Greedfall

Greedfall, an Action RPG released in 2019, presents a demanding workload that stresses the balance between processor and graphics hardware. The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and the AMD Radeon RX 570 yields performance metrics that are heavily skewed by the GPU. An analysis of the measured frames per second (FPS) across various resolutions and settings reveals a system where the CPU's immense capability is largely held in reserve, while the graphics card determines the playable envelope.

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

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a 5000 series processor built on the Zen 3 (Vermeer) architecture, using a 7 nm process from TSMC. It features 16 cores and 32 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The processor has a TDP of 105 W and fits the AMD Socket AM4. Its cache hierarchy includes a 64 MB L3 cache, with 512 KB of L2 and 64 KB of L1 per core. The CPU supports DDR4 memory via a dual-channel bus and has 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5950X demonstrates its high ceiling. It scores 26,017 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,614 in single-core. PassMark results show 45,424 in multi-thread and 3,470 in single-thread tests. Its percentile rank stands at 91, indicating it outperforms the vast majority of all CPUs. Compared to its nearest rivals, it is within a fraction of a percent: it trails the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX by -0.2%, the AMD EPYC 8124P by -0.3%, and the Intel Core i7-14700 by -0.7%, while leading the Intel Core i9-13900F by 0.4%. The CPU also has an average benchmark score of 51,947.

Despite this processing prowess, the measured FPS in Greedfall shows this CPU is rarely the bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 73 FPS, which is the highest average recorded. When the game is set to 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 14 FPS. This wide variance across settings and resolutions suggests that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU at lower loads. The 5950X’s multi-threading capabilities are likely underutilized in a title like Greedfall, which typically leverages fewer cores. The data indicates that the CPU’s role is to provide a stable platform, ensuring that frame pacing and minimum FPS are not negatively impacted by processor limits. The processor's high single-thread performance is sufficient to handle game logic and draw calls, but its full potential is not the limiting factor in this pairing.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combination?

A: The highest average FPS measured is 73, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 57 FPS at 1080p Medium, and 52 FPS at 1080p High.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in terms of overall benchmark score?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X has an average benchmark score of 51,947. It is virtually matched with its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX, which scores 52,073, a difference of -0.2%. It also trails the AMD EPYC 8124P by -0.3% and the Intel Core i7-14700 by -0.7%, while leading the Intel Core i9-13900F by 0.4%.

Q: Is the RX 570's VRAM capacity a limiting factor at higher resolutions?

A: The GPU features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The data shows a steep performance decline at higher resolutions, with average FPS falling from 52 at 1080p High to 36 at 1440p High, and further to 22 at 4K High. This pattern indicates that the GPU's memory capacity and bandwidth, along with its compute power, are constraining performance as pixel count increases.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between Ultra and Low settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low setting yields an average of 73 FPS, while the Ultra setting drops to 33 FPS. This represents a performance cost of approximately 55% for the Ultra preset over Low.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3,548 out of 3,703 tested combos. This places it in the lower tier of all configurations.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures available for each resolution at Medium settings?

A: The measured data includes minimum FPS for Medium settings. At 3840x2160, the minimum is 20 FPS, at 2560x1440 it is 34 FPS, and at 1920x1080 it is 49 FPS.

Q: What is the GPU's average benchmark score and its percentile rank?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 28,766 and ranks in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. It is closely matched with the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, which scores 28,874, a -0.4% difference, and the AMD Radeon R9 M295X, which scores 28,580, a 0.7% difference.

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

Analyzing the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution. For a smooth, high-refresh experience at 1080p, Low settings provide the highest average frame rate at 73 FPS. However, this preset sacrifices visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 1080p yields an average of 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS, which is a more balanced choice, providing a substantial improvement in visual quality over Low while maintaining a frame rate that is still above 60 for most of the scene. High at 1080p averages 52 FPS, which is acceptable for a slower-paced Action RPG, but the lower minimum FPS is not recorded for this setting. Ultra at 1080p is playable but with an average of 33 FPS, it represents a significant drop.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS, making it the recommended choice for this resolution. High averages 36 FPS, which is lower, and Low averages 51 FPS, which is the highest average at this resolution. Ultra at 1440p, with an average of 23 FPS, is not recommended due to the low frame rate. At 3840x2160, the performance is very limited. Low averages 30 FPS, Medium averages 24 FPS with a minimum of 20 FPS, High averages 22 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. None of these provide a consistently smooth experience, but the Low or Medium presets are the only viable options if 4K is a strict requirement.

The data suggests a clear rule: for each resolution, the Medium preset offers the best trade-off between visual fidelity and playable frame rates, except at 4K where Low is the only playable setting. High and Ultra settings have a measurable cost that often pushes the frame rate below a smooth threshold. The lowest frame rates recorded, such as the minimum of 20 FPS at 4K Medium, indicate that the hardware cannot sustain a stable experience at high resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and the AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3,548 out of 3,703 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it decisively in the lower echelon of all tested configurations, close to the bottom of the list. This ranking is a direct consequence of the graphics card's performance. While the CPU is a high-end processor with a 91st percentile rank, the GPU's lower standing, which is in the 74th percentile, is the decisive factor. This pairing results in a system that is not optimized for high-frame-rate gaming in this title. The data indicates that the GPU is the primary performance limiter, and as such, the combo's rank is significantly held back by the graphics card.

In the context of its components, the CPU is a top-tier part, but the GPU is a mid-range part from an older generation. The result is a system that underperforms relative to what the CPU alone could deliver. The 3,548 rank is a direct consequence of the GPU's limitations, not the CPU. For example, the GPU's performance is close to the AMD Radeon RX 470, which has a -0.8% difference in average score, but the system's overall rank shows that this performance level is not competitive with the top combinations. The ranking is a clear indication that this is a budget or entry-level gaming configuration, despite the powerful processor. The CPU's capabilities are being left on the table, as the GPU cannot keep up with its potential.

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

Moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic decline in frame rates. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 52 to 22, a reduction of 57.7%. At Low settings, the drop is from 73 to 30, a 58.9% reduction. At Medium, performance falls from 57 to 24, a 57.9% drop. Ultra settings suffer the most at this scaling, going from 33 to 14, a 57.6% drop. These are all very significant reductions, far larger than what would be expected if the CPU were the limiting factor. If the processor was the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain more constant as resolution increases, because the CPU workload wouldn't change drastically.

The consistent ~55-60% reduction in FPS when quadrupling the pixel count points directly to the GPU as the limiting component. The higher resolutions require exponentially more pixel processing and memory bandwidth, which the RX 570's compute and VRAM resources cannot supply. The GPU's specifications include a 256-bit memory bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, which are strained at 4K. The CPU's performance, on the other hand, is more than capable of handling the game's logic at any resolution. This pattern of performance loss is a definitive indicator that the GPU is the primary constraint in this system, and the CPU is not a limiting factor.

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

At 3840x2160, the measured average FPS are as follows: Low 30, Medium 24 (with a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 27), High 22, and Ultra 14. None of these settings provide a smooth experience, and the Ultra setting is virtually unplayable at 14 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS are: Low 51, Medium 40 (with a minimum of 34 and a maximum of 46), High 36, and Ultra 23. The Low and Medium settings are the only ones that approach a playable frame rate, while High and Ultra show the GPU struggling.

At 1920x1080, the average FPS are: Low 73, Medium 57 (with a minimum of 49 and a maximum of 66), High 52, and Ultra 33. This resolution is the only one where the system can achieve a high frame rate, with Low and Medium being the most fluid options. The data shows a consistent pattern across all resolutions, with Ultra being an extreme setting that severely impacts performance. The Medium setting offers a more sensible compromise at each resolution. The absence of minimum FPS data for Low, High, and Ultra presets means that the only measurable frame pacing data is available for the Medium preset.

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

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a Polaris 20 chip built on a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, with a GCN 4.0 architecture. It features 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The GPU has a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. It has a TDP of 150 W and a suggested PSU of 450 W. The card is a dual-slot design with a single 6-pin power connector and a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. It is an end-of-life product that was released in 2017.

The GPU's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. It has a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s, and 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. In the benchmarks, it scores 880 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 39,349 in Geekbench Metal, 32,084 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 42,752 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its average benchmark score is 28,766, placing it in the 74th percentile. It is slightly slower than the AMD Radeon RX 6800M by -0.4%, and slightly faster than the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 0.7%. It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 470 by -0.8%, but leads the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 by 1.2%.

These specifications directly explain the measured FPS. The 4 GB VRAM capacity is likely to be a limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings, which is why the performance drops so steeply. The 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for the demands of 4K textures. The GPU's compute power, while decent for its class, is simply not enough for high-end gaming. The 14 nm process and the older Polaris architecture are less efficient than newer designs. The data shows that the GPU is the primary constraint in this system, and its performance characteristics are the reason for the low ranking of the combo.