Greedfall

The pairing of AMD's Ryzen 5 2600 with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 is a study in extremes. The RTX 4090 is a 5 nm Ada Lovelace monster with 16,384 shading units and 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, while the Ryzen 5 2600 is a 12 nm Zen+ part with 6 cores and 12 threads. In Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, this combination produces a fascinating dataset that reveals exactly where the bottleneck shifts as resolution and settings change.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: the CPU-bound nature of this pairing dominates at lower resolutions, while the GPU begins to flex its muscles at 4K. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 246.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 221.6 FPS, a reduction of roughly 10%. At 4K Low, the average falls to 146.3 FPS, which is a 40% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling is unusually shallow between 1080p and 1440p, suggesting that the Ryzen 5 2600's single-thread performance—a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,579—is the limiting factor. The RTX 4090, with its passmark G3D score of 38,194, is clearly waiting for more data at these settings.

The Ultra preset tells a different story. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 161.9 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 110.8 FPS, a 31.5% decrease. At 4K Ultra, the average plummets to 65.4 FPS, which is a 59.6% reduction from 1080p Ultra. This steeper scaling at Ultra settings indicates the GPU is now the primary constraint. The RTX 4090's pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are being pushed hard by the higher-fidelity effects at 4K. The data shows a classic crossover: the game transitions from CPU-limited at low settings to GPU-limited at Ultra, with the crossover point landing somewhere in the High preset range.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of CPU and GPU ranks 110th out of 1,705 tested combos for Greedfall. That places it in the top 6.5% of all pairings in the database. The rank is impressive given the age of the processor. The Ryzen 5 2600's average benchmark score of 19,616 puts it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, and it sits within a tight cluster of rivals: the Intel Core i5-1345U (19,691, -0.4%), the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (19,508, 0.6%), the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19,740, -0.6%), and the Intel Core i7-10700F (19,485, 0.7%). The CPU is performing at a level comparable to those modern mobile and desktop chips, despite its 2018 release date.

The GPU, meanwhile, ranks in the 91st percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 66,473. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66,733, -0.4%) and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (67,320, -1.3%). The RTX 4090 is clearly a class-leading part. The 110th rank in Greedfall suggests that the CPU is holding the combo back from the very top spots. In a game this old, the single-thread limitations of the Ryzen 5 2600—a Passmark single-thread score of 2,239—prevent the RTX 4090 from achieving the frame rates it could reach with a newer processor.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear guide for the best experience. At 4K, the High preset delivers 101.5 FPS, which is excellent for a game of this type. The Medium preset yields 112.8 FPS, and Low offers 146.3 FPS. Ultra drops to 65.4 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less smooth. The data indicates that High at 4K is the sweet spot: it provides a substantial visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining a triple-digit average.

At 1440p, the picture changes. High delivers 176.8 FPS, Medium hits 195 FPS, and Low reaches 221.6 FPS. Ultra sits at 110.8 FPS. For high-refresh-rate monitors, Medium or High at 1440p is the practical choice, as the difference between them is only 18.2 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 66 FPS and likely adds diminishing visual returns. At 1080p, the data shows High at 220.5 FPS, Medium at 227.3 FPS, and Low at 246.1 FPS. Ultra at 1080p produces 161.9 FPS. Given the CPU bottleneck at this resolution, the best experience is High or Medium, which avoids the steep Ultra penalty.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured averages is as follows. At 1920x1080, the combo produces 246.1 FPS on Low, 227.3 FPS on Medium, 220.5 FPS on High, and 161.9 FPS on Ultra. At 2560x1440, the scores are 221.6 FPS on Low, 195 FPS on Medium, 176.8 FPS on High, and 110.8 FPS on Ultra. At 3840x2160, the results are 146.3 FPS on Low, 112.8 FPS on Medium, 101.5 FPS on High, and 65.4 FPS on Ultra.

These numbers reveal the scaling efficiency of the RTX 4090. From 1080p Low to 4K Low, the drop is 99.8 FPS, or 40.5%. From 1080p Medium to 4K Medium, the drop is 114.5 FPS, or 50.4%. From 1080p High to 4K High, the drop is 119 FPS, or 54%. From 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra, the drop is 96.5 FPS, or 59.6%. The percentage loss increases with settings, confirming that the GPU is doing progressively more work at higher presets. The absolute FPS figures show that this combo is capable of high refresh rates at all resolutions except 4K Ultra, where the 65.4 FPS average still clears 60 FPS but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo good for 4K gaming in Greedfall?

A: Yes, with a caveat. The data shows 101.5 FPS on High and 112.8 FPS on Medium at 3840x2160, which are both excellent results. Ultra drops to 65.4 FPS, which is playable but significantly slower.

Q: Why is the 1080p performance not much higher than 1440p?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, become the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The difference between 1080p Low (246.1 FPS) and 1440p Low (221.6 FPS) is only 24.5 FPS, indicating the CPU cannot feed the RTX 4090 fast enough to fully separate these resolutions.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600's average benchmark score of 19,616 is within 0.7% of the Intel Core i7-10700F (19,485) and within 0.6% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (19,508). It trails the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19,740) by 0.6%.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The data suggests High at 176.8 FPS or Medium at 195 FPS. Ultra at 110.8 FPS is also viable, but it represents a 66 FPS loss over High, which is a steep price for the extra visual features.

Q: Does the GPU's performance in Greedfall match its overall benchmark standing?

A: The RTX 4090 ranks in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, and its passmark G3D score of 38,194 is massive. However, the combo's 110th rank out of 1,705 in Greedfall shows that the CPU prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential in this specific game.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra preset worth using?

A: Only if you prioritize image quality over frame rate. The 65.4 FPS average is above the 60 FPS threshold, but the step from High (101.5 FPS) to Ultra (65.4 FPS) is a 36.1 FPS loss, which is substantial.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, built on the Zen architecture with a 12 nm process node from GlobalFoundries. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. Its cache hierarchy includes 96 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3. The CPU's benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11,186 and a single-core score of 1,579. In Passmark, it scores 13,160 for multi-thread and 2,239 for single-thread.

In Greedfall, these numbers directly explain the observed frame rates. The game's CPU demands are reflected in the small FPS differences between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings. The 12 threads help maintain playable frame rates, but the single-thread score of 1,579 in Cinebench R23 is modest by modern standards. This is the bottleneck. The RTX 4090, with its 16,384 shading units and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, is effectively waiting on the CPU to deliver draw calls and game logic updates. The 4,800 million transistors in the Ryzen 5 2600 are working hard, but they cannot match the pace of the 76,300 million transistors in the RTX 4090.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 bus is another constraint. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 246.1 FPS, which is likely near the ceiling for this CPU's instruction throughput. The data shows that upgrading the processor alone would yield significant gains at 1080p and 1440p, while the GPU would remain the limiting factor at 4K Ultra. For this pairing, the Ryzen 5 2600 is the weak link, but the measured results prove it can still deliver high frame rates in Greedfall when paired with the fastest consumer GPU available.