Greedfall

The pairing of AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER in Greedfall offers a clear study in bottleneck dynamics. The data shows a processor with top-tier synthetic muscle—scoring 34,004 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4,800 in single-core—paired with a graphics card that, while competent, sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs. Across the twelve measured configurations, the RTX 2070 SUPER consistently dictates the frame rate ceiling, though the CPU’s strength ensures that even the heaviest settings remain playable at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is firmly GPU-limited at every step. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 165.2 FPS; stepping down to 2560x1440 Low yields 117.3 FPS, and 4K Low drops to 70.1 FPS. This scaling pattern—a 29% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 40% reduction from 1440p to 4K—indicates that the graphics card’s pixel throughput is the primary constraint. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are being pushed hard as resolution climbs.

The High preset tells a similar story but with steeper cliffs. At 1080p High, the combo hits 117.6 FPS, which falls to 80.4 FPS at 1440p and then to 49.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is particularly telling: it sits just below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that the GPU’s 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is insufficient for a locked experience at that resolution. Ultra settings exacerbate this further—35 FPS at 4K is the lowest measured result, a 53% drop from the 74.4 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra.

What the scaling data does not show is any meaningful CPU-induced plateau. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s 16 threads and 96 MB of shared L3 cache are more than adequate for Greedfall’s engine; even at 1080p Low, where CPU overhead is typically highest, the 165.2 FPS result is well above what the GPU alone could sustain. The conclusion is straightforward: this is a graphics-bound configuration, and resolution changes have a predictable, linear impact on performance.

FAQ

Q: Why is the 4K Ultra frame rate so much lower than 1080p Low?

A: The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS versus 1080p Low’s 165.2 FPS reflects a 79% performance drop. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s 256-bit memory bus and 8 GB VRAM are saturated by 3840x2160 Ultra settings, while the CPU’s compute advantage becomes irrelevant once the GPU is fully loaded.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 9800X3D holding back the RTX 2070 SUPER at 1080p?

A: No. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,800 and multi-core score of 34,004 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU should be least stressed, the 165.2 FPS result indicates no measurable CPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the best resolution for a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: At High settings, 1440p delivers 80.4 FPS, which comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. At 4K High, the average drops to 49.1 FPS, so 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo if aiming for a consistent 60 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in the database?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 22,206 is within 0.5% of the NVIDIA RTX A400 (22,307) and 2.3% below the RTX 4060 Mobile (22,729). It outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (21,670) by 2.5%.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The data suggests yes. The 4K High result (49.1 FPS) and 4K Ultra result (35 FPS) are both below 60 FPS, likely due to VRAM capacity and bandwidth constraints. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a limiting factor at 3840x2160.

Q: How does the CPU’s 3DMark score relate to gaming performance?

A: The Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s 3DMark 16-thread score of 10,081 and single-thread score of 1,212 indicate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities. In Greedfall, this translates to consistent frame pacing, as the CPU never appears to be the limiting component.

GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER is the definitive performance arbiter in this pairing. Its base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, combined with 2,560 shading units and 64 ROPs, provide the raw throughput that Greedfall demands. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,651 and PassMark G3D score of 18,169 place it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, confirming its mid-range standing in 2024.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus yields 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This proves adequate for 1080p and 1440p, where the measured FPS remains above 51.3 even at Ultra settings. At 4K, however, the memory subsystem becomes a bottleneck: the 4K Medium result of 55.5 FPS is only 21% higher than the 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS, indicating that texture and geometry loads at that resolution are already exceeding what the 8 GB frame buffer can efficiently handle.

The GPU’s Turing architecture, with 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, does not appear to provide any tangible benefit in Greedfall, as the game predates widespread ray tracing adoption. The FP32 throughput of 9.062 TFLOPS is the key metric here, and it scales predictably with resolution. At 1080p High, the GPU produces 117.6 FPS; at 1440p High, 80.4 FPS; at 4K High, 49.1 FPS. These numbers align closely with pixel-count ratios, confirming that the GPU’s compute units, not the CPU, are the limiting factor.

The RTX 2070 SUPER’s nearest rivals in the database—the RTX A400 (delta -0.5%), GTX TITAN Z (delta +0.9%), RTX 4060 Mobile (delta -2.3%), and RX 5700 (delta +2.5%)—all fall within a narrow performance band. In practice, this means the 2070 SUPER’s Greedfall results are representative of its class, with no significant outliers that would suggest driver or architectural quirks.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 1,705 tested CPU-GPU combinations for Greedfall, this pairing ranks 1,056th. This places it in the lower-middle tier of the database, which is consistent with the GPU’s aging hardware profile. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a modern, high-end processor—its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 34,004 is within 0.1% of the Intel Xeon 6353P (37,811) and 0.7% of the Core i5-13600KF (38,028)—but the RTX 2070 SUPER drags the overall rank down.

The rank of 1,056 out of 1,705 means that roughly 62% of tested combos outperform it. This is not a criticism of the CPU, which is clearly capable of driving far faster GPUs. Instead, it highlights the lopsided nature of this pairing. In a game like Greedfall, which is not particularly CPU-intensive, the 9800X3D’s advantages—such as its 96 MB L3 cache—provide diminishing returns when the GPU is the bottleneck.

The data suggests that this combo would rank significantly higher with a more modern GPU. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s PassMark G3D score of 18,169 is its weakest benchmark relative to the CPU’s 90th percentile standing. For users with this processor, upgrading the graphics card would yield disproportionate gains in Greedfall, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed a faster GPU without becoming a constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides twelve data points spanning three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low 165.2 FPS, Medium 131.2 FPS, High 117.6 FPS, and Ultra 74.4 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra (43.2 FPS) is the largest preset-to-preset delta in the entire dataset, indicating that Ultra settings introduce a significant rendering load that the GPU cannot fully absorb.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 117.3 FPS, Medium 90.5 FPS, High 80.4 FPS, and Ultra 51.3 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is nearly uniform across presets: Low drops by 29%, Medium by 31%, High by 32%, and Ultra by 31%. This consistency reinforces the GPU-bound nature of the configuration, as the relative performance penalty is identical regardless of settings.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 70.1 FPS, Medium 55.5 FPS, High 49.1 FPS, and Ultra 35 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only 4K configuration above 60 FPS, and it still represents a 58% drop from the 1080p Low result. The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS is the single lowest measurement, and it falls below the 4K Medium result by 20.5 FPS, showing that Ultra settings at 4K push the GPU past its practical limit.

The most notable anomaly is the 1080p Ultra result of 74.4 FPS, which is lower than the 1440p High result of 80.4 FPS. This is counterintuitive at first glance, but it suggests that Ultra settings at 1080p impose a heavier per-pixel cost than High settings at 1440p, likely due to increased texture filtering and shadow complexity. Similarly, the 1440p Medium result of 90.5 FPS exceeds the 1080p High result of 117.6 FPS by a wide margin, reinforcing that resolution alone does not dictate performance—the quality preset has an outsized impact.

In summary, the measured FPS data shows a system that is playable at 1080p and 1440p across all settings, but struggles at 4K beyond Low or Medium presets. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are the limiting factors, while the Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s 16 threads and 96 MB L3 cache ensure that the CPU never becomes a performance ceiling.