Downfall

Resolution Scaling

The measured data for Downfall shows a clear and consistent pattern: frame rates scale dramatically as resolution drops, but the scaling is not perfectly linear. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 365.7 FPS, whereas at 4K with Low settings, it drops to 165.8 FPS. That is a 54.7% reduction in performance when moving from 1080p to 4K, which indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Looking at the High preset specifically, the scaling tells a more nuanced story. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 245. At 1440p High, it falls to 177.2, a 27.7% drop. At 4K High, it reaches 107.4, which is 56.2% below the 1080p figure. The step from 1440p to 4K (a 39.4% reduction from 177.2 to 107.4) is slightly steeper than the step from 1080p to 1440p, reinforcing that pixel count is hitting the GPU harder as resolution climbs.

The Low preset shows an even more telling pattern. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 365.7 FPS. At 1440p Low, it manages 265.8, a 27.3% drop. At 4K Low, it still holds 165.8, which is 54.7% below the 1080p score. The fact that even at Low settings the 4K frame rate is roughly half of the 1080p frame rate suggests that the game's visual effects at higher resolutions are memory-bandwidth and fill-rate intensive, not just shader-bound.

Ultra settings exhibit the most severe scaling. From 1080p Ultra at 157.5 FPS, the drop to 1440p Ultra at 108.6 FPS is a 31.0% reduction. At 4K Ultra, the average plummets to 67.5 FPS, which is 57.1% below the 1080p Ultra figure. This indicates that at Ultra, the GPU is fully saturated at 4K, and the CPU headroom that exists at lower resolutions is no longer relevant. The data clearly shows that this combo is GPU-limited at 4K across all presets, while at 1080p, particularly on Low and Medium, the CPU is doing more of the heavy lifting.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's base clock is 2340 MHz, boosting to 2610 MHz. These specifications align with the observed frame rates in Downfall.

The 4K results are particularly telling for the GPU's memory subsystem. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 67.5 FPS. The 16 GB frame buffer is sufficient for this game's high-resolution textures, but the 672.3 GB/s bandwidth appears to be the ceiling. Moving from 4K Medium (131.8 FPS) to 4K High (107.4 FPS) is a 18.5% drop, whereas moving from 4K High to 4K Ultra (67.5 FPS) is a 37.1% drop. The Ultra preset likely adds effects that stress the 256-bit memory bus more heavily, as the compute throughput of 44.10 TFLOPS FP32 is not the bottleneck at these settings.

The GPU's 8448 shading units and 264 texture mapping units are well-utilized at lower resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 300.2 FPS, which is only 18.0% below the Low preset's 365.7 FPS. This indicates that the GPU has enough raw shading power to handle the extra lighting and shadow work without a massive frame rate penalty. However, the 96 ROPs (render output units) become a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the pixel fill rate of 250.6 GPixel/s is stretched thin. The data suggests that for 4K play, users should stick to High settings, as the jump to Ultra costs 37.1% performance for what is likely a marginal visual gain.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture. It runs at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boosts to 5.60 GHz. The 33 MB shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache contribute to strong single-threaded performance, which is crucial for a horror game like Downfall that likely has a primary game thread.

The CPU's benchmark scores support its capability in this title. In Cinebench R23, the i7-14700K scores 44534 in multi-core and 6287 in single-core. The single-core score is particularly relevant because Downfall's frame rate at 1080p Low (365.7 FPS) is only 27.3% higher than at 1440p Low (265.8 FPS), despite the 1440p resolution requiring 77.8% more pixels. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is beginning to limit the frame rate, as the GPU could theoretically render more frames if the CPU could feed it faster.

The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs (based on average benchmark score) indicates it is a top-tier part. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, scores 0% different, while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 0.5% higher and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 is 1.4% lower. In practical terms, the i7-14700K has enough headroom to keep the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER well-fed at 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K regardless of the CPU's strength.

The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility make this a mainstream high-end part, but the benchmark data shows no signs of thermal throttling affecting the results. The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 52392 and single-thread score of 4472 both point to a processor that can handle both the game logic and the background tasks without causing frame drops.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of 1741 tested combinations for Downfall, this pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER ranks 195th. This places it in the top 11.2% of all tested combos for this game. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's strong single-threaded performance and the GPU's high memory bandwidth, which together deliver the frame rates shown in the measured data.

The ranking is notable because the GPU itself ranks at the 86th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU ranks at the 96th percentile. The combo rank of 195 out of 1741 is slightly worse than the CPU's percentile would suggest, indicating that the GPU is the limiting component in this pairing for Downfall. The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA CMP 50HX (0.7% lower average score) and the RTX A2000 (1.6% higher), but those comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks, not in-game results.

The 4K Ultra result of 67.5 FPS is the weakest measured score, and it drags down the combo's overall standing. If a user frequently plays at 4K Ultra, this combo would rank lower in practical terms. However, at 1440p High (177.2 FPS) and 1080p High (245 FPS), the combo is clearly a high-end performer. The rank of 195 reflects the average across all settings and resolutions, so users targeting 1440p or lower will likely experience better-than-average performance relative to the full database.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p High delivers 177.2 FPS, which is a strong balance of visual quality and frame rate. At 4K High, the combo still achieves 107.4 FPS, so 4K is viable if you prioritize image quality over raw speed.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K scores 70074 on average, which is 0% different from the i7-14700KF, 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 9115, and 1.4% lower than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270. It is 0.5% above the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with this combo?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 67.5. That is technically playable, but the 37.1% drop from 4K High (107.4 FPS) makes Ultra a poor trade-off for the visual upgrade. Stick to High at 4K.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and how does it affect 4K performance?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus with 672.3 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K, the bandwidth is sufficient for High settings, but Ultra settings cause a disproportionate frame rate drop, indicating the memory subsystem is the limiting factor.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: The 1080p Low result of 365.7 FPS versus 1440p Low at 265.8 FPS shows a 27.3% drop despite a 77.8% pixel increase. This suggests the CPU is starting to limit frame rates at 1080p, but the i7-14700K's single-core score of 6287 in Cinebench R23 indicates it still has more headroom than most CPUs.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 195th out of 1741 total combos for Downfall, placing it in the top 11.2% of all tested pairings.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in Downfall, the measured data points to the High preset as the sweet spot across all resolutions. At 4K High, the combo delivers 107.4 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The jump from High to Ultra at 4K costs 37.1% performance (107.4 to 67.5 FPS), which is a poor trade for the incremental visual improvements that Ultra typically offers.

At 1440p, High settings yield 177.2 FPS, making it an excellent choice for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium at 1440p (216.2 FPS) offers diminishing returns, as the visual difference between Medium and High is usually more noticeable than the 18.0% frame rate gap (216.2 to 177.2). Low at 1440p (265.8 FPS) is only for competitive play where every frame counts, but the visual downgrade in a horror game like Downfall would likely harm the atmosphere.

For 1080p users, High (245 FPS) is the recommended preset. It provides a 18.4% improvement over Ultra (157.5 FPS) while looking nearly as good. Medium (300.2 FPS) is viable for 240 Hz monitors, but the 22.5% drop from Low (365.7 FPS) to Medium is less steep than the 18.3% drop from High to Ultra, suggesting that Medium is the best balance for high refresh rates. Low at 365.7 FPS is overkill for most displays and sacrifices too much visual fidelity.

The data indicates that Ultra settings are not worth the performance penalty at any resolution. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 157.5 FPS, which is 35.7% below High. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 108.6 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 67.5 FPS. In all cases, High offers a significantly higher frame rate with a minimal visual compromise. For a horror game where immersion and smoothness matter, High is the clear recommendation across the board.