Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents an interesting stress test for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination. The measured data shows this pairing achieves the top rank among 2,938 tested combos for this title, indicating exceptional performance. This analysis breaks down how the system scales across resolutions and settings, and what the specific frame rates reveal about the underlying hardware dynamics.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a significant dependency on resolution, with the most dramatic shifts occurring at the highest pixel counts. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 273 at 1920x1080 to 190 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 83 frames per second. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average falls to 113 FPS, which is 160 frames per second lower than the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is consistent with a system that becomes progressively more GPU-bound as resolution increases, though the absolute numbers remain exceptionally high even at 4K.

The Low settings preset tells a similar story but with a steeper curve. The average frame rate at 1920x1080 is 383 FPS, which drops to 266 FPS at 2560x1440 and then to 159 FPS at 3840x2160. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is steeper than at High settings, suggesting that when the GPU is less burdened by visual effects, the resolution increase has a more pronounced impact on the rendering pipeline. This indicates that even a top-tier GPU like the RTX 5090 D is heavily taxed by the pixel throughput required at 4K, especially when other graphical loads are minimized.

Ultra settings produce the most constrained results across all resolutions. The average at 1080p is 175 FPS, which is notably lower than the High preset's 273 FPS at the same resolution. At 1440p, Ultra averages 121 FPS, and at 4K, it drops to 72 FPS. The gap between 1440p and 4K at Ultra settings is 49 frames per second, which is a larger absolute difference than the 31-frame gap observed at High settings between the same resolutions. This suggests that the Ultra preset amplifies the resolution penalty, likely due to increased shader complexity and memory pressure that scales with pixel count.

The data implies that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to maintain very high frame rates, but the performance ceiling is still set by the GPU's rendering capabilities. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiting component, as evidenced by the substantial frame rate drops regardless of the settings preset. The fact that the system maintains over 70 FPS at 4K Ultra reflects the raw power of the RTX 5090 D, but the scaling behavior shows that this game is far from trivial to run at maximum fidelity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the primary driver of the frame rates observed in Greedfall. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, the GPU has a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which provides ample headroom for the game's textures and geometry. The boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz are the clock speeds that dictate how quickly the 21,760 shading units can process the game's graphics data. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 72, which is a significant reduction from the 113 FPS at 4K High, indicating that the Ultra preset adds enough shading and texture work to nearly halve the frame rate compared to High at the same resolution.

The GPU's 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores are present, though Greedfall's rendering engine does not heavily leverage ray tracing or DLSS in the measured presets. The FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS provides the raw compute for the game's pixel and vertex shaders, and the 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate helps with the game's detailed environments. The measured results show that the GPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions—at 1080p Low, the system achieves 383 FPS, which suggests that the GPU is capable of far more than the game demands at that resolution.

The VRAM capacity of 32 GB is unlikely to be a limiting factor in Greedfall, as the game was released in 2019 and its texture demands are far below what this GPU can provide. The memory clock of 1750 MHz, effective at 28 Gbps, contributes to the high bandwidth that ensures the GPU's cores are fed with data without stalling. The data suggests that the GPU's role is to maintain high frame rates across all settings, but its performance headroom is most evident at 1080p and 1440p where the frame rates exceed 175 FPS even at Ultra settings. At 4K, the GPU's workload increases substantially, and the frame rates, while still high, show that the GPU is working much harder to fill the additional pixels.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the High preset at 1440p offers a balanced experience with an average of 190 FPS, which is likely sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 1440p provides a higher average of 209 FPS with a minimum of 178 FPS and a maximum of 240 FPS, indicating a stable frame delivery that could be preferable for competitive play. At 4K, the High preset with 113 FPS average is the most sensible choice for a smooth experience, as the Ultra preset's 72 FPS average may feel less fluid on displays with higher refresh rates.

For users targeting 1080p, the High preset at 273 FPS and Medium at 301 FPS both provide extremely smooth gameplay, with the Medium preset showing a minimum of 256 FPS that ensures no noticeable dips. The Ultra preset at 1080p still delivers 175 FPS, which is excellent, but the reduced frame rate compared to High suggests that the visual fidelity gain may not be worth the performance cost for all users. The Low preset at any resolution offers the highest frame rates, but the visual quality reduction is substantial, as indicated by the 383 FPS at 1080p Low versus 273 FPS at 1080p High.

The data indicates that the Medium preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, particularly at 1440p and 4K. At 4K Medium, the average is 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS, which is more consistent than the High preset's 113 FPS average. The Medium preset at 1440p offers a 209 FPS average with a tight range between 178 and 240 FPS, which is ideal for maintaining frame pacing on high-refresh displays. Users with 4K 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitors should opt for Medium or High settings, while those with 1440p 240 Hz panels can achieve near-maximum frame rates with Medium settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks first out of 2,938 tested combos in Greedfall. This top position indicates that no other tested hardware pairing delivers higher average frame rates in this game. The GPU's percentile rank of 92 among all GPUs and the CPU's percentile rank of 91 among all CPUs suggest that both components are near the top of their respective performance hierarchies, and their combination yields the best possible outcome for this title.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF with an average benchmark score of 55,093 and a delta of -0.6%, meaning the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's score is 0.6% lower, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K with a score of 54,053 and a delta of 1.3%, indicating the Ryzen chip is 1.3% higher. These small deltas show that the CPU is closely matched with recent Intel mid-range offerings in general benchmarks, but the in-game results for Greedfall are what secure the top combo rank.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT with an average score of 76,904 and a delta of 1.1%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT with a score of 78,940 and a delta of -1.6%. The RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score is 77,712, which places it in a competitive position with these mobile-oriented GPUs, but the measured FPS in Greedfall shows that it outperforms them in actual gameplay. The rank of 1 out of 2,938 combos is a decisive statement about the system's capability, and it suggests that users with this hardware will not find a faster configuration for this specific game.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS at 1920x1080 is 383, achieved with the Low settings preset.

Q: Does the system maintain a playable frame rate at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, the average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 72, which is above the typical 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the Medium preset compare between 1440p and 4K?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 209 FPS with a minimum of 178 FPS, while at 3840x2160, it averages 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS, showing a 84 FPS drop when moving to 4K.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination provides the most consistent frame delivery?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers a narrow range between 178 and 240 FPS, indicating stable performance with minimal frame drops.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to limit performance at 4K?

A: The data shows a significant FPS drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings, which indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting component at 4K due to the increased pixel rendering workload.

Q: What is the rank of this combo among all tested hardware combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1st out of 2,938 tested combinations in Greedfall.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 383 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this system. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 301 FPS with a minimum of 256 FPS and a maximum of 346 FPS, providing a stable experience. The High preset at 1080p drops to an average of 273 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 175 FPS. These numbers show a 208 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p, highlighting the substantial impact of the Ultra preset's additional graphical effects.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 266 FPS, which is a 117 FPS reduction from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 209 FPS, with a minimum of 178 FPS and a maximum of 240 FPS, making it the most consistent preset at this resolution. The High preset averages 190 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 121 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 145 FPS, which is a larger absolute gap than at 1080p, suggesting that the resolution increase amplifies the performance cost of higher settings.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 159 FPS, which is the only preset at 4K that exceeds 150 FPS. The Medium preset averages 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS, and the High preset averages 113 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 72 FPS, which is the lowest recorded frame rate for this combo. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K shows a 87 FPS drop, which is less severe than at lower resolutions but still significant. The 4K results demonstrate that while the system can handle the game at maximum fidelity, the Ultra preset pushes the GPU to its limits.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D 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 5.50 GHz. The CPU's 128 MB of L3 cache, which is a defining feature of the X3D series, provides a large pool of fast memory that can benefit games with large data sets. In Greedfall, the CPU's role is to process game logic, physics, and draw calls, and the measured frame rates suggest that it does not bottleneck the GPU at any resolution or settings combination.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is strong, as indicated by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 47,737 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 22,884. The single-thread performance is also notable, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6,739 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3,041. These scores suggest that the CPU can handle both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads effectively, which is important for a game like Greedfall that may not fully utilize all 24 threads but still benefits from high single-core performance.

The fact that the frame rates at 1080p Low reach 383 FPS indicates that the CPU is capable of issuing draw calls and updating game state at a very high rate without becoming a limiting factor. The CPU's 24 threads and 12 cores provide ample parallel processing capability, and the boost clock of 5.50 GHz ensures fast execution of single-threaded tasks. The data shows that the CPU's performance is sufficient to keep up with the GPU even at the highest frame rates, and the combo's rank of 1st among 2,938 tested combinations confirms that the Ryzen 9 9900X3D is an ideal partner for the RTX 5090 D in this game.