Greedfall

# Greedfall with AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a playable Greedfall experience across most settings, with the data showing a clear performance hierarchy that favors lower presets at higher resolutions. The combo ranks 1672 out of 2938 tested combinations, placing it in the 43rd percentile of all tested systems for this title. With an 8-core, 16-thread Zen 5 processor running at a 4.70 GHz base and 5.60 GHz boost clock, the CPU side is exceptionally strong, while the RTX 2070 SUPER with 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus represents the more limiting factor in this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate across all three resolutions tested. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 131 FPS, which is 12 frames higher than High and 55 frames above Ultra, while maintaining a minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 151 FPS. This consistency suggests that Medium avoids the frame-time spikes that can occur at higher settings. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Even at 3840x2160, Medium produces 54 FPS average with a 46 FPS minimum, making it the only preset besides Low that stays within a reasonable playability range at 4K.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, Ultra is the worst choice in this configuration. The data shows Ultra averages just 76 FPS at 1080p, 53 FPS at 1440p, and only 31 FPS at 4K. These figures represent a dramatic drop from Medium—a 42% reduction at 1080p, 42% at 1440p, and 43% at 4K. The High preset sits between Medium and Ultra, offering 119 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 49 FPS at 4K. While High is playable at 1080p and 1440p, the 4K result falls below the 60 FPS mark that many players target.

Low settings offer the highest frame rates but come with significant visual compromises. At 1080p, Low achieves 167 FPS, which is 36 frames above Medium, while at 1440p it reaches 116 FPS and at 4K it still manages 69 FPS. The Low preset at 4K is the only way to exceed 60 FPS at that resolution with this hardware. Given the data, the recommended approach is to use Medium for 1080p and 1440p gaming, and either Medium or Low for 4K depending on whether frame rate or visual quality takes priority. The 46 FPS minimum at 4K Medium is borderline but acceptable for slower-paced action RPG gameplay.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Greedfall at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at Medium or Low settings. The data shows 54 FPS average at 4K Medium and 69 FPS at 4K Low. The High preset drops to 49 FPS, while Ultra falls to 31 FPS, which is not comfortably playable.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9850X3D's CPU performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9850X3D has an average benchmark score of 58386, placing it 0.1% above the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M, 0.5% above the Intel Core i9-14900, 0.2% below the Intel Xeon w5-2545, and 0.7% below the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470. It sits in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the average FPS is 119, while at 1440p High it drops to 83. This represents a 30% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 1440p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more stressed at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER a bottleneck for this CPU in Greedfall?

A: Yes, the evidence strongly suggests so. The CPU is in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. The frame rate drops of 30-43% when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and further reductions at 4K, indicate that the GPU's rendering capacity is the limiting factor rather than CPU processing.

Q: How much does the Ultra preset cost in performance compared to High?

A: The data shows Ultra is significantly more demanding. At 1080p, Ultra averages 76 FPS versus 119 FPS for High, a 36% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra averages 53 FPS versus 83 FPS, a 36% reduction. At 4K, Ultra averages 31 FPS versus 49 FPS, a 37% reduction.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS values recorded at Medium settings?

A: The measured data includes min/max values only for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 112 FPS and maximum is 151 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 77 FPS and maximum is 105 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 46 FPS and maximum is 63 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 119 to 83, a 30% decrease. The pixel count increases by 78% when moving from 1080p to 1440p, so the 30% FPS reduction is less than proportional, suggesting some headroom in the GPU's memory bandwidth or shading capacity at 1440p. However, when moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings, the average drops from 83 to 49 FPS, a 41% reduction, while the pixel count doubles from 3.7 million to 8.3 million. This steeper decline indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are increasingly saturated as resolution climbs.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern is similar but with higher absolute values. The 1080p Low result of 167 FPS drops to 116 FPS at 1440p (31% reduction) and then to 69 FPS at 4K (41% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings—roughly 30% for the first resolution step and 40% for the second—confirms that the GPU is the dominant limiting component regardless of quality preset. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences at lower settings where the GPU has less work to do, but the data shows the opposite: the absolute FPS gap between Low and Medium remains relatively stable across resolutions, indicating the GPU's rendering pipeline is the constraint.

The 4K Medium result of 54 FPS with a 46 FPS minimum suggests that the combination of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D's strong single-thread performance (2228 in Cinebench R23 single-core) and the GPU's 8 GB frame buffer is sufficient to avoid severe stuttering, but there is no headroom for higher settings. The 4K Ultra result of 31 FPS represents a 43% drop from 4K Medium, which is the largest percentage drop between any adjacent settings at any resolution. This indicates that Ultra settings introduce rendering features that disproportionately tax the TU104 chip's 64 ROPs and 160 TMUs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1672 out of 2938 tested combinations in Greedfall, placing it in the 56.9th percentile of all tested systems. This rank reflects the significant GPU bottleneck, as the CPU alone sits in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs while the GPU is in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. The ranking suggests that many systems with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs outperform this combo in Greedfall, which is consistent with the game being primarily GPU-limited as shown by the resolution scaling data.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database—the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, Intel Arc B570, and Intel Arc A750—all have average benchmark scores within 1.5% of the RTX 2070 SUPER. The RTX 2070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 20282 is 1% below the Quadro M4000M, 1.2% below the RTX 3070 Mobile, 1.3% below the Arc B570, and 1.5% below the Arc A750. These close margins indicate that the GPU is near the middle of its performance tier, and Greedfall's frame rates reflect this positioning.

The combo rank of 1672 out of 2938 means there are 1266 tested combinations that score worse and 1671 that score better in this specific game. Given that the CPU is in the top 8% of all CPUs and the GPU is in the 35th percentile of all GPUs, the lowish combo rank is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's performance ceiling. Players with this combo should understand that upgrading the GPU would yield substantial gains in Greedfall, while a CPU upgrade would provide minimal benefit.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a Zen 5 (Granite Ridge) processor built on TSMC's 4 nm process, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads. Its 4.70 GHz base clock and 5.60 GHz boost clock provide excellent single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2228 and Passmark single-thread score of 4704. The processor includes 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is substantial for gaming workloads, and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel configuration delivering 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that it is a top-tier processor by any measure.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls, game logic, and physics calculations. The measured FPS data shows that this CPU is more than capable of handling the game's demands at any resolution. The fact that frame rates drop consistently by 30-43% when moving between resolutions, regardless of settings, proves that the CPU is not the bottleneck—if it were, we would see similar FPS values at 1080p and 1440p when the GPU has less work to do. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D's Passmark multithread score of 41318 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22807 ensure that even the most demanding scenes in Greedfall, which may involve multiple NPCs and physics interactions, are processed without CPU-side frame drops.

The CPU's nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i9-14900 and Intel Xeon w5-2545, all have average benchmark scores within 0.7% of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, confirming that it is at the top of its performance class. However, the Greedfall results demonstrate that this CPU's power is largely wasted in this particular title at higher resolutions, as the GPU cannot keep up. At 1080p Low, the 167 FPS result shows the CPU's ability to drive high frame rates, but even at 1080p Ultra (76 FPS), the CPU is likely still not the limiting factor given its massive single-thread advantage.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings was tested. Low averages 167 FPS, Medium averages 131 FPS with a 112 FPS minimum and 151 FPS maximum, High averages 119 FPS, and Ultra averages 76 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 12 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 43 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings impose a heavy rendering cost. The 1080p results show that all settings except Ultra are well above the 60 FPS threshold, and even Ultra remains playable.

At 2560x1440, the scores drop proportionally. Low averages 116 FPS, Medium averages 91 FPS with a 77 FPS minimum and 105 FPS maximum, High averages 83 FPS, and Ultra averages 53 FPS. The Medium result remains above 60 FPS average, making it the recommended preset for 1440p. The Ultra result of 53 FPS is borderline, and the 77 FPS minimum at Medium suggests that even demanding scenes stay within acceptable frame times.

At 3840x2160, the results show the GPU's limits. Low averages 69 FPS, Medium averages 54 FPS with a 46 FPS minimum and 63 FPS maximum, High averages 49 FPS, and Ultra averages 31 FPS. Only Low exceeds 60 FPS, and Medium is the only other preset that maintains an average above 50 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 31 FPS is below the 30 FPS threshold that some players consider the absolute minimum for playability, making it effectively unusable. The 4K Medium minimum of 46 FPS indicates that even in the most demanding scenes, the game remains responsive enough for the slower combat and exploration in Greedfall.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU built on TSMC's 12 nm process, featuring 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It operates at a 1605 MHz base clock and 1770 MHz boost clock, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 40 RT cores provide solid rasterization performance for a 2019-era card, but its 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs positions it as a mid-range performer by current standards.

The Greedfall data clearly shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the limiting component in this combo. The 30-43% FPS drops between resolution steps, the large performance penalty for Ultra settings (36-37% reduction from High), and the sub-60 FPS results at 4K for all settings except Low all point to GPU saturation. The GPU's 8 GB memory capacity is sufficient for Greedfall at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K with High or Ultra settings, the memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s becomes a constraint. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651 and Passmark G3D score of 18169 reflect the GPU's overall capability, which is adequate for 1080p gaming at high settings and 1440p at medium settings in this title.

The RTX 2070 SUPER's nearest rivals—the Quadro M4000M, RTX 3070 Mobile, Arc B570, and Arc A750—all score within 1.5% in average benchmarks, confirming that this GPU sits in a well-populated performance tier. In Greedfall specifically, the measured results suggest that the GPU's 64 ROPs are a particular limitation at higher resolutions, as the pixel fill rate of 113.3 GPixel/s is strained when rendering to 4K displays. The 283.2 GTexel/s texture rate and 9.062 TFLOPS FP32 also contribute to the performance drops seen when moving from Medium to High to Ultra, as each quality level adds more shading and texture work that the GPU must complete within each frame budget.