Downfall

Downfall is a demanding horror title, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX with the AMD Radeon 760M produces a very specific performance profile. The data shows a system that is heavily constrained by its integrated graphics, resulting in playable frame rates only at lower settings and resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured results to explain what settings to use, where the bottleneck lies, and how this pairing stacks up against other tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across all resolutions clearly indicates that the Ultra preset is not viable for this hardware combination. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 27 FPS, which falls below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The situation worsens at higher resolutions, with the Ultra preset dropping to 19 FPS at 1440p and a mere 12 FPS at 4K. These figures are consistently the lowest in the dataset, making the Ultra preset a poor choice for any playable experience.

The Low preset is the only setting that consistently provides frame rates in a generally acceptable range. At 1080p, it achieves an average of 65 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this combo. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 46 FPS, which is still playable for a horror title where atmosphere matters more than competitive frame rates. At 4K Low, the average falls to 29 FPS, which is on the borderline of playability and may be acceptable for a slower-paced game, but it is not ideal.

The Medium preset offers a compromise between visual quality and performance, but it requires a resolution step down to be usable. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 53, which is solid and only 12 FPS less than the Low preset. However, at 1440p Medium, the average drops to 38 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it falls to 24 FPS. The High preset is in a similar position; it provides 44 FPS at 1080p, but this drops to 31 FPS at 1440p and 19 FPS at 4K.

Based on this data, the best experience for this combo is the Low preset at 1080p, which yields the highest average frame rate of 65 FPS. If visual fidelity is a priority, the Medium preset at 1080p is a strong alternative, offering a 53 FPS average while retaining some graphical enhancements over Low. The High preset at 1080p is also acceptable at 44 FPS, but it does not provide a significant enough visual leap over Medium to justify the 9 FPS performance hit. For users with a 1440p display, the Low preset is the only reliable option, as the Medium and High presets dip into the 30s and lower. The data suggests that this system is best paired with a 1080p monitor to achieve a consistent and playable experience.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process. It features 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 render output units. The GPU's clock speeds show a base of 800 MHz and a boost clock of up to 2599 MHz, which is a significant range that allows for dynamic performance scaling under load. Its memory configuration is system-shared, meaning it uses a portion of the main system RAM rather than dedicated VRAM, making its bandwidth system-dependent.

The benchmark results for this GPU place it in a modest position. Its Passmark G3D score is 5310, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 400. These scores, combined with a percentile rank of 35 among all GPUs, indicate that it is a low-to-mid-range performer. Its nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, include the AMD Radeon RX 6400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M, with which it trades places within a 0.3% margin. This context is crucial for understanding the game's performance; the Radeon 760M is not designed for high-end gaming, and its results in Downfall reflect that.

The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support, with a feature level of 12_2, is notable, but the raw processing power is the limiting factor. The measured frame rates in Downfall are directly tied to this GPU's capabilities. The fact that the system struggles to maintain 60 FPS even at 1080p Low shows that the Radeon 760M is the primary bottleneck in this game. The system-shared memory is also a concern, as it can reduce the amount of RAM available for other tasks, but the primary issue is the sheer compute power (5.323 TFLOPS FP32) being insufficient for demanding titles at high settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is a textbook example of GPU-bound performance. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 65 at 1080p to 46 at 1440p, a reduction of 19 FPS. This trend continues to 4K, where the average falls to 29 FPS, another 17 FPS drop. This consistent decline indicates that the GPU is working at its limits, and as the resolution increases, the pixel count grows exponentially, demanding more from the Radeon 760M.

The scaling pattern holds across all presets. At Medium, the average FPS is 53 at 1080p, 38 at 1440p, and 24 at 4K. At High, the figures are 44, 31, and 19 respectively. The Ultra preset shows the most severe degradation, going from 27 at 1080p to 19 at 1440p and finally 12 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 30% across most settings, and the drop from 1440p to 4K is another 35-40%, which is typical for a GPU with limited memory bandwidth and compute units.

This data suggests that the CPU is not a significant factor in this scaling. The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX has 24 cores and 24 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, which is more than capable of feeding frames to the GPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau or scale less predictably with resolution changes. Instead, the steady decline in FPS as resolution increases points squarely at the AMD Radeon 760M as the limiting component. For this combo, 1080p is the practical ceiling for playable performance, and 4K is only suitable for the Low preset, and even then, the 29 FPS average is a stretch.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and AMD Radeon 760M ranks at 2919 out of 2928 tested combos in Downfall. This puts it in the bottom 0.3% of all configurations, which is an extremely low standing. This rank is a direct reflection of the GPU's weakness; the CPU is a high-end mobile processor, but the integrated graphics drag the entire system down to a level where it is nearly the worst performing combo available for this game.

To put this in perspective, the CPU itself is a very capable part. Its average benchmark score is 67469, which places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon w5-3525 and AMD EPYC 4484PX, with which it trades within a 0.7% margin. This indicates that the 275HX is a top-tier processor in terms of raw compute. However, the GPU's average benchmark score is only 6019, placing it in the 35th percentile, with rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 6400 and NVIDIA Quadro P2000.

The massive disparity between the CPU's high percentile rank and the GPU's low rank explains the poor combo ranking. The system is massively unbalanced for gaming. While the CPU can handle any workload thrown at it, the GPU is a severe bottleneck. The data shows that pairing a top-tier CPU with a low-tier integrated GPU results in a system that is unfit for demanding gaming, as evidenced by its 2919th place rank. This is a clear case where the GPU choice undermines the potential of the entire system for this specific application.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. Its cache configuration includes 36 MB of shared L3 cache, and it supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus. The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35589 and a single-core score of 2204, as well as a Geekbench multi-core score of 20795.

In the context of Downfall, the CPU's role is to prepare frames for the GPU. Given the game's age (released in 2016), it is unlikely to utilize all 24 cores effectively, but the 275HX's high single-core performance (Passmark single-thread score of 4713) is beneficial for game logic and physics. The data, however, shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 65 FPS, which is a decent number, but it does not reach 60 FPS at higher settings, indicating the GPU is the constraint.

The CPU's performance relative to its rivals further confirms its capability. It is 0.3% behind the Intel Xeon w5-3525 and 0.5% behind the AMD EPYC 4484PX in average benchmark scores, but 0.7% ahead of the Intel Xeon 6515P. This shows it is a high-performance part that competes with server-class processors. For a gaming workload like Downfall, the CPU has ample headroom. The bottleneck is entirely on the GPU side. If a discrete GPU were paired with this CPU, the frame rates would be significantly higher, but with the Radeon 760M, the CPU's power is largely untapped.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use for this combo?

A: The Low preset at 1080p provides the highest average frame rate at 65 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p is also viable, offering 53 FPS, but any preset above Medium at this resolution or any preset at higher resolutions will result in average FPS below 44.

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming in Downfall?

A: The data shows that at 4K, the Low preset achieves an average of 29 FPS, which is marginally playable but not smooth. The Medium, High, and Ultra presets at 4K produce averages of 24, 19, and 12 FPS respectively, which are not recommended for a playable experience.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck for this game?

A: The AMD Radeon 760M is the primary bottleneck. This is evidenced by the significant frame rate drops as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation. The CPU is high-performance and is not the limiting factor.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combo ranks 2919 out of 2928 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 0.3% of all configurations for Downfall. This is a very low ranking, primarily due to the integrated GPU's limited performance.

Q: Is the CPU a good match for this game?

A: While the CPU is very powerful, with a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, it is not well-matched with the GPU for this game. The CPU has the power to handle the game, but the GPU cannot keep up, making the pairing unbalanced for gaming.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average frame rate for 1440p Medium is 38 FPS, with a minimum of 32 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS. This is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced game, though it may be acceptable for a horror title.