Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers the top measured performance in Downfall, ranking first out of 2,928 tested CPU-GPU combos. The data shows exceptional frame rates across all resolutions and settings, with the GPU clearly dominating the performance picture due to its massive memory bandwidth and the game's modest CPU demands. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing is overkill for Downfall's requirements, yet the measured frames demonstrate how far modern hardware can push a 2016 horror title.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU-GPU combo in Downfall?

A: This combo ranks first out of 2,928 tested combinations, placing it at the very top of the database for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB by 2.1% and the 16 GB version by 2.4%.

Q: What is the maximum measured average FPS in Downfall?

A: The highest average FPS is 482, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest measured average is 90 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests minimal CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 482 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it still maintains 90 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows consistent GPU-bound behavior, with the CPU's 14 cores and 5.00 GHz boost clock providing ample headroom.

Q: What memory configuration does this CPU support?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and has a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. It features 24 MB of shared L3 cache.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 5090 D have, and does Downfall use it fully?

A: The RTX 5090 D has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. Downfall, being a 2016 title, likely does not fully utilize this capacity, but the bandwidth helps maintain high frame rates at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing for Downfall. Its memory subsystem is extraordinary: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is the kind of bandwidth that allows even the heaviest 4K textures to stream without dropping frames. The GPU's base clock runs at 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and its 21,760 shading units process geometry and pixel data at a rate that keeps the horror game's environments rendering smoothly.

The RTX 5090 D's 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores are largely idle in Downfall, since the game does not use ray tracing or DLSS. However, the raw rasterization through 680 TMUs and 176 ROPs delivers a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. These figures translate directly into the measured FPS: at 4K Ultra, the GPU still produces 90 FPS average, which is remarkable for a card with a 575 W TDP and a suggested 950 W PSU.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks reflect its capability — a Passmark G3D score of 44,065 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326. In Downfall, the GPU's performance is the primary driver of the measured frames, especially at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU enough data to reach 482 FPS on Low settings, but as resolution climbs to 1440p and 4K, the GPU's workload increases proportionally, and the frame rates scale accordingly — 345 FPS at 1440p Low and 214 FPS at 4K Low. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic tests — such as the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT with a 1.6% higher average score — are not relevant to the measured game data, which shows this specific card performing at the top of the heap.

How This Combo Ranks

In Downfall, this combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and RTX 5090 D achieves a combo rank of 1 out of 2,928 tested pairings. This is the apex position, meaning no other CPU-GPU combination in the database produces higher measured frame rates in this game. The rank is not a tie — it is a clear first, which indicates that the hardware pairing is optimally matched for Downfall's engine.

The CPU's synthetic performance places it in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46,062. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core i9-13900HX (0.1% lower), and two AMD EPYC server chips (0.2% higher). These deltas are negligible in synthetic tests, but in Downfall, the Ultra 5 235's consumer-oriented design with 14 cores and a 5.00 GHz boost clock provides more than enough single-thread performance for the game's logic.

The GPU sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests are all within 2.4% of its score, but the measured FPS in Downfall shows no contest — the RTX 5090 D leads every resolution and setting combination. The combo rank of 1 confirms that the sum of these parts is greater than the individual percentile rankings might suggest, because Downfall is not a heavily multithreaded game, and the GPU's raw fill rate dominates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a complete picture. At 1920x1080, the lowest average FPS is 202 on Ultra settings, which jumps to 324 on High, 395 on Medium, and peaks at 482 on Low. The Medium preset at 1080p shows a minimum of 335 FPS and a maximum of 454 FPS, indicating tight frame pacing even with variance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop but remain exceptionally high. Ultra produces 144 FPS, High delivers 231 FPS, Medium reaches 282 FPS, and Low hits 345 FPS. The Medium preset shows a min-max range of 240 to 324 FPS, which suggests that the GPU is still well within its comfort zone at this resolution. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: roughly 28-30% lower average FPS, which aligns with the pixel count increase of about 78%.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to feel the load. Ultra averages 90 FPS, which is playable but noticeably lower than the 144 FPS at 1440p Ultra. High averages 144 FPS, Medium averages 175 FPS with a min of 149 and a max of 202, and Low averages 214 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-100 FPS measurement in the entire dataset, and even that is respectable for a horror title. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steeper — about 37-38% lower FPS on average — because 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p, and the GPU's fill rate becomes the limiting factor.

The data shows no anomalies: every resolution and setting combination follows a predictable curve, with Low being the fastest, Ultra the slowest, and Medium/High in between. The Medium preset consistently provides a balanced experience with the only reported min/max values, suggesting that the game's engine is stable under this load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 features 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This is an Arrow Lake-S architecture chip built on a 3 nm TSMC process, containing 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 192 KB L1 per core provide low-latency access to game data. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, which is sufficient to feed the GPU's frame buffer.

In Downfall, the CPU's role is secondary but not irrelevant. The game's horror genre typically relies on scripted events and AI-driven enemies, which are single-threaded or lightly threaded workloads. The Ultra 5 235's boost clock of 5.00 GHz gives it excellent single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,085 and Passmark single-thread score of 4,516. These scores place it in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are all within 0.2% of its average score.

The CPU's multithreaded performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14,769 and a Passmark multithread score of 37,816. However, Downfall does not appear to scale with core count beyond a certain point, because the frame rates at 1080p Low (482 FPS) are not dramatically higher than at 1080p High (324 FPS), suggesting that the GPU is still the primary bottleneck even at low settings. The CPU's 14 threads handle the game's background tasks, physics, and audio without any measurable impact on the GPU's output.

The CPU's power envelope is a modest 65 W TDP, which means it runs cool and does not throttle during extended gaming sessions. Its integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 24EU is irrelevant for this discrete GPU setup. The CPU's market segment is Desktop, and its release date of January 2025 places it as a contemporary partner for the RTX 5090 D, which released in late January 2025.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset for Downfall depends on the target refresh rate and resolution. At 1080p, even Ultra settings produce 202 FPS average, which is far beyond any standard monitor's refresh rate. The Low preset reaches 482 FPS, which is useful only for competitive or high-refresh-rate scenarios. For most users at 1080p, High settings at 324 FPS offer a perfect balance of visual fidelity and performance, and Medium at 395 FPS is also viable if frame rate is prioritized.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts. Ultra delivers 144 FPS, which is exactly at the refresh rate of many 144 Hz monitors, making it a good choice for those displays. High at 231 FPS provides headroom for future driver updates or more demanding scenes, while Medium at 282 FPS is the best choice for users with 240 Hz monitors. Low at 345 FPS is unnecessary unless chasing maximum frame rates.

At 4K, the data suggests that High settings at 144 FPS is the sweet spot. Ultra drops to 90 FPS, which is playable but may feel less smooth on high-refresh displays. Medium at 175 FPS offers a better experience than Ultra with only a moderate visual compromise, and Low at 214 FPS is the fastest option for 4K gaming. The Medium preset's min/max values at 4K (149 to 202 FPS) show that frame pacing is stable, making it a safer choice than Ultra, which lacks reported min/max data.

For the best overall experience, High settings at 1440p or 4K provide the highest visual quality without sacrificing the 144 FPS threshold. If the user has a 240 Hz monitor, Medium at 1080p or 1440p is the recommended preset. Ultra settings are only recommended at 1080p, where the 202 FPS average still exceeds most displays' refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern as resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by approximately 28-30% across all settings. For example, Low goes from 482 to 345 FPS (28.4% drop), High from 324 to 231 FPS (28.7% drop), Medium from 395 to 282 FPS (28.6% drop), and Ultra from 202 to 144 FPS (28.7% drop). This consistent reduction indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the pixel count increases by 78% but the frame rate drops by only 29%, suggesting that the GPU has ample bandwidth to handle the extra pixels without a proportional performance hit.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steeper. Low drops from 345 to 214 FPS (37.9% drop), High from 231 to 144 FPS (37.7% drop), Medium from 282 to 175 FPS (37.9% drop), and Ultra from 144 to 90 FPS (37.5% drop). The 4K resolution has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p, so a 38% FPS reduction is far better than linear scaling would suggest. This indicates that the RTX 5090 D's 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are well-suited to 4K, and the CPU is not introducing a bottleneck at any resolution.

The overall scaling from 1080p to 4K shows that the GPU's fill rate is the dominant factor. At 1080p Low, the 482 FPS is likely near the CPU's limit for feeding the GPU, but the frame rates remain high enough that any CPU limitation is invisible. The data supports the conclusion that this combo is GPU-bound at all resolutions and settings, with the CPU providing consistent performance without becoming a limiting factor. The 4K Ultra result of 90 FPS is the only point where the GPU's workload becomes heavy enough to approach the limits of its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, but even this is a respectable frame rate for a horror game with complex lighting and shadow effects.