Downfall

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 lands at rank 2827 out of 2928 tested combos in Downfall. That places this configuration in the bottom 3.5% of all tested pairings, which is a stark result given the CPU's pedigree. The processor alone sits in the 96th percentile among all CPUs tested, but the graphics card drags the entire combo down to near the bottom of the pile.

Benchmark results indicate a massive imbalance. The CPU's average benchmark score of 84003 puts it 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807) and 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090), while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 (85072) by 1.3%. The GPU, meanwhile, scores just 7472 on average, sitting 0.3% above the AMD Radeon HD 8850M (7447) and 1% below the Intel Arc A310 (7550). The GPU's percentile rank of 40 means it outperforms only 40% of all tested graphics cards.

The practical takeaway is simple: this combo is GPU-bound in nearly every scenario. The CPU has enormous headroom that the GTX 1650 cannot exploit. In a horror game like Downfall, where atmosphere and frame pacing matter more than raw competitive performance, the result is a system that can hit playable frame rates at lower settings but falls apart at higher presets. The rank reflects the weakest link, and that link is unambiguously the graphics card.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Downfall at 1080p?

A: Yes, at 1080p the combo delivers 61 FPS on High settings and 91 FPS on Low settings. Medium settings produce 75 FPS with a minimum of 64 FPS and maximum of 86 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 38 FPS, which is playable but not smooth.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in raw compute?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and 1.1% higher than the AMD EPYC 4584PX. It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%. These are all within a narrow margin, indicating the CPU is competitive at the top tier.

Q: What is the GPU's performance standing relative to other cards?

A: The GTX 1650 sits at the 40th percentile among all tested GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 7472 is 0.3% above the AMD Radeon HD 8850M and 0.4% above the Intel UHD Graphics 750, but 1% below the Intel Arc A310.

Q: Does the game scale well from 1080p to 4K with this setup?

A: The scaling is steep. At High settings, average FPS drops from 61 at 1080p to 44 at 1440p to 27 at 4K. That represents a 56% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a balance of quality and performance?

A: At 1080p, Medium settings offer 75 FPS average with a 64 FPS minimum, which is the best balance. At 1440p, Medium drops to 53 FPS with a 45 FPS minimum. At 4K, even Low settings only reach 41 FPS.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have and does it matter here?

A: The GTX 1650 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 128.1 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K Ultra settings, the combo only manages 17 FPS, which suggests the memory capacity and bandwidth are insufficient for high-resolution textures in Downfall.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern: performance degrades significantly as resolution increases, and the GPU is the primary bottleneck throughout. At 1080p High settings, the combo averages 61 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 44 FPS, a 28% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 27 FPS, a 56% reduction from 1080p.

The scaling pattern across all settings tells the same story. At Low settings, 1080p delivers 91 FPS, 1440p delivers 65 FPS, and 4K delivers 41 FPS. That is a 55% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, 1080p averages 75 FPS with a 64 FPS minimum, 1440p averages 53 FPS with a 45 FPS minimum, and 4K averages 33 FPS with a 28 FPS minimum. Ultra settings are the most demanding: 38 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K.

The diminishing returns between 1440p and 4K are particularly telling. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the drop is from 44 to 27 FPS, a 39% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 27 to 17 FPS, a 37% reduction. These percentage drops are consistent across settings, which indicates the GPU is operating at its limit at 4K regardless of the preset. The CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but at 4K the rendering load exceeds what the GTX 1650 can handle.

The data suggests that 1080p is the practical ceiling for this combo in Downfall. At 1440p, only Low and Medium settings stay above 50 FPS average. At 4K, no preset reaches 45 FPS average, and Ultra is effectively unplayable at 17 FPS. The limiting component is clearly the GPU, as the CPU's benchmark scores indicate it can handle far more demanding workloads than this game throws at it.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its best results. Low settings average 91 FPS, which is smooth for a horror game where sudden frame drops can ruin immersion. Medium settings average 75 FPS with a minimum of 64 FPS and maximum of 86 FPS, providing a solid experience with better visual fidelity. High settings average 61 FPS, which is still playable but close to the edge of comfort. Ultra settings drop to 38 FPS, which is noticeably less fluid and may cause issues during fast-paced sequences.

At 2560x1440, performance degrades noticeably. Low settings average 65 FPS, which is still acceptable. Medium settings average 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS and maximum of 61 FPS, putting the experience in a playable but not ideal range. High settings drop to 44 FPS, which is borderline. Ultra settings fall to 27 FPS, which is too low for a smooth horror experience where responsiveness matters.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles across the board. Low settings average 41 FPS, which is marginally playable but far from comfortable. Medium settings average 33 FPS with a minimum of 28 FPS and maximum of 38 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings drop to 27 FPS, and Ultra settings plunge to 17 FPS. None of these 4K results are recommended for actual gameplay.

The minimum FPS readings show that the combo maintains relatively stable frame times at Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 64 FPS against an average of 75 FPS, a gap of 11 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 45 FPS against an average of 53 FPS, a gap of 8 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 28 FPS against an average of 33 FPS, a gap of 5 FPS. The tighter gaps at higher resolutions suggest the GPU is consistently saturated, whereas at lower resolutions there is more variance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the limiting factor in this combo. Its specifications explain why: 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest by modern standards. The GPU has 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units. Its base clock is 1485 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz. Memory runs at 2001 MHz with 8 Gbps effective speed.

The GPU's compute capabilities are limited. It delivers 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 5.967 TFLOPS of FP16 performance via a 2:1 ratio. Pixel rate is 53.28 GPixel/s and texture rate is 93.24 GTexel/s. The GPU is built on a 12 nm process from TSMC with 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. It uses the TU117 chip from the Turing architecture.

The benchmark scores reflect this hardware profile. The GPU scores 7880 in Passmark G3D, which places it at the 40th percentile among all tested GPUs. Its DirectX 11 score of 58 and DirectX 12 score of 35 indicate it handles older APIs better than newer ones. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 29629 and Vulkan score of 33042 show modest compute capability.

In Downfall specifically, the GPU's 4 GB VRAM is a clear constraint. At 4K Ultra settings, the combo only manages 17 FPS, which strongly suggests the GPU runs out of memory bandwidth or capacity when loading high-resolution textures. The 128.1 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for 4K workloads, and the 4 GB capacity limits texture detail at higher presets. Even at 1080p Ultra, the 38 FPS result indicates the GPU is struggling with the rendering load.

The GPU's production status is end-of-life, and it was released on 2019-04-22 with a launch MSRP of 149 USD. Its predecessor is the GeForce 10 series and its successor is the GeForce 20 series. This places it in an older generation that lacks the features and performance of more recent cards, which is evident in its benchmark results against rivals like the Intel Arc A310.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is dramatically overpowered for this GPU pairing. The CPU features 24 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. It has a 125 W TDP and uses the Intel Socket 1851. The architecture is Arrow Lake Refresh, built on a 3 nm process from TSMC with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die.

The cache hierarchy is substantial: 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support includes DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 115.2 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU supports ECC memory and has PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes. It includes integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units, though this is irrelevant for gaming with a discrete GPU installed.

The CPU's benchmark scores are exceptional. It scores 51731 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 7303 in single-core. In Cinebench R20, it scores 21727 multi-core and 3067 single-core. Passmark results show 60860 in multithread, 4823 in single-thread, and 214760 in floating point math. The Passmark data compression score of 698346 and data encryption score of 52563 indicate strong throughput in compute-heavy tasks.

The CPU's percentile rank of 96 means it outperforms 96% of all tested CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 84003 places it just 0.2% above the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and 1.1% above the AMD EPYC 4584PX, while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%. These are all top-tier processors, and the 290K Plus is competitive within that group.

In Downfall, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The measured FPS data shows that performance scales with resolution in a way that points directly at the GPU. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 91 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game's engine. But at 4K Ultra, the 17 FPS result indicates the GPU is completely overwhelmed. The CPU has 24 cores and high clock speeds that can handle the game's physics, AI, and scene management without breaking a sweat, but the GTX 1650 simply cannot render frames fast enough to utilize that headroom.

The practical implication is that upgrading the GPU would yield massive performance gains in Downfall, while upgrading the CPU would yield almost nothing. The CPU is already in the top 4% of all tested processors, and its nearest rivals are within a 1.3% margin. This combo's rank of 2827 out of 2928 is a direct consequence of the GPU's limitations, not the CPU's capabilities.