Greedfall

# Greedfall with Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

This combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER lands at rank 320 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it comfortably in the top 19% of all configurations. The pairing shows a fundamental balance: the six-core Comet Lake processor provides solid CPU throughput while the Ada Lovelace GPU handles the visual heavy lifting, resulting in frame rates that range from playable at 4K Ultra to exceptionally high at 1080p Low. The data reveals a system that scales predictably across resolutions, with the GPU becoming the dominant factor as resolution increases, though the CPU's 12 threads demonstrate they are not a bottleneck even at lower settings where frame rates exceed 270 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 320 out of 1705 tested combinations places this system in the 81st percentile of all configurations tested in Greedfall. This is a strong showing, especially considering the CPU's individual percentile ranking of 73 against all CPUs tested, while the GPU sits at the 84th percentile against all GPUs. The gap between the CPU's lower percentile and the GPU's higher percentile suggests the graphics card is doing most of the heavy lifting, yet the overall combo rank exceeds what the CPU alone would suggest—indicating that Greedfall's engine scales well with GPU power even when paired with a mid-range processor.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 14168 places it in close competition with several rivals: it trails the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C by 0.8% (which scores 14277) and the Intel Core i5-8500 by 1.1% (scoring 14332), while slightly edging out the AMD EPYC 7552 by 0.4% (scoring 14115). These margins are negligible in real-world gaming, meaning the processor is performing exactly as expected for its class. The GPU's average score of 42576 puts it within 0.2% of the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (42653) and 0.3% of the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (42723), while leading the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4% and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 1.6%. This clustering indicates the RTX 4070 SUPER is delivering performance consistent with its tier.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER brings 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and the memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute reaching 35.48 TFLOPS. In Greedfall, this hardware configuration produces frame rates that clearly favor higher resolutions—the 12 GB VRAM capacity is never strained, and the memory bandwidth supports smooth texture streaming even at 4K.

The GPU's 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs, combined with its benchmark scores (PassMark G3D of 29995, Geekbench OpenCL of 192684, and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 of 4627), indicates strong raw performance. The 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores are present but Greedfall, being a 2019 title, does not heavily utilize these features. Instead, the traditional rasterization performance shines through, as evidenced by the substantial frame rate differences between settings presets—the GPU's 80 ROPs and 224 TMUs handle the game's art style efficiently.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear hierarchy across settings presets at each resolution, with Ultra settings exacting a significant performance penalty. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 123.4 FPS average, which drops to 85.2 FPS at 1440p and 51.2 FPS at 4K. The High preset offers substantially better performance: 198 FPS at 1080p, 134.5 FPS at 1440p, and 84 FPS at 4K. For most users, the High preset represents the optimal balance—it maintains frame rates above 60 FPS even at 4K while providing the visual improvements over Medium.

Medium settings show performance between High and Low: 218.8 FPS at 1080p, 153.1 FPS at 1440p, and 92.9 FPS at 4K. The Low preset pushes frame rates to 273.4 FPS at 1080p, 193.3 FPS at 1440p, and 112.6 FPS at 4K. Given that the High preset at 4K already achieves 84 FPS, and the visual quality difference between High and Ultra is typically less noticeable than the 33 FPS performance gap at 4K, High is the recommended preset for this combination. Players with 144Hz monitors at 1440p will find High settings (134.5 FPS) nearly saturate their display's refresh rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination produces an average of 273.4 FPS on Low settings, 218.8 FPS on Medium, 198 FPS on High, and 123.4 FPS on Ultra. These numbers demonstrate that even at the highest preset, the system comfortably exceeds 120 FPS, making 1080p gaming exceptionally smooth regardless of settings choice.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show greater differentiation between presets. Low settings yield 193.3 FPS, Medium produces 153.1 FPS, High achieves 134.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 85.2 FPS. The transition from High to Ultra at this resolution represents a 49.3 FPS loss, highlighting the significant cost of the Ultra preset's additional effects.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve steepens considerably. Low settings average 112.6 FPS, Medium reaches 92.9 FPS, High maintains 84 FPS, and Ultra falls to 51.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the entire dataset that dips below 60 FPS, making it marginal for smooth gameplay. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 61.4 FPS, compared to 150 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck characteristics. At High settings, frame rates drop from 198 FPS at 1080p to 134.5 FPS at 1440p (a 32% reduction), then to 84 FPS at 4K (a 37.5% reduction from 1440p). This scaling pattern suggests the GPU is becoming increasingly load-bound as resolution increases, which is typical for a title where pixel throughput dominates.

The Low settings preset shows a similar but less dramatic scaling: 273.4 FPS at 1080p, 193.3 FPS at 1440p (29.3% drop), and 112.6 FPS at 4K (41.7% drop from 1440p). The fact that frame rates exceed 270 FPS at 1080p Low indicates the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU sufficiently even at very high frame rates, meaning the i5-10400F is not limiting performance at lower resolutions. The larger percentage drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings (41.7%) compared to High (37.5%) suggests that at lower settings, where the GPU has less work per pixel, the resolution scaling becomes more pronounced—confirming the GPU as the limiting factor in this configuration.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for Greedfall's requirements. The CPU's benchmark results show a capable mid-range processor: Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297, single-core of 1453, Geekbench multicore of 5783, and PassMark multithread of 12115. These scores place it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals within a 1.2% performance band.

In Greedfall, the CPU's 12 threads are more than sufficient, as evidenced by the high frame rates achieved even at 1080p Low (273.4 FPS). The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4748 and max-thread score of 4735 indicate that the processor maintains consistent performance across all threads, which benefits games that utilize multiple cores for AI and physics. The single-thread performance, measured at 688 in 3DMark and 1453 in Cinebench R23, ensures that the game's primary game logic thread does not become a bottleneck. The 65W TDP and DDR4 memory support make this a practical pairing, though the CPU's PCIe Gen 3 interface (16 lanes) technically limits bandwidth compared to newer Gen 4 platforms—though this does not appear to impact Greedfall's performance based on the measured results.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in Greedfall?

A: Yes, at High settings the system averages 84 FPS at 3840x2160, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, Ultra settings drop to 51.2 FPS, so 4K Ultra is not recommended.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals?

A: The i5-10400F (average score 14168) trails the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C by 0.8% and the Intel Core i5-8500 by 1.1%, while leading the AMD EPYC 7552 by 0.4%. These differences are within 1.2% of each other, indicating near-parity performance.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 144Hz 1440p monitor?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 produce 134.5 FPS, which is close to 144Hz. Medium settings yield 153.1 FPS, exceeding the 144Hz threshold, while Ultra drops to 85.2 FPS. Medium or High would be optimal depending on visual preference.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the system achieves 273.4 FPS, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU effectively even at high frame rates. The data shows the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, with no evidence of CPU bottlenecking.

Q: How much performance is lost going from Ultra to High at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Ultra averages 51.2 FPS while High averages 84 FPS, representing a 32.8 FPS gain by dropping from Ultra to High—a 64% performance improvement with reduced visual effects.

Q: What is the GPU's nearest competitor in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER (average score 42576) is within 0.2% of the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (42653) and 0.3% of the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (42723). It leads the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4% and NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 1.6%.