Greedfall

Greedfall, an Action RPG released in 2019, demonstrates distinct performance scaling patterns when paired with the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. The measured data across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a system where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher settings, while the CPU’s strong single-threaded capabilities allow for exceptionally high frame rates at lower presets.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals the expected shift in system bottleneck. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 213 FPS at 1920x1080 to 148 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 65 FPS (30.5%). Moving to 3840x2160, the frame rate drops further to 88 FPS, representing a 58.6% decrease from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern indicates that at 1080p, the system is partially CPU-limited, as the Ryzen 9 9900X’s single-thread score of 1286 in 3DMark allows the RTX 5070 Ti to stretch its legs, but the gap between resolutions narrows as pixel count increases.

The Low preset shows even more dramatic scaling. At 1920x1080 Low, the system achieves 299 FPS, but this drops to 207 FPS at 1440p and 124 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is only 41.5% of the 1080p Low figure, suggesting that even at the lowest settings, the 4K pixel throughput demands on the GPU become overwhelming. In contrast, the Ultra preset shows the most severe drop: 136 FPS at 1080p falls to 94 FPS at 1440p and just 56 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure represents a 58.8% reduction from 1080p Ultra, indicating that the combination of high resolution and demanding settings creates a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 5070 Ti’s 43.94 TFLOPS FP32 performance is the limiting factor.

The Medium preset provides the most complete dataset with min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 235 FPS with a minimum of 200 and maximum of 270. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 163 FPS (min 138, max 187), and at 4K Medium, it falls to 97 FPS (min 83, max 112). The diminishing returns between 1080p and 1440p compared to 1440p to 4K suggest that the game’s engine scales predictably with pixel count, but the absolute frame rates remain high enough for smooth gameplay even at 4K Medium.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti with its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth plays a critical role in Greedfall’s performance. The memory configuration is particularly relevant at higher resolutions, where the 4K Ultra preset’s 56 FPS average suggests that both the GPU’s compute capacity and memory subsystem are under significant strain. The 256-bit memory bus and 1750 MHz memory clock (28 Gbps effective) provide sufficient bandwidth for most scenes, but the demanding Ultra settings at 4K expose the limits of the card’s 8960 shading units.

At lower resolutions and settings, the GPU’s raw throughput becomes less critical. The 1080p Low result of 299 FPS demonstrates that the RTX 5070 Ti can easily saturate the display pipeline when the CPU can feed it frames quickly. The GPU’s boost clock of 2452 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz provide the computational headroom needed for high frame rates, but the data shows that Greedfall’s engine is not particularly demanding on GPU resources at 1080p Medium or below. The card’s 70 RT cores and 280 tensor cores are largely unused in this title, as the game does not feature ray tracing or DLSS support in the measured configurations.

The GPU’s 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49957, places it slightly below the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50001) and Intel Arc A550M (49737) in synthetic tests, but 2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (50951). However, in Greedfall, the RTX 5070 Ti’s real-world performance at 4K High (88 FPS) indicates that synthetic benchmarks do not fully capture its gaming capabilities, particularly in titles that favor NVIDIA’s architecture. The 3.1% lead over the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48477) in synthetic scores translates to a noticeable advantage in this game’s higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this CPU and GPU combo in Greedfall?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 299 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset. This indicates the system is capable of extremely high refresh rate gaming at 1080p when graphical demands are minimized.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra preset perform compared to 4K High?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 56 FPS, while the High preset achieves 88 FPS. The 32 FPS difference (57.1% improvement with High over Ultra) suggests that the Ultra preset includes settings that are disproportionately expensive for the visual quality gain.

Q: Is the system CPU-limited at 1080p?

A: The data suggests partial CPU limitation at 1080p Low, where the 299 FPS result likely approaches the Ryzen 9 9900X’s frame generation ceiling. The single-thread score of 1286 in 3DMark and the Cinebench R23 single-core result of 2253 support the CPU’s ability to drive high frame rates, but the 4K scaling indicates the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the most consistent performance profile across all resolutions?

A: The Medium preset offers the most predictable performance with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values at all three resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 200-270 FPS; at 1440p, it is 138-187 FPS; and at 4K, it is 83-112 FPS, showing a consistent 70-75% scaling factor between each resolution step.

Q: How does the combo rank among tested configurations for Greedfall?

A: This CPU and GPU combination ranks 409th out of 3703 tested combos for Greedfall, placing it in the top 11% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong performance of both components in this specific title.

Q: Are there any settings where the minimum FPS drops below 60?

A: Yes, the 4K Ultra preset’s average FPS of 56 falls below the 60 FPS threshold, and while minimum FPS data is not available for this setting, the average suggests that demanding scenes could cause noticeable stuttering. All other measured settings maintain averages above 88 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080 Medium, the system delivers 235 FPS average with a minimum of 200 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even during intense combat sequences. The 1440p Medium result of 163 FPS (min 138) provides excellent headroom for high refresh rate monitors, while 4K Medium at 97 FPS (min 83) remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold.

The High preset is a viable alternative for users prioritizing visual fidelity, particularly at 1440p where it achieves 148 FPS. However, at 4K High (88 FPS), the performance drop from Medium is 9.3%, which may be noticeable on displays with refresh rates above 90 Hz. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as the 136 FPS at 1080p and 56 FPS at 4K represent significant performance penalties without proportionally better visual quality. For users with 4K displays, the Medium preset at 97 FPS provides the best experience, while 1440p users can comfortably choose between Medium (163 FPS) and High (148 FPS) depending on their preference for visual detail versus frame rate headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti combination ranks 409th out of 3703 tested combos for Greedfall, placing it in the 89th percentile of all configurations. This ranking is notably higher than what the individual component percentiles might suggest—the CPU ranks in the 92nd percentile among all processors, while the GPU sits in the 86th percentile. The synergistic performance in Greedfall indicates that this pairing is particularly well-suited for the game’s engine, which appears to benefit from the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance (3DMark single-thread score of 1286) and the GPU’s high memory bandwidth (896.0 GB/s).

The rank of 409 out of 3703 means that 3294 other combinations perform worse in this game, while only 408 deliver higher frame rates. This places the combo in the top 11% of all tested configurations, which is impressive given that the GPU’s synthetic benchmark score (49957) is only slightly above the median for its class. The data suggests that Greedfall’s engine responds well to the combination of Zen 5 architecture and Blackwell 2.0 GPU architecture, with the CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads providing ample processing power for the game’s AI and physics systems while the GPU handles rendering efficiently.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves 299 FPS average, followed by Medium at 235 FPS (min 200, max 270), High at 213 FPS, and Ultra at 136 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a performance cost of 54.5% when moving from the lowest to highest settings, indicating that the Ultra preset includes several demanding features that significantly impact frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the performance hierarchy remains consistent but with reduced absolute values. Low delivers 207 FPS, Medium achieves 163 FPS (min 138, max 187), High reaches 148 FPS, and Ultra drops to 94 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows an average reduction of 29.8% across all settings, with the Low preset experiencing the largest percentage drop (30.8%) and Ultra the smallest (30.9%), suggesting that resolution scaling affects all settings similarly.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates show the expected further decline. Low achieves 124 FPS, Medium delivers 97 FPS (min 83, max 112), High reaches 88 FPS, and Ultra falls to 56 FPS. The 4K to 1440p scaling shows an average reduction of 39.3%, which is more severe than the 1080p to 1440p drop. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s becomes a limiting factor at 4K, particularly with the 16 GB GDDR7 memory operating at 1750 MHz.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X’s 12 cores and 24 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture, provide strong multi-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32172 and a Geekbench multicore score of 22174. However, Greedfall’s performance data suggests that single-threaded performance is more critical. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2253 enable the high frame rates seen at 1080p, where the 299 FPS Low result indicates that the CPU can generate frames faster than the GPU can render them at lower settings.

The CPU’s 4.40 GHz base clock and 5.60 GHz boost clock, combined with 64 MB of L3 cache, provide the low-latency access to game data that action RPGs require. The benchmark results show that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution or setting, as evidenced by the consistent performance scaling from 1080p to 4K. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 92nd among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 57498, places it slightly below the AMD EPYC 9015 (57555, -0.1% delta) and AMD EPYC 7313 (57399, 0.2% delta), but above the Intel Core i9-14900 (58115, -1.1% delta) and Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (58323, -1.4% delta).

The Ryzen 9 9900X’s memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s on the dual-channel DDR5 interface, while lower than the GPU’s 896.0 GB/s, is sufficient for feeding the 12 cores and 24 threads in Greedfall. The CPU’s 120 W TDP and 4 nm process node from TSMC allow for sustained high clocks during extended gaming sessions, which is reflected in the consistent frame rates across multiple runs. The data indicates that the CPU contributes primarily to the high frame rates at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes the dominant factor at 4K, particularly with the Ultra preset where the 56 FPS result is clearly GPU-limited.