Downfall

Downfall’s measured performance with the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 reveals a system that scales predictably across resolutions, but with a notable bottleneck shift that emerges at higher settings. The data indicates this combo ranks 2306th out of 2928 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of systems running this horror title. The benchmark rows show a clear pattern: the RTX 2060 becomes the limiting factor at 4K Ultra, while the Core Ultra 5 225’s 10 cores and 10 threads appear sufficient to keep frame rates high at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and follows a consistent trend across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 174 FPS at 1920x1080 to 77 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 55.7% reduction. This scaling pattern suggests that at Low settings, the system is still partially CPU-bound at 1080p, as the 174 FPS figure exceeds what most 60Hz displays can utilize. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 142 FPS at 1080p drops to 63 FPS at 4K, a 55.6% decrease. High settings see the average fall from 117 FPS at 1080p to 52 FPS at 4K, a 55.6% reduction. Ultra settings demonstrate the steepest absolute decline, going from 73 FPS at 1080p to just 32 FPS at 4K, a 56.2% drop.

The consistency of these percentage drops across settings is revealing. A purely GPU-bound scenario would typically show a more pronounced decline at higher resolutions, but the near-identical relative decreases suggest that the RTX 2060’s memory bandwidth and shading resources are being taxed uniformly regardless of preset. The 6 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on the RTX 2060, paired with a 192-bit bus delivering 336.0 GB/s, appears to be the primary constraint at 4K. The jump from 77 FPS at 4K Low to 32 FPS at 4K Ultra indicates that the Ultra preset’s additional rendering demands — likely higher texture detail and shadow complexity — overwhelm the GPU’s 1920 shading units and 48 ROPs.

Interestingly, the 1440p data points sit almost exactly midway between the 1080p and 4K results. At Medium settings, 1440p delivers 102 FPS versus 142 FPS at 1080p and 63 FPS at 4K. This linear scaling implies that Downfall is not exhibiting any unusual memory or bandwidth cliff between resolutions. The RTX 2060’s 6 GB VRAM capacity does not appear to be exceeded at any tested configuration, as frame rates remain playable even at 4K High (52 FPS). The data suggests that the limiting component at 4K is raw GPU compute throughput rather than memory capacity, since the drop from High to Ultra at 4K (52 to 32 FPS) is more severe than the drop from Medium to High (63 to 52 FPS).

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 brings 10 cores and 10 threads based on the Arrow Lake-S architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and single-core score of 3,655 place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs tested. In the context of Downfall, a horror game released in 2016, this processor is likely operating well below its limits. The benchmark data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 174 FPS, which is far beyond what most displays can show, and even at 1080p Ultra the frame rate holds at 73 FPS.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (deltaPct 0%), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (-0.2%), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (-0.4%), and Intel Core i9-12900T (-0.5%). These near-identical average scores suggest that the Core Ultra 5 225 is competitively positioned for gaming workloads. However, Downfall’s age means it likely does not utilize the CPU’s full capabilities. The fact that 1080p Low delivers 174 FPS while 1440p Low delivers 124 FPS indicates that even at lower resolutions, the GPU is starting to become a factor — but the CPU is clearly not the bottleneck at any setting.

The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (102.4 GB/s bandwidth) provide ample headroom for this title. The PassMark multi-thread score of 30,459 and single-thread score of 4,412 further confirm that the processor is not holding back performance. Data compression (302,811) and encryption (22,285) scores are strong, but these are irrelevant to gaming. The key observation is that Downfall’s frame rates at 1080p are so high that the CPU’s 10 cores are more than sufficient, and even at 4K Ultra where FPS drops to 32, the CPU is almost certainly idle waiting on the GPU.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Downfall at 60 FPS on a 1440p monitor?

A: Yes, according to the measured data. At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average frame rate is 83 FPS. Medium settings deliver 102 FPS, and Low settings reach 124 FPS. Only Ultra settings at 1440p fall below 60 FPS, with an average of 52 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for consistent 60+ FPS with this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, all four settings presets exceed 60 FPS, with Ultra averaging 73 FPS and High averaging 117 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low, Medium, and High all stay above 60 FPS, but Ultra drops to 52 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low (77 FPS) and Medium (63 FPS) maintain 60+ FPS averages.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 5 225 compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36,938. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, scores 36,945 (0% delta). The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 37,018 (-0.2% delta), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37,093 (-0.4%), and the Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37,112 (-0.5%). All are within 0.5% of each other.

Q: Is the RTX 2060’s 6 GB VRAM enough for Downfall at 4K?

A: The measured data shows playable frame rates at 4K Low (77 FPS) and 4K Medium (63 FPS), suggesting the 6 GB frame buffer is not being exceeded. However, 4K Ultra drops to 32 FPS, which could indicate either VRAM pressure or compute limitations. The GPU’s 192-bit memory bus and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth appear sufficient for this game’s requirements.

Q: What frame rate range can users expect at 1080p Medium?

A: The measured average is 142 FPS, with a minimum of 121 FPS and a maximum of 164 FPS. This provides a smooth experience even on high-refresh-rate monitors, with the minimum still well above 60 FPS.

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

A: The combo ranks 2306th out of 2928 total combinations tested in Downfall, placing it in the 21st percentile. This indicates that approximately four out of five tested systems perform better in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings average 174 FPS, Medium averages 142 FPS with a range of 121 to 164 FPS, High averages 117 FPS, and Ultra averages 73 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 101 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset imposes a significant rendering cost. The Medium preset’s minimum of 121 FPS indicates consistent performance without major dips.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages decrease substantially. Low settings produce 124 FPS, Medium averages 102 FPS (ranging from 86 to 117 FPS), High averages 83 FPS, and Ultra drops to 52 FPS. The Medium preset’s frame time consistency, with a 31 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, suggests the GPU is handling the workload steadily. The 1440p Ultra result of 52 FPS is the first configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings average 77 FPS, Medium averages 63 FPS (ranging from 54 to 73 FPS), High averages 52 FPS, and Ultra averages just 32 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 54 FPS indicates that even this preset can experience noticeable dips below 60 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 32 FPS is the only measured configuration that falls below 30 FPS, though it remains technically playable for a horror title that may benefit from slower pacing.

The complete dataset shows a consistent pattern: each resolution step down halves the pixel count and yields roughly a 1.5x improvement in frame rates. For example, 4K High at 52 FPS improves to 1440p High at 83 FPS (1.6x), which further improves to 1080p High at 117 FPS (1.4x). This scaling is typical for a GPU-bound scenario at higher settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture with the TU106 chip, featuring 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. Its base clock of 1365 MHz boosts to 1680 MHz, and it carries 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 14,111 places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 15,290 is nearly identical to the GeForce GTX 580 (15,283, 0% delta) and AMD Radeon 680M (15,270, 0.1% delta).

In Downfall, the RTX 2060’s role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU is capable of delivering 174 FPS at Low settings, indicating that the CPU is not fully saturated. However, the 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores present in this GPU are unlikely to be utilized heavily by a 2016 horror game, meaning the traditional rasterization pipeline is doing most of the work. The 6.451 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 201.6 GTexel/s texture rate are the key specifications driving these results.

The VRAM situation deserves attention. With 6 GB of GDDR6 and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth, the RTX 2060 appears to handle Downfall’s memory requirements without spilling to system memory. The fact that 4K Medium (63 FPS) performs significantly better than 4K Ultra (32 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset may be exceeding the GPU’s compute capacity rather than its memory capacity. The 48 ROPs and 80.64 GPixel/s pixel rate are likely the limiting factors at 4K Ultra, where fill-rate demands increase exponentially.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the GeForce GTX 580 (0% delta), Radeon 680M (0.1% delta), RTX 3050 OEM (0.6% delta), and Radeon RX 7600 (0.8% delta). These close scores indicate that the RTX 2060 is still competitive with newer entry-level options, though its end-of-life production status and 12 nm process node suggest it is aging. The 160 W TDP and dual-slot design are modest, but the 450 W suggested PSU requirement shows that system builders should not pair it with weak power supplies.

Settings Recommendations

For users targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the measured data supports specific choices at each resolution. At 1920x1080, every preset exceeds 60 FPS, so the recommendation is Ultra settings at 73 FPS for the best visual quality without sacrificing playability. The 73 FPS average at 1080p Ultra is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a meaningful visual upgrade over High settings.

At 2560x1440, the choice becomes more nuanced. High settings deliver 83 FPS, which is ideal for 60Hz displays and leaves headroom for frame time spikes. Medium settings offer 102 FPS for users with high-refresh-rate monitors, while Ultra drops to 52 FPS — below the 60 FPS target. The best experience per the measured rows is High settings at 1440p, balancing visual fidelity with a 38% performance margin over the 60 FPS baseline.

At 3840x2160, users must make compromises. Medium settings average 63 FPS, barely clearing the 60 FPS mark, with a minimum of 54 FPS that could cause noticeable stutters. Low settings average 77 FPS, providing a smoother experience at the cost of visual detail. Given that Downfall is a horror game where atmosphere matters, Medium settings at 4K may be preferable despite the occasional dip, but Low settings offer a more consistent experience. The data suggests that 4K Ultra at 32 FPS is not recommended for this combo, as the frame rate drops below the playable threshold for most users.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the best balance of performance and quality when considering the minimum frame rates. At 1080p Medium, the 121 FPS minimum ensures no drops below 60 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the 86 FPS minimum maintains a solid margin. At 4K Medium, the 54 FPS minimum is borderline but acceptable for a slower-paced horror title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2306th out of 2928 tested combos in Downfall, placing it in the bottom 21% of systems. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the CPU’s 85th percentile standing and the GPU’s 58th percentile position. The discrepancy suggests that Downfall’s performance is heavily weighted toward GPU capability, and the RTX 2060’s mid-tier standing drags the overall combo ranking down.

The CPU’s nearest rivals — the Ryzen 5 5600F, Ryzen 5 5500X3D, Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, and Core i9-12900T — all have nearly identical synthetic scores, indicating that swapping the processor would not meaningfully change Downfall’s performance. The GPU’s nearest rivals (GTX 580, Radeon 680M, RTX 3050 OEM, RX 7600) also cluster closely, but the RTX 2060’s 6 GB VRAM and Turing architecture may give it an edge in newer titles that the synthetic benchmarks do not capture.

The rank of 2306 out of 2928 means that 622 tested combos perform worse than this system. For a horror game with modest system requirements, this ranking is acceptable, but it highlights that the RTX 2060 is the limiting factor. The data implies that upgrading the GPU would yield significant frame rate improvements, while CPU upgrades would provide negligible gains. This combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it delivers strong performance, but it struggles at 4K Ultra where the GPU’s architectural limitations become apparent.