Downfall

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a decisive performance envelope in Downfall, a 2016 horror title that proves surprisingly demanding at its upper settings. The measured data shows a configuration capable of extreme frame rates at lower resolutions, while still maintaining excellent playability at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, settings scaling, and component roles based strictly on the benchmark data.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the High preset provides the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combination. At 1920x1080, High yields an average of 268 FPS, which is 59 FPS lower than the Low preset’s 400 FPS but still far beyond the refresh rate of most displays. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p is steep, with average FPS dropping by 100 to 168 FPS, a 37% reduction. This makes Ultra the least efficient choice relative to its performance cost. Medium at 1080p offers 327 FPS average, which is 59 FPS above High, but the visual gains from High over Medium are typically more impactful in a horror title where atmosphere and lighting are key. Therefore, High is the recommended preset for 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the High preset remains the optimal choice. The average FPS is 191, which is a 42 FPS drop from the Medium preset’s 233 FPS, but it is 71 FPS faster than Ultra’s 120 FPS. The 1440p High setting provides a substantial 71 FPS buffer over the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring smooth gameplay with room for demanding scenes. While Low at 1440p reaches 285 FPS, the visual compromise in a horror game, where shadow and texture quality are crucial for immersion, is not worth the extra 94 FPS over High.

For 4K (3840x2160), the High preset is again the clear winner. It achieves an average of 119 FPS, which is more than adequate for a high-refresh-rate 4K monitor. The Medium preset at 4K delivers 145 FPS, a 26 FPS advantage, but High offers a better visual experience. The Ultra preset at 4K collapses to 74 FPS, which is still playable but represents a massive 45 FPS drop from High, indicating it is too demanding for this card at this resolution. In summary, across all three resolutions, the High preset offers the best compromise between image quality and the high frame rates this hardware is capable of producing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of frame rates in Downfall, especially as resolution increases. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for the textures and assets in a 2016 title, even at 4K. The card’s boost clock is rated at 2505 MHz, and its 9728 shading units are capable of a peak FP32 throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS. These specifications underscore the GPU’s raw compute power.

The benchmark results reflect this capability. The RTX 4080’s PassMark G3D score of 34457 places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, has an average score of 54209, a delta of just 0.1%, indicating the 4080 is essentially on par with its SUPER counterpart in synthetic tests. In Downfall, this translates to the GPU being the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

Evidence for the GPU’s dominance is seen in the scaling from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 268 to 119, a 56% reduction. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the increased pixel count at 4K directly taxes the rasterization and shading units. The GPU’s 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are present but are unlikely to be heavily utilized in a title from 2016, which predates widespread ray tracing adoption. The card’s 320 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are necessary to sustain these clock speeds under load, but the data confirms the RTX 4080 is the workhorse of this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and expected pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, confirming that the RTX 4080 is the primary bottleneck in this configuration. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 400 at 1080p to 285 at 1440p and finally to 178 at 4K. This represents a 30% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 38% drop from 1440p to 4K. The absolute numbers are high, but the percentage drops are significant, illustrating the cost of rendering more pixels.

The scaling is more pronounced at High settings. The average FPS falls from 268 at 1080p to 191 at 1440p (a 29% drop) and then to 119 at 4K (a 38% drop from 1440p). The 4K result of 119 FPS is still excellent, but the total 56% reduction from the 1080p figure highlights how much work the GPU is doing. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 168 FPS at 1080p, 120 FPS at 1440p, and just 74 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra score is less than half of the 1080p Ultra score, indicating that the Ultra preset’s effects, likely including higher shadow resolutions and post-processing, are extremely taxing on the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth.

This scaling pattern is a textbook example of a GPU-limited system. The CPU’s performance remains constant regardless of resolution, but the GPU’s workload increases proportionally with pixel count. The fact that the frame rate nearly halves at 4K Ultra suggests that the RTX 4080’s 716.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 280.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are being saturated, preventing it from maintaining the high frame rates seen at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Downfall, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 230th out of 3716 tested combos. This places the configuration in the top 6.2% of all systems tested, a very strong showing that indicates this hardware combination is well above the median for performance in this game.

The high ranking is a direct result of the synergy between the two components. The CPU’s strong single-threaded performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7303, ensures it can feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions. Meanwhile, the GPU’s immense compute power, as shown by its 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, allows it to dominate at higher resolutions. The ranking of 230 out of 3716 suggests that while there are systems with faster GPUs or more optimized configurations, this combo is in the upper echelon of performance.

The data shows that this combo outperforms the vast majority of alternatives. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (0.2% slower) and the AMD EPYC 4584PX (1.1% slower), are all very close in average benchmark scores, which means the choice of CPU is not a limiting factor. The GPU’s rivals, including the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% faster) and AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (2.6% faster in avg score), are also closely matched. This indicates that the 230th rank is not due to a weak component, but rather the presence of a few dozen configurations with more powerful, likely higher-end, GPUs.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. This high boost clock is critical for gaming performance, as Downfall is likely to be sensitive to single-threaded performance. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7303 and multi-core score of 51731 demonstrate its capability in both single-threaded and heavily threaded workloads. Its PassMark single-thread score of 4823 further confirms its strength in tasks that rely on a single core.

In Downfall, the CPU’s role is to handle game logic, physics, and draw calls, while the GPU renders the image. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution. At 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS reaches 400, a figure that is often considered a ceiling for many game engines. The fact that the frame rate scales down smoothly as resolution increases, without any signs of stuttering or CPU-related frame drops, indicates that the 290K Plus has ample headroom.

The CPU’s 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide low-latency access to frequently used data, which is beneficial for maintaining consistent frame times. The processor’s 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84003, places it just ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (0.2% delta) and the AMD EPYC 4584PX (1.1% delta). This data confirms that the 290K Plus is one of the top-performing consumer CPUs available, ensuring that it will not hold back the RTX 4080 in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table and analysis detail the exact measured average FPS for each resolution and settings preset, as provided in the benchmark data.

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: 400 FPS average
• Medium: 327 FPS average (min 278, max 376)
• High: 268 FPS average
• Ultra: 168 FPS average

At 1080p, the configuration is heavily GPU-limited, but the CPU’s strength allows for exceptional frame rates. The Low preset’s 400 FPS is the highest measured in the entire dataset, indicating a perfect scenario for esports-style play. The jump from Low to Medium costs 73 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs an additional 59 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most punishing, with a 100 FPS drop from High, which is a 37% reduction in performance.

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: 285 FPS average
• Medium: 233 FPS average (min 198, max 268)
• High: 191 FPS average
• Ultra: 120 FPS average

At 1440p, the scaling pattern mirrors 1080p but with lower absolute numbers. The Low preset remains extremely fast at 285 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 42 FPS, and the step from High to Ultra costs 71 FPS. The Ultra preset’s 120 FPS is still smooth, but the 37% drop from High is a significant compromise for the visual upgrades.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 178 FPS average
• Medium: 145 FPS average (min 123, max 167)
• High: 119 FPS average
• Ultra: 74 FPS average

At 4K, the RTX 4080’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are heavily taxed. The Low preset still manages a very playable 178 FPS. The Medium preset provides 145 FPS, which is a 26 FPS drop from Low. The High preset offers 119 FPS, which is a 26 FPS drop from Medium. The Ultra preset is the outlier, dropping 45 FPS to 74 FPS. This 38% reduction from High to Ultra at 4K is the largest percentage drop in the dataset, highlighting the immense cost of the Ultra settings at this resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 4K?

A: The High preset is recommended, as it achieves an average of 119 FPS at 3840x2160. The Ultra preset drops to 74 FPS, a significant 45 FPS reduction, making High the optimal balance of visual quality and performance.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K?

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 average score of 83807. This indicates a negligible performance difference between the two processors.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 a bottleneck for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus in this game?

A: The data indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. Evidence for this is the steep FPS drop from 1080p to 4K (e.g., from 268 to 119 FPS at High settings), which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The CPU has sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this configuration?

A: The highest average FPS is 400, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the RTX 4080’s performance compare to the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247, while the RTX 4080 SUPER has an average score of 54209, a delta of 0.1%. This means the RTX 4080 is effectively on par with the SUPER model in terms of overall synthetic benchmark performance.

*Q: Does this combo rank well among other tested configurations for Downfall?*

A: Yes, this combination ranks 230th out of 3716 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.2% of all systems tested. This is a strong result, indicating that the hardware pairing is well above average for this game.