Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a remarkably strong showing in Downfall, a 2016 horror title that remains demanding at higher presets. Across all tested resolutions, this combo produces playable-to-excellent frame rates, with the data revealing a system that is clearly GPU-limited at 4K but increasingly CPU-bound at 1080p. The measured results place this pairing in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs and the 85th percentile of all CPUs, which translates into a configuration that handles Downfall with substantial headroom at most settings, though the Ultra preset at 4K requires compromise.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how settings impact performance. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 348 FPS, Medium drops to 284 FPS, High falls to 233 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 146 FPS. At 2560x1440, the pattern holds: Low averages 248 FPS, Medium 203 FPS, High 167 FPS, and Ultra 104 FPS. The 4K results are more telling: Low averages 155 FPS, Medium 126 FPS, High 104 FPS, and Ultra plunges to 65 FPS.

For the best experience per the measured data, the High preset at 2560x1440 stands out as the sweet spot. It delivers an average of 167 FPS, which represents a 10.9% drop from Medium’s 203 FPS but a 37.7% improvement over Ultra’s 104 FPS. The visual fidelity gain from Medium to High is substantial in Downfall’s horror environments, where lighting and shadow detail matter, while the frame rate remains well above typical high-refresh display thresholds. At 4K, High is also the recommended choice: 104 FPS average is smooth, whereas Ultra’s 65 FPS introduces noticeable stutter in fast-paced scenes. The Medium preset at 4K, with its 126 FPS average and a minimum of 107 FPS, offers an alternative if users prefer extra headroom, but High provides the best balance of quality and fluidity.

At 1080p, the data suggests that High (233 FPS) is preferable to Ultra (146 FPS) for competitive play, as the frame rate difference is massive while the visual gap is less pronounced in a dark, atmospheric horror game. Low settings at any resolution are unnecessary given the hardware’s capability, as even 4K Low exceeds 155 FPS. The Ultra preset, while visually impressive, imposes a 38.5% penalty over High at 1440p and a 37.5% penalty at 4K, making it a poor trade-off for the modest graphical gains in this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on Arrow Lake architecture using TSMC’s 3 nm process. Its base clock is 3.30 GHz with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, and it carries a 20 MB shared L3 cache alongside 3 MB of L2 per core. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU scores 25,891 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,655 in single-core, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 36,938 sits nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (delta 0%), slightly ahead of the Ryzen 5 5500X3D (delta -0.2%), and marginally behind the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (delta -0.4%) and Intel Core i9-12900T (delta -0.5%).

In Downfall, the CPU’s role becomes evident when examining frame rates across resolutions. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 146 (Ultra) to 348 (Low), and the gap between Low and Medium is 64 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 51 FPS. These differences are largely driven by the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, where the rendering load is lighter. The processor’s high single-core performance (3,655 in R23) is particularly relevant for Downfall’s engine, which likely relies on a few heavily threaded tasks typical of horror titles from that era. The 10-core/10-thread configuration ensures no obvious bottleneck in scene complexity, as evidenced by the consistent scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p. However, the CPU’s influence wanes at higher resolutions; at 4K, the FPS gap between Low (155) and Medium (126) narrows to 29 FPS, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The lack of hyperthreading (10 threads for 10 cores) does not appear to hinder performance in this game, as the measured results show no anomalies or stalls that would suggest thread starvation.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip on TSMC’s 5 nm process. It features 7,168 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, with 56 ray-tracing cores and 224 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, with memory clocked at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Downfall’s textures at 4K. The GPU’s FP32 throughput of 35.48 TFLOPS and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s contribute to its strong rasterization performance. In synthetic tests, it scores 29,995 in Passmark G3D and 17,108 in Passmark GPU Compute, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 43,223 is nearly tied with the Quadro M6000 24 GB (delta -0.1%), RTX 5050 Mobile (delta -0.1%), and Quadro M6000 (delta -0.2%), while slightly ahead of the RTX 4090 Mobile (delta -1%).

In Downfall, the GPU’s role is most apparent at 4K, where the Ultra preset drops to 65 FPS average—a 37.5% reduction from High’s 104 FPS. This steep decline is attributable to the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading throughput being saturated by the combination of high resolution and Ultra effects. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for 4K textures, as evidenced by the absence of texture pop-in or stutter in the measured data, but the raw compute demand of Ultra settings outstrips what the AD104 can sustain at 3840x2160. The GPU’s performance scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K is consistent with a card that has strong headroom at lower resolutions but hits a wall at 4K Ultra. The boost clock of 2475 MHz ensures that the GPU maintains high utilization when the CPU can keep up, which is the case at 1440p and 4K. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s 80 ROPs are sufficient for this game’s fill-rate needs, as pixel throughput is not a bottleneck at any tested setting.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 631st out of 3,716 tested combos for Downfall, placing it in the top 17% of all configurations in the database. This rank reflects the pairing’s balanced performance: the CPU’s 85th percentile standing and GPU’s 83rd percentile standing combine to produce a system that excels in this title without any single component dragging the other down. The rank is particularly impressive given that Downfall is a horror game from 2016, which might suggest it is less demanding on modern hardware; however, the Ultra preset clearly taxes even high-end components, as evidenced by the 65 FPS result at 4K.

Compared to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the combo’s performance aligns with expectations. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, which has an identical average benchmark score (delta 0%), would likely produce similar frame rates in Downfall, while the Ryzen 5 5500X3D (delta -0.2%) and Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (delta -0.4%) might see marginal dips. The GPU’s nearest rivals, including the Quadro M6000 24 GB and RTX 5050 Mobile, are within 1% of its average score, suggesting that this pairing’s rank is not an outlier but rather representative of its class. The 631st rank out of 3,716 combos indicates that while there are many faster configurations, this one sits comfortably in the upper echelon, making it a reliable choice for Downfall at high refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS deltas across resolutions reveal clear information about the limiting component. At High settings, moving from 1920x1080 (233 FPS) to 2560x1440 (167 FPS) results in a 28.3% drop, and from 1440p to 3840x2160 (104 FPS) a further 37.7% drop. At Low settings, the scaling is steeper: 348 FPS at 1080p, 248 FPS at 1440p (a 28.7% drop), and 155 FPS at 4K (a 37.5% drop from 1440p). This consistent ~28% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~38% drop from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU’s workload does not scale with pixel count.

However, the data also shows that the CPU becomes more relevant at 1080p. The fact that 1080p High (233 FPS) is only 18.1% faster than 1440p High (167 FPS), while 1440p High is 60.6% faster than 4K High (104 FPS), suggests that at 1080p the CPU is beginning to limit the GPU’s output. The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 146 FPS at 1080p, 104 FPS at 1440p (a 28.8% drop), and 65 FPS at 4K (a 37.5% drop). The consistent percentage drops across settings at each resolution step confirm that the GPU is the dominant constraint from 1440p upward, while the CPU’s single-thread performance (3,655 in Cinebench R23) is sufficient to avoid severe bottlenecks at 1080p. The minimum FPS recorded at Medium settings—242 FPS at 1080p, 173 FPS at 1440p, and 107 FPS at 4K—shows that even in the most demanding scenes, the system maintains playable frame rates, with the GPU’s memory bandwidth (504.2 GB/s) proving adequate for 4K textures.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and RTX 4070 SUPER deliver exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset averages 348 FPS, making it overkill for any display but demonstrating the GPU’s headroom at low resolutions. Medium averages 284 FPS with a minimum of 242 FPS and maximum of 327 FPS, providing a wide margin above 144 Hz displays. High averages 233 FPS, still far exceeding typical high-refresh requirements. Ultra averages 146 FPS, which remains smooth on 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitors but represents a 37.1% drop from High—a significant penalty for visual gains that are subtle in Downfall’s dark environments.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong. Low averages 248 FPS, Medium 203 FPS (minimum 173 FPS, maximum 234 FPS), High 167 FPS, and Ultra 104 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 173 FPS ensures no frame drops below 144 Hz, while High’s 167 FPS average is ideal for 165 Hz panels. Ultra at 104 FPS is borderline for high-refresh gaming but still playable on 100 Hz displays. The drop from High to Ultra at 1440p is 37.7%, mirroring the 1080p pattern.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limits become apparent. Low averages 155 FPS, which is excellent for 4K, while Medium averages 126 FPS (minimum 107 FPS, maximum 145 FPS). High averages 104 FPS, suitable for 100 Hz 4K displays, but Ultra drops to 65 FPS, which is below the 70 FPS threshold many consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 4K, with its 107 FPS minimum, is the safest choice for maintaining fluidity, while High offers the best visual quality without sacrificing playability. The Ultra preset at 4K is only recommended for users who prioritize image fidelity over frame rate, as the 65 FPS average is noticeably less smooth than the 104 FPS of High. Overall, the measured data shows a system that excels at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K requiring settings compromises to maintain high frame rates.