Greedfall

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X posts an average benchmark score of 57,498, placing it 0.1% behind the AMD EPYC 9015 (57,555) and 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313 (57,399). Against the Intel Core i9-14900 (58,115), it trails by 1.1%, and it is 1.4% behind the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (58,323).

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile and how does it rank against its direct predecessor?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER sits in the 86th percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 54,209 is just 0.1% behind the standard RTX 4080 (54,247), while it trails the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828) by 1.1% and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698) by 2.7%.

Q: What is the best 4K performance this combo can achieve in Greedfall?

A: At 3840x2160, the highest average FPS recorded is 131 at Low settings. The High preset delivers 93 FPS, Medium hits 103 FPS, and Ultra drops to 59 FPS. The only row with min/max data at 4K is Medium, showing 87 FPS minimum and 118 FPS maximum.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded showing?

A: In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 32,172 in multicore and 2,253 in single-core, a ratio of roughly 14.3:1. The 3DMark results show a similar scaling pattern: 13,929 at max threads versus 1,286 at single thread, indicating strong multi-thread scaling from its 12 cores and 24 threads.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the CPU support, and does it use ECC?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. It also supports ECC memory, which is notable for a desktop platform.

Q: Where does this CPU+GPU combo rank among all tested configurations in Greedfall?

A: The combination of the Ryzen 9 9900X and RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 325th out of 3,703 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the top 8.8% of all configurations tested for this game.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data shows a clear hierarchy across presets, but the optimal choice depends heavily on resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 316 FPS, Medium hits 248 FPS, High reaches 225 FPS, and Ultra still manages 144 FPS. Since even Ultra exceeds 144 FPS at 1080p, users with high-refresh monitors can select High or Ultra without sacrificing smoothness — the data shows there is ample headroom.

At 2560x1440, the situation remains comfortable. High produces 156 FPS, Medium hits 172 FPS, and Low reaches 219 FPS. Ultra drops to 100 FPS, which is still playable but represents a significant 36% reduction from High. The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 146 suggests it holds up well even in demanding scenes, making it a strong candidate for consistent high-refresh gameplay at this resolution.

The 4K results are where the trade-off becomes stark. Ultra at 3840x2160 delivers only 59 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, while High jumps to 93 FPS — a 58% improvement. Medium sits at 103 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS, and Low reaches 131 FPS. For 4K, the High preset appears to offer the best balance: it nearly doubles the Ultra frame rate while presumably retaining most visual quality. The Medium preset's min FPS of 87 confirms it stays above common 60 FPS thresholds, but High's higher average (93 FPS) with no recorded minimum suggests it is the safer choice for consistent performance.

Benchmark results indicate that the Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p for this combination in Greedfall. At higher resolutions, the performance cost of Ultra settings outweighs the visual benefit, and the data recommends High as the sweet spot for 1440p and 4K gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2550 MHz, and memory runs at 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective). These specifications position it as a high-end card, confirmed by its 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

In Greedfall, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the combo achieves 316 FPS at Low settings, but at 4K Low, it drops to 131 FPS — a 59% reduction. This scaling pattern suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU is capable of feeding frames quickly, but at 4K, the GPU's rendering load becomes the primary constraint. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is ample for Greedfall's textures, even at Ultra settings, so memory size is unlikely to be a limiting factor in this title.

The GPU's compute capabilities — 52.22 TFLOPS FP32 and 80 RT cores — are far beyond what Greedfall (a 2019 Action RPG) likely requires. The benchmark data shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER's nearest rival, the standard RTX 4080, scores 54,247 versus 54,209, a negligible 0.1% difference. This indicates the SUPER variant offers marginal synthetic gains, yet in Greedfall, the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (59 FPS) suggests the game's engine may not fully utilize the GPU's modern features.

The pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for high-resolution rendering. At 4K Medium, the GPU sustains 103 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS, showing that even demanding scenes keep the card well above playable thresholds. The data implies that Greedfall is not a GPU stress test for this card; rather, the RTX 4080 SUPER is overprovisioned for this title, likely being limited by game engine optimization or CPU at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 325th out of 3,703 tested combos in Greedfall. This places the system in the top 8.8% of all configurations tested, which is a strong showing given the game's age and the hardware's modern capabilities.

However, the rank is not as high as the individual component percentiles might suggest. The CPU is in the 92nd percentile of all processors, and the GPU is in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. If performance scaled perfectly, one might expect a higher combo ranking, but the 325th position indicates that other factors — possibly game-specific optimizations or CPU-GPU bottleneck dynamics — cap the overall performance.

Examining the data, the CPU's nearest rivals include server-class chips like the AMD EPYC 9015 and EPYC 7313, which score comparably in synthetic benchmarks (57,555 and 57,399, respectively). The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 4080, is essentially identical in synthetic score (54,247 vs 54,209). This suggests the combo's rank is not limited by either component being a weak link, but rather by the game's ability to leverage this hardware.

The rank of 325 out of 3,703 also means there are 324 combos that outperform this pairing in Greedfall. These likely include configurations with even higher-end GPUs (like the RTX 4090) or CPUs with different architectures that happen to favor this game's engine. The data shows that while this combo is excellent, Greedfall may respond better to raw GPU horsepower over CPU multi-threading, given that the game released in 2019 when 8-core CPUs were the high-end standard.

Notably, the combo achieves 316 FPS at 1080p Low, which is exceptionally high, indicating that the game is not heavily threaded. The CPU's 24 threads are likely underutilized, meaning the rank could be improved with a faster single-core CPU, but the Ryzen 9 9900X's single-thread score of 2,253 in Cinebench R23 is already strong, ranking in the 92nd percentile.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth and features 64 MB of L3 cache.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with frames, especially at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 316 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability. At 1080p Ultra, the FPS drops to 144, indicating that the GPU becomes more involved at higher settings, but the CPU still keeps up.

The CPU's 3DMark scores are revealing: 12,552 at 16 threads, 9,114 at 8 threads, 4,886 at 4 threads, and 2,519 at 2 threads. This scaling suggests that Greedfall, which likely uses fewer threads, would benefit more from the CPU's strong single-thread performance (1,286 in 3DMark single-thread) rather than its multi-thread might. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,253 confirms this, placing it in the top tier for single-threaded tasks.

Interestingly, the CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are mostly server or HEDT chips, such as the AMD EPYC 9015 and Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M. These chips have different core configurations but similar average scores, indicating that the Ryzen 9 9900X's performance is well-rounded. However, in Greedfall, the game's engine may not utilize the CPU's 24 threads effectively, as evidenced by the fact that 1080p Low (316 FPS) is only 40% higher than 1080p Medium (248 FPS), suggesting the GPU is the bottleneck even at lower settings.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and dual-channel DDR5 support are sufficient for Greedfall's requirements, but the game's 2019 release date means it was designed for systems with slower memory. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo; instead, the game's engine caps performance at certain thresholds.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The highest average FPS recorded is 316 at Low settings. Medium produces 248 FPS with a minimum of 211 and maximum of 285. High reaches 225 FPS, while Ultra drops to 144 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 54% reduction, showing that Ultra settings impose a significant load even at 1080p.

2560x1440: Low delivers 219 FPS, Medium hits 172 FPS (min 146, max 198), High reaches 156 FPS, and Ultra drops to 100 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is approximately 31% for Low (316 to 219), 31% for Medium (248 to 172), 31% for High (225 to 156), and 31% for Ultra (144 to 100). This consistent ~31% reduction across all settings indicates a uniform resolution scaling cost.

3840x2160: Low achieves 131 FPS, Medium hits 103 FPS (min 87, max 118), High reaches 93 FPS, and Ultra drops to 59 FPS. From 1440p to 4K, the reductions are: 40% for Low (219 to 131), 40% for Medium (172 to 103), 40% for High (156 to 93), and 41% for Ultra (100 to 59). This suggests a consistent ~40% performance penalty when moving from 1440p to 4K.

The data shows that Ultra settings at any resolution above 1080p result in sub-100 FPS, which may be acceptable for some players but is far from the high-refresh experience the rest of the settings provide. The Medium preset's min FPS values (211 at 1080p, 146 at 1440p, 87 at 4K) indicate that it maintains smooth gameplay even in the most demanding moments, making it a reliable choice for consistent frame pacing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern in how performance scales with resolution. From 1080p to 1440p, all settings see a uniform drop of approximately 31%. This consistency across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets suggests that the scaling is resolution-driven rather than setting-driven — the GPU is doing proportionally more work at higher pixel counts, regardless of visual quality.

From 1440p to 4K, the drop is approximately 40% for all settings. This steeper decline indicates that 4K rendering (3840x2160, over 2.25x the pixels of 1440p) pushes the GPU much harder, and the scaling becomes more pronounced. The fact that the percentage drop is similar across all settings (40-41%) implies that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at these resolutions, as the CPU's frame generation capability is not the bottleneck.

Looking at the absolute numbers, the data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 316 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 131 FPS — a 59% reduction. This is a significant drop, but the 4K Low performance is still very playable. The more interesting finding is that at 4K Ultra, the FPS falls to 59, which is below the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered minimum for smooth gameplay. This suggests that the GPU's 16 GB VRAM and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K textures, but the rendering load at Ultra settings overwhelms the card's compute capabilities.

The scaling pattern implies that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 1,286) likely caps the frame rate, as evidenced by the 316 FPS ceiling at Low settings. At 1440p, the GPU begins to take over as the primary constraint, with the ~31% drop from 1080p aligning with the increased pixel count. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the ~40% drop from 1440p exceeds the pixel count increase (2.25x), indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth (736.3 GB/s) and pixel fill rate (285.6 GPixel/s) are being saturated.

The data suggests that for this combo, 1440p High (156 FPS) offers the best balance of resolution and performance, while 4K High (93 FPS) is a viable option for those prioritizing visual fidelity over frame rate. The 4K Ultra result of 59 FPS is the only configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the only setting where this high-end hardware struggles in Greedfall.