Downfall

The data for Downfall on this Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the CPU only becoming a meaningful factor at 1080p. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high across the board, placing this configuration in the top tier of tested systems for this title. The performance curve from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern of increasing graphical load, but the sheer power of the RTX 4090 ensures that even the most demanding settings remain highly playable.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the GPU as the primary limiting component in this system for Downfall. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 442 FPS, which drops to 315 FPS at 1440p and further to 196 FPS at 4K. This represents a 55.7% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, a scaling pattern that indicates the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU's workload becomes the bottleneck as pixel count increases.

The High settings preset shows a similar but slightly steeper scaling trajectory. The 296 FPS at 1080p falls to 212 FPS at 1440p and then to 132 FPS at 4K, a 55.4% drop from the lowest to highest resolution. This consistency across presets suggests that the game's rendering pipeline scales predictably with resolution, and the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the increased memory pressure at 4K without introducing any anomalous performance collapses.

Medium settings provide the most telling data point for scaling analysis. With min and max frame times recorded, the 1080p Medium result of 361 FPS (min 307, max 416) drops to 258 FPS (min 219, max 297) at 1440p, and then to 161 FPS (min 136, max 185) at 4K. The frame time variance, calculated from the min and max values, remains relatively consistent across resolutions, indicating stable performance without stuttering or thermal throttling. The 4K Medium result of 161 FPS still provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, confirming that this combination is not struggling at any tested configuration.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic resolution sensitivity. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 185 FPS, which is a 58.2% reduction from the Low preset at the same resolution. This gap widens to 62.3% at 1440p (132 FPS on Ultra versus 315 FPS on Low) but narrows slightly to 58.2% at 4K (82 FPS on Ultra versus 196 FPS on Low). The 4K Ultra result of 82 FPS is the only configuration that dips below the 100 FPS threshold, but it still remains well above the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. This data suggests that the RTX 4090 is the definitive bottleneck at 4K Ultra, while the CPU's 10 cores and 10 threads provide sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a limiting factor at any resolution tested.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's specifications directly explain its dominant role in these benchmark results. With 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines, the GPU has massive parallel processing capacity. The boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with the 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, allows the card to process the complex lighting and particle effects typical of the horror genre without breaking a sweat. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Downfall's textures and geometry at 4K resolution.

The GPU's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are relevant for modern rendering techniques, though Downfall's 2016 release date means it likely does not heavily utilize ray tracing or DLSS. Nevertheless, the raw rasterization power of the AD102 chip is evident in the measured results. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 and Passmark G3D score of 38,194 place this GPU in the 88th percentile of all tested GPUs, confirming its top-tier status. The nearest rivals — Intel Arc Pro A60 (deltaPct 0), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (deltaPct 0.3), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (deltaPct 2.9) — are all within a few percentage points in synthetic benchmarks, but the real-world game performance shows the 4090 pulling far ahead due to its architectural advantages.

The GPU's memory configuration is particularly important for the Ultra preset at 4K. The 82 FPS result at 4K Ultra is not due to memory capacity limitations — 24 GB is ample for any game — but rather the sheer computational load of the highest settings. The fact that the 4K High preset achieves 132 FPS while 4K Ultra drops to 82 FPS, a 37.9% reduction, indicates that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that are disproportionately expensive on the GPU. The 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are justified by these sustained high frame rates, as the card must maintain boost clocks under extended load without thermal throttling.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p High, the system delivers 296 FPS, which is more than enough for any high-refresh-rate monitor. At 1440p High, the 212 FPS result remains exceptionally smooth, and even at 4K High, the 132 FPS average provides a fluid experience that exceeds most displays' refresh rates. The jump from High to Ultra costs 37.9% of performance at 4K (from 132 to 82 FPS) and 37.7% at 1440p (from 212 to 132 FPS), making Ultra a questionable choice unless absolute visual fidelity is prioritized over frame rate headroom.

The Medium preset is a viable alternative for users who want to maximize frame rates on high-refresh-rate 1440p or 4K displays. The 1440p Medium result of 258 FPS (min 219, max 297) and 4K Medium result of 161 FPS (min 136, max 185) both offer substantial improvements over High while presumably sacrificing some visual effects. However, the data shows that the performance gap between Medium and High is smaller than the gap between High and Ultra. At 4K, Medium delivers 161 FPS versus High's 132 FPS, a 22% improvement, while at 1440p the gap is 21.7% (258 vs 212 FPS). This suggests that High is the sweet spot for most users, as it captures most of the visual quality of Ultra while maintaining significantly higher frame rates.

The Low preset is only recommended for competitive play at 1080p, where the 442 FPS result provides the absolute maximum frame rate. However, given that the High preset at 1080p already achieves 296 FPS, the marginal benefit of Low is minimal for most players. The data clearly indicates that this combination is powerful enough to run Downfall at High settings with excellent performance at any resolution, making Ultra the only preset where users might need to make a trade-off between visual quality and frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. The Low preset achieves 442 FPS average, followed by Medium at 361 FPS (min 307, max 416), High at 296 FPS, and Ultra at 185 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 58.2% reduction in performance, which is the largest preset-to-preset gap at any resolution. The Medium preset's min and max values (307-416 FPS) demonstrate tight frame pacing with a variance of 109 FPS between minimum and maximum.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings produce 315 FPS, Medium delivers 258 FPS (min 219, max 297), High achieves 212 FPS, and Ultra drops to 132 FPS. The Medium preset's frame time variance of 78 FPS (219-297) is tighter than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more consistently utilized. The Ultra preset at 1440p (132 FPS) matches the High preset at 4K (132 FPS) exactly, showing that the resolution and settings trade-offs are nearly linear in this game.

At 3840x2160, the system still maintains excellent performance. Low settings yield 196 FPS, Medium produces 161 FPS (min 136, max 185), High achieves 132 FPS, and Ultra drops to 82 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has the narrowest frame time variance of any resolution at 49 FPS (136-185), suggesting that the GPU is fully saturated and delivering stable performance. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 82 FPS, is the only configuration that approaches the 60 FPS threshold, but it still provides a comfortable 36.7% headroom above it.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 90th out of 2,928 tested combos for Downfall, placing it in the top 3.1% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the exceptional performance demonstrated in the measured FPS data, particularly the ability to maintain high frame rates at 4K resolution. The combo's position in the 90th percentile is consistent with the GPU's 88th percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, suggesting that the CPU is not significantly limiting the system's overall performance.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (deltaPct 0), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (deltaPct -0.2), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (deltaPct -0.4), and Intel Core i9-12900T (deltaPct -0.5) — all have nearly identical average benchmark scores. However, the game-specific performance of this combo at 4K Ultra (82 FPS) and 4K High (132 FPS) indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the GPU is clearly the limiting factor at these resolutions. The ranking of 90th out of 2,928 combos means there are 89 configurations that perform better, but these likely feature even higher-end CPUs or more favorable memory configurations.

The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — Intel Arc Pro A60 (deltaPct 0), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (deltaPct 0.3), AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (deltaPct -2.5), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (deltaPct 2.9) — are all significantly outperformed in actual game tests. This discrepancy between synthetic and real-world performance highlights the RTX 4090's driver optimization and architectural efficiency in gaming workloads. The combo's rank of 90 out of 2,928 is particularly impressive given that Downfall is a 2016 title, which may not fully utilize the latest hardware features, yet the raw power of this combination still produces top-tier results.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225's specifications show a modern 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. With a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, the CPU provides strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for game logic and physics calculations. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 4,412 places it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, indicating solid but not class-leading performance.

In Downfall, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p with Low settings, where the 442 FPS result suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls and game state updates to achieve extremely high frame rates. The fact that the 1080p Low result is 225% higher than the 4K Low result (196 FPS) indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases. However, the CPU's 10 cores and 10 threads (without hyper-threading) may present a limitation in CPU-bound scenarios, though the measured data does not show evidence of this in Downfall.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and Passmark multithread score of 30,459 demonstrate respectable multi-threaded performance, which is relevant for games that offload physics or AI tasks to background threads. The memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s from dual-channel DDR5 support is sufficient to keep the RTX 4090 fed with texture data, as evidenced by the smooth frame pacing at 4K Medium (min 136, max 185). The CPU's 65 W TDP and 3 nm process node from TSMC indicate an efficient processor that does not generate excessive heat, allowing the system to maintain sustained performance during long gaming sessions.

The nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks all fall within 0.5% of the Ultra 5 225's average score, but the game-specific results show that this CPU is more than adequate for Downfall. The 4K Ultra result of 82 FPS is not CPU-limited, as the GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of compute is the clear bottleneck at this settings level. The CPU's performance in this game is best described as sufficient — it never prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential at any resolution or settings combination tested.