Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents an interesting scaling challenge for the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination. The benchmark data shows a system that is exceptionally capable at high refresh rates, but the relationship between resolution, settings, and frame rate reveals where the bottlenecks truly lie. This analysis breaks down the measured performance to guide you toward the optimal configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and tells a clear story about where this system’s limits are. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 276 FPS average. Moving to 1440p drops that to 192 FPS, a 30% reduction, and then to 4K it falls to 114 FPS, a further 41% cut from the 1440p figure. This pattern is consistent across all settings presets, indicating that the GPU is the primary scaling factor as pixel count increases.

However, the scaling behavior changes dramatically when you look at the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 126 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 87 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it plummets to 52 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31%, but the drop from 1440p to 4K is a much larger 40%. This suggests that at the highest settings, the game becomes increasingly demanding on the GPU’s compute and memory resources, not just its fillrate.

The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p with lower settings, the CPU is keeping up well enough to feed the GPU. The massive 276 FPS at 1080p Low shows the Ryzen 5 8400F is not a limiting factor at that resolution. But as you push toward 4K, the gap between Low and Medium settings narrows significantly. At 4K, Low yields 114 FPS while Medium yields 90 FPS, a 21% difference. At 1080p, that same Low-to-Medium gap is 217 vs 276 FPS, a 21% difference as well, but the absolute numbers are much higher.

This scaling reveals that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing for Greedfall. The GPU’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 192-bit bus are being taxed heavily at 4K, particularly with the Ultra preset which demands a 52 FPS average. The CPU’s role becomes more apparent at higher frame rates, where its 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at 1080p, but the sheer pixel throughput required at 4K overwhelms the GPU regardless of the CPU’s capability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. Its boost clock of 2475 MHz and 7168 shading units provide the raw compute power for Greedfall’s world. The GPU’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory operates at 21 Gbps effective, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth across a 192-bit bus. This memory configuration is crucial for the game’s texture streaming at higher resolutions.

The benchmark results show the GPU’s performance ceiling. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 52, which is below the 60 FPS target many players consider playable. The 4K Medium preset achieves 90 FPS average with a minimum of 76 FPS, showing that the GPU has enough headroom for consistent frame times when settings are moderated. The 4K Low preset at 114 FPS demonstrates that even at 4K, the GPU can deliver high refresh rates when the game’s visual fidelity is reduced.

The GPU’s memory bandwidth appears to be a significant factor in the scaling. The 192-bit bus and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1440p, but the 4K Ultra results suggest the memory subsystem is saturated. The fact that 4K Medium (90 FPS) is much closer to 4K Low (114 FPS) than to 4K High (82 FPS) indicates that the game’s Ultra settings introduce a memory or compute spike that the GPU cannot sustain. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores are present but Greedfall does not heavily utilize ray tracing, so the traditional ROP and texture units are doing the heavy lifting.

The GPU’s 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is substantial, but the data shows that at 4K Ultra, it is not enough to maintain high frame rates. The 80 ROPs and 224 TMUs are the likely bottlenecks at that setting, as the game’s pixel and texture fill requirements exceed what the GPU can process in real time. The 4K Medium result with a 76 FPS minimum suggests that the GPU can handle the workload if the texture quality and shadow complexity are reduced.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance is the Medium preset. At 1440p Medium, the system achieves 151 FPS average with a minimum of 128 FPS, which is excellent for a smooth experience on high refresh rate monitors. This preset provides a 74% improvement over the Ultra preset at the same resolution (87 FPS), while maintaining a minimum frame rate that is 41 FPS higher than the Ultra average.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the only viable option for a consistently smooth experience. The 4K Medium average of 90 FPS with a 76 FPS minimum is playable, while the 4K High preset drops to 82 FPS average and the Ultra preset falls to 52 FPS. The 4K Low preset at 114 FPS is playable but sacrifices too much visual detail. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot, as it offers a 10% improvement over High at 4K (90 vs 82 FPS) while likely retaining most of the visual improvements over Low.

At 1080p, the choice is less critical. The High preset at 197 FPS average is more than sufficient for any display, and the Medium preset at 217 FPS offers a 10% boost. The Ultra preset at 126 FPS is still smooth for most users, but the 58% drop from Medium to Ultra (217 to 126 FPS) is a significant cost for the visual upgrade. The data indicates that Medium is the recommended preset across all resolutions, as it provides the best combination of frame rate stability and visual fidelity, with the 1440p Medium result being the standout performance figure.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at the system’s performance across all resolution and settings combinations.

At 1920x1080:

• Low: 276 FPS average
• Medium: 217 FPS average, 185 FPS minimum, 250 FPS maximum
• High: 197 FPS average
• Ultra: 126 FPS average

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 192 FPS average
• Medium: 151 FPS average, 128 FPS minimum, 173 FPS maximum
• High: 137 FPS average
• Ultra: 87 FPS average

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 114 FPS average
• Medium: 90 FPS average, 76 FPS minimum, 103 FPS maximum
• High: 82 FPS average
• Ultra: 52 FPS average

The data shows a clear trend of diminishing returns as settings increase. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 59 FPS (276 to 217), while the jump from High to Ultra costs 71 FPS (197 to 126). At 4K, the Low to Medium drop is 24 FPS (114 to 90), but the High to Ultra drop is 30 FPS (82 to 52). The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, which is a critical threshold for many players.

The minimum FPS values, only recorded for the Medium preset, show that the frame time consistency is good. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 185 FPS is 85% of the average, indicating stable performance. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 128 FPS is 85% of the average, and at 4K Medium, the minimum of 76 FPS is 84% of the average. This consistency across resolutions suggests that the system does not experience severe frame hitches, even at higher loads.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Greedfall at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only with the Medium preset, which achieves a 90 FPS average and 76 FPS minimum. The High preset drops to 82 FPS average, and the Ultra preset falls to 52 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

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

A: The Medium preset is recommended, as it delivers a 151 FPS average with a 128 FPS minimum. This provides a 74% improvement over the Ultra preset’s 87 FPS average while maintaining a smooth frame time.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the system achieves 276 FPS average, indicating the Ryzen 5 8400F is not a bottleneck at that resolution. Its 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at high frame rates.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Greedfall?

A: The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is sufficient, as the 4K Medium preset achieves 90 FPS average. However, the 4K Ultra result of 52 FPS suggests the memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s may be a limiting factor at the highest settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: The High preset achieves 137 FPS average, while the Ultra preset achieves 87 FPS average, a 50 FPS difference (36% reduction). This indicates a significant performance cost for the Ultra visual upgrades.

Q: Should I use the Low preset for competitive play?

A: The Low preset at 1080p achieves 276 FPS average and 192 FPS at 1440p, which are excellent for high refresh rate displays. The 4K Low preset at 114 FPS is also viable if visual fidelity is not a priority.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Phoenix, built on a 4 nm process from TSMC. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943. The CPU’s 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core are sufficient for Greedfall’s game logic and AI calculations.

In Greedfall, the CPU’s role is to maintain a consistent frame rate by feeding the GPU with draw calls and physics data. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 276 FPS, which is near the practical limit for most displays. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and 2-thread score of 1874 indicate that it can handle the game’s primary thread well. The multi-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851, ensures that background tasks and secondary threads do not cause frame drops.

The CPU’s performance is closely matched to its nearest rivals, with the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F having an average score 0.2% higher and the Intel Core i7-11850H being 0.3% higher. This puts the 8400F in a competitive position for gaming, as it does not become a bottleneck until frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in any of the measured configurations, as the frame rate scaling is consistent with GPU-bound behavior.

The 65W TDP of the Ryzen 5 8400F is modest, and its 4 nm process node ensures efficient operation. The CPU’s PCIe Gen 4 support with 20 lanes provides adequate bandwidth for the RTX 4070 SUPER’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for the game’s memory access patterns. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs and average benchmark score of 25005 indicate it is a solid mid-range performer that pairs well with the RTX 4070 SUPER for Greedfall.