Greedfall

Greedfall on the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and Intel Arc B370 combination is a study in severe hardware limitation. The data shows a configuration that struggles to maintain playable frame rates, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck across all tested resolutions and settings. The Arc B370's benchmark percentile of 5 indicates it performs worse than 95% of all GPUs in the database, and the measured results in Greedfall confirm this, making the system usable only at the lowest settings and resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals a GPU that is completely overwhelmed by higher pixel counts. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 54 at 1920x1080 to 38 at 2560x1440, and finally to 22 at 3840x2160. This represents a 30% decrease when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 42% decrease when moving from 1440p to 4K. The performance curve is steep, indicating that the Intel Arc B370's rendering capabilities are exhausted quickly as resolution increases.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 60 at 1080p to 41 at 1440p (a 32% reduction) and then to 25 at 4K (a 39% reduction). Even at Low settings, where the GPU workload is lightest, the average FPS still falls from 76 at 1080p to 53 at 1440p and 31 at 4K. The fact that even the lowest settings cannot maintain playable performance at 4K—31 FPS is below the 60 FPS target—confirms that the GPU, not the CPU, is the limiting factor.

The resolution scaling data suggests a classic GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively stable across resolutions, as the CPU workload does not scale with pixel count. Instead, the steep drops in FPS at higher resolutions point directly to the Arc B370's limited pixel throughput. Its pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are simply insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering in Greedfall.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the definitive bottleneck in this configuration. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are legacy parts like the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (score 1190, 0.5% faster) and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (score 1186, 0.2% faster). This is a GPU that is only marginally faster than hardware from over a decade ago, which explains the consistently low frame rates in Greedfall.

The GPU's architecture is Xe3-LPG, built on Intel's 3 nm process, with a boost clock of 2400 MHz and a base clock of 300 MHz. It has 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output units. These specifications translate to a raw compute throughput of 6.144 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. While these numbers sound respectable on paper, the GPU's memory configuration is its Achilles' heel: it uses System Shared memory, meaning it relies on the CPU's DDR4 RAM rather than dedicated VRAM. This system-dependent memory bandwidth is a major limitation, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory access.

The impact of this shared memory architecture is evident in the frame time consistency. At Medium settings, the minimum FPS figures are significantly lower than the averages: 51 min vs 60 avg at 1080p, 35 min vs 41 avg at 1440p, and 21 min vs 25 avg at 4K. These dips suggest that memory bandwidth contention causes stutter, particularly when the GPU needs to fetch texture data from system memory. The 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth of the Ryzen 7 3700X is shared, and the Arc B370's demands clearly strain this resource.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Greedfall at a consistent 60 FPS at any resolution?

A: No. The data shows the highest average FPS is 76 at 1080p Low settings, but even this preset does not have a recorded minimum FPS. The closest to 60 FPS is the 1080p Medium preset with an average of 60 FPS, but its minimum of 51 FPS indicates it drops below the target.

Q: What is the best performance this combination can achieve?

A: The best average frame rate is 76 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that exceeds 70 FPS, and it represents the peak of this hardware's capability in Greedfall.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. It is 0.2% slower than the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (score 1186) and 0.5% slower than the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (score 1190). It outperforms the AMD FirePro M2000 (score 1168) by 1.4%.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 3700X holding back performance in Greedfall?

A: No. The benchmark data shows the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU's multi-core performance is strong, and the steep frame rate drops with increasing resolution are characteristic of a GPU bottleneck, not a CPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 1440p Medium settings?

A: The minimum FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings is 35 FPS, with an average of 41 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS. This shows significant frame time variance.

Q: What settings are required for a playable experience at 1080p?

A: According to the data, Medium settings at 1920x1080 provide an average of 60 FPS, but with a minimum of 51 FPS. Low settings at the same resolution push the average to 76 FPS, offering a more comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system performs best, but the results are mixed. With Low settings, the average FPS is 76, making it the only preset that clears the 60 FPS target with significant headroom. Medium settings produce an average of 60 FPS, with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS, indicating that while the average is adequate, there are dips below the 60 FPS line. High settings drop the average to 54 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. Ultra settings are the worst at this resolution, with an average of just 35 FPS, a score that is barely playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance degrades noticeably. Low settings yield an average of 53 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard but still within a tolerable range for some players. Medium settings average 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS, showing a wide variance that would be noticeable during gameplay. High settings average 38 FPS, which is starting to feel sluggish. Ultra settings at 1440p are nearly unplayable, with an average of 24 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system is effectively out of its depth. Low settings produce an average of 31 FPS, which is below playable thresholds. Medium settings average 25 FPS, with a minimum of 21 FPS and a maximum of 28 FPS, indicating consistent sub-30 FPS performance. High settings drop to 22 FPS, and Ultra settings are a slideshow at 14 FPS. No 4K preset achieves even 35 FPS, confirming that 4K is not a viable option for this hardware.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is a capable processor that is not the limiting factor in Greedfall. This 8-core, 16-thread CPU based on the Zen 2 architecture (Matisse) has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores are strong across the board: a Cinebench R15 multi-core score of 2092, a Geekbench multi-core score of 8899, and a Passmark multi-thread score of 22458. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it outperforms 84% of processors in the database, a stark contrast to the GPU's 5th percentile ranking.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database, based on average score, are the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (0.1% faster), the AMD EPYC 4244P (0.1% faster), and the Intel Core i5-13450HX (0.2% slower). The 3700X's strong multi-threaded performance, evidenced by its 32 MB of L3 cache and 3,800 million transistors, ensures that it can feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic data without becoming a bottleneck.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI, and physics, while the GPU renders the scene. The data shows that frame rates drop significantly when resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect similar frame rates across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Instead, the frame rates drop by roughly 30-40% with each resolution step up, which aligns with the GPU's inability to process more pixels. The CPU is essentially idle waiting for the GPU to catch up, making the Arc B370 the sole performance bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

For this hardware combination, the only viable settings for a smooth experience are at 1920x1080 with Low or Medium presets. The data shows that Low settings deliver an average of 76 FPS, which is the highest score across all measured rows. This preset provides the best performance headroom and is the recommended starting point for any player using this configuration. If visual quality is a priority, Medium settings at 1080p offer an average of 60 FPS, but the minimum of 51 FPS indicates that players will experience occasional dips below the 60 FPS line, which could be distracting in combat or cutscenes.

At 2560x1440, the situation is more challenging. Low settings average 53 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Medium settings at 1440p average 41 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard and would likely feel less responsive. The minimum FPS of 35 at this setting suggests noticeable stutter during intense scenes. For players who must use 1440p, Low settings are the only reasonable choice, but the experience will still be suboptimal compared to 1080p.

At 3840x2160, no preset is recommended. The highest average FPS at 4K is 31 on Low settings, which is below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider the absolute minimum for playability, and even that is a borderline experience. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 14 FPS, which is unplayable. Based on the measured data, the best experience for this system is unequivocally 1080p with Low settings. This preset provides the most stable performance and the highest average frame rate, making it the only configuration that delivers a consistently smooth experience in Greedfall.