Greedfall

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination delivers a solid, high-refresh-rate experience in Greedfall, though the data reveals a clear hierarchy in how resolution and settings interact. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 204.2 FPS, demonstrating a substantial performance ceiling. This drops to 148.9 FPS at High settings, and further to 93.6 FPS at Ultra, showing that the game’s visual presets have a significant impact on the frame rate even at the lowest resolution tested. The pattern holds across resolutions, with the RTX 3070’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus proving adequate for the game’s demands, though the scaling from 1440p to 4K becomes steep.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 and finally to 3840x2160 tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 148.9 FPS at 1080p to 102.6 FPS at 1440p—a drop of roughly 31%—and then to 59.9 FPS at 4K, a further 42% reduction. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 3070, with its 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, becomes the limiting factor as pixel count rises. The CPU, a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 5 part with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, has ample headroom at lower resolutions, but the GPU’s workload scales linearly with resolution.

The data shows a similar pattern for other settings. At Low, the frame rate drops from 204.2 FPS at 1080p to 142.5 FPS at 1440p, then to 85.8 FPS at 4K. This consistent ~40-50% drop from 1440p to 4K across all presets suggests that the GPU is the primary constraint, as the CPU’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and high single-thread performance (3,603 in Cinebench R23 single-core) are more than sufficient for Greedfall's engine. The Ultra preset, however, is particularly punishing: it delivers 93.6 FPS at 1080p, 65.3 FPS at 1440p, and just 36.9 FPS at 4K. The latter figure is below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that 4K Ultra is not a playable option for this combo, while 4K High is borderline playable at 59.9 FPS.

Interestingly, the performance delta between Medium and High is relatively small. At 1080p, Medium yields 162 FPS versus High’s 148.9 FPS, a difference of about 8%. At 1440p, the gap narrows to 102.6 FPS (High) versus 111.8 FPS (Medium), roughly a 9% improvement. This suggests that the High preset is not significantly more demanding than Medium, making it a sensible default choice for most users.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a 60 FPS average?

A: The data shows that 4K High averages 59.9 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS target. For a comfortable margin, 1440p High delivers 102.6 FPS, and even 4K Medium achieves 69 FPS. The 1080p High preset offers the highest frame rate above 60 FPS at 148.9 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of performance?

A: The Ultra preset is significantly more demanding. At 1080p, Ultra averages 93.6 FPS versus 148.9 FPS for High—a 37% reduction. At 4K, Ultra drops to 36.9 FPS versus 59.9 FPS for High, making Ultra unsuitable for 4K play.

Q: Is the RTX 3070 the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 204.2 FPS, indicating the CPU and GPU are well-balanced. The Ryzen 5 9600X’s high boost clock of 5.40 GHz and single-thread performance (1,513 in Cinebench R20 single-core) allow the GPU to stretch its legs.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Medium settings?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 204.2 FPS while Medium averages 162 FPS, a 26% difference. At 4K, Low hits 85.8 FPS while Medium drops to 69 FPS, a 24% difference. The gap is consistent across resolutions.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested configurations?

A: The combination ranks 774th out of 1,705 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the upper half of all configurations. This is a strong result given the GPU’s 72nd percentile ranking among all GPUs.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, it averages 59.9 FPS, which is playable but close to the edge. The 4K Medium preset provides a safer 69 FPS average, while 4K Ultra is not recommended at 36.9 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X plays a supporting role in Greedfall, but its performance characteristics are crucial to avoiding bottlenecks. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), the CPU has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 25,525 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,603 in single-core, placing it in the 85th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-13490F, scores 28,173 on average, a delta of just 0.3%—essentially a tie. The AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS is also within 0.4% (28,369 average), showing that the 9600X is competitive with a wide range of chips.

For Greedfall, the CPU’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s of DDR5 memory bandwidth are more than enough to feed the RTX 3070, especially at lower resolutions. The fact that the frame rate scales so heavily with resolution—from 204.2 FPS at 1080p Low to 85.8 FPS at 4K Low—confirms that the GPU is the limiting component, not the CPU. The 9600X’s high single-thread performance (3,603 in Cinebench R23) is particularly relevant, as Greedfall is an Action RPG that likely relies on a few primary threads for game logic and AI. The data shows no CPU-related frame rate cliffs; the system scales predictably from Low to Ultra settings, which would not be the case if the CPU were struggling.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the High preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combination. At 1080p, High delivers 148.9 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate many monitors support. At 1440p, High still provides 102.6 FPS, ideal for high-refresh-rate QHD panels. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, costs a significant amount of performance: at 1440p, it drops to 65.3 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 36.9 FPS. The Medium preset is a viable fallback for 4K, offering 69 FPS, but High at 4K (59.9 FPS) is borderline.

For users prioritizing frame rate over visuals, Low at 1080p (204.2 FPS) or 1440p (142.5 FPS) is the choice, but the jump from Low to Medium is relatively modest in cost (26% at 1080p) while likely providing a substantial visual upgrade. The sweet spot for most players is High at 1440p, which offers a 102.6 FPS average without sacrificing much in terms of graphical quality. At 4K, High is playable but not ideal; Medium is the safer recommendation for a smoother experience.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global context of tested hardware combinations for Greedfall, this pairing of the Ryzen 5 9600X and RTX 3070 ranks 774th out of 1,705 configurations. This places it in the 55th percentile of all combos, which is respectable given that the list includes many higher-end GPUs. The ranking is a reflection of the RTX 3070’s position in the GPU hierarchy—it sits in the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28,238. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, scores 27,985, a delta of 0.9%, meaning the RTX 3070 is slightly faster. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti is 1% behind (27,956), while the AMD FirePro S7150 is 0.6% ahead (28,409).

The CPU’s ranking reinforces this picture. The 9600X’s average benchmark score of 28,246 places it in the 85th percentile, with rivals like the Intel Core i5-14500T (28,377, -0.5%) and AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (28,369, -0.4%) being slightly faster. This combination of a top-15% CPU and a top-28% GPU yields a strong overall result for Greedfall, though the game’s GPU-intensive nature means the graphics card dictates the final ranking. The 774th position out of 1,705 combos suggests that while this is not a top-tier enthusiast setup, it outperforms a majority of tested systems, delivering smooth gameplay at 1080p and 1440p, with acceptable 4K performance on High settings.