Greedfall

# Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured data for Greedfall with the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti shows a clear progression of frame rates as resolution climbs. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 133 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 92 FPS, a reduction of approximately 31%. Stepping up to 4K High yields 55 FPS, which is another 40% decline from 1440p. The scaling pattern is steep, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as pixel count rises.

At Low settings, the resolution scaling is even more dramatic. The 1080p Low result is 187 FPS, which falls to 130 FPS at 1440p Low, and then to 77 FPS at 4K Low. The 4K Low score is less than half of the 1080p Low score. This large drop at lower quality presets suggests that the rendering workload at 4K is substantial regardless of the visual complexity, pointing squarely at the graphics card as the bottleneck.

The Medium preset tells a similar story. At 1080p Medium, the average is 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 FPS and a maximum of 169 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 117 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. The consistent drop of roughly 30-40% at each resolution step reinforces that the GPU's rendering throughput is the limiting factor.

Ultra settings show the most severe scaling. The 1080p Ultra average is 85 FPS, which drops to 59 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and then plummets to 35 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is only 41% of the 1080p Ultra performance. This steep decline at the highest preset indicates that the combination of high resolution and maximum visual effects pushes the RTX 3060 Ti well beyond its comfort zone.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary constraint in this configuration. At 1080p Low, the 187 FPS result is high enough that any CPU limitation would typically manifest as inconsistent scaling between presets. However, the smooth and predictable FPS drops across all settings at each resolution step point to the GPU as the consistent bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D's capabilities are sufficient to feed the RTX 3060 Ti at these frame rates, and the scaling behavior is entirely consistent with a GPU-bound scenario.

# GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is listed at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. The GPU has a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. These specifications define the card's ability to handle Greedfall's texture and geometry loads.

In Greedfall, the 8 GB VRAM capacity appears adequate for the measured presets, but the performance data indicates that memory bandwidth and raw compute are the binding constraints. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 35 suggests that the card is overwhelmed by the combined demand of high-resolution textures, complex shading, and post-processing effects. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely saturated at this resolution and preset, leading to the severe frame rate collapse.

The GPU's compute resources include 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. The pixel rate is 133.2 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 253.1 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 16.20 TFLOPS. These numbers indicate a mid-range card that can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming comfortably but struggles at 4K with high visual fidelity. The measured results reflect this: 1080p High at 133 FPS and 1440p High at 92 FPS are respectable, while 4K High at 55 FPS is playable but not smooth, and 4K Ultra at 35 FPS is borderline.

The RTX 3060 Ti includes 38 ray tracing cores and 152 tensor cores, but Greedfall's benchmark results do not explicitly separate ray tracing effects. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility are present, but the measured FPS values suggest that the game's standard rendering path is what drives performance. The card's average benchmark score is 16129, with a percentile rank of 59 among all GPUs. This places it just above the midpoint of the performance distribution, which aligns with its observed behavior in Greedfall.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the RTX 3060 Ti scores 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (which has an average score of 16014), and 1.4% lower than both the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16351) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (16361). The RX 9060 is the closest competitor at a 0.7% delta, meaning the RTX 3060 Ti holds a marginal edge. However, these synthetic benchmark differences do not directly translate to Greedfall's specific engine demands, but they do provide context for the GPU's overall capability tier.

# CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a desktop processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The L3 cache is 96 MB shared, which is a substantial amount for gaming workloads. The processor uses the AMD Socket AM5 and supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s.

For Greedfall, an Action RPG from 2019, the CPU requirements are moderate, and the Ryzen 7 9850X3D's specifications are more than sufficient. The 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's logic, AI, and physics. The high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures strong single-threaded performance, which is crucial for game engines that rely heavily on a primary thread. The measured FPS results show no indication of CPU bottlenecking, even at 1080p Low where the 187 FPS average demands a high frame delivery rate from the processor.

The CPU's benchmark scores support its capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 22807 in multicore and 2228 in single-core. In Passmark, the multithread score is 41318, and the single-thread score is 4704. These scores place the processor at the 92nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 58386. The nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (0.1% higher at 58323), the Intel Xeon w5-2545 (0.2% lower at 58504), the Intel Core i9-14900 (0.5% higher at 58115), and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 (0.7% lower at 58826). These deltas are all within 1%, indicating that the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is competitively positioned in synthetic workloads.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates. The 96 MB L3 cache is particularly beneficial for game data that is frequently accessed, reducing memory latency and improving frame pacing. The memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is adequate for the game's streaming needs, and the DDR5 support ensures low latency. The benchmark data shows that the CPU can sustain high frame rates without becoming a constraint, as evidenced by the 187 FPS at 1080p Low and the 133 FPS at 1080p High. These results would not be achievable if the CPU were limiting the pipeline.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1413 out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the 48th percentile of all tested system configurations, meaning it outperforms roughly half of the combos in the database. The rank of 1413 out of 2938 indicates a middle-of-the-pack position, which is consistent with the RTX 3060 Ti's GPU percentile rank of 59 and the CPU's high percentile rank of 92.

The high CPU percentile (92) is somewhat offset by the GPU's lower percentile (59), resulting in a combo rank that is below the CPU's individual standing but above the GPU's. This suggests that the GPU is the performance limiter in this pairing, and the CPU has headroom to support a more powerful graphics card. The data supports this interpretation: the GPU's average benchmark score of 16129 is only slightly above the 50th percentile, while the CPU's average score of 58386 is well above average.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing is not at the top tier, but it is also not at the bottom. The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play, indicating that the combo cannot handle maximum settings at 4K. However, at 1440p High (92 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (85 FPS), the combo provides playable performance. The rank of 1413 reflects this balanced but not exceptional performance profile.

The delta between the CPU's rivals and this combo's rank is not directly measurable from the data, but the CPU's nearest rivals all have similar average scores (within 0.7%), so the overall combo rank is primarily driven by the GPU's performance tier. If a stronger GPU were paired with this CPU, the combo rank would likely improve substantially, given the CPU's ability to support higher frame rates without bottlenecking.

# Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience depends on the target resolution and the desired frame rate threshold. At 1080p, all presets are playable, but the Ultra preset at 85 FPS provides the highest visual quality while maintaining a smooth experience. The 1080p Medium preset at 147 FPS offers a significant frame rate boost with only a moderate reduction in visual fidelity, making it a strong choice for high-refresh-rate displays. The 1080p Low preset at 187 FPS is the fastest option, but it sacrifices visual details that may be important for immersion in an Action RPG.

At 1440p, the High preset at 92 FPS is the recommended choice for a balance of visual quality and smoothness. The Medium preset at 102 FPS is also viable and provides a 10% FPS improvement, but the visual difference between Medium and High in Greedfall may not justify the trade-off. The Ultra preset at 59 FPS is borderline, as it dips below the 60 FPS threshold, which could result in noticeable stuttering on some displays. The Low preset at 130 FPS is the fastest, but it may look noticeably worse.

At 4K, the choices are more constrained. The High preset at 55 FPS is below the 60 FPS target but is still playable on VRR displays. The Medium preset at 61 FPS is the only preset that exceeds 60 FPS at 4K, making it the best option for a smooth experience at this resolution. The Low preset at 77 FPS offers a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, but the visual downgrade is significant. The Ultra preset at 35 FPS is not recommended, as it is well below playable thresholds.

For the best overall experience, the 1440p High preset at 92 FPS is recommended, as it provides a good balance of visual fidelity and frame rate. If a higher frame rate is preferred, the 1080p Medium preset at 147 FPS is the best choice. At 4K, the Medium preset at 61 FPS is the only option that maintains smoothness, but users with VRR displays may find the High preset at 55 FPS acceptable.

# Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS for each preset is as follows: Low at 187 FPS, Medium at 147 FPS (with a minimum of 125 FPS and a maximum of 169 FPS), High at 133 FPS, and Ultra at 85 FPS. The Medium preset has the only reported min/max range at this resolution, indicating a variance of 44 FPS between the lowest and highest frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the measured average FPS is: Low at 130 FPS, Medium at 102 FPS (with a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 117 FPS), High at 92 FPS, and Ultra at 59 FPS. The Medium preset again shows a min/max range, with a 30 FPS variance. The Ultra preset at 59 FPS is just below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the measured average FPS is: Low at 77 FPS, Medium at 61 FPS (with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS), High at 55 FPS, and Ultra at 35 FPS. The Medium preset shows a min/max range of 18 FPS. The Ultra preset at 35 FPS is the lowest measured score across all resolutions and settings.

The data shows a consistent pattern: as resolution increases, the FPS drops by a similar percentage across all presets. From 1080p to 1440p, the FPS reduction is roughly 30-35% for each preset. From 1440p to 4K, the reduction is roughly 40-45%. This indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints, and the CPU's performance is sufficient to maintain consistent frame delivery.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Greedfall?

A: The data shows that 1440p High at 92 FPS provides a good balance of visual quality and smoothness. At 1080p, all presets exceed 85 FPS, while at 4K only the Medium preset (61 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K Ultra settings in Greedfall?

A: No. The measured 4K Ultra average FPS is 35, which is well below playable thresholds. The 4K High preset at 55 FPS is also below 60 FPS, but the 4K Medium preset at 61 FPS is the only 4K option that maintains smoothness.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 16129, which is 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014), and 1.4% lower than both the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16351) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (16361).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU ranks at the 92nd percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks at the 59th percentile. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all presets, indicating GPU-bound performance.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems in Greedfall?

A: The combo ranks 1413 out of 2938 tested combos, placing it in the 48th percentile. This is a middle-of-the-pack position, driven primarily by the GPU's mid-range performance tier.

Q: Does the CPU's large L3 cache affect Greedfall performance?

A: The CPU has 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which likely reduces memory latency for frequently accessed game data. The high frame rates at 1080p (up to 187 FPS) suggest that the CPU is not a bottleneck, and the large cache may contribute to consistent frame pacing.