Greedfall

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is a combination built on contrasting generations: a modern 12-core Zen 4 processor launched in late 2022 paired with a Turing-based GPU from mid-2019. In Greedfall, an Action RPG from 2019, this pairing produces a clear bottleneck at higher resolutions, while delivering strong frame rates at 1080p. The data shows a system that is capable of high-refresh 1080p gaming but falls behind at 4K, where the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and Turing architecture become limiting factors. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, component roles, and how this specific combo ranks against other tested configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 119. With Low settings, the average rises to 167, and with Medium settings it is 131. Ultra settings drop the average to 76.

Q: How does the GPU's VRAM capacity affect performance at 4K?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 31, indicating that the VRAM capacity and bandwidth are insufficient for the highest detail at that resolution, likely causing stutter and reduced frame pacing.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested GPU and CPU pairings?

A: This specific combo ranks 2150 out of 3703 tested combinations. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, reflecting its age and the GPU's relative weakness compared to modern hardware.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck the system in Greedfall?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 167, but at 4K Ultra, it falls to 31. This steep drop-off, combined with the CPU's high multi-threaded scores, suggests the RTX 2070 SUPER cannot keep up with the Ryzen 9 7900X's output at higher resolutions.

Q: What are the core and thread counts for the Ryzen 9 7900X?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X has 12 cores and 24 threads. Its base clock is 4.70 GHz, and its boost clock is 5.60 GHz, built on the Zen 4 architecture with a 5 nm process.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 20282. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, scores 20480, which is 1% higher. The GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20534, also 1.2% higher, showing the desktop 2070 SUPER is slightly behind these mobile and workstation parts in raw compute.

Q: Is there a significant difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: Yes. At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce an average of 91 FPS, while High settings produce 83 FPS. This 8 FPS difference is modest, but the jump to Ultra settings causes a significant drop to 53 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary driver of frame rate in this configuration, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is a critical factor. The GPU’s memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective, across a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the data shows it struggles at 4K. The GPU’s base clock is 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and it draws up to 215 W under load.

In Greedfall, the GPU’s role is highlighted by the scaling of FPS with resolution. At 1080p Low, the average is 167 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 69 FPS—a 58.7% reduction. This indicates that the GPU’s compute units, which include 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, are being saturated at higher pixel counts. The 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but offer no benefit in this non-ray-traced title. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 9.062 TFLOPS, which is modest by modern standards but sufficient for a 2019 game. The 12 nm TU104 chip, with 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die, is a large and power-hungry part, yet it delivers performance that places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs.

The 8 GB VRAM is a notable limitation. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 31, which is barely playable. This suggests that texture data exceeds the VRAM capacity, forcing the system to swap data to system memory. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is insufficient for the demands of 4K Ultra textures, leading to the significant performance drop from Medium (54 FPS) to Ultra (31 FPS) at that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 7900X and RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 2150 out of 3703 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the 58th percentile of all tested pairings, which is a mid-pack result. The ranking reflects the GPU's age and the game's reliance on GPU throughput at higher settings. For context, the CPU alone ranks in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 65th percentile. The combo ranking being lower than the GPU's percentile indicates that the pairing is not optimal for this title, as the CPU's potential is largely untapped.

The combo's position is influenced by the GPU's average benchmark score of 20282. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, -1% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, -1.2% delta), the Intel Arc B570 (20556, -1.3% delta), and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, -1.5% delta). These rivals are all within 1.5% of the 2070 SUPER's score, indicating that in raw compute terms, this GPU is comparable to a mid-range laptop GPU or a current budget desktop GPU. However, in Greedfall, the 8 GB VRAM and driver maturity may give it an edge over these rivals, but the ranking shows it is not competitive with higher-tier modern GPUs.

The combo rank of 2150 suggests that many other pairings, likely those with newer GPUs, achieve higher frame rates. The Ryzen 9 7900X is a top-tier CPU, but the GPU limits the overall system. This is a classic case of a CPU being ahead of its GPU partner, and the data reflects that imbalance in the lower combo rank.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Greedfall shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution and settings increase. At 1920x1080, the system performs exceptionally well. Low settings produce an average of 167 FPS, Medium 131 FPS, High 119 FPS, and Ultra 76 FPS. The Medium setting has a recorded minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 151 FPS, showing a stable frame pacing. The drop from High to Ultra is 43 FPS, which is significant and suggests that Ultra settings place a heavy load on the GPU's shading units.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are still respectable but show a clear step down. Low settings average 116 FPS, Medium 91 FPS, High 83 FPS, and Ultra 53 FPS. The Medium setting has a minimum of 77 FPS and a maximum of 105 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra widens to 30 FPS, and the overall performance is roughly 30% lower than at 1080p for the same settings. This is expected, as 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and the GPU's compute units are working harder.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles. Low settings average 69 FPS, Medium 54 FPS, High 49 FPS, and Ultra 31 FPS. The Medium setting has a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is severe, with High settings falling from 83 to 49 FPS. The Ultra setting's 31 FPS average is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, indicating that this resolution is not viable for this GPU in this title. The data shows that 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo, with 1440p being playable at Medium or High settings, and 4K being only for Low or Medium settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At 1080p High, the average is 119 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 83 FPS, a 30.3% decrease. At 4K High, it falls to 49 FPS, a further 41% decrease from 1440p. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU, with its high single-thread and multi-thread scores, is not the limiting factor at these resolutions.

The scaling at Low settings is even more telling. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 167 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 116 FPS, and at 4K Low, it is 69 FPS. The relative drop from 1080p to 4K is 58.7%. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the CPU's workload does not change with resolution. Instead, the FPS drops proportionally with the pixel count, confirming that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors.

The scaling from Medium to Ultra settings at each resolution further emphasizes the GPU's role. At 1080p, the difference between Medium (131 FPS) and Ultra (76 FPS) is 55 FPS. At 1440p, it is 38 FPS (91 vs 53), and at 4K, it is 23 FPS (54 vs 31). This shows that the GPU's shader and ROP performance is being taxed by the higher settings, and the 8 GB VRAM is likely causing additional overhead at 4K Ultra. The data clearly indicates that the limiting component in this system is the RTX 2070 SUPER, not the Ryzen 9 7900X.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a high-end desktop processor with 12 cores and 24 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture. Its base clock is 4.70 GHz, boosting up to 5.60 GHz, and it has a TDP of 170 W. The CPU's benchmark results are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29300 and a single-core score of 2016.5. Its Geekbench multi-core score is 19267, and the single-core score is 2617. These scores place it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is among the top 9% of processors.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game is not particularly CPU-intensive, and the 12 cores are more than sufficient. The 3DMark tests show a scaling from 2137 (2 threads) to 12536 (max threads), indicating good multi-threading. However, in this game, the single-thread performance is more important, and the Ryzen 9 7900X's single-core score of 1093 in 3DMark and 2617 in Geekbench is more than adequate.

The CPU's high performance means that it is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the FPS is 167, which is likely near the game's engine limit for this GPU. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score is 4238, and its multi-thread score is 51406, showing it can handle any workload Greedfall throws at it. The CPU's 64 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache also help with game asset streaming. The data suggests that the Ryzen 9 7900X is overkill for this GPU, and a lower-tier CPU would produce similar frame rates in this title. The CPU's role is to ensure the GPU is never starved for data, and it does so effectively, but the GPU's limitations cap the overall performance.