Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 action RPG from Spiders, presents an interesting case study for the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination. The data reveals a system that is capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1440p but struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K with maximum settings. The measured frame rates across resolutions and quality presets indicate a clear shift in bottleneck behavior, moving from a GPU-limited scenario at higher resolutions to a more balanced, yet still demanding, workload at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K demonstrates the expected pattern of a GPU-bound title, but with significant variations depending on the quality preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 217.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 87.5 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 59.7% reduction in performance. This substantial drop indicates that even at Low settings, the rendering resolution heavily taxes the GPU, with the pixel count increase from 2.1 million to 8.3 million being the primary factor. The CPU’s 32 threads and high boost clock are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p, but the sheer pixel throughput required at 4K overwhelms the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth.

The scaling pattern shifts when examining the High preset. Here, the frame rate falls from 156.9 FPS at 1080p to 105 FPS at 1440p, a 33.1% drop, and then further to 63.8 FPS at 4K, a 39.2% drop from 1440p. The less severe decline from 1440p to 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p suggests that the game's additional visual effects at High settings begin to equalize the load across the GPU's resources. The most demanding scenario is the Ultra preset, where performance plummets from 95.4 FPS at 1080p to 42.6 FPS at 4K, a 55.3% reduction. This result clearly shows that Ultra settings impose a rendering cost that the RTX 3070 Ti cannot sustain at higher resolutions, likely due to the combination of pixel count and advanced shading effects.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the system is not purely GPU-limited. The 217.2 FPS result at Low settings approaches the refresh rate ceiling of many monitors but still leaves headroom, indicating the CPU is keeping up effectively. However, as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the definitive limiting component. The 63.8 FPS average at 4K High is playable, but the 42.6 FPS at 4K Ultra falls below the 60 FPS threshold that most gamers consider the minimum for smooth action gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti achieves a rank of 667 out of 1705 tested combos for Greedfall. This places the system in the upper portion of the rankings, specifically in the 60.9th percentile. The ranking indicates that while this configuration provides a solid gaming experience, it is not among the top-tier setups for this particular title. The presence of the RTX 3070 Ti, which holds a 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs, and the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, which holds a 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, might suggest a higher overall position.

The discrepancy between the individual component percentiles and the combo rank highlights how game-specific optimization and the balance between CPU and GPU capabilities influence the final outcome. The combo’s performance is likely held back by the GPU’s inability to fully utilize the CPU’s immense processing power at higher resolutions. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270, has a 0.9% higher average benchmark score, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 1.8% behind, suggesting the CPU is performing as expected. However, the GPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, is only 0.3% ahead, while the RTX 3070 Ti is 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6700. This tight grouping around the GPU’s performance level indicates that the graphics card is the primary factor preventing this combo from ranking higher.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It features a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, which provides substantial single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 8430. This high boost clock is critical for gaming, as many titles, including Greedfall, rely on one or a few threads for main game logic. The processor’s 128 MB of shared L3 cache is also a significant asset, reducing memory latency and improving performance in data-intensive workloads.

In Greedfall, the CPU’s role appears to be sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck at the resolutions tested. The measured FPS at 1080p Low of 217.2 FPS demonstrates that the CPU can drive the GPU to high frame rates. However, the game is not heavily multithreaded, as the CPU’s 3DMark scores show a scaling pattern that plateaus after 8 threads, with a score of 9259 for 8 threads compared to 17184 for max threads. This suggests that the game’s engine may not utilize all 32 threads effectively. The PassMark multi-thread score of 70255 and the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 59712 indicate the CPU is extremely powerful for multi-threaded applications, but Greedfall does not appear to be one of them.

The CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals is competitive. It is 1.8% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X in average benchmark score, but 1.9% behind the Intel Xeon 6517P. This positioning shows that the 9950X3D is at the top of its class, but the gaming performance is more dependent on the GPU. The 170 W TDP and the requirement for a robust cooling solution are considerations for system builders, but they do not directly impact frame rates in this analysis.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system’s performance across three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptionally high frame rates. The Low preset achieves 217.2 FPS, which is 38.6% higher than the High preset’s 156.9 FPS. The Medium preset produces 171 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 95.4 FPS. This spread of 121.8 FPS between the lowest and highest settings indicates that the game’s visual fidelity has a massive impact on performance at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected decline. The Low preset yields 149.1 FPS, which is 31.4% lower than the 1080p result. The High preset produces 105 FPS, a 33.1% drop, and the Medium preset delivers 114.5 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 70.1 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 26.5% drop from the 1080p Ultra result. The performance gap between the High and Ultra presets at this resolution is 34.9 FPS, showing that the Ultra settings impose a significant cost.

At 3840x2160, the system begins to struggle with the higher presets. The Low preset still manages 87.5 FPS, which is playable, but the High preset falls to 63.8 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset achieves 72.8 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 42.6 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for many users. The performance difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 44.9 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU is heavily taxed by the combination of high resolution and high-quality settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is based on the Ampere architecture and features the GA104 chip. It has 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1575 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, with memory running at 1188 MHz for an effective data rate of 19 Gbps. The 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s, which is substantial for a mid-range to high-end card.

In Greedfall, the GPU’s performance is the primary determinant of frame rates at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 42.6 FPS is clearly GPU-limited, as the rendering load exceeds what the card can handle. The 8 GB VRAM capacity may also be a factor, as Greedfall’s high-resolution textures and effects can consume significant memory. The GPU’s 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is not sufficient to maintain 60 FPS at 4K with Ultra settings, but it is more than adequate for 1440p and 1080p gaming.

The GPU’s benchmark scores show it performing in the mid-range of graphics cards, with a PassMark G3D score of 23356 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3478. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, is only 0.3% ahead in average benchmark score, while the RTX 3070 Ti is 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6700 and 0.9% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M5000. This tight grouping suggests that the RTX 3070 Ti is well-positioned in its performance class, but it is not a top-tier card for 4K gaming. The 290 W TDP and dual-slot design are notable characteristics, but the performance data is what matters most for this analysis.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Greedfall?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 217.2, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, but only at Low, Medium, and High settings. The Low preset averages 87.5 FPS, Medium averages 72.8 FPS, and High averages 63.8 FPS. The Ultra preset falls below 60 FPS, averaging 42.6 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D has an average benchmark score that is 1.8% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and 0.9% higher than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1440p and 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 105 at 2560x1440 to 63.8 at 3840x2160, a 39.2% reduction in performance.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the system appears to be more balanced. The CPU can drive the GPU to 217.2 FPS at Low settings, but the GPU’s performance at Ultra settings (95.4 FPS) suggests that the graphics card is still the primary constraint.

Q: What percentile does the GPU rank among all tested GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks in the 74th percentile among all GPUs, indicating it performs better than the majority of graphics cards.