Greedfall

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the AMD Radeon 760M produces a very specific performance envelope in Greedfall. The data shows a system that is heavily constrained by its integrated graphics, resulting in playable frame rates only at the lowest settings and resolution. This analysis examines the measured FPS data to determine optimal settings, the role of each component, and how this combination stacks up against other tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frames per second across all settings and resolutions, the only configuration that delivers a consistently playable experience is 1920x1080 with the Low preset. At this setting, the average FPS is 52, which provides a smooth and responsive frame rate suitable for the action-RPG combat and exploration that Greedfall demands. This is the sole setting where the average frame rate exceeds the 60 FPS threshold, offering headroom above the 50 FPS mark.

The Medium preset at 1080p yields an average of 41 FPS, which is playable but represents a significant 21% drop from the Low preset. While the visual upgrade from Low to Medium is noticeable, the frame rate becomes less stable, with the measured minimum FPS dipping to 35. For players who prioritize smoothness and consistent frame pacing, the Low preset at 1080p is the clear recommendation. The High preset at 1080p drops further to 37 FPS, which is a marginal improvement in visuals but a substantial compromise in fluidity.

At higher resolutions, the situation becomes more challenging. At 2560x1440, even the Low preset only achieves an average of 36 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable play in a fast-paced action game. The Medium preset at 1440p averages just 28 FPS, with a minimum of 24 FPS, indicating noticeable stutter. The 3840x2160 resolution is not viable for gameplay, with even the Low preset averaging only 21 FPS.

The Ultra preset is effectively unplayable at every resolution. At 1080p, it averages 24 FPS; at 1440p, 16 FPS; and at 4K, it falls to just 10 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra settings is disproportionate to the visual gains on this hardware, and it should be avoided. The data leads to a clear conclusion: use 1920x1080 with the Low preset for the best balance of playability and visual fidelity. For users willing to accept lower frame rates for better visuals, the Medium preset at 1080p is the secondary option, but the Low preset is the only one that fully leverages the hardware's capabilities.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is the primary bottleneck in this configuration, and the measured FPS data reflects its limitations. The GPU is a mobile integrated processor with a base clock of 800 MHz and a boost clock of 2599 MHz. It features 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 render output units. Its memory is "System Shared," meaning it uses a portion of the system's DDR5 memory, with bandwidth that is "System Dependent."

This shared memory architecture and the GPU's modest specifications directly explain the performance scaling observed in Greedfall. The GPU's performance percentile is 35, placing it below the majority of tested graphics cards. In the Passmark G3D benchmark, it scores 5310, which is close to its nearest rivals: the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (scoring 6001, a 0.3% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M (scoring 6000, a 0.3% delta). This places it in the entry-level segment, and the Greedfall results confirm this classification.

The frame rates across all settings show a clear GPU-bound pattern. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 28 FPS (from 52 down to 24), demonstrating that the GPU's processing power is the limiting factor as the graphical load increases. The GPU's compute capability, measured at 5.323 TFLOPS for FP32, is insufficient for high-detail rendering at higher resolutions. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 400 is low, and the Passmark DirectX 11 score of 52 also indicates limited DirectX performance.

The GPU's 4 nm process node and RDNA 3.0 architecture allow it to run within a 15 W TDP, but this power envelope restricts its performance ceiling. The data shows that the Radeon 760M can handle the Low preset at 1080p, but it is not capable of maintaining fluid frame rates at higher settings or resolutions. The system's shared memory also means that the GPU's performance is partially dependent on the CPU's memory controller and the speed of the system RAM, though the specific impact of this is not quantified in the measured FPS data.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a high-end mobile processor that provides an immense amount of compute power, but its role in Greedfall is largely secondary due to the GPU bottleneck. The CPU features 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture (codename Dragon Range), with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It has a substantial 64 MB of L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU demonstrates its strength. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 42713, and its single-core score is 6030. Its average benchmark score is 76212, placing it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (with a deltaPct of 0.1), the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (with a deltaPct of 0.6), and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (with a deltaPct of -0.4). These scores indicate that the CPU is more than capable of handling the game's logic, AI, and physics calculations.

However, in Greedfall, the CPU's performance is not the limiting factor. The measured FPS data shows that frame rates scale almost entirely with the GPU settings and resolution, not with CPU load. This is typical for an action RPG at lower resolutions where the GPU is the primary renderer. The CPU's high single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6030) ensures that it can feed the GPU with draw calls without becoming a bottleneck, even at the lower frame rates seen in this test.

The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads are overkill for a game like Greedfall, which is not heavily multithreaded. The Passmark multi-thread score of 51405 and the Passmark physics score of 2168 suggest that the CPU's capabilities will be largely underutilized. The data indicates that the CPU is not the constraining component; rather, it is waiting on the GPU to complete its rendering tasks. This is evident in the fact that the FPS does not increase when the resolution is lowered from 1440p to 1080p, suggesting the CPU is not holding the system back.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with the Low preset is the only configuration that provides a consistently smooth experience, with an average FPS of 52. This is significantly higher than the 37 FPS average at 1080p High and the 41 FPS average at 1080p Medium.

Q: Can this system run Greedfall at 4K resolution?

A: No. The measured FPS at 3840x2160 is not playable. The highest average FPS at this resolution is 21 FPS on the Low preset, and it drops to 10 FPS on Ultra. The 4K results are below the threshold for acceptable gameplay.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX a bottleneck for the AMD Radeon 760M in this game?

A: No. The CPU's benchmark scores are very high, placing it in the 95th percentile. The FPS differences between settings and resolutions are entirely consistent with a GPU bottleneck, indicating that the CPU has ample headroom and is not limiting performance.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The difference is 28 FPS. The Low preset averages 52 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages only 24 FPS. This represents a 54% drop in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest settings.

Q: What is the frame rate stability like on the Medium preset at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset averages 41 FPS, but the minimum FPS is 35. This indicates there is some frame pacing variance, which could lead to occasional stutters during intense gameplay scenes.

Q: How does the Radeon 760M's performance compare to its nearest rivals according to benchmark scores?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 6019. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6400, has an average score of 6001, which is a 0.3% difference. This places it in a similar performance tier to that discrete entry-level GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a steep decline as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound system. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 52 at 1920x1080 to 36 at 2560x1440, a decrease of 31%. Moving to 3840x2160, the average FPS falls to 21, which is a further 42% drop from the 1440p result. This scaling is directly proportional to the increase in pixel count, confirming that the Radeon 760M's rendering throughput is the limiting factor.

The same pattern holds true for the Medium preset. The average FPS is 41 at 1080p, 28 at 1440p, and 17 at 4K. The High preset follows suit: 37 FPS at 1080p, 26 at 1440p, and 15 at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with scores of 24, 16, and 10 FPS at each respective resolution. The relative FPS drops between resolutions are consistent across all settings, which indicates that the performance penalty is purely due to the increased pixel workload and not a change in the bottleneck.

This behavior clarifies that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, because the CPU's workload would be unchanged. Instead, the FPS scales down dramatically, which is the expected behavior when the GPU's fill rate and pixel processing capabilities are saturated. The system's shared memory architecture for the GPU also plays a role; as resolution increases, the amount of memory bandwidth required to handle the framebuffer and textures also increases, putting more strain on the system's memory subsystem.

The data suggests that for a target of 60 FPS, the hardware is only capable at 1080p Low. For a target of 30 FPS, the hardware can achieve it at 1080p High (37 FPS) and 1440p Low (36 FPS). The 4K resolution is entirely out of reach for this setup, regardless of the settings used.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a detailed breakdown of the measured average FPS for every tested configuration.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows. The Low preset achieves an average of 52 FPS. The Medium preset averages 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS. The High preset averages 37 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 24 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. The Low preset averages 36 FPS. The Medium preset averages 28 FPS, with a minimum of 24 FPS and a maximum of 32 FPS. The High preset averages 26 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 16 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are very low. The Low preset averages 21 FPS. The Medium preset averages 17 FPS, with a minimum of 14 FPS and a maximum of 19 FPS. The High preset averages 15 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 10 FPS.

The data shows that the Medium preset is the only one with recorded min and max FPS values for all three resolutions. This suggests that the frame pacing is more variable on this setting, likely due to the fluctuating load on the GPU's shared memory and compute units. The Low preset, while having the highest average FPS, does not have recorded min/max values, which could indicate that it is more consistent but not necessarily perfectly stable. The High and Ultra presets also lack min/max data, but their low average FPS makes them unsuitable for analysis of stability.

The difference between 1080p and 1440p is consistent across settings, with an average drop of approximately 10 FPS. The difference between 1440p and 4K is more severe, with an average drop of approximately 12 FPS. This shows that the GPU's performance degrades more rapidly at the higher resolution, likely due to the exponential increase in pixel shader work.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and the AMD Radeon 760M ranks at position 2929 out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the bottom 0.3% of all configurations, indicating that it is one of the weakest systems for this particular game in the benchmark database.

This low ranking is primarily due to the GPU's performance. The Radeon 760M is an integrated graphics solution that ranks in the 35th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 6019 is nearly identical to that of the NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (scoring 6049, a delta of -0.5%), a professional workstation GPU from a previous generation. The high-performing CPU does little to improve the gaming experience, as the GPU is the clear limiting factor.

In contrast, the CPU ranks in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, making it one of the most powerful mobile processors available. Its average benchmark score of 76212 is on par with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (deltaPct of 0.1%). The pairing of a top-tier CPU with a bottom-tier GPU creates a significant imbalance. The system's overall gaming performance is dictated by the GPU, and the CPU's capabilities are effectively wasted in this specific workload.

The rank of 2929 out of 2938 combos means that there are only 9 other tested configurations that perform worse than this one in Greedfall. This is a strong indicator that the system is not suitable for playing this game at any reasonable quality setting. The measured FPS data confirms this, as no configuration achieves an average of 60 FPS at the native resolution of 1080p. The system's performance is consistent with an entry-level integrated GPU, and the data suggests that users seeking a playable experience in Greedfall should look for hardware with a discrete graphics card.