Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents an interesting scalability challenge for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT combination. The measured data reveals a component pairing that is heavily influenced by graphics settings, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck at higher presets while the powerful CPU takes over at lower ones. The benchmark results indicate a system capable of high refresh rate gameplay at 1080p, but one that requires careful settings management to maintain fluidity at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 92.6 FPS, which is a substantial drop from the 151.5 FPS seen at High settings. This 58.9 FPS gap between High and Ultra suggests that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that disproportionately tax the GPU. The Medium preset, at 165.5 FPS, offers a massive performance headroom over High, while the Low preset reaches 205.2 FPS, indicating the game’s engine is not strictly CPU-bound at this resolution.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the High preset is the recommended choice. At 1440p, High produces an average of 102.1 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The jump to Ultra at this resolution drops the frame rate to 63.4 FPS, a 38.7 FPS penalty that may not be worth the visual upgrade. At 4K, the High preset manages an average of 60.9 FPS, which is playable, but the Ultra preset falls to 39.7 FPS, making it unsuitable for consistent action. The data suggests that High is the optimal preset for this pairing, as it delivers playable frame rates across all resolutions while avoiding the steep performance cliff of Ultra.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the defining component in this combo’s performance profile. With 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the GPU provides a memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for the texture loads in Greedfall, as evidenced by the relatively small performance drop between Medium and High settings at 1080p, which are only 14.0 FPS apart. The GPU’s boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz are key to its rasterization performance, which is the primary workload in this game.

The GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. The transition from 1080p High to 1440p High results in a 49.4 FPS loss, while the move from 1440p High to 4K High costs another 41.2 FPS. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The card’s 96 ROPs and 216 TMUs are being pushed to their limits at higher resolutions, and the data indicates that the RX 7700 XT is not powerful enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra, where the average drops to 39.7 FPS. The GPU’s percentile rank of 73 among all GPUs, while its average benchmark score of 30097 sits nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, suggests it is a mid-range performer that excels at 1080p and 1440p but struggles with 4K Ultra settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop varies significantly by settings preset. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 151.5 FPS at 1080p to 102.1 FPS at 1440p, a 32.6% reduction, and then to 60.9 FPS at 4K, a further 40.4% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline at 4K indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the frame rate does not scale linearly.

At Low settings, the scaling is different. The 1080p average of 205.2 FPS drops to 141.4 FPS at 1440p and 86.6 FPS at 4K. The relative performance retention at 4K Low, which is 42.2% of the 1080p score, is higher than the High preset’s 40.2% retention. This suggests that at Low settings, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, as the GPU has less work to do. The Ultra preset shows the worst scaling, with a 4K average of 39.7 FPS representing only 42.9% of the 1080p score of 92.6 FPS. The data clearly shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s influence is more apparent at lower resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ranks 765 out of 1705 tested combos for Greedfall. This places it in the middle of the pack, which is surprising given the high-end nature of the CPU. The rank suggests that the GPU is holding the combo back, as many other pairings with less powerful CPUs but stronger GPUs likely achieve higher frame rates.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 54450 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU’s average score of 30097 places it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. This imbalance is reflected in the game’s results. The combo’s rank of 765 out of 1705 indicates that roughly 55% of tested combinations perform better, which aligns with the GPU’s lower percentile rank. The Ryzen 9 9900X is clearly not the limiting factor in this pairing, as its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, shows a negligible -0.4% performance delta in synthetic benchmarks.

FAQ

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

A: The High preset is the best option for 4K, delivering an average of 60.9 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 39.7 FPS, which is too low for smooth gameplay, while Medium (67.3 FPS) and Low (86.6 FPS) are also viable alternatives.

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p for competitive play?

A: At 1080p, the combo excels, with the Low preset hitting 205.2 FPS and the Medium preset at 165.5 FPS. Even the High preset achieves 151.5 FPS, making it suitable for high refresh rate monitors.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X bottlenecking the RX 7700 XT in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU’s 94th percentile ranking and high multi-core scores, such as 46438 in Cinebench R23, far exceed the demands of this game, while the GPU’s performance drops significantly at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 110.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 63.4 FPS. This represents a 47.2 FPS difference, making Ultra a poor choice for this resolution.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for Greedfall at maximum settings?

A: The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. While the game runs at Ultra settings, the frame rates are very low (39.7 FPS at 4K), suggesting the memory capacity is not the issue, but rather the GPU’s compute performance is insufficient.

Q: How does this combo’s performance compare to the GPU’s closest rivals?

A: The RX 7700 XT has an average benchmark score of 30097, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 at 30109 (a 0% delta). This suggests similar rasterization performance, which is reflected in the game’s frame rates being limited by the GPU tier.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table lists the exact average FPS measurements for this combo in Greedfall:

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 60.9 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 86.6 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 67.3 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 39.7 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 102.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 141.4 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 110.6 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 63.4 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 151.5 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 205.2 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 165.5 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 92.6 |

The data shows a consistent pattern: Ultra settings cost roughly 40-50% of the frame rate compared to High at each resolution. The Low preset always provides the highest frame rate, with a maximum of 205.2 FPS at 1080p.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its synthetic benchmark scores are exceptional, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 46438 and a single-core score of 6555. This places the CPU in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54450.

In Greedfall, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, but it is not negligible. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (205.2 FPS) and Medium (165.5 FPS) are high enough to suggest that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU adequately. However, the fact that the frame rate still scales with resolution at these settings indicates that the GPU remains the limiting factor. The CPU’s 64 MB of shared L3 cache and 4 nm process node contribute to its strong single-threaded performance, which is crucial for game logic and draw calls. The data shows that this CPU is not a bottleneck in Greedfall, as its performance far exceeds what the game requires, leaving the RX 7700 XT as the component that determines the final frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings.