 27 FPS. Here, Low is the only preset that reliably clears 60 FPS. Medium at 1440p, at 53 FPS, is acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay, but the 45 FPS minimum suggests occasional dips that could be noticeable. The 1440p Ultra preset, at 27 FPS, is not recommended for this GPU.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets deliver a comfortable experience. Low produces 41 FPS, Medium produces 33 FPS with a 28 FPS minimum, High produces 27 FPS, and Ultra produces 17 FPS. Even at Low, 4K is below the 60 FPS target and approaches the territory where gameplay feels sluggish. For this combo, 4K should be avoided unless the user accepts a slideshow-like experience.

The practical recommendation: run Downfall at 1920x1080 with Medium settings for the best balance of frame rate and visual quality. If the display is 1440p, drop to Low settings. For 4K, consider lowering the resolution or accepting sub-45 FPS performance. The data shows that the GTX 1650’s 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, not the CPU.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Downfall at 60 FPS at 1080p?

A: Yes, but only on Low or Medium settings. Measured results show 91 FPS at Low and 75 FPS at Medium (with a 64 FPS minimum). High settings yield 61 FPS, which technically clears 60 FPS, but Ultra drops to 38 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this GPU in Downfall?

A: 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the combo achieves consistently playable frame rates across multiple presets. At 1440p, only Low settings clear 60 FPS (65 FPS), and at 4K, even Low settings only reach 41 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1650’s 4 GB VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: At 3840x2160, the measured frame rates are 41 FPS on Low, 33 FPS on Medium, 27 FPS on High, and 17 FPS on Ultra. The 4 GB GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 128.1 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for 4K in this title, as evidenced by the steep drop from 1080p Medium (75 FPS) to 4K Medium (33 FPS).

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700K the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: No. The CPU scores 33440.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2160 in single-core, ranking at the 94th percentile among all CPUs. The GPU, ranking at the 40th percentile among all GPUs, is clearly the limiting component. The frame rates scale more with resolution and settings changes than with CPU workload.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking among tested combinations?

A: This pairing ranks 3593 out of 3716 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the bottom 3% of all configurations tested for this game.

Q: Does the GTX 1650 support modern graphics APIs needed for Downfall?

A: Yes. The GPU supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Its PassMark DirectX 11 score is 58 and DirectX 12 score is 35, indicating basic API support, though performance is modest.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the dominant factor in this combo’s Downfall performance. Built on the TU117 chip with Turing architecture on a 12 nm process from TSMC, the GPU contains 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. Its 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation units operate at a base clock of 1485 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, running at 2001 MHz (8 Gbps effective) for a total bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s.

These specifications translate into a GPU that ranks at the 40th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 7472. Its nearest rivals in benchmark performance include the AMD Radeon HD 8850M (avg score 7447, 0.3% slower), the Intel UHD Graphics 750 (avg score 7441, 0.4% slower), and the AMD Radeon R7 350 (avg score 7425, 0.6% slower). The Intel Arc A310 is 1% faster with an average score of 7550. This places the GTX 1650 in direct competition with integrated and entry-level discrete solutions, which explains its struggles in Downfall at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are modest: 2.984 TFLOPS FP32 and 5.967 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). Pixel fill rate is 53.28 GPixel/s and texture fill rate is 93.24 GTexel/s. In PassMark tests, the GPU scores 7880 in G3D, 3048 in GPU compute, and 561 in G2D. Its DirectX 9 score of 124 is notably higher than its DirectX 11 (58) and DirectX 12 (35) scores, suggesting older rendering paths perform relatively better.

The 75 W TDP and lack of power connectors (the card draws power from the PCIe slot) mean this is a low-power solution. The suggested PSU is 250 W. With a launch MSRP of 149 USD, this was an entry-level card at its 2019 release, and it remains end-of-life in production status. The measured FPS data in Downfall confirms that this GPU, with its 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth, is the hard ceiling for this combo’s performance.

How This Combo Ranks

In Downfall, this specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 ranks 3593 out of 3716 tested combos. That places it in the bottom 3.3% of all configurations tested for this game, which is a poor result driven almost entirely by the GPU’s limitations.

The CPU side of this pairing is far more capable. The Core i7-14700K, with 20 cores and 28 threads, base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz, scores 5035 in Cinebench R15 multi-core, 18544 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, and 33440.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. Its single-core scores are 313.5 (R15), 2617 (R20), and 2160 (R23). In Geekbench, it scores 20767 multi-core and 2569 single-core. The PassMark suite shows 52392 in multithread, 4472 in single thread, and 212 in find prime numbers. Its average benchmark score is 69355, which places it at the 94th percentile among all CPUs.

The nearest CPU rivals in average benchmark score are the AMD EPYC 9115 (69288, 0.1% slower), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, 0.2% faster), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, 0.7% faster), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996, 0.9% faster). The i7-14700K is essentially neck-and-neck with these high-end processors in synthetic benchmarks, yet in Downfall, the combo’s ranking is dragged down by the GTX 1650.

The rank of 3593 out of 3716 means that almost every other tested combo delivers better performance in this game. This is not a reflection of the CPU’s capability but rather the GPU’s inability to keep up with the demands of the title at higher settings. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more powerful GPU would substantially improve the ranking, as the CPU has significant headroom to feed a faster graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling. At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 75 FPS at 1920x1080 to 53 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 29.3% decrease) and then to 33 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 37.7% decrease from 1440p). This is a total drop of 56% from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings.

At High settings, the progression is 61 FPS at 1080p, 44 FPS at 1440p (a 27.9% decrease), and 27 FPS at 4K (a 38.6% decrease from 1440p), for a total drop of 55.7% from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the numbers are 91 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p (a 28.6% decrease), and 41 FPS at 4K (a 36.9% decrease from 1440p), totaling 54.9% lower at 4K compared to 1080p.

At Ultra settings, the drop is even steeper: 38 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p (a 28.9% decrease), and 17 FPS at 4K (a 37% decrease from 1440p), for a total of 55.3% lower at 4K versus 1080p.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all four settings presets is telling. Whether on Low or Ultra, the frame rate at 4K is roughly 55% lower than at 1080p. This uniform scaling pattern indicates that the limiting component is the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth, not the CPU. The GTX 1650’s 128.1 GB/s bandwidth and 4 GB VRAM are insufficient for 4K rendering in this title, regardless of the settings chosen.

The CPU’s role in this scaling is negligible. The i7-14700K has more than enough compute headroom to handle the increased draw calls and physics at higher resolutions, but the GPU cannot deliver the frames. This is evident from the fact that the frame rate drops are proportional to the pixel count increase (1080p to 1440p is a 78% pixel increase, and the FPS drops by roughly 29%; 1440p to 4K is a 225% pixel increase, and the FPS drops by roughly 37%). The non-linear relationship suggests memory bandwidth saturation rather than pure pixel fill rate limits.

For users with a 1440p or 4K display, the data strongly suggests that this combo is not suitable for Downfall at those resolutions unless the user is willing to accept Low settings at 1440p (65 FPS) or sub-45 FPS at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for Downfall with the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 91 FPS average
• Medium: 75 FPS average, 64 FPS minimum, 86 FPS maximum
• High: 61 FPS average
• Ultra: 38 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 65 FPS average
• Medium: 53 FPS average, 45 FPS minimum, 61 FPS maximum
• High: 44 FPS average
• Ultra: 27 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 41 FPS average
• Medium: 33 FPS average, 28 FPS minimum, 38 FPS maximum
• High: 27 FPS average
• Ultra: 17 FPS average

Only the Medium preset at each resolution includes min/max frame data. At 1080p Medium, the 64 FPS minimum ensures that the frame rate rarely dips below the 60 FPS target. At 1440p Medium, the 45 FPS minimum is above the 30 FPS playability floor but below 60 FPS. At 4K Medium, the 28 FPS minimum drops below 30 FPS, which is the bare minimum for acceptable playability in a slow-paced horror game.

The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is consistent: at 1080p, the spread is 91 FPS to 38 FPS (53 FPS difference); at 1440p, it is 65 FPS to 27 FPS (38 FPS difference); at 4K, it is 41 FPS to 17 FPS (24 FPS difference). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions further confirms the GPU bottleneck, as the absolute performance ceiling of the GTX 1650 caps the frame rate regardless of settings.

The step from Medium to High at 1080p costs 14 FPS (75 to 61), while High to Ultra costs 23 FPS (61 to 38). This non-linear penalty suggests that Ultra settings introduce effects that are disproportionately expensive on this GPU, likely related to the 4 GB VRAM capacity being exceeded. At 4K, the High to Ultra drop is 10 FPS (27 to 17), which is proportionally similar.

In summary, the measured data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming in Downfall, with Medium settings providing the most balanced experience. Higher resolutions are playable only at Low settings (1440p) or not comfortably playable at all (4K). The GTX 1650’s 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth are the defining constraints, and no amount of CPU headroom can compensate for them in this title.