Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 action RPG from Spiders, presents an interesting scalability study when paired with the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and AMD Radeon 8060S. The measured data reveals a configuration that is heavily influenced by resolution, with the CPU's substantial muscle ensuring high frame rates at lower resolutions while the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across the three tested resolutions shows a classic GPU-bound curve, particularly at higher settings. At the Ultra preset, the average FPS drops from 76 at 1920x1080 to 53 at 2560x1440, a 30% reduction. The subsequent drop to 31 at 3840x2160 represents another 41% decline from the 1440p figure, resulting in a total reduction of 59% from the 1080p baseline. These steep declines at Ultra indicate that the Radeon 8060S's compute resources are being saturated as the pixel shader workload expands exponentially.

The pattern is less severe at lower settings, revealing the CPU's headroom. With the Low preset, the average FPS moves from 167 at 1080p to 116 at 1440p and 69 at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K delta here is 98 FPS, or 59% lower, which is nearly identical to the Ultra preset's relative decline. However, the absolute numbers tell a different story: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 167 FPS, which is more than double the 76 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra. This suggests that at 1080p Low, the frame rate is likely constrained by the CPU or other system limits, as the GPU has ample headroom to render the simpler scenes.

The Medium preset offers a middle ground, with average FPS of 131 at 1080p, 91 at 1440p, and 54 at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 31% drop, and from 1440p to 4K it is another 41% drop. The High preset shows 119, 83, and 49 FPS respectively, with a 30% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 41% drop from 1440p to 4K. The consistency of these percentage drops across High, Medium, and Ultra strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at these settings once the resolution exceeds 1080p.

The data indicates that the Ryzen 9 8945HX, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, is not the primary constraint in this title when resolution scales. The largest performance gap between Low and Ultra settings occurs at 1080p, where the difference is 91 FPS (167 vs. 76). At 4K, that same Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 38 FPS (69 vs. 31). This convergence at higher resolutions is the hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario, where the CPU's ability to feed the renderer becomes less relevant than the GPU's raw throughput.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 8060S is the heart of the 4K performance story here. Based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture and built on a 4 nm process, this integrated GPU features a boost clock of 2900 MHz and a base clock of 1295 MHz. The memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with the bandwidth described as system dependent, which means the GPU's performance is intrinsically linked to the Ryzen 9 8945HX's dual-channel DDR5 memory subsystem, rated at 83.2 GB/s. This shared architecture is a key factor in the scaling behavior observed, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth.

The GPU's raw compute specifications are considerable for an integrated part. It offers 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 40 ray tracing cores. The peak FP32 throughput is listed at 14.85 TFLOPS, a figure that places it in a competitive position among mobile graphics solutions. The pixel rate of 185.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 464.0 GTexel/s provide the theoretical foundation for the measured FPS numbers. The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2162, position it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, indicating strong overall capability.

The performance relative to its nearest rivals is very tight. The data shows the Radeon 8060S has an average benchmark score of 55757, which is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698) and 0.6% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (56083). It also leads the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.7% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 by 2.8%. This indicates that the 8060S performs in a similar tier to these discrete desktop cards, which is remarkable for an integrated graphics solution.

The 4K Ultra result of 31 FPS is the clearest indicator of the GPU's limits. This is below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for playability, and it suggests that the GPU is fully saturated at this configuration. The fact that dropping to High settings at 4K only yields 49 FPS, still below the 60 FPS target, reinforces that this GPU is not designed for maxed-out 4K gaming in Greedfall. The 4K Low result of 69 FPS shows that the GPU can handle the resolution when the graphical load is minimized, but the visual compromise is significant.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a high-end mobile processor from the 8000 series, featuring 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Dragon Range). It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, which allows for significant single-thread performance when needed. The 64 MB of L3 cache is substantial and helps feed the 16 cores with data, particularly in scenarios where the game engine can utilize multiple threads. The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and a single-core score of 6030.

The CPU's role in Greedfall becomes apparent when examining the 1080p results. At 1080p Low, the system hits 167 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. The fact that the High preset at 1080p yields 119 FPS, a 29% reduction, shows that the GPU is already becoming a factor even at this resolution when settings increase. However, the CPU's capability to push beyond 160 FPS at lower settings indicates that it is not a bottleneck in these scenarios. The PassMark multithread score of 51405 and the Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 17939 support the notion that the CPU has ample headroom for this title.

The CPU's percentile ranking against all CPUs is 95, placing it in the top 5% of all processors tested. Its average benchmark score of 76212 puts it in a close race with its nearest rivals. It is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (76155) and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (75779). It trails the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX by 0.4% each. This tight grouping indicates that the 8945HX is at the very top of the performance stack for CPUs, and its 5.40 GHz boost clock ensures it can handle even the most demanding single-threaded tasks.

In the context of Greedfall, the CPU's high core count and fast clocks translate into a system that can maintain high minimum frame rates in CPU-intensive scenes, such as those with many NPCs or complex AI routines. The measured data shows that at 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 112, which is a strong result. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 77, and at 4K Medium, it is 46. These minimums scale predictably with resolution, suggesting that the CPU is providing a stable foundation without causing frame time spikes that would result in stutter.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 8945HX and the Radeon 8060S ranks 1672 out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the 43rd percentile of all combinations, which is a solid but not outstanding result. The ranking is likely dragged down by the fact that the GPU, while powerful for an integrated solution, is not a top-tier discrete part. The CPU is certainly capable of supporting a much stronger GPU, as evidenced by its high benchmark scores, but the pairing with the 8060S means the system's gaming performance is capped by the GPU's limits.

This ranking of 1672 out of 2938 suggests that there are many other CPU-GPU pairings that deliver higher frame rates in this game. The data indicates that the combo is firmly in the mid-to-upper range of all tested systems. The CPU's 95th percentile ranking contrasts with the GPU's 87th percentile, suggesting an imbalance where the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU. This is a common characteristic of integrated graphics systems where the CPU and GPU share the same package and power envelope.

The ranking also reflects the system's overall balance. At 1080p High, the system achieves 119 FPS, which is a very playable result. At 1440p High, it drops to 83 FPS, which is still smooth. The 4K results are less impressive, with the High preset only reaching 49 FPS. The combo's rank suggests that users should not expect a 4K Ultra experience from this hardware, but rather a solid 1080p and decent 1440p performer. The 1672nd position out of 2938 combos confirms the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions, even with the powerful CPU backing it up.

When comparing to other combos, the data shows that the system's performance is competitive with systems using discrete GPUs like the RX 6750 GRE and RTX 4080, based on the GPU's nearest rival scores. However, the actual in-game ranking of 1672 indicates that other factors, such as CPU pairing and memory configuration, play a role in the final measured performance. The ranking implies that while the individual components are strong, the combination does not reach the top tiers of the database, likely due to the integrated GPU's memory bandwidth constraints.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a standard 60 FPS experience, the High preset at 2560x1440 is the best choice, delivering an average of 83 FPS with no reported minimum FPS below 60. This provides a good balance between visual quality and performance, making it the sweet spot for this hardware. Pushing to Ultra at 1440p yields 53 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and may not be worth the visual upgrade.

At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 119 FPS, which is excellent and provides a wide margin for high refresh rate displays. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 131 FPS, but the jump to High is a better value in terms of visual fidelity per frame. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 76 FPS, is also viable for 60 Hz displays, but the 43 FPS drop from High to Ultra is significant. For the best experience at 1080p, High is the recommended preset.

For 4K gaming, the data suggests that this combo is not well-suited for high or ultra settings. The High preset at 4K averages 49 FPS, which is playable but not smooth for action-oriented gameplay. The Medium preset at 4K offers 54 FPS, which is a marginal improvement. The Low preset at 4K achieves 69 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial. The data indicates that users should avoid the Ultra preset at 4K, as the 31 FPS average is likely to feel stuttery. For 4K, the Low or Medium presets are the only reasonable choices, with Medium being preferable if the 46 FPS minimum is acceptable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings shows a clear hierarchy. The Low preset achieves an average of 167 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. The Medium preset follows at 131 FPS, with a minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 151 FPS, indicating consistent frame pacing. The High preset drops to 119 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls to 76 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 91 FPS, highlighting the significant GPU load increase from the higher settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 116 for Low, 91 for Medium, 83 for High, and 53 for Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 77 FPS and a maximum of 105 FPS. The 1440p results are consistently lower than the 1080p results, with the Ultra preset being the only one that falls below the 60 FPS threshold. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 31% drop for Low, 31% for Medium, 30% for High, and 30% for Ultra, demonstrating a uniform scaling factor across settings.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. The Low preset averages 69 FPS, the Medium preset averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS, the High preset averages 49 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 31 FPS. The 4K results are the most demanding, with every preset except Low falling below the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset's minimum of 46 FPS suggests that there are moments of noticeable slowdown, while the Ultra preset's 31 FPS average makes it the least playable configuration tested. The data across all resolutions confirms that this combo is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p, with 4K reserved for lower settings.