Greedfall

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

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 4 (Phoenix) architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 4 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. In Greedfall, this CPU configuration proves sufficient to keep frame rates high across most settings, though the data reveals interesting bottlenecks at lower resolutions.

The CPU's benchmark profile shows a strong single-threaded foundation: a 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,943. Multi-threaded performance is equally respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20,851 and a PassMark multithread score of 24,389. The processor sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25,005. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (0.2% higher average score), Intel Core i7-11850H (0.3% higher), Intel Core i7-13620H (0.4% higher), and AMD EPYC 9474F (0.4% lower) — all within a narrow performance band.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role becomes most evident when examining the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 316 FPS average, which is a massive 141% higher than the 4K Low result of 131 FPS. This 2.41x difference suggests that at 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor; instead, the CPU's ability to feed frames becomes the ceiling. The 6-core/12-thread configuration with a 16 MB shared L3 cache handles Greedfall's threading demands well, as evidenced by the fact that even at 1080p Ultra, the system still achieves 144 FPS.

The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6,091 and max-thread score of 6,165 indicate that the processor's multi-threading capability scales effectively, which matters for a game like Greedfall that can utilize multiple cores for its open-world systems, NPC interactions, and combat physics. The Cinebench R20 multicore score of 8,757 further reinforces that sustained multi-core loads are manageable.

FAQ

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F compare to its closest rival, the Ryzen 5 7500F?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25,005, which is just 0.2% lower than the Ryzen 5 7500F's average score of 24,964. This places them within statistical noise of each other — for practical purposes, they perform identically in synthetic workloads, though in Greedfall the 8400F's boost clock of 4.70 GHz helps maintain high frame rates.

Q: What is the CPU's single-threaded performance, and why does it matter for Greedfall?

A: The 3DMark single-thread score is 951, while Cinebench R23 single-core reaches 2,943. Single-thread performance is critical in Greedfall because the game's main game logic and draw call submission often run on one primary thread; a strong single-core result prevents this from becoming a bottleneck, especially at high frame rates where per-frame CPU work is compressed into shorter time windows.

Q: Does the CPU's memory bandwidth affect Greedfall performance?

A: The processor supports DDR5 with dual-channel memory and a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. Greedfall's open-world streaming can benefit from higher bandwidth, and the fact that frame rates scale strongly from 1080p to 1440p (e.g., Low settings: 316 FPS to 219 FPS) suggests that memory throughput is not a limiting factor — the drop is more consistent with GPU load changes.

Q: How does the 8400F's cache configuration influence gaming?

A: It has 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 16 MB shared L3 cache. The 16 MB L3 is moderate by modern standards; however, Greedfall's data access patterns appear to fit within this cache, as evidenced by the CPU maintaining high frame rates even at 1080p Low (316 FPS), where the CPU is the primary constraint.

Q: Is the CPU overclockable, and does that matter?

A: The multiplier is unlocked, meaning overclocking is possible. Given that the base clock is 4.20 GHz and boost is 4.70 GHz, there is headroom for manual tuning. In Greedfall, pushing the boost clock higher could yield modest gains at 1080p, where the CPU is more likely to be the limiting factor than at 4K.

Q: What percentile does this CPU occupy among all processors?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F ranks at the 77th percentile among all CPUs. This means it outperforms roughly 77% of all tested processors, placing it well above the median and indicating solid headroom for gaming workloads like Greedfall.

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

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, which tells a story about where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 316 FPS; at 1440p Low, it drops to 219 FPS (a 30.7% decrease); and at 4K Low, it falls to 131 FPS (a 58.5% decrease from 1080p). This steep decline indicates that at 1080p, the GPU is underutilized — the CPU is setting the pace, and the RTX 4080 SUPER has plenty of headroom.

Moving to High settings: 1080p High produces 225 FPS, 1440p High drops to 156 FPS (30.7% lower), and 4K High yields 93 FPS (58.7% lower than 1080p). The percentage drops are nearly identical between Low and High settings, suggesting that the GPU load scales uniformly with pixel count, while the CPU's contribution remains relatively constant.

The Medium settings row provides min/max data: at 1080p Medium, the average is 248 FPS with a min of 211 and max of 285; at 1440p Medium, the average is 172 FPS (min 146, max 198); and at 4K Medium, the average is 103 FPS (min 87, max 118). The min-to-max spread narrows as resolution increases: 74 FPS spread at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K. This tightening indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the consistent limiting factor, whereas at 1080p, CPU-related frame time variance contributes more fluctuation.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling: 1080p Ultra delivers 144 FPS, 1440p Ultra drops to 100 FPS (30.6% lower), and 4K Ultra falls to 59 FPS (59.0% lower than 1080p). The 4K Ultra result of 59 FPS is the only sub-60 average in the entire dataset, highlighting that the combination of 4K resolution and Ultra settings pushes the GPU to its limits with this CPU.

The overall pattern — roughly 30% drops from 1080p to 1440p and another 40-45% drop from 1440p to 4K — suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER's rendering throughput is the primary constraint at 4K, while the Ryzen 5 8400F's single-thread performance becomes the limiting factor at 1080p. The fact that 1080p Low (316 FPS) is nearly 2.4x faster than 4K Low (131 FPS) confirms that the GPU's pixel-pushing capacity is the main bottleneck at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 325th out of 3,703 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the top 8.8% of all configurations tested. This is a strong showing, though not at the very top tier — the rank suggests that while the RTX 4080 SUPER is a high-end GPU, the Ryzen 5 8400F's mid-range positioning prevents this combo from reaching the absolute highest frame rates.

To contextualize this rank, consider that the combo sits at the 91.2th percentile of all tested combos (100 - 325/3703). This means it outperforms the vast majority of systems, but there are 324 combos that achieve higher frame rates in Greedfall — likely those pairing the RTX 4080 SUPER with higher-end CPUs (e.g., Ryzen 7 or 9 series, or Intel Core i7/i9 parts) that can better feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

The rank of 325 is particularly informative when viewed alongside the 1080p results. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 316 FPS, which is excellent, but a higher-ranked combo might achieve 350+ FPS in the same scenario. The data suggests that the Ryzen 5 8400F's 6-core/12-thread configuration and 4.70 GHz boost clock are adequate but not exceptional for Greedfall's CPU demands. The CPU's 77th percentile ranking among all processors, combined with the GPU's 86th percentile ranking, produces a combined rank that is slightly below what the GPU alone would suggest — the CPU is holding the combo back from top-tier status.

However, at 4K Ultra, the combo's rank is likely much better relative to others, since the GPU becomes the dominant factor and the CPU's influence diminishes. The 59 FPS average at 4K Ultra is respectable, and the combo's overall rank of 325 reflects a balance between resolution scenarios. For a 1080p gamer, this combo is overkill; for a 4K gamer, it's near-optimal — the rank of 325 captures this duality.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. It has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 2,295 MHz, with a boost clock of 2,550 MHz, and memory runs at 1,438 MHz (23 Gbps effective). These specs place it at the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,209.

In Greedfall, the GPU's role is most apparent at higher resolutions and settings. At 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 59 FPS average — the only sub-60 result in the dataset. This is a clear sign that the RTX 4080 SUPER's 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate are being fully utilized at this extreme setting. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for Greedfall's textures at 4K, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor; rather, the raw shading and rasterization throughput is the constraint.

The GPU's nearest rivals show interesting deltas: the RTX 4080 (non-SUPER) is 0.1% higher in average score (54,247 vs 54,209), while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB is 2.7% higher (55,698) and the Radeon 8060S is 2.8% higher (55,757). These small deltas suggest that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4080 SUPER is closely matched with these other cards, but in Greedfall specifically, the measured FPS demonstrates where the GPU's strengths lie.

The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are not heavily utilized in Greedfall (which is not a ray-tracing-heavy title), but the 10,240 shading units and 112 ROPs drive the high frame rates observed. At 1080p Low, the GPU produces 316 FPS, which means each frame takes only ~3.2 ms to render — well within the GPU's capability. The texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s allow the GPU to handle Greedfall's environments efficiently, even at higher settings.

The GPU's 320 W TDP and triple-slot design indicate it's a power-hungry part, but in Greedfall, the frame rates suggest the GPU is rarely the bottleneck below 4K — at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU limits performance, while at 4K, the GPU's compute capacity becomes the deciding factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings yield an average of 316 FPS, Medium produces 248 FPS (min 211, max 285), High reaches 225 FPS, and Ultra drops to 144 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 54.4% reduction in frame rate (316 to 144 FPS), indicating that Greedfall's Ultra preset significantly increases GPU workload even at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected drop. Low averages 219 FPS, Medium averages 172 FPS (min 146, max 198), High averages 156 FPS, and Ultra averages 100 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra drop at 1440p is 54.3% (219 to 100 FPS), almost identical to the 1080p scaling, suggesting that the relative cost of Ultra settings is consistent across resolutions. Notably, even 1440p Ultra (100 FPS) is well above the 60 FPS threshold, making this resolution entirely playable at any setting.

At 3840x2160, the GPU starts to show its limits. Low averages 131 FPS, Medium averages 103 FPS (min 87, max 118), High averages 93 FPS, and Ultra averages 59 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra drop at 4K is 55.0% (131 to 59 FPS), again consistent with the other resolutions. However, the absolute numbers are much lower: 4K Ultra (59 FPS) is barely above the 60 FPS target, while 4K High (93 FPS) remains comfortable. The Medium setting at 4K (103 FPS) offers a good balance, with the min FPS of 87 still being smooth.

Comparing the same settings across resolutions: Low settings see a 58.5% drop from 1080p to 4K (316 to 131 FPS); Medium sees a 58.5% drop (248 to 103 FPS); High sees a 58.7% drop (225 to 93 FPS); and Ultra sees a 59.0% drop (144 to 59 FPS). This remarkable consistency — all around 58-59% — indicates that the GPU's workload scales nearly linearly with pixel count, and the CPU is not introducing any non-linear bottlenecks.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 211-285 FPS (a 74 FPS spread); at 1440p, it's 146-198 FPS (a 52 FPS spread); and at 4K, it's 87-118 FPS (a 31 FPS spread). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that GPU-bound scenarios produce more consistent frame times, whereas CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p introduce more variance.

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

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. Starting with 1080p, the data shows that even Ultra settings (144 FPS) provide an excellent experience for high-refresh-rate monitors. If the display is 144 Hz, Ultra is the clear choice — it delivers exactly 144 FPS average, which matches the refresh rate perfectly. For 240 Hz displays, High settings (225 FPS) are recommended, as they provide the frame rate headroom needed to effectively use such a fast panel. Low settings (316 FPS) offer no practical benefit over High unless the player has a 300+ Hz display, which is rare.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts. Ultra (100 FPS) is still smooth and suitable for 100 Hz or 120 Hz displays, but High (156 FPS) is a better choice for 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors. The jump from High to Ultra costs 56 FPS (a 35.9% reduction), which is a substantial visual-to-performance trade. Medium (172 FPS) is nearly indistinguishable from High in most games and offers even more headroom, but High is the sweet spot for 1440p given the measured data.

For 4K, the choices are more constrained. Ultra (59 FPS) is only slightly below the 60 FPS target, and while it may experience occasional dips (the Medium min of 87 FPS suggests Ultra's min could be around 50-55 FPS), it's borderline playable. High (93 FPS) is the recommended preset for 4K, as it provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS with minimal visual compromise. Medium (103 FPS) is also viable, but the difference between Medium and High in Greedfall's visual quality is more noticeable than the 10 FPS difference might suggest. Low (131 FPS) is unnecessary at 4K unless the player prioritizes maximum frame rate over all visual fidelity.

The best experience across all resolutions, based on the measured rows, is High settings. At 1080p High (225 FPS), 1440p High (156 FPS), and 4K High (93 FPS), the combo delivers frame rates that are either above or comfortably near the refresh rates of most monitors. The Medium preset is a close second, with only slightly lower averages but tighter min FPS at 4K (87 vs unknown for High). For players who want to maximize visual quality without sacrificing smoothness, High is the data-backed recommendation; for those with 4K 120 Hz displays, dropping to Medium (103 FPS) might be the better trade-off to hit the higher refresh rate.