Downfall

Downfall, a 2016 horror title, pushes the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination through a wide performance envelope. The measured data reveals a configuration that scales predictably with resolution, showing clear strengths at 1440p while maintaining playability at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and how this pairing ranks against other tested combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K in Downfall is substantial, indicating a shift in the bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 312 FPS, but this falls to 139 FPS at 4K with the same settings—a reduction of approximately 55%. This steep decline demonstrates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, even in a title that is not graphically demanding by today's standards.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For High settings, the average frame rate drops from 210 FPS at 1920x1080 to 150 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 93 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 56% performance loss from 1080p to 4K. The Medium preset follows a similar trajectory, falling from 256 FPS at 1080p to 182 FPS at 1440p and 114 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with frame rates descending from 131 FPS at 1080p to 94 FPS at 1440p and 58 FPS at 4K.

The frame rate deltas between resolutions suggest that the RTX 4070 is well-matched to this game at 1440p, where it delivers high refresh rates, but becomes the clear performance ceiling at 4K. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is likely capable of feeding the GPU with frames faster than it can render them, as evidenced by the high FPS figures that exceed typical display refresh rates. At 4K, however, the GPU's rendering workload increases significantly, making it the dominant bottleneck. The result is that users targeting 4K will need to rely on the Medium or High presets to maintain smooth gameplay, while 1080p users can comfortably max out the settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, is the central component in this combo's gaming performance. With a boost clock of 2475 MHz and a base clock of 1920 MHz, the card is operating at frequencies that allow it to handle the demands of Downfall effectively. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for this 2016 title, even at 4K resolution.

The RTX 4070's overall benchmark standing places it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37648. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37628, deltaPct 0.1) and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507, deltaPct 0.4), indicating that it sits in a competitive mid-to-high tier. The GPU's performance in Downfall, however, shows a clear capability to push well beyond 60 FPS at 4K on Medium settings, where it averages 114 FPS.

In the context of this game, the GPU's role is more critical at higher resolutions. The measured data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average frame rate dips to 58 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This suggests that the 12 GB VRAM buffer is not being exceeded, but the compute load on the AD104 chip is significant. The card's texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s are the specifications that likely dictate performance in this horror title, which relies on detailed textures and lighting effects. The RTX 4070's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is more than adequate for a game from 2016, but the resolution scaling data shows that the GPU is still the limiting factor at 4K Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process. With a boost clock of 5.80 GHz and a base clock of 3.70 GHz, this CPU has substantial headroom for any computational tasks the game might present. The 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.

The CPU's benchmark results place it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84003. It is nearly tied with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which has an average score of 83807 (deltaPct 0.2), and it outperforms the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090, deltaPct 1.1) and the AMD EPYC 9135 (82980, deltaPct 1.2). In multi-threaded workloads, the data shows a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731, while the single-core score is 7303. This high single-core performance is crucial for gaming, where most titles rely heavily on a few threads.

In Downfall, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions. The jump from 4K to 1080p at Low settings results in an FPS increase from 139 to 312, which is a 124% improvement. This large gain indicates that at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to render frames as fast as the CPU can submit them, but the CPU is not the primary limiter. The data suggests that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus can easily handle the game's logic and draw calls, as it is able to drive frame rates above 300 FPS. The game is not CPU-intensive, so the processor's 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock provide more than enough performance, ensuring that the GPU is the deciding factor in frame rates across all tested resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 631 out of 2928 tested combos in Downfall. This places the pairing in the top 21.5% of all configurations tested by the database, indicating a strong overall performance profile. The rank is determined by the combined capabilities of the CPU and GPU, and this specific pairing benefits from a top-tier CPU and a high-mid-tier GPU.

The ranking suggests that while the CPU is near the top of its class, the GPU holds the combo back from achieving a higher position. The RTX 4070's 81st percentile standing among all GPUs is the limiting factor in this pairing's overall rank. In contrast, the CPU's 96th percentile standing is among the best available. The data indicates that this combo is well-balanced for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1440p, but it is not optimized for extreme 4K performance, where a more powerful GPU would be required to push the combo higher in the rankings.

The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals show that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is only 0.2% faster than the Core Ultra 9 285K, making the two processors nearly interchangeable in gaming performance. This means that the choice of CPU is unlikely to cause significant variation in frame rates for Downfall. The GPU, however, has a wider performance spread among its rivals, with the RTX 4080 Mobile being 1.3% faster in synthetic benchmarks. This suggests that the GPU choice has a more pronounced impact on the combo's rank in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo in Downfall provides a comprehensive view of its performance across different settings and resolutions.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the average frame rates are as follows:

• Low: 139 FPS
• Medium: 114 FPS (with a minimum of 97 and maximum of 131)
• High: 93 FPS
• Ultra: 58 FPS

These numbers show that 4K gaming is viable, but users should avoid the Ultra preset to ensure a consistent frame rate above 60 FPS. The Medium preset offers the best balance, with an average of 114 FPS and a minimum of 97 FPS, which is well within the VRR range of most modern displays.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the performance is excellent:

• Low: 223 FPS
• Medium: 182 FPS (with a minimum of 155 and maximum of 210)
• High: 150 FPS
• Ultra: 94 FPS

The 1440p results show that this combo is an excellent match for high-refresh-rate monitors. Even at Ultra settings, the average frame rate of 94 FPS is smooth, and at High settings, the 150 FPS average is ideal for 144Hz displays. The Low and Medium presets provide exceptionally high frame rates, ensuring no discernible stutter.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the frame rates are very high:

• Low: 312 FPS
• Medium: 256 FPS (with a minimum of 217 and maximum of 294)
• High: 210 FPS
• Ultra: 131 FPS

At 1080p, the combo is clearly CPU-bound at lower settings, with the 312 FPS result on Low being the highest measured in the entire dataset. The Ultra preset still delivers 131 FPS, which is more than enough for any 1080p display, including those with high refresh rates. The data shows that this combo is overkill for 1080p gaming, as the frame rates exceed the refresh rates of most monitors in this resolution class.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combo in Downfall?

A: The highest average FPS is 312, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this combo run Downfall at 4K with high settings?

A: Yes, the measured data shows an average FPS of 93 at 3840x2160 with High settings, which is playable, though not as smooth as the 1440p results.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in terms of overall benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K's score of 83807.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37648.

Q: At which resolution does the combo show the largest performance drop when moving to Ultra settings?

A: The largest drop when moving to Ultra is at 4K, where the average FPS falls from 114 at Medium to 58 at Ultra, a 49% decrease.

Q: What is the combo's rank out of all tested configurations in Downfall?

A: The combo ranks 631 out of 2928 tested combinations, placing it in the top 21.5% of all configurations.