Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 Action RPG from Spiders, presents an interesting scalability study when paired with the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070. The measured data shows a clear progression from CPU-bound territory at lower resolutions to GPU-bound scenarios at 4K, with the 12 GB framebuffer and Blackwell architecture playing distinct roles depending on the preset. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across three resolutions and four settings tiers to define where this combo excels and where its limitations emerge.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a predictable shift in bottleneck behavior. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 265 FPS, which drops to 184 FPS at 1440p and further to 110 FPS at 4K. That represents a 58% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as pixel count rises. The delta between 1080p and 1440p is 81 FPS, while the delta between 1440p and 4K is 74 FPS, suggesting a fairly linear scaling curve at Low settings.

Moving to High settings, the scaling pattern shifts slightly. At 1080p, the average is 189 FPS, dropping to 131 FPS at 1440p and 78 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 30.7%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 40.5%. This steeper decline at higher resolutions indicates that the RTX 5070’s compute and memory bandwidth are being taxed more heavily as the visual load increases. The 4K High result of 78 FPS shows the system can maintain playable frame rates, but headroom is shrinking.

The Medium preset exhibits similar characteristics, with 208 FPS at 1080p, 144 FPS at 1440p, and 86 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K reduction here is 58.7%, nearly identical to the Low preset. However, the Ultra settings tell a different story. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 121 FPS, at 1440p it is 84 FPS, and at 4K it plummets to 50 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 58.7%, but the absolute values are much lower, showing that the Ultra preset imposes a significant penalty that the GPU cannot fully offset at higher resolutions.

The data suggests that at 1080p and 1440p, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D’s eight Zen 5 cores with 96 MB of L3 cache are sufficient to feed the RTX 5070, as frame rates scale with GPU load. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiting component across all settings, with the gap between Low (110 FPS) and Ultra (50 FPS) widening to 60 FPS. This indicates that Greedfall’s rendering pipeline at 4K is heavily dependent on the GPU’s 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 672.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, rather than CPU compute.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. At 4K, the High preset delivers 78 FPS average, which is 28 FPS higher than Ultra’s 50 FPS but 8 FPS lower than Medium’s 86 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 4K is only 8 FPS, suggesting that High offers diminishing returns over Medium while remaining more demanding. For players targeting 60 FPS at 4K, Medium is the safest choice, with a 73 FPS minimum recorded, ensuring consistent performance above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 1440p, the situation improves significantly. High produces 131 FPS average, which is 47 FPS higher than Ultra’s 84 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 144 FPS with a 123 FPS minimum, making it the best balance for high-refresh-rate displays. However, High at 1440p still maintains a comfortable 131 FPS average, so users with 144 Hz monitors can opt for High without dropping below 120 FPS in most scenes. Ultra at 1440p remains playable at 84 FPS, but the 47 FPS penalty versus High is substantial for visual gains that may be marginal at this resolution.

At 1080p, all presets are viable. Ultra delivers 121 FPS, which is still above 120 FPS, while High provides 189 FPS and Medium hits 208 FPS with a 177 FPS minimum. For competitive or fast-paced play, Medium at 1080p offers the highest average without the extreme Low preset’s visual degradation. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 265 FPS, but this is only 57 FPS higher than Medium, a difference that most users would not notice outside of esports scenarios.

The recommendation hierarchy based on measured data is as follows: for 4K, use Medium for guaranteed smoothness or High if visual fidelity is prioritized and minor frame drops are acceptable. For 1440p, High is the sweet spot, with Medium as a fallback for variable refresh rate displays. For 1080p, Medium offers the best combination of performance and quality, with Ultra remaining viable for users who prefer maximum detail. The Ultra preset should be avoided at 4K due to its 50 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination ranks 582nd out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the top 19.8% of all configurations. This percentile position reflects the combo’s strong performance, but it does not place it at the absolute top tier. The rank suggests that while this pairing is capable of high frame rates, there are numerous other combinations—likely featuring higher-end GPUs or more specialized CPUs—that achieve better results in this specific title.

The CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus is 92, meaning the Ryzen 7 9850X3D outperforms 92% of all CPUs in the benchmark database. Its avgBenchmarkScore is 58386, with nearest rivals including the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (58323, +0.1%), Intel Xeon w5-2545 (58504, -0.2%), Intel Core i9-14900 (58115, +0.5%), and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 (58826, -0.7%). These deltas are all within 1%, indicating that the CPU’s gaming performance in Greedfall is comparable to several high-end server and desktop chips, though it does not decisively lead.

The GPU’s percentileVsAllGpus is 82, placing the RTX 5070 above 82% of all GPUs. Its avgBenchmarkScore is 40377, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318, +0.1%), AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063, +0.8%), AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40870, -1.2%), and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568, +2%). The RTX 5070’s nearest rivals are predominately workstation and prosumer cards, which suggests that its raw compute profile is competitive with those products, but the gaming-specific performance in Greedfall is what drives the combo rank.

The combo’s 582nd rank out of 2938 is driven primarily by the GPU’s mid-pack percentile. While the CPU is in the 92nd percentile, the GPU’s 82nd percentile pulls the overall rank down. This indicates that in Greedfall, the GPU is the more significant factor in determining the final frame rates, and users seeking higher ranks would need to pair the Ryzen 7 9850X3D with a more powerful GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 265 FPS average, Medium reaches 208 FPS with a minimum of 177 FPS and maximum of 240 FPS, High produces 189 FPS, and Ultra delivers 121 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 144 FPS, demonstrating that the RTX 5070 has ample headroom at 1080p to handle even the most demanding preset.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset drops to 184 FPS, Medium hits 144 FPS with a 123 FPS minimum and 166 FPS maximum, High produces 131 FPS, and Ultra falls to 84 FPS. The spread narrows to 100 FPS, showing that the GPU’s workload increases at this resolution, but the system remains highly playable across all settings. The Medium preset’s minimum of 123 FPS ensures no drops below 120 FPS, making it ideal for 144 Hz monitors.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 110 FPS, Medium averages 86 FPS with a 73 FPS minimum and 99 FPS maximum, High produces 78 FPS, and Ultra drops to 50 FPS. The spread narrows further to 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset’s 50 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay at 4K. The Medium preset’s 73 FPS minimum is the only 4K setting that guarantees a 60 FPS floor, while High’s 78 FPS average leaves little margin for dips.

Comparing the settings across resolutions, the Medium preset shows the most consistent scaling, with 208 FPS at 1080p, 144 FPS at 1440p, and 86 FPS at 4K. The High preset follows a similar pattern with 189, 131, and 78 FPS respectively. The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest decline, dropping from 121 FPS at 1080p to 50 FPS at 4K, a 58.7% reduction. The Low preset scales from 265 to 110 FPS, a 58.5% reduction, which is surprisingly similar to Ultra despite the massive difference in visual quality.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070’s 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical factor in Greedfall’s 4K performance. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 50, while at 4K Low it reaches 110. This 60 FPS gap suggests that memory bandwidth and capacity are not the primary bottlenecks, as the Low preset still requires full resolution rendering. Instead, the GPU’s compute throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 and 482.3 GTexel/s texture rate are likely the limiting factors at higher settings.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2512 MHz and base clock of 2325 MHz are modest for the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, but the 6144 shading units provide substantial parallel compute. In Greedfall, which is not known for extreme geometry or shader complexity, the RTX 5070’s 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are underutilized, as the game does not heavily rely on ray tracing or DLSS features. The measured frame rates therefore reflect pure rasterization performance.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Greedfall at all tested settings, as the game’s 2019 release date means texture sizes are not excessive. The data does not show any signs of memory capacity throttling, as the FPS scaling from Low to Ultra is consistent across resolutions. However, the GPU’s 82nd percentile ranking versus all GPUs indicates that it is not a top-tier part, and in Greedfall specifically, the combo rank of 582 out of 2938 suggests that the GPU holds back the CPU’s potential at higher settings.

The RTX 5070’s memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) delivers 672.0 GB/s, which is adequate for 4K gaming but not exceptional. In Greedfall, the 4K High preset’s 78 FPS average indicates that the memory subsystem is keeping pace, but the Ultra preset’s drop to 50 FPS suggests that the GPU’s compute units are saturated. The GPU’s process node of 5 nm from TSMC, with 31,100 million transistors on a 263 mm² die, provides a large transistor budget, but the 250 W TDP limits sustained clock speeds under heavy load.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 delivers an average of 86 FPS with a minimum of 73 FPS, making it the only 4K setting that guarantees a 60 FPS floor. High produces 78 FPS average but lacks a recorded minimum, while Ultra falls to 50 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D has an average benchmark score of 58386, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M, 0.2% lower than the Intel Xeon w5-2545, 0.5% higher than the Intel Core i9-14900, and 0.7% lower than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470. These deltas are all within 1%, indicating near-identical CPU performance.

Q: Is the RTX 5070’s 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Greedfall?

A: The measured data shows no signs of VRAM capacity throttling. At 4K, frame rates scale consistently from Low (110 FPS) to Ultra (50 FPS), which would not occur if memory capacity were a bottleneck. The 12 GB GDDR7 memory is adequate for this game’s 2019-era texture resolutions.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the combo produces 189 FPS at 1920x1080 and 78 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 58.7% reduction in frame rate, showing that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide playable performance at 1440p?

A: Yes, the Ultra preset at 2560x1440 delivers an average of 84 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. However, it is 47 FPS lower than the High preset’s 131 FPS, so users must weigh visual fidelity against frame rate headroom.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested configurations in Greedfall?

A: The combo ranks 582nd out of 2938 tested combinations, placing it in the top 19.8% of all configurations. The CPU is in the 92nd percentile while the GPU is in the 82nd percentile, indicating that the GPU is the more limiting component for this game.