Greedfall

Greedfall on the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Intel Arc B570 pairing shows a clear narrative: the GPU is the primary bottleneck, and the CPU has ample headroom. The measured FPS data indicates that this combination is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, while 4K requires significant settings compromises to remain playable.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, confirming that the Intel Arc B570 is the limiting factor in this configuration. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 92 FPS at 1920x1080 to 64 FPS at 2560x1440, a 30% reduction. Pushing to 3840x2160 drops the average to 38 FPS, which is a 59% decrease from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern—where each resolution step costs a larger percentage of performance—is typical of a GPU-bound scenario.

The Low preset shows an even more dramatic scaling curve. At 1080p, the system delivers 130 FPS, which is excellent for fast-paced action. At 1440p, this drops to 90 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 54 FPS. The 1080p to 4K delta here is 76 FPS, or a 58% loss. This consistency in percentage loss across presets suggests the rendering load scales uniformly with pixel count, which is expected for a game like Greedfall that doesn't have heavy compute-based effects.

Medium settings provide the only complete data set with min/max FPS values, which helps illustrate the variance. At 1080p Medium, the average is 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 117 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 71 FPS with a 60-81 FPS range. At 4K Medium, the average is 42 FPS with a 36-48 FPS range. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (36 FPS) is below the 40 FPS threshold many players consider the floor for acceptable action gameplay, indicating that even Medium settings at 4K will have noticeable hitches.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding, and the results are telling. At 1080p, Ultra averages 59 FPS, which is playable but not smooth. At 1440p, it drops to 41 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to just 24 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is effectively unplayable for a real-time action RPG. The data shows that the Arc B570's 10 GB of VRAM and 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth are likely being saturated at higher resolutions with Ultra settings, as the frame rate collapses rather than scaling linearly.

The overall pattern indicates that the Arc B570 is a capable 1080p and 1440p card for Greedfall, but 4K is only viable with Low or Medium settings. The 38 FPS average at 4K High and 24 FPS at 4K Ultra are not competitive with the smoothness offered at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is an extremely high-end processor that plays a minimal role in limiting Greedfall's performance. With 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, this CPU has far more compute capacity than a 2019-era action RPG requires. The base clock of 4.30 GHz and boost clock of 5.70 GHz provide excellent single-thread performance, which is what most game engines rely on for their main simulation loop.

Looking at the CPU benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 2259 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 42018 in multi-core. In Geekbench, it achieves 3064 single-core and 26736 multi-core. The 3DMark scores show strong scaling from 2 threads (2549) to 16 threads (16374) and max threads (17184), indicating that the processor can handle heavily threaded workloads if a game can use them. However, Greedfall was released in 2019 and was designed for the consoles of that generation, which had 8-core CPUs. The game is unlikely to leverage more than a handful of threads effectively.

The percentile ranking of 95th vs all CPUs confirms that this processor is near the top of the performance hierarchy. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (deltaPct 0.1), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (deltaPct 0.1), AMD EPYC 8224P (deltaPct 0.3), and Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (deltaPct 0.4). The extremely small deltaPct values (0.1-0.4%) mean that swapping to any of these CPUs would produce virtually identical frame rates in Greedfall, since the game is not CPU-bound in this configuration.

The PassMark multi-thread score of 70255 and the data encryption score of 44536 highlight the CPU's raw throughput, but these capabilities are irrelevant for Greedfall at the tested settings. The benchmark results indicate that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is never the bottleneck; the frame rate differences between resolutions are entirely attributable to the GPU. If a user were to pair this CPU with a more powerful GPU, they would likely see higher frame rates, but with the Arc B570, the CPU sits idle waiting for the graphics card to catch up.

The 128 MB of L3 cache and DDR5 memory support provide a robust platform for gaming, but again, Greedfall's engine from 2019 does not have the complexity to take advantage of these modern features. The CPU's role in this specific benchmark is to provide consistent frame pacing without introducing stutters, which the data suggests it does successfully.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the star of this analysis, as its capabilities directly determine the playable settings and resolutions. This GPU features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, with 18 ray tracing cores based on the Xe2-HPG architecture. The 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest for 2025 standards but sufficient for a game from 2019.

The GPU's clock speeds are fixed at 2500 MHz for both base and boost, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate give a theoretical peak that the measured FPS results roughly align with. In PassMark G3D, the Arc B570 scores 14195, placing it in the 65th percentile vs all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (deltaPct 0.1), Intel Arc A750 (deltaPct -0.1), NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (deltaPct 0.4), and AMD Radeon R9 M390X (deltaPct -0.5). The deltaPct values here are small, meaning the Arc B570 performs nearly identically to an RTX 3070 Mobile in synthetic tests.

However, Greedfall's real-world performance tells a different story depending on the resolution. At 1080p, the GPU delivers 92 FPS on High and 130 FPS on Low, which are strong results. The 1080p Ultra result of 59 FPS shows the GPU's limits when all effects are enabled. At 1440p, the GPU starts to strain, with High at 64 FPS and Ultra at 41 FPS. The 4K results show the GPU is out of its depth above Medium settings.

The VRAM capacity of 10 GB is likely a factor at 4K Ultra, where texture requirements can exceed this amount, causing the 24 FPS average. The 380.0 GB/s bandwidth is also a potential bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the GPU must fetch larger textures and frame buffers. The measured results show that between 1440p High and 1440p Ultra, the frame rate drops from 64 to 41 FPS (a 36% loss), which is a larger percentage drop than the 1080p High to Ultra transition (92 to 59 FPS, a 36% loss as well). This suggests the GPU hits a memory or compute wall at Ultra settings that is consistent across resolutions.

The Arc B570's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility are technically advanced, but Greedfall's engine likely uses older DirectX 11 paths. The PassMark DirectX 11 score of 118 is higher than the DirectX 12 score of 72, which could indicate that the GPU performs better in older APIs, though this is speculative. The measured FPS data is the only reliable indicator, and it shows a capable mid-range GPU that excels at 1080p and handles 1440p reasonably well.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience depends on the target resolution and the user's preference for smoothness over visual fidelity.

For 1920x1080, the High preset at 92 FPS is the best balance. It provides a smooth, responsive experience that is well above the 60 FPS standard. The Medium preset at 102 FPS is also viable if the user wants extra headroom, but the visual difference between Medium and High is typically noticeable in a game like Greedfall with detailed environments. The Low preset at 130 FPS is only recommended for competitive play, which is not relevant for a single-player action RPG. Ultra at 59 FPS is playable but sits right at the edge; any demanding scene could cause dips below 60 FPS.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 64 FPS is the recommended choice. It stays above 60 FPS on average, though it may dip in heavy combat. The Medium preset at 71 FPS offers a more comfortable margin and is the safer pick for consistent performance. Low at 90 FPS is smooth but sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that relies on atmosphere. Ultra at 41 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the smoothness threshold and will feel stuttery.

For 3840x2160, the Low preset at 54 FPS is the only option that approaches playability. Medium at 42 FPS is marginal, and the minimum FPS of 36 indicates occasional stutters. High at 38 FPS and Ultra at 24 FPS are not viable for a real-time game. If 4K is a priority, users should accept Low settings or consider a more powerful GPU.

The data shows that the "best" experience is 1080p High or 1440p Medium, depending on the display. The Medium preset at 1440p with a 71 FPS average and 60 FPS minimum provides a consistent experience that avoids the performance cliffs seen at higher settings. The 1080p High preset offers the best visual quality per frame rate, as it leverages the GPU's strengths without pushing it into diminishing returns.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Arc B570 capable of running Greedfall at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which average 54 FPS. Medium settings drop to 42 FPS with a minimum of 36 FPS, while High and Ultra average 38 FPS and 24 FPS respectively, making them unplayable.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9950X3D affect Greedfall's performance?

A: The CPU is not a limiting factor. The frame rates are determined by the GPU, as the CPU's single-core score of 2259 in Cinebench R23 and multi-core score of 42018 far exceed what Greedfall requires. The CPU's 95th percentile ranking vs all CPUs confirms it has ample headroom.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset at 71 FPS average with a 60 FPS minimum is recommended for consistent performance. High averages 64 FPS, which is acceptable but offers less margin. Ultra at 41 FPS is too slow.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 92 at 1080p to 38 at 4K, a 59% reduction. At Low settings, the drop is from 130 to 54 FPS, a 58% reduction. The consistent percentage loss indicates GPU-bound scaling.

Q: Does the Arc B570 outperform its closest rivals in Greedfall?

A: The synthetic benchmarks show the Arc B570 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (deltaPct 0.1) and Intel Arc A750 (deltaPct -0.1). The measured FPS in Greedfall is specific to this pairing and cannot be directly compared without rival GPU data.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever playable with this hardware?

A: Only at 1080p, where it averages 59 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra averages 41 FPS, and at 4K, it drops to 24 FPS, both of which are below acceptable smoothness for an action RPG.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for Greedfall with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Intel Arc B570 is as follows, organized by resolution and settings preset.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best performance. The Low preset averages 130 FPS, providing the highest headroom. Medium averages 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS and maximum of 117 FPS, showing tight frame pacing. High averages 92 FPS, which is still comfortably above 60. Ultra averages 59 FPS, which is the only 1080p preset that dips near the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low averages 90 FPS, which remains smooth. Medium averages 71 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS and maximum of 81 FPS, indicating consistent delivery. High averages 64 FPS, which is playable but leaves little room for demanding scenes. Ultra averages 41 FPS, which falls below the standard for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. Low averages 54 FPS, which is the only preset that stays near playable levels. Medium averages 42 FPS with a minimum of 36 FPS and maximum of 48 FPS, showing that frame drops are common. High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS, both of which are too slow for an action RPG.

The data set includes min/max values only for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the 87-117 FPS range shows a 30 FPS spread, indicating some scene complexity variation. At 1440p Medium, the 60-81 FPS range has a 21 FPS spread, showing tighter consistency. At 4K Medium, the 36-48 FPS range has a 12 FPS spread, meaning the GPU is consistently near its limit regardless of scene.

This configuration ranks 2344 out of 2938 combos for Greedfall, placing it in the lower half of all tested hardware pairings. The rank reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning, as the CPU is top-tier but cannot compensate for the graphics card's limitations at higher resolutions. The data is measured, not simulated, providing a reliable basis for these conclusions.