Greedfall

Greedfall pairs a six-core, twelve-thread AMD Ryzen 5 2600 from the 2000 series with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on TSMC’s 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors and a 750 mm² die. This combination produces a wide range of frame rates across resolutions and presets, with the data showing a clear pattern: at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU becomes the limiting factor, while at 4K the GPU takes over, though the RTX 5090 D’s immense compute headroom means even the most demanding settings remain playable. The measured results indicate that this pairing is severely CPU-bound at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS gains when moving from 1440p to 1080p, and the larger drops when scaling up to 4K. For a game released in 2019, the Ryzen 5 2600’s Zen architecture, with a 3.40 GHz base clock and 3.90 GHz boost clock, delivers enough single-thread performance to push high frame rates, but it cannot fully feed the RTX 5090 D’s 21,760 shading units at 1080p. The RTX 5090 D, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus providing 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, shows its strength in the 4K Ultra preset, where the GPU’s 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 176 ROPs are more fully utilized. This analysis uses only the measured FPS data and hardware specifications provided, focusing on what the numbers reveal about component balance and playability.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this CPU-GPU combo in Greedfall, and at what settings?

A: The highest average FPS is 248, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is followed closely by 228 FPS at 1080p Medium and 220 FPS at both 1080p High and 1440p Low, indicating that the CPU limits performance well before the GPU’s potential is reached.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 2600 compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21,484, placing it 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21,440), 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i9-11900H (21,367), 0.7% behind the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21,635), and 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9454 (21,223). Its percentile rank is 75 among all CPUs, meaning it outperforms three-quarters of tested processors.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations for Greedfall?

A: The combination of AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 185th out of 2,938 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the top 6.3% of all configurations, which is remarkable given the older CPU, suggesting the GPU’s raw power compensates for processor limitations at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D’s average benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904), 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940), 2.1% lower than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396), and 2.4% lower than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605). Its percentile rank is 92 among all GPUs.

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings, and what does this indicate?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 220 at 1920x1080 to 190 at 2560x1440, then to 113 at 3840x2160. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 77 FPS (40.5%), while the drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 30 FPS (13.6%). This pattern indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises, while at 1080p the CPU holds performance back.

Q: Which preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset delivers 125 average FPS with a minimum of 106 and maximum of 143, making it the best choice for smooth gameplay with moderate visual enhancements. High preset at 113 FPS is also viable, but Ultra drops to 72 FPS, which is a significant 41 FPS reduction from Medium, making Medium the recommended sweet spot.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across all four presets and three resolutions provides clear guidance on which settings deliver the best experience for this specific CPU-GPU combination. At 1080p, the differences between presets are relatively small, with Low at 248 FPS, Medium at 228 FPS, High at 220 FPS, and Ultra at 175 FPS. The gap from High to Ultra is 45 FPS, which represents a 20.5% performance penalty for the highest visual fidelity. Given that all presets exceed 175 FPS, players with high-refresh-rate monitors could justify Ultra, but the data suggests that High offers the best compromise, retaining 89% of the Low preset’s performance while providing significantly better visuals. At 1440p, the pattern shifts slightly: Low runs at 220 FPS, Medium at 201 FPS, High at 190 FPS, and Ultra at 121 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is 69 FPS (36.3%), which is substantial, making High the clear recommendation for 1440p gaming, as it maintains an average above 190 FPS while Ultra falls below the 144 Hz threshold that many monitors target.

At 4K, the data reveals a more pronounced scaling curve. Low settings produce 159 FPS, Medium 125 FPS, High 113 FPS, and Ultra 72 FPS. The Medium preset, with its 106 FPS minimum and 143 FPS maximum, offers the most consistent experience, avoiding the steep penalty of Ultra while still providing better fidelity than Low. High is also acceptable at 113 FPS average, but the 12 FPS difference between Medium and High is smaller than the 41 FPS gap between High and Ultra, suggesting diminishing returns at the top end. Therefore, for 4K, Medium is the recommended preset, as it keeps frame rates above 100 FPS without sacrificing too much visual quality. At 1080p and 1440p, High is the optimal choice, balancing the 20-36% FPS loss against improved graphical detail. The data indicates that Ultra settings, while playable at 1080p and 1440p, impose a disproportionate performance cost that is not worth the visual benefit, especially when the CPU is already limiting frame rates at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals critical insights about which component is the bottleneck in this configuration. At High settings, the progression is 220 FPS at 1920x1080, 190 FPS at 2560x1440, and 113 FPS at 3840x2160. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 13.6%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 40.5%. This non-linear scaling strongly suggests that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 2600’s single-thread performance, as reflected in its 157.3 Cinebench R15 single-core score and 1,154 Geekbench single-core score, is the limiting factor. The GPU has ample headroom to render more frames, but the CPU cannot issue draw calls and physics calculations fast enough. At 1440p, the gap narrows, but the CPU still imposes some constraint, as evidenced by the relatively modest 30 FPS drop from 1080p. By 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, with the RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth being taxed by the higher pixel count.

Looking at Low settings, the scaling is even more telling: 248 FPS at 1080p, 220 FPS at 1440p, and 159 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 11.3%, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 27.7%. This smaller relative drop at 4K compared to High settings (27.7% vs 40.5%) indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is even more dominant at lower resolutions, and the GPU only begins to matter at 4K. The 89 FPS difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low shows that even with minimal graphical load, the resolution scaling imposes a significant cost, but the absolute numbers remain high due to the GPU’s raw compute power. The Medium preset data, which includes min and max FPS, provides additional context: at 1080p, the range is 193 to 262 FPS, at 1440p it is 171 to 232 FPS, and at 4K it is 106 to 143 FPS. The minimum FPS at 4K (106) is only 45% of the maximum at 1080p (262), highlighting the resolution’s impact.

The scaling pattern across all presets indicates that this combo is heavily CPU-limited at 1080p, moderately CPU-limited at 1440p, and GPU-limited at 4K. For players using a 1080p or 1440p monitor, the RTX 5090 D is underutilized, as the CPU’s 12 threads and 16 MB shared L3 cache cannot feed the GPU’s 21,760 shading units fast enough. At 4K, the GPU’s 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 176 ROPs are more fully engaged, resulting in a more balanced system. The data suggests that to maximize this combo’s potential, users should target 4K resolution, where the GPU’s strengths are leveraged and the CPU’s limitations are less impactful.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 185 out of 2,938 tested combinations in Greedfall places this configuration in the top 6.3% of all systems tested. This is a notable achievement considering the Ryzen 5 2600’s age and mid-range positioning, with its 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The RTX 5090 D, ranked in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, provides the bulk of the performance, and the data shows that even with a relatively modest CPU, the combo outperforms 93.7% of all tested pairings. The 6-core, 12-thread processor, with a Passmark multi-thread score of 13,160 and a Passmark single-thread score of 2,239, is sufficient for Greedfall’s demands, but it is clearly the weak link in this pairing. The nearest CPU rivals, such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V with an average score of 21,440 (0.2% lower) and the Intel Core i9-11900H at 21,367 (0.5% lower), would likely produce similar results, as they are all within 1.2% of the Ryzen 5 2600’s average benchmark score. This suggests that the combo’s rank is more dependent on the GPU than the CPU, and swapping the Ryzen 5 2600 for a slightly faster processor would yield minimal gains.

The rank of 185 out of 2,938 means that 2,753 other combinations performed worse in Greedfall. This is impressive, but it also highlights the GPU’s dominance: a top-tier GPU paired with a mid-range CPU can still achieve high rankings because the game’s engine scales well with GPU resources, particularly at higher resolutions. The measured FPS data supports this, as the combo maintains playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra (72 FPS), which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the rank does not tell the whole story, as it aggregates performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1080p, the combo’s rank would likely be lower due to CPU bottlenecks, while at 4K, it would be higher. The data shows that the combo’s best case is at 4K Medium, where it achieves 125 FPS, and its worst case is at 1080p Low, where the CPU limits performance to 248 FPS, which is still high but far below what the GPU could theoretically deliver. Overall, the rank of 185 confirms the RTX 5090 D’s raw power, but it also serves as a warning that CPU selection matters, especially for lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D plays a dominant role in this combo, as evidenced by its 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 77,712. The GPU’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, running at 1750 MHz with a 28 Gbps effective rate, provides a massive 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth across a 512-bit bus. This memory configuration is crucial for 4K gaming, where large textures and high-resolution buffers demand significant bandwidth. The RTX 5090 D’s base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, deliver 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s. These specifications translate directly into the measured FPS, particularly at 4K where the GPU is the primary bottleneck. At 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 72 FPS, which is a 41 FPS drop from 4K Medium (125 FPS), indicating that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth are being saturated by the highest settings. The GPU’s 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores, while not directly measured in Greedfall’s FPS data, contribute to the overall architecture’s efficiency, though the game’s 2019 release date suggests it does not heavily utilize ray tracing or DLSS features.

The RTX 5090 D’s nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (average score 76,904, 1.1% lower) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940, 1.6% higher), show that the 5090 D sits in a competitive performance band, but its 32 GB memory capacity is a differentiator for future-proofing. The GPU’s 5 nm process node and 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die give it a transistor density of 122.9 million per mm², enabling high clock speeds and efficiency. In Greedfall, the GPU’s role is most apparent at 4K, where the FPS scales more strongly with settings changes. For instance, at 4K, the difference between Low (159 FPS) and Ultra (72 FPS) is 87 FPS, a 54.7% reduction, while at 1080p, the same settings difference is 73 FPS (248 to 175 FPS), a 29.4% reduction. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU masks the GPU’s performance scaling, while at 4K, the GPU’s workload dominates. The GPU’s 575 W TDP and suggested 950 W PSU indicate its power demands, but the data shows that this power is translated into high frame rates, even with an older CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of this combo’s performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 248 at Low settings to 175 at Ultra, with Medium at 228 FPS and High at 220 FPS. The Medium preset includes a minimum of 193 FPS and a maximum of 262 FPS, showing a 69 FPS spread that indicates some frame time variability, likely due to CPU-related spikes. At High and Low settings, only average FPS is available, but the numbers suggest a smooth experience, with the 248 FPS Low result being the highest recorded for this combo. The 1080p Ultra result of 175 FPS is still well above playable thresholds, but the 73 FPS drop from Low to Ultra is significant, representing a 29.4% performance penalty for maximum visual quality. At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 220 (Low), 201 (Medium with min 171 and max 232), 190 (High), and 121 (Ultra). The Medium preset’s min FPS of 171 is notably lower than its average, suggesting that the CPU’s 12 threads are occasionally overwhelmed during complex scenes. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 121 FPS, which is a 69 FPS reduction from High, indicating that the GPU’s workload increases substantially at this resolution and settings combination.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are 159 (Low), 125 (Medium with min 106 and max 143), 113 (High), and 72 (Ultra). The 4K Medium preset provides the most stable experience, with a 37 FPS range between minimum and maximum, while the 4K Ultra result of 72 FPS is the lowest recorded, but still playable for most users. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is most dramatic at Ultra settings, where the FPS drops from 175 to 72, a 58.9% reduction, while at Low settings, the drop is from 248 to 159, a 35.9% reduction. This suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are more heavily taxed by Ultra settings at higher resolutions, as expected. The data also shows that at 1080p and 1440p, the difference between Low and Medium is smaller (20 FPS at 1080p, 19 FPS at 1440p) than the difference between High and Ultra (45 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p), indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a disproportionately high cost. At 4K, the gap between Medium and High is only 12 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 41 FPS, further emphasizing that Ultra settings are the least efficient in terms of FPS per visual gain. The measured data confirms that this combo delivers excellent performance across all tested configurations, with the caveat that the CPU limits frame rates at lower resolutions, and the GPU’s full potential is only realized at 4K.