Greedfall

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 brings a 6-core, 12-thread configuration built on the Zen 2 architecture with a 3.60 GHz base clock and a 4.20 GHz boost clock. This CPU, released in July 2019, sits in the 76th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 18,129. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i5-11400, scores 18,150 — a delta of only -0.1%, meaning the Ryzen 5 3600 is effectively performance-equivalent to that chip in aggregate compute workloads. The AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS trails by 0.2%, while the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 leads by 0.2%, placing the 3600 in a tight cluster of mid-range performers.

In Greedfall, an Action RPG from 2019, the CPU's threading characteristics matter less than in modern titles, but the data still shows measurable scaling. At 1080p Low settings, the combo delivers 236.4 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate across all tested configurations. This suggests the CPU has headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions where the graphics pipeline is less demanding. The single-thread score of 696 in 3DMark and the Cinebench R23 single-core result of 2,124 indicate that the Zen 2 architecture handles the game's primary game-thread workload adequately. However, the multi-threaded scores — Cinebench R23 multi-core at 15,045 and 3DMark max threads at 4,603 — show that the CPU can also manage the background tasks and physics calculations Greedfall generates without becoming the primary bottleneck in most scenarios.

The 32 MB shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth provide sufficient data throughput for the game's open-world environments. At 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 108.7 FPS, which is still well above playable thresholds, indicating that even at higher settings, the CPU maintains enough performance to keep the GPU busy. The CPU's 65 W TDP and DDR4 memory support are consistent with a mainstream desktop part that doesn't introduce thermal or memory bandwidth constraints that would limit this game's performance.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data across three resolutions and four presets reveals a clear hierarchy. At 1080p, the Low preset produces 236.4 FPS, Medium yields 187.1 FPS, High achieves 170.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 108.7 FPS. The step from High to Ultra costs 61.8 FPS, a 36% reduction, while the step from Medium to High costs only 16.6 FPS, a 9% reduction. This pattern repeats at 1440p: Low gives 166 FPS, Medium 127.5 FPS, High 121.1 FPS, and Ultra 76.8 FPS. The High to Ultra transition at 1440p removes 44.3 FPS, a 37% drop, while Medium to High loses just 6.4 FPS. At 4K, the trend intensifies: Low produces 97.1 FPS, Medium 79.3 FPS, High 70.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 43 FPS.

The data indicates that the High preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1080p, High delivers 170.5 FPS — a 61.8 FPS improvement over Ultra while maintaining substantially better visuals than Medium. At 1440p, High achieves 121.1 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and only 6.4 FPS below Medium's 127.5 FPS. At 4K, High's 70.2 FPS remains playable, while Ultra's 43 FPS falls below the smoothness threshold for most players. The Ultra preset consistently imposes a severe performance penalty — roughly a third of the frame rate is lost compared to High across all resolutions — suggesting that the settings in Ultra include effects that disproportionately tax the GPU without providing proportional visual benefits in this title.

For players with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p, the Medium preset at 187.1 FPS or High at 170.5 FPS both allow full utilization of 144 Hz displays. At 1440p, High is the recommended choice because it stays above 120 FPS while offering better image quality than Medium. At 4K, High is the practical ceiling; anything above that sacrifices too much performance.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling across resolutions tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies in this combo. At High settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces average FPS from 170.5 to 121.1, a 29% performance drop. Moving from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS from 121.1 to 70.2, a 42% further decline. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at High is 100.3 FPS, a 59% reduction. This scaling pattern — where each resolution step exacts a larger relative penalty — indicates that the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as the pixel count rises.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 236.4 FPS at 1080p drops to 166 FPS at 1440p (30% reduction), then to 97.1 FPS at 4K (42% reduction from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 139.3 FPS. This steeper decline at lower settings suggests that when the GPU is less burdened by graphics effects, the CPU has more influence at lower resolutions, but the GPU still becomes the limiting factor at 4K. At Ultra settings, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is 108.7 to 76.8 FPS (29% reduction), and from 1440p to 4K it drops to 43 FPS (44% reduction). The consistent 29-30% penalty from 1080p to 1440p across all settings indicates a resolution-driven workload increase that the RTX 3080 handles proportionally.

The 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS is particularly telling. This is the lowest measured frame rate in the entire dataset, and it represents a 60% drop from the 1080p Ultra result. The GPU's 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are likely being stressed at this configuration, as the game's high-resolution textures and effects consume significant memory bandwidth. The data shows that this combo is CPU-limited at 1080p, balanced at 1440p, and GPU-limited at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination ranks 535th out of 1,705 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the 69th percentile of all configurations. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the balanced performance of this pairing: the Ryzen 5 3600's 6-core, 12-thread design provides sufficient compute for the game's engine, while the RTX 3080's Ampere architecture with 8,704 shading units and 68 RT cores delivers the graphical horsepower.

The combo's ranking is consistent with the CPU's aggregate performance percentile of 76 and the GPU's percentile of 80. However, the game-specific rank of 535 out of 1,705 (68.6% percentile) is slightly lower than either component's individual standing, suggesting that Greedfall's engine does not fully utilize the strengths of this pairing. The CPU's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i5-11400, AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, and AMD Ryzen 5 1600 — all have similar average benchmark scores within 0.3% of the 3600, indicating that swapping the CPU for any of these would produce nearly identical results in this game. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, scores 0.2% higher on average, while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE leads by 0.9%, suggesting that the RTX 3080's performance class is tightly contested.

The ranking of 535th place means that 1,170 tested combos perform better in Greedfall, which is expected given that many configurations pair higher-end CPUs with this GPU or use faster processors. However, the measured frame rates — particularly the 170.5 FPS at 1080p High and 121.1 FPS at 1440p High — demonstrate that this combo delivers excellent playability in the vast majority of scenarios. The rank reflects the competitive landscape rather than any deficiency in this specific pairing.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, provides the graphical muscle for this combo. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus delivers 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Greedfall's detailed environments at high resolutions. The GPU's boost clock of 1710 MHz and base clock of 1440 MHz, combined with 8,704 shading units, produce 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores provide additional capabilities, though Greedfall, as a 2019 title, does not heavily utilize ray tracing or DLSS features.

The GPU's influence is most pronounced at 4K resolutions. At 4K High, the combo achieves 70.2 FPS, which requires the RTX 3080 to render 8.3 million pixels per frame. The GPU's pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s are sufficient for this workload. However, the 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that push the GPU beyond its comfortable envelope. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is likely a factor here, as Greedfall's Ultra textures at 4K may approach or exceed this allocation, causing the GPU to manage memory more conservatively.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its strong position: a Passmark G3D score of 25,086 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4,407 place it in the 80th percentile of all GPUs. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 167,014 and Vulkan score of 145,176 further confirm its compute capabilities. The RTX 3080's nearest rivals in aggregate performance are the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (0.2% higher), AMD Radeon 880M (0.4% lower), AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (0.9% higher), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile (1% lower). This tight competitive grouping means that within this performance class, the RTX 3080's specific characteristics — particularly its memory bandwidth and shading throughput — determine its suitability for Greedfall.

At lower resolutions, the GPU's role diminishes as the CPU becomes more prominent. The 1080p Low result of 236.4 FPS indicates that the RTX 3080 is not fully utilized at this setting, while the 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS shows the opposite — the GPU is the clear constraint. The measured FPS data across all settings and resolutions paints a picture of a GPU that excels at 1440p High (121.1 FPS) and handles 4K High (70.2 FPS) admirably, but struggles with the most demanding preset at 4K.