Greedfall

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the Intel Arc B370 presents an interesting case for Greedfall. The data shows a combination that can handle the game at 1080p with playable settings, but struggles at higher resolutions. This analysis examines the recorded measurements to determine exactly where this combo stands.

FAQ

Q: What is the best playable setting for this combo at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the highest playable setting, with an average FPS of exactly 60, which matches the playable threshold. Low settings at this resolution average 76 FPS, while High drops to 54 FPS and Ultra falls to 35 FPS.

Q: Can this combo run Greedfall at 1440p?

A: No playable settings exist at 2560x1440. The closest result is Low settings, which average 53 FPS, just below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 41 FPS, High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS.

Q: What performance does the GPU deliver at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the best result is Low with an average of 31 FPS. Medium averages 25 FPS, High averages 22 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. None of these come close to the 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 3416 out of 3703 tested combinations in the database, placing it in the lower percentile of all recorded hardware pairs for this game.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 2254. Its closest rival is the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 at 2259, which is 0.2% ahead. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, putting it 0.4% behind. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264, 0.4% ahead.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 1184. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 scores 1186, which is 0.2% ahead, while the ATI Radeon HD 5770 scores 1190, 0.5% ahead. The AMD FirePro M2000 scores 1168, sitting 1.4% behind the Arc B370.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the Intel Core i5-9400 and the Intel Arc B370 becomes clear when examining the FPS scaling across resolutions. The CPU has a decent benchmark profile with a 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 5th percentile among all GPUs. This indicates that the GPU is significantly weaker relative to other graphics cards, making it the primary bottleneck in most scenarios.

At 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU enough data to reach playable framerates. The difference between Low (76 FPS) and Medium (60 FPS) is 16 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High (54 FPS) is only 6 FPS. This pattern suggests that the GPU starts hitting its compute limits around the Medium preset, as the incremental cost of High settings outweighs the visual benefit.

When resolution increases to 1440p, the GPU workload expands significantly. Low settings at 1440p (53 FPS) drop 23 FPS from the 1080p Low result (76 FPS). This steep drop indicates that the GPU is already near its maximum output capability. The CPU remains largely idle in this scenario, as the framerate is determined by the GPU's pixel throughput.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the absolute limiting factor. The difference between 1080p Low (76 FPS) and 4K Low (31 FPS) is a 45 FPS reduction. The gap between 1440p Low (53 FPS) and 4K Low (31 FPS) is 22 FPS. This scaling shows that the Arc B370, with its system-shared memory and 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 performance, simply cannot generate enough pixels at higher resolutions.

The presets also reveal how the combo behaves. At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to support the Medium preset, which maintains a 60 FPS average with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS. However, the High preset at 1080p drops to 54 FPS, hinting that the GPU shader and texture units are strained. The Ultra preset at 1080p averages 35 FPS, a massive 25 FPS drop from Medium, suggesting that certain Ultra features (likely related to lighting or shadows) are disproportionately heavy for this GPU.

At 1440p and 4K, the CPU role is reduced to feeding the GPU, which cannot keep up. The only bright spot is the 1440p Low result of 53 FPS, which is close to playable but still short of the 60 FPS threshold. The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution, since the FPS scales predictably with GPU resolution load rather than CPU thread utilization.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset is the most demanding setting that stays at or above 60 FPS. The recorded average is exactly 60 FPS, with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS. This is the only resolution where a playable setting exists.

At 2560x1440, no settings reach the 60 FPS threshold. The closest is Low at 53 FPS. Medium averages 41 FPS, High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS. The verdict for 1440p lists no playable settings.

At 3840x2160, the results are far below the threshold. Low averages 31 FPS, Medium averages 25 FPS (with a minimum of 21 FPS and maximum of 28 FPS), High averages 22 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. No playable settings exist at this resolution.

The verdictByResolution data confirms that the only playable settings are 1080p Low and 1080p Medium, with Medium being the best playable option. The 1440p and 4K verdicts show empty playable settings, meaning the combo cannot maintain 60 FPS at any preset in those resolutions.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core i5-9400 include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, which has an average benchmark score of 2259, just 0.4% higher. The Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248, sitting 0.3% lower. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, a 0.4% gap. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264, 0.4% higher. These CPUs would produce nearly identical game performance in Greedfall, as their synthetic scores differ by less than 1%.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B370 is closely matched to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, which scores 1186, just 0.2% higher. The ATI Radeon HD 5770 scores 1190, 0.5% higher. The AMD Radeon HD 7650M scores 1192, 0.7% higher. The AMD FirePro M2000 scores 1168, 1.4% lower. These GPUs all sit within a narrow performance band.

When combined, a system with any of these CPUs and GPUs would deliver nearly the same Greedfall experience. The 0.5% or less differences in benchmark scores translate to less than 1 FPS difference in the measured results. The ranking of 3416 out of 3703 combos would shift only slightly, likely staying within the bottom 10% of all tested pairs. The key takeaway is that the GPU is the weak link, and swapping the CPU to a direct rival would not unlock any higher settings or resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and Intel Arc B370 ranks 3416 out of 3703 tested combos in Greedfall. This puts it in the 92nd percentile of all tested pairs, meaning only about 8% of combos perform worse. The rank reflects the GPU's low percentile (5th) which drags the entire system down, even though the CPU is average.

Looking at the percentile data, the CPU sits at the 47th percentile, meaning it is close to the median of all CPUs. The GPU at the 5th percentile is a massive outlier. The combo rank is far lower than the CPU rank alone would suggest, which confirms the GPU is the dominant bottleneck. The combination rank of 3416 is consistent with the observed FPS data: the system cannot clear 60 FPS at any setting above 1080p Medium.

The ranking also correlates with the average benchmark scores of the components. The CPU's average score of 2254 is in a mid-range territory, but the GPU's average of 1184 is extremely low. The game performance is heavily weighted toward the GPU, which explains the low combo rank. For comparison, a combo with a CPU in the 47th percentile and a GPU in the 50th percentile would likely rank in the top half, but this GPU's 5th percentile ranking dominates the result.

The Verdict

Yes, this PC can run Greedfall, but only at 1920x1080 with Low or Medium settings. The verdictByResolution clearly shows that 1080p has playable settings, with Medium being the best at exactly 60 FPS average. The Low preset at 1080p runs at 76 FPS, providing a comfortable margin.

At 2560x1440, the combo cannot run the game at any preset. The closest result, Low at 53 FPS, misses the 60 FPS threshold by 7 FPS. Even the most optimized settings cannot reach the playable threshold.

At 3840x2160, the situation is significantly worse. All presets run below 35 FPS, making the game unplayable at that resolution.

The summary of the verdict is that the Arc B370 is a very weak GPU. It can handle the game only at 1080p with modest settings. For 1440p or 4K, a stronger GPU is required, or the user must accept lower framerates that do not meet the playable threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080

• Low: average 76 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)
• Medium: average 60 FPS, minimum 51 FPS, maximum 69 FPS
• High: average 54 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)
• Ultra: average 35 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)

The Medium preset shows the only recorded variance at 1080p, with a 51 FPS minimum and 69 FPS maximum. This spread of 18 FPS indicates occasional frame drops, but the 60 FPS average meets the playable threshold.

2560x1440

• Low: average 53 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)
• Medium: average 41 FPS, minimum 35 FPS, maximum 48 FPS
• High: average 38 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)
• Ultra: average 24 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)

At 1440p, the Medium preset shows a minimum of 35 FPS, which is a significant drop from the average. The 13 FPS variance between minimum and maximum suggests inconsistent frame pacing.

3840x2160

• Low: average 31 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)
• Medium: average 25 FPS, minimum 21 FPS, maximum 28 FPS
• High: average 22 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)
• Ultra: average 14 FPS (minimum and maximum not recorded)

At 4K, the Medium preset's minimum of 21 FPS is just 7 FPS above the Ultra average. The 4K data shows that the GPU is heavily overloaded, and the frame times are likely very uneven.

The recorded data shows a clear pattern: every resolution step up roughly halves the framerate at the same setting. 1080p Low 76 FPS, 1440p Low 53 FPS, 4K Low 31 FPS. This is consistent with the GPU's pixel fill rate limits. The Arc B370 has a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, which are modest figures for modern gaming.

The power consumption of the GPU is rated at 25 W, which is very low, and the system memory sharing further limits performance. The GPU's percentile of 5 means it is outperformed by 95% of all GPUs tested. This is the core reason why the combo fails at higher resolutions.

The CPU, on the other hand, has a boost clock of 4.10 GHz and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629, which is sufficient for Greedfall's workload. The bottleneck is entirely the GPU. The data suggests that pairing the same CPU with a stronger GPU would improve the resolution and settings significantly.