Downfall

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

The measured frame rates for the Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 in Downfall reveal a clear pattern of scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 256.7 FPS average. Moving to 1440p drops that to 185.5 FPS, a reduction of about 27.7%. At 4K, the Low preset yields 115.1 FPS, which is 55.2% below the 1080p figure. This steep decline across resolutions indicates that the graphics card is becoming the primary constraint as pixel count rises, rather than the processor.

The scaling behavior becomes more pronounced when examining higher settings. On the Ultra preset, the 1080p result is 107.5 FPS, the 1440p result is 74.5 FPS, and the 4K result falls to 46.3 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 56.9%, which is very close to the percentage drop seen at Low settings. This consistency across presets suggests that the RTX 3070's rendering workload scales predictably with resolution, independent of how many graphical features are enabled.

What is more telling is the relationship between settings at each resolution. At 1080p, going from Low to Ultra reduces performance from 256.7 FPS to 107.5 FPS — a 58.1% penalty. At 4K, the same settings change yields 115.1 FPS down to 46.3 FPS, a 59.8% penalty. The near-identical percentage penalties at both resolutions imply that the settings themselves impose a consistent additional load, but the absolute frame rate headroom shrinks dramatically at 4K. This points to the GPU being the limiting component: at 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to push very high frame rates, but at 4K, the GPU's pixel and shading throughput caps the output.

The data suggests that the i9-14900K is not the bottleneck in most scenarios. The CPU's massive thread count and high boost clocks would allow it to feed frames well beyond what the RTX 3070 can render at higher resolutions. The fact that 1080p Low reaches 256.7 FPS indicates the CPU can handle the game's logic and draw calls at very high rates, but the GPU cannot maintain that pace when resolution increases.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card's base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost of 1725 MHz, and it contains 5888 shading units alongside 184 texture mapping units and 96 ROPs. These specifications directly influence the measured FPS data, particularly at higher settings where memory capacity and bandwidth become critical.

At 4K Ultra, the combo manages 46.3 FPS, which is the lowest figure in the entire dataset. This is likely influenced by the 8 GB VRAM capacity being stressed by the combination of high resolution and maximum settings. Downfall, being a horror game released in 2016, may not be extremely demanding by modern standards, but the Ultra preset at 4K still pushes the GPU hard. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for most scenarios, but the 8 GB frame buffer could be limiting when textures and effects scale up.

The GPU's 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is a solid figure for a card of this class. The measured results show that at 1440p Medium, the combo hits 148.4 FPS, which is a comfortable range for smooth gameplay. At 1440p High, it drops to 124.4 FPS, still well above 60 FPS. The card's boost clock of 1725 MHz helps maintain these frame rates, but the data indicates that the Ultra preset at 1440p (74.5 FPS) is where the GPU starts to show its limits, suggesting that the additional effects and shadow quality at Ultra demand more from the shading units and memory system.

The RTX 3070's percentile rank among all GPUs is 72, placing it in the upper quartile but not at the top tier. Its average benchmark score of 28238 is close to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (27985, deltaPct 0.9) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (27956, deltaPct 1). This positioning explains why the card can handle 1080p and 1440p very well but struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K with maxed settings. The VRAM capacity and bandwidth are adequate for this game's needs at lower resolutions, but the Ultra preset at 4K likely exceeds what the memory subsystem can efficiently manage.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Downfall?*

A: The highest average FPS is 256.7, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Low?

A: The 4K Ultra result is 46.3 FPS, which is 82.0% lower than the 1080p Low result of 256.7 FPS.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo first drop below 60 FPS?

A: The only measured configuration below 60 FPS is 3840x2160 at Ultra settings, producing 46.3 FPS. All other settings at 4K remain above 78 FPS.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset yields 124.4 FPS while Ultra yields 74.5 FPS, a reduction of 40.1% when moving to Ultra.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM appear to limit performance in this game?

A: The data suggests a potential limitation at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate drops to 46.3 FPS, but at 4K High the combo still manages 78.2 FPS, indicating the VRAM is not severely constrained at lower settings.

*Q: How does the combo's rank in Downfall compare to other tested configurations?*

A: This combo ranks 797 out of 1741 total tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the database.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides average FPS for three resolutions and four settings presets, with no minimum or maximum frame times recorded. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low produces 256.7 FPS, Medium produces 209.6 FPS, High produces 172.9 FPS, and Ultra produces 107.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 149.2 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a significant additional load on the GPU.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers scale down: Low achieves 185.5 FPS, Medium achieves 148.4 FPS, High achieves 124.4 FPS, and Ultra achieves 74.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 111.0 FPS, but the percentage difference remains substantial. At 3840x2160, the results are 115.1 FPS for Low, 92.3 FPS for Medium, 78.2 FPS for High, and 46.3 FPS for Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 68.8 FPS.

Notably, the relative performance between presets remains consistent across resolutions. Medium is always roughly 20% slower than Low, and High is roughly 30% slower than Low. Ultra is consistently the most demanding, with the largest penalty. The 4K Ultra result of 46.3 FPS is the only measured point below 60 FPS, suggesting that this configuration is the boundary for playable frame rates in Downfall.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal balance of visual quality and frame rate appears to be the High preset at 1440p, which delivers 124.4 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the High settings provide a meaningful visual upgrade over Medium without the steep performance cost of Ultra. At 1080p, High achieves 172.9 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays, and Medium at 1080p (209.6 FPS) is also a strong option for competitive play.

For users with 4K displays, the data suggests that High settings (78.2 FPS) are the best choice, as Ultra drops to 46.3 FPS, which may not be acceptable for smooth gameplay. Medium at 4K (92.3 FPS) also offers a good experience, but High provides better visual fidelity with only a 15.3% performance penalty compared to Medium. Low at 4K (115.1 FPS) is viable for those prioritizing frame rate over visuals, but the visual downgrade may not be worth the extra 36.9 FPS over High.

The Ultra preset is difficult to recommend at any resolution given the data. At 1080p it produces 107.5 FPS, which is playable, but the 38% penalty versus High is steep for what may be marginal visual improvements. At 1440p and 4K, Ultra's performance (74.5 and 46.3 FPS respectively) makes it less attractive, especially at 4K where it falls below 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its architecture, Raptor Lake, includes a 36 MB shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core. The CPU's benchmark results show strong performance: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872 and a single-core score of 7040. Its percentile rank among all CPUs is 97, placing it in the top 3% of processors tested.

In Downfall, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but at 1080p Low, the processor demonstrates its capability by allowing 256.7 FPS. This high frame rate indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions, as the i9-14900K can process the game's logic and physics quickly enough to feed the GPU. The 6.00 GHz boost clock is particularly useful for single-threaded game logic, and the 32 threads provide ample parallel processing for any background tasks.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are the AMD EPYC 7413 (deltaPct -0.3), the Intel Core i9-14900KF (deltaPct 0.7), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF (deltaPct 0.7). These small deltas indicate that the i9-14900K performs similarly to its closest competitors in synthetic benchmarks, but in Downfall, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the primary constraint on performance. The CPU's high single-core and multi-core scores ensure that it does not bottleneck the RTX 3070 in this game, even at 1080p where CPU load is typically highest.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 797 out of 1741 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the 54.2nd percentile of all configurations. This rank reflects a balanced system where the CPU is significantly more powerful than the GPU relative to their respective performance tiers, but the GPU still provides respectable frame rates in this game.

The rank suggests that while this combo is not among the top performers, it is also far from the bottom. The RTX 3070's 72nd percentile rank among all GPUs and the i9-14900K's 97th percentile rank among CPUs combine to create a system where the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios. The ranking in Downfall specifically accounts for the game's demands, which appear to be more GPU-intensive than CPU-intensive based on the measured FPS data.

Compared to other combos that might use a lower-end CPU with the same GPU, this configuration would likely rank higher because the i9-14900K removes any potential CPU bottleneck. Conversely, pairing the RTX 3070 with a much weaker CPU might result in lower frame rates, especially at 1080p where the CPU has more influence. The data shows that this combo can achieve 256.7 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a strong result that only a powerful CPU could enable with this GPU. The rank of 797 out of 1741 indicates that the combo sits comfortably in the middle of the field, with the GPU limiting its ceiling but the CPU ensuring it never underperforms.