Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 Action RPG, presents an interesting case study when paired with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. This combination, while unbalanced on paper, offers a clear view of how a modern flagship GPU behaves when paired with a previous-generation mid-range CPU. The measured data indicates that this specific combo ranks 79th out of 1705 tested combinations for this game, placing it in the top 5% of all tested systems. This high ranking is primarily driven by the sheer horsepower of the GPU, which is able to maintain high frame rates even when the CPU becomes the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 79 out of 1705 tested configurations is a strong performance indicator, placing it well within the top percentile for Greedfall. This is notable because the pairing is not a traditional match; the RTX 4090 is a flagship component, while the Ryzen 5 3600 is a more mainstream processor from an earlier generation. The data suggests that in this specific game, the GPU is able to compensate significantly for any potential CPU bottlenecks, resulting in a system that outperforms the vast majority of others. The benchmark results show that this combination is capable of delivering exceptionally high frame rates, evidence of the RTX 4090's dominant performance. The ranking implies that for most users with this combo, the experience is likely to be far smoother than what they would get with a more balanced, mid-range setup. It also signals that the game's engine is able to leverage the GPU's raw power effectively, even when the CPU is not the newest or fastest available.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. In Greedfall, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and draw calls. In this pairing, its performance is likely to be the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15045 and a single-core score of 2124, indicate solid multi-threaded capabilities but modest single-thread strength compared to newer generations. Relative to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 3600 shows nearly identical average benchmark scores: it is 0.1% slower than the Intel Core i5-11400, 0.2% faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, 0.2% slower than the AMD Ryzen 5 1600, and 0.3% slower than the AMD EPYC 9274F. This places it in a competitive performance band, but it does not have the headroom of more recent CPUs. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache is a positive factor for gaming, helping to reduce memory latency. However, the data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is likely the primary constraint on the RTX 4090's ability to render frames, as the GPU is so powerful that it can process frames faster than the CPU can feed it instructions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant force in this configuration. It is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. With a boost clock of 2520 MHz and 16384 shading units, its raw compute power is immense, as reflected in its Passmark G3D score of 38194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223. In Greedfall, this GPU is responsible for rendering the game's world, textures, and effects. The benchmark data shows that it is more than capable of handling the game's demands, even at 4K resolution. The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 66473 places it in the 91st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla T4, which it trails by 0.4%, and the NVIDIA Tesla P40, which it outperforms by 0.5%. This shows that the RTX 4090 is at the top of the performance hierarchy. In this system, the GPU is clearly not the bottleneck in most scenarios; instead, its performance is often capped by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls, especially at 1080p and 1440p resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are exceptionally high. With Low settings, the system achieves 283.4 FPS, which is the highest recorded result. Medium settings yield 260.4 FPS, and High settings produce 250.2 FPS. The most demanding setting, Ultra, still achieves a very playable 159.9 FPS. At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high. Low settings produce 244.1 FPS, Medium settings drop to 190.9 FPS, and High settings yield 171.6 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p result in 111.1 FPS, which is still smooth for most displays. Moving to 3840x2160, the GPU begins to work harder. Low settings achieve 146.1 FPS, Medium settings produce 116.4 FPS, and High settings deliver 104.4 FPS. The most demanding configuration, Ultra at 4K, still manages a respectable 63.4 FPS. These numbers show a clear trend: the system is capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p and 1440p with all settings, and remains playable at 4K, though the gap between Low and Ultra settings becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 283.4 FPS. At 4K with the same settings, it drops to 146.1 FPS, a reduction of roughly 48%. This is a significant drop, but the absolute frame rate is still high. However, a more telling comparison is with Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 159.9 FPS, while at 4K Ultra, it drops to 63.4 FPS, a reduction of over 60%. This larger percentage drop at higher settings indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as resolution and graphical load increase. At 1080p, the CPU is likely the bottleneck, as the RTX 4090 has enough headroom to render frames faster than the Ryzen 5 3600 can supply them. This is why the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is relatively small (283.4 FPS vs. 159.9 FPS) compared to the difference at 4K (146.1 FPS vs. 63.4 FPS). The data shows that at 4K, the GPU is working near its limit, and the CPU has less of an impact on the final frame rate. The scaling pattern suggests that for this game, the Ryzen 5 3600 is more of a limiting factor at lower resolutions, while the RTX 4090's capabilities are fully exercised at 4K, particularly with higher graphical settings. This is a classic sign of a CPU-bound system at lower resolutions that transitions to a GPU-bound system at higher resolutions.