Greedfall

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a compelling 1080p experience in Greedfall, but the data reveals a predictable shift in bottlenecks as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 268 FPS, a figure so high that it suggests the CPU is doing the heavy lifting to feed the GPU. By the time resolution scales to 4K, the frame rate drops to a still-playable 77 FPS on High settings, indicating the graphics card is now the primary constraint. This pattern is typical of a high-refresh-rate build where the GPU’s workload becomes the limiting factor at higher pixel counts.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent decline as resolution increases, which is expected given the increased pixel throughput required. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 268 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that figure to 186.4 FPS, a 30% reduction. Scaling further to 4K Low yields 110.9 FPS, which is 59% lower than the 1080p result. This steep drop-off—nearly two-thirds of the performance lost from 1080p to 4K—strongly implies that the RX 7900 XT’s rendering capacity is the limiting component at higher resolutions.

The trend holds across all settings presets. At 1080p High, the system achieves 189.1 FPS, while 1440p High delivers 132.6 FPS (a 30% decrease), and 4K High falls to 77 FPS (a 59% decrease from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops—roughly 30% from 1080p to 1440p and another 40% from 1440p to 4K—suggests a uniform scaling behavior tied to pixel count rather than a sudden architectural stall. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the 1080p-to-1440p delta would likely be smaller, as the CPU would still be able to feed frames faster than the GPU could render them.

Notably, the jump from 1440p to 4K on Ultra settings is particularly harsh, with FPS falling from 86.5 to 48.1, a 44% drop. This indicates that the Ultra preset’s additional visual effects, likely including higher-quality shadows and post-processing, disproportionately tax the GPU at 4K. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, users will need to dial back settings to Medium or High to maintain fluid motion, as the Ultra preset dips below the 60 FPS threshold.

GPU Role

The RX 7900 XT’s specifications explain much of its behavior in Greedfall. With 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, providing 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has ample headroom for high-resolution textures, which is likely why the 4K High preset still manages 77 FPS. The GPU’s boost clock of 2394 MHz and game clock of 2025 MHz, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with 5376 shading units, deliver the raw compute needed for this 2019 title, which is not exceptionally demanding by modern standards.

The card’s 192 ROPs and 336 TMUs contribute to a pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s. These figures align with the observed scaling: at 4K, the pixel rate becomes the limiting factor, as the card must fill over 8 million pixels per frame. The fact that 4K Ultra drops to 48.1 FPS suggests that the Ultra preset’s effects push the GPU’s shading units and ROPs to their limit. In contrast, the 1080p results, where the GPU is less stressed, show the card can easily exceed 200 FPS, confirming that the CPU is not holding it back at lower resolutions.

Interestingly, the GPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 38358. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile, scores 38349, a delta of 0%, meaning the RX 7900 XT is essentially tied with that mobile part in synthetic tests. However, in Greedfall, the desktop card’s 20 GB of VRAM and higher power envelope (300 W) likely give it an edge in sustained gaming workloads, though the data does not directly compare these two in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

In the cumulative database of tested combinations, this particular pairing of the Ryzen 7 9700X and RX 7900 XT ranks 371st out of 1705 combos for Greedfall. That places it in the top 22% of all systems tested, which is a strong showing for a mid-to-high-end desktop configuration. The rank suggests that while this combo is not at the absolute top tier—where more expensive GPUs like the RTX 4090 or faster CPUs might dominate—it outperforms the vast majority of systems.

The CPU’s own percentile ranking is 89th out of all CPUs, indicating it is a very strong processor, but its nearest rivals in average benchmark score are interesting. The Intel Core i5-14500HX scores 35940, just 0.2% higher than the Ryzen 7 9700X’s 36029. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 scores 35802, 0.6% lower. This tells us the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo’s Greedfall rank; rather, the GPU’s 82nd percentile position is likely the limiting factor. If the combo rank were driven primarily by the CPU, we would expect a higher overall placement given the CPU’s 89th percentile status.

The gap between the CPU’s strong 89th percentile and the GPU’s 82nd percentile, combined with the 371st combo rank, suggests that Greedfall is more GPU-bound than CPU-bound. This is corroborated by the resolution scaling data, where the FPS drops consistently with increased pixel count. For users with this combo, upgrading the GPU would yield a more significant improvement in Greedfall than upgrading the CPU, assuming the CPU can keep up at 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 268 FPS on Low, 209.4 FPS on Medium, 189.1 FPS on High, and 123.5 FPS on Ultra. This spread of 144.5 FPS between Low and Ultra shows that the Ultra preset imposes a significant performance penalty, likely due to advanced lighting and shadow effects. Even at Ultra, 123.5 FPS is well above the 60 FPS threshold, making 1080p Ultra a viable option for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 2560x1440, the scores are 186.4 FPS (Low), 148.1 FPS (Medium), 132.6 FPS (High), and 86.5 FPS (Ultra). The drop from High to Ultra here is 46.1 FPS, or 35%, which is more pronounced than the 34.8% drop at 1080p. This suggests that the Ultra preset’s effects scale poorly with resolution, taxing the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading units more heavily at 1440p. However, all presets except Ultra remain above 100 FPS, indicating that 1440p High is a sweet spot for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the results are 110.9 FPS (Low), 88.4 FPS (Medium), 77 FPS (High), and 48.1 FPS (Ultra). The Ultra preset is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, making it unsuitable for 4K gaming on this setup. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 62.8 FPS, a 57% reduction, which is the largest percentage drop across all resolutions. This indicates that 4K Ultra is simply too demanding for the RX 7900 XT in this title, as the card’s pixel rate and memory bandwidth become overwhelmed.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p, the Ultra preset at 123.5 FPS is the best choice for users with 120Hz or higher monitors, as it delivers the highest visual quality without sacrificing smoothness. For those with 144Hz displays, High at 189.1 FPS provides a substantial headroom, allowing for consistent frame times even during intense combat sequences.

At 1440p, High settings at 132.6 FPS offer the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, easily supporting 120Hz displays. The Medium preset at 148.1 FPS is also viable for those who prioritize frame rate over graphics, but the visual difference between Medium and High is typically noticeable in Greedfall’s detailed environments. The Ultra preset at 86.5 FPS is playable on 60Hz displays but falls short of 100 FPS, so it is only recommended for users with standard 60Hz monitors.

For 4K, the data clearly indicates that High settings at 77 FPS are the maximum playable configuration, as Ultra drops to 48.1 FPS. Medium at 88.4 FPS is also a strong candidate for 4K, offering a 15% performance increase over High while likely sacrificing some shadow quality. The Low preset at 110.9 FPS is unnecessary unless the user has a 100Hz+ 4K monitor, which is rare. In summary, 1080p Ultra, 1440p High, and 4K High are the recommended presets for this combo.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest FPS this combo can achieve in Greedfall?

A: The highest measured FPS is 268, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this combo run Greedfall at 4K Ultra smoothly?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 48.1, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X scores 36029 in average benchmark scores, while the Intel Core i5-14500HX scores 35940, a delta of 0.2%. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 scores 35802, a delta of 0.6%.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth, and how does it relate to 4K performance?

A: The RX 7900 XT has 800.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth from its 320-bit bus and 20 GB of GDDR6. This bandwidth is sufficient for 4K High (77 FPS) but not for 4K Ultra (48.1 FPS), suggesting the Ultra preset exceeds the memory subsystem’s effective throughput.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Greedfall?

A: This combo ranks 371st out of 1705 tested combinations, placing it in the top 22% of all systems for this game.

Q: At which resolution does the FPS drop below 60 for the first time?

A: The only configuration where FPS drops below 60 is at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which averages 48.1 FPS. All other resolution and settings combinations remain above 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, plays a supporting role in Greedfall’s performance, as the resolution scaling data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.50 GHz and base clock of 3.80 GHz, built on the Zen 5 architecture with a 4 nm process, provide strong single-threaded performance, which is crucial for this game’s CPU-bound scenes. Its 3DMark single-thread score of 1280 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4459 suggest it can handle the game’s AI and physics calculations without becoming a limiting factor at 1080p.

The CPU’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for open-world games like Greedfall that require frequent data access. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support, with 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth, ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without stalling. In synthetic tests, the CPU’s 3DMark max-thread score of 9771 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 31588 indicate it can handle multi-threaded workloads, but Greedfall does not appear to be heavily multi-threaded, as the 1080p-to-1440p FPS drop is consistent with GPU limitation.

The CPU’s 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36029, puts it slightly ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (36165, -0.4% delta) and behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 225H (36328, -0.8% delta). However, in Greedfall, the CPU’s role is not to maximize frame rate but to maintain a stable minimum frame rate during complex scenes. The data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would be most stressed, the combo achieves 268 FPS, indicating the CPU is never the limiting factor. This suggests that users could pair this CPU with a faster GPU for even higher frame rates, as the 9700X has headroom to keep up with more powerful graphics cards.