Downfall

# Downfall with Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + AMD Radeon RX 570

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 produces a profoundly lopsided configuration in Downfall, where the CPU's enormous multi-threaded capacity is effectively neutralized by a GPU that bottlenecks at every resolution tested. The data shows this combo ranks 2797th out of 2928 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 5% of all pairings, with the RX 570 consistently limiting frame rates to sub-60 FPS at 1080p and below 30 FPS at 4K. This is a case where the GPU's age and 4 GB VRAM capacity define the experience far more than the CPU's 24 cores ever will.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on Arrow Lake Refresh architecture with a 3 nm process from TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosts to 5.80 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 3 MB L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache, which provides substantial on-die storage for game data. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 115.2 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5, and it supports ECC memory, indicating a workstation-class design that is overkill for gaming workloads.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 290K Plus posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and a single-core score of 7,303, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 60,860 and a single-thread score of 4,823. The CPU's percentile ranking against all processors is 96, meaning it outperforms 96% of CPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 84,003 places it just 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83,807) and 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83,090), while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3% (85,072). These rivals are all high-end desktop or server parts, underscoring that the 290K Plus sits at the top tier of CPU performance.

However, in Downfall, this CPU horsepower is largely irrelevant. The game's measured FPS at 1080p Low settings is 92 FPS, which is the highest result across all tested settings, but even that figure is far below what the CPU could theoretically support. The benchmark data indicates that the CPU is never the limiting component at any resolution or setting — the frame rates are dictated entirely by the GPU. The 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom for the game's logic, but Downfall, being a horror title from 2016, does not exploit multi-threaded processors to anywhere near their full capacity. The CPU's 96th percentile rank in synthetic tests does not translate into proportional gaming gains because the graphics pipeline saturates long before the CPU's resources are exhausted.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a Polaris 20 chip based on GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It features 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. The GPU has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its pixel rate is 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate is 159.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS. The card draws 150 W and requires a 450 W suggested PSU, connecting via PCIe 3.0 x16 with a single 6-pin power connector.

The RX 570's benchmark scores place it at the 74th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 28,766. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28,874, 0.4% faster), the AMD Radeon RX 470 (28,996, 0.8% faster), and the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (28,580, 0.7% slower), with the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 trailing by 1.2% at 28,421. These results show the RX 570 is a mid-range part from 2017, competitive with other Polaris-generation cards but far behind modern GPUs.

In Downfall, the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM is the critical constraint. At 4K Ultra settings, the game averages just 17 FPS, a figure that suggests the GPU is both fill-rate limited and VRAM-limited. The 4 GB capacity is insufficient for high-resolution textures, forcing the card to swap data and tanking frame rates. Even at 1080p, the RX 570 cannot maintain 60 FPS at High settings (62 FPS average), and at Ultra settings it drops to 39 FPS. The GPU's 74th percentile rank in synthetic tests does not translate to playable performance in this title at higher presets, as the card's age and memory limitations become overwhelming. The RX 570's GCN 4.0 architecture, while supporting DirectX 12 (12_0), Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6, struggles with the modern rendering demands of Downfall at high resolutions.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling pattern in Downfall reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 92 FPS, which drops to 66 FPS at 1440p (a 28.3% reduction) and then to 41 FPS at 4K (a 55.4% reduction from 1080p). At High settings, the progression is 62 FPS at 1080p, 44 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. These steep drops as resolution increases indicate that the RX 570's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are the primary bottlenecks — the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU, but the card simply cannot render more pixels at higher resolutions.

The Ultra settings data reinforces this conclusion. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 39, which falls to 28 FPS at 1440p and just 17 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Ultra is 11 FPS (28.2% drop), while the gap from 1440p to 4K is another 11 FPS (39.3% drop). This non-linear scaling is typical of a GPU that is exceeding its VRAM capacity at higher resolutions, causing additional penalties beyond just raw pixel count. The Medium settings show the same trend: 75 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K.

The data indicates that the CPU's role in resolution scaling is negligible. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively constant across resolutions, since CPU load is largely resolution-independent. Instead, FPS drops dramatically with every resolution increase, confirming that the RX 570 is the sole bottleneck. The 290K Plus has more than enough raw compute to handle Downfall's logic at any resolution, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's inability to keep up with pixel rendering demands. This is a textbook case where upgrading the GPU would yield massive FPS gains, while upgrading the CPU would produce zero measurable improvement.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + AMD Radeon RX 570 combo ranks 2797th out of 2928 tested combinations in Downfall, placing it in the bottom 4.5% of all tested pairings. This rank is remarkably low for a CPU that sits in the 96th percentile of all processors, which underscores the GPU's dominant role in this pairing. The rank reflects the actual measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, and the RX 570's age and VRAM limitations drag the combo down to near-bottom-tier status.

To contextualize this rank, consider that the CPU alone outperforms 96% of all CPUs in synthetic benchmarks, yet the combo performs worse than 95.5% of all tested combinations in this game. This discrepancy is a clear indicator that the GPU is the limiting component. The nearest rival GPUs to the RX 570, such as the RX 6800M (0.4% faster) and RX 470 (0.8% faster), would likely produce similar combo ranks if paired with the same CPU, since the GPU's performance ceiling is the binding constraint. The combo rank of 2797 is a verdict on the pairing's overall gaming capability, not on either component individually. For Downfall, this pairing is effectively a low-end GPU configuration with an ultra-high-end CPU bolted on, and the rank reflects that imbalance.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus the bottleneck in Downfall?

A: No. The data shows the CPU is never the limiting component. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 92 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 17 FPS — a pattern that indicates GPU-bound performance. The CPU's synthetic benchmarks (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731, 96th percentile) far exceed what Downfall requires, and frame rates scale inversely with resolution, which is a GPU bottleneck signature.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings for this combo in Downfall?

A: The highest playable frame rate is at 1080p Low, where the combo averages 92 FPS. At 1080p Medium, it drops to 75 FPS, and at 1080p High it averages 62 FPS. For a 60 FPS target, 1080p Low or Medium are the only settings that consistently exceed that threshold. At 1440p, even Low settings only yield 66 FPS, and at 4K, the best result is 41 FPS at Low settings.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 28,766, placing it at the 74th percentile. It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6800M by 0.4% (28,874) and the AMD Radeon RX 470 by 0.8% (28,996), while leading the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 0.7% (28,580) and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 by 1.2% (28,421). These differences are small, indicating the RX 570 is a solid mid-range performer in synthetic tests.

Q: Does the 4 GB VRAM on the RX 570 affect Downfall performance?

A: Yes. The data shows a dramatic FPS drop at higher resolutions and settings, which is consistent with VRAM capacity being exceeded. At 4K Ultra, the combo averages just 17 FPS, while at 4K Low it achieves 41 FPS. The 4 GB GDDR5 memory with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for high-resolution textures, causing significant performance degradation.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83,807) and 1.1% higher than the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83,090). It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3% (85,072). These margins are tiny, showing the 290K Plus is competitive with the top-tier CPUs in synthetic workloads.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in Downfall, and what does it indicate?

A: The combo ranks 2797th out of 2928 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 4.5% of all pairings. This rank is driven entirely by the GPU's performance, as the CPU is in the 96th percentile of all processors. The rank indicates that this pairing is severely GPU-limited, and the RX 570's age and 4 GB VRAM prevent the CPU's capabilities from being utilized.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + AMD Radeon RX 570 in Downfall is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low settings: 92 FPS average
• Medium settings: 75 FPS average, with a minimum of 64 FPS and maximum of 86 FPS
• High settings: 62 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 39 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low settings: 66 FPS average
• Medium settings: 54 FPS average, with a minimum of 46 FPS and maximum of 62 FPS
• High settings: 44 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 28 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low settings: 41 FPS average
• Medium settings: 33 FPS average, with a minimum of 28 FPS and maximum of 38 FPS
• High settings: 27 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 17 FPS average

The data shows a consistent pattern: every resolution increase causes a substantial FPS drop, and every settings increase at a given resolution also reduces performance. At 1080p, the combo can achieve playable frame rates at Low (92 FPS) and Medium (75 FPS), but High (62 FPS) is borderline and Ultra (39 FPS) is not smooth. At 1440p, only Low settings (66 FPS) approach playability, while Medium (54 FPS), High (44 FPS), and Ultra (28 FPS) all fall short of 60 FPS. At 4K, all settings are below 45 FPS, with Ultra at just 17 FPS.

The minimum and maximum FPS data for Medium settings at each resolution provides additional insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the range is 64-86 FPS, a spread of 22 FPS, which indicates moderate variance. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 46-62 FPS, a 16 FPS spread, suggesting the GPU is closer to its limit. At 4K Medium, the range is 28-38 FPS, just 10 FPS spread, showing that the card is consistently pegged at its maximum throughput. This tightening range at higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU is the sole performance limiter, with no CPU-induced stuttering or frame drops.