Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core i7-14700KF + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but demanding experience in Downfall, a 2016 horror title that clearly stresses the GPU more than the CPU at higher resolutions. The measured frame rates show a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs, with the combo ranking in the 2343rd position out of 2928 tested combinations — placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This pairing leverages a 20-core, 28-thread Raptor Lake processor with a 5.60 GHz boost clock against a 10 GB GDDR6 Battlemage GPU, and the data reveals where each component becomes the bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 109 at 1920x1080 to 78 at 2560x1440 — a 28% reduction — and then to 49 at 3840x2160, which is a 55% drop from the 1080p figure. This steep decline indicates that the Intel Arc B570’s rendering throughput is the limiting factor as pixel count increases, with the CPU’s substantial headroom unable to compensate.

The scaling pattern at Low settings is even more pronounced. The combo achieves 163 FPS at 1080p, drops to 116 FPS at 1440p (a 29% reduction), and then falls to 72 FPS at 4K — a 56% loss from 1080p. The consistency of this ~28% drop between 1080p and 1440p, followed by another ~40% drop from 1440p to 4K, points to raw pixel throughput limits on the GPU rather than any CPU constraint. The 4K Low result of 72 FPS is actually lower than the 1080p High result of 109 FPS, showing that resolution scaling dominates over settings scaling in this configuration.

Medium settings tell the same story with more granularity. The measured range at 1080p Medium spans 113 to 153 FPS with an average of 133, while 1440p Medium averages 95 FPS with a range of 81 to 110, and 4K Medium averages 59 FPS with a range of 50 to 68. The minimum FPS values at each resolution scale proportionally with the averages, suggesting consistent frame pacing rather than sporadic stutters — the GPU is simply running out of throughput headroom as resolution increases.

Ultra settings exhibit the most severe scaling. The average FPS drops from 68 at 1080p to 49 at 1440p (a 28% reduction) and then to 30 at 4K — a 56% reduction from 1080p. The 4K Ultra result of 30 FPS is barely playable, and the data strongly suggests that the Arc B570’s 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are insufficient for this horror title’s full visual workload at 4K. The consistent proportional drops across all four settings presets indicate a purely resolution-driven bottleneck.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture (Battlemage generation) using a 5 nm TSMC process with 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. Its base and boost clocks are both locked at 2500 MHz, which is modest for a modern GPU, and the memory operates at 2375 MHz with 19 Gbps effective bandwidth across a 160-bit bus. The 10 GB GDDR6 frame buffer provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which appears to be a critical factor in Downfall’s performance at 4K.

The GPU’s 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation pipelines deliver 200.0 GPixel/s pixel fill rate and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate. These figures translate to the measured frame rates: at 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 30 FPS, while at 4K Low it reaches 72 FPS — indicating that texture and shading load significantly impact the B570’s throughput. The 18 ray tracing cores are present but irrelevant for this 2016 title, which predates widespread RT implementation.

The B570’s benchmark profile places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534 score, 0.1% delta), Intel Arc A750 (20582 score, -0.1% delta), and NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480 score, 0.4% delta) — all statistically tied. This confirms that the B570 is a mid-range performer, and the Downfall results reflect that positioning, with the GPU becoming the primary limiter above 1080p.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is worth noting in the context of Downfall. While the game’s 4K Ultra preset likely fits within this allocation, the 160-bit memory bus and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth create a throughput ceiling. The difference between 4K High (49 FPS) and 4K Medium (59 FPS) is only 20%, while the jump from 4K Medium to 4K Low (72 FPS) is 22% — showing that memory bandwidth pressure intensifies as settings rise, even if capacity is not exhausted.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Downfall, this pairing holds the 2343rd position out of 2928 total combos, placing it in the 20th percentile — meaning roughly 80% of tested configurations outperform it in this specific game. This ranking is notably lower than the individual component percentiles would suggest, since the CPU sits in the 94th percentile of all processors while the GPU sits in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. The data indicates that the Arc B570 drags the overall combo ranking down significantly, as the game’s performance is GPU-limited.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (0.2% higher score), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.4% higher), and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (0.9% higher) — all outperform the i7-14700KF marginally, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K scores 1% higher. These differences are negligible in a GPU-bound scenario like Downfall at 4K, meaning the CPU choice among these rivals would not meaningfully change the measured FPS. The bottleneck is squarely on the GPU side.

The GPU’s nearest rivals — the RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% higher score), Intel Arc A750 (0.1% lower), and Quadro M4000M (0.4% higher) — are all within half a percentage point of the B570 in synthetic benchmarks. In Downfall, this means any of these GPUs would likely produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with the same CPU. The combo rank of 2343 out of 2928 reflects this mid-pack GPU performance rather than any deficiency in the processor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results across all settings. Low settings average 163 FPS, Medium averages 133 FPS (with a range of 113 to 153), High averages 109 FPS, and Ultra averages 68 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 58% reduction in average FPS, indicating that the GPU’s shading and texture units are heavily taxed by the higher presets even at 1080p.

The 2560x1440 results show a clear step down. Low settings average 116 FPS, Medium averages 95 FPS (ranging from 81 to 110), High averages 78 FPS, and Ultra averages 49 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces nearly identical average FPS to the 4K High preset (49 FPS versus 49 FPS), suggesting that the combination of resolution and settings hits the same GPU throughput ceiling at these points.

At 3840x2160, the numbers become marginal for smooth gameplay. Low settings average 72 FPS, Medium averages 59 FPS (with a range of 50 to 68), High averages 49 FPS, and Ultra drops to 30 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-30 FPS average in the entire dataset, and even the 4K Medium minimum of 50 FPS would be noticeable in a horror title where frame pacing affects atmosphere and responsiveness.

Across all resolutions, the Medium settings preset shows the smallest relative variance between minimum and maximum FPS, with the 1080p range spanning 113 to 153 (a 26% spread), 1440p spanning 81 to 110 (a 26% spread), and 4K spanning 50 to 68 (a 26% spread). This consistency suggests that the Medium preset is the most stable configuration for this combo, offering the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate predictability.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 60 FPS at 1080p in Downfall?

A: Yes, at every tested setting. The lowest 1080p average is 68 FPS on Ultra, while Low, Medium, and High all exceed 100 FPS (163, 133, and 109 respectively). The 1080p Medium minimum of 113 FPS also stays well above 60.

Q: Can this setup handle 4K gaming in Downfall?

A: Only at reduced settings. At 4K Low, the average is 72 FPS, and at 4K Medium it drops to 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS. High settings average 49 FPS, and Ultra falls to 30 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold most players target.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The B570’s average benchmark score of 20556 places it within 0.5% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534), Intel Arc A750 (20582), and AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662). In Downfall, these differences are within the margin of error, meaning practically identical frame rates.

Q: What is the CPU’s synthetic performance ranking?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 70163. It trails the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K by 1%, leads the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X by 0.9%, and is within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX.

Q: Which settings preset offers the most stable frame pacing?

A: Medium settings show the most consistent minimum-to-maximum spread across all resolutions, with a 26% variance at each resolution (113-153 at 1080p, 81-110 at 1440p, 50-68 at 4K). This suggests Medium is the most predictable preset for this combo.

Q: At what resolution does the GPU become the clear bottleneck?

A: The data shows a consistent ~28% FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p and another ~40% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings. This proportional scaling indicates the Intel Arc B570 is the limiting factor at every resolution above 1080p, with the CPU having ample headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings substantial compute resources to this pairing, featuring 20 cores and 28 threads from Intel’s Raptor Lake architecture on a 10 nm process. The base clock of 3.40 GHz boosts up to 5.60 GHz, with 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core. This processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory via a dual-channel interface and connects through PCIe Gen 5 with 16 CPU lanes. Its 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier make it a high-end desktop part, and its synthetic scores — including 44167 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6235 in single-core — place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

In Downfall, however, the CPU’s role is minimal. The game’s 2016 release date means it was designed for far less powerful processors, and the measured frame rates show no evidence of CPU limitation. The consistent FPS scaling across resolutions — with identical proportional drops from 1080p to 1440p to 4K — is the signature of a GPU-bound workload. The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks (AMD Ryzen 7 9700F at 0.2% higher score, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 0.4% higher, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 0.9% higher, and Intel Core Ultra 7 265K at 1% higher) would all produce identical Downfall performance because none of them are the limiting factor.

The CPU’s 28 threads and high boost clock are simply idle overhead in this horror title. The Passmark multi-thread score of 52425 and single-thread score of 4480 indicate enormous headroom, but Downfall’s rendering pipeline is dominated by the GPU’s pixel and texture throughput. Even at 1080p Low — the least demanding configuration tested — the GPU still delivers 163 FPS, and the frame rate scales down predictably as resolution increases, confirming that the Intel Arc B570 is the sole performance constraint in this combo. The i7-14700KF’s 5.60 GHz boost clock and 33 MB L3 cache are more than sufficient for this workload, and any performance differences between this CPU and its nearest rivals would be imperceptible in actual gameplay.