Greedfall

Greedfall on the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT shows a combination that scales predictably with resolution, but with a notable cliff at the highest settings. The data indicates a system that is firmly capable at 1080p and 1440p, yet struggles to maintain fluidity at 4K Ultra. The measured FPS values across the spectrum reveal that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom for the game's engine at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 demonstrates a steep performance curve that is typical for a mid-range GPU paired with a capable modern CPU. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 113 FPS at 1080p to 78 FPS at 1440p, and further down to 47 FPS at 4K. This represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 58% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, which suggests that the rendering load increases disproportionately with pixel count, a common trait for action RPGs with dense environments.

When examining Low settings, the pattern becomes more revealing. The average FPS at 1080p is 158, which drops to 109 FPS at 1440p and 65 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31%, and from 1080p to 4K is 59%. These figures are nearly identical to the High preset scaling, indicating that the resolution itself, rather than the graphical features, is the dominant factor in performance degradation. This behavior points to a fill-rate limitation; the GPU's 64 ROPs and 280.3 GB/s memory bandwidth are being saturated as the pixel count increases, regardless of the complexity of the shaders.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend, with average FPS values of 124, 86, and 51 for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31%, and to 4K is 59%. The consistency of these percentages across Low, Medium, and High presets strongly suggests that the limiting component at these resolutions is the GPU's memory subsystem and pixel throughput, not the CPU or the game's logic. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to be more than sufficient to feed the GPU at all tested resolutions, as evidenced by the relatively small performance gaps when settings are lowered.

The Ultra preset tells a different story. At 1080p, it achieves 72 FPS, which drops to 50 FPS at 1440p and 30 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31%, but the drop from 1080p to 4K is 58%. While the relative percentages are similar, the absolute values are much lower, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces additional rendering features that heavily tax the GPU. The 4K Ultra result of 30 FPS is a critical threshold, suggesting that this configuration is not suited for maximum quality at the highest resolution.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, the High preset at 1440p emerges as the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance. With an average of 78 FPS, this setting provides a smooth and responsive gameplay experience while maintaining a high level of graphical detail. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs only 8 FPS (from 86 to 78), which is a reasonable trade-off for the improved visual quality. In contrast, the jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs 28 FPS (from 78 to 50), which is a significant reduction for what may be a marginal visual improvement.

At 1080p, the High preset is the clear winner, delivering 113 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a fluid experience for fast-paced combat. The Medium preset offers 124 FPS, but the visual downgrade is noticeable in a game like Greedfall, which relies heavily on atmospheric lighting and detailed textures. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 72 FPS, is still playable but does not offer a substantial enough benefit over High to justify the 36% performance penalty.

For users with 4K displays, the data suggests that High settings are the practical ceiling, with 47 FPS being borderline for a smooth experience. The Medium preset at 51 FPS offers a slight improvement, but the Low preset at 65 FPS is the only 4K option that consistently stays above 60 FPS. However, dropping to Low at 4K sacrifices significant visual detail, which may not be acceptable for a game that emphasizes exploration and world-building. The Ultra preset at 4K, with an average of 30 FPS, should be avoided for any serious gameplay.

The measured FPS ranges for the Medium preset provide additional insight. At 1080p, the minimum FPS is 105 and the maximum is 143, indicating a stable frame time distribution. At 1440p, the range is 73 to 99, which is still acceptable. At 4K, the range narrows to 44 to 59, showing that the system is pushing against its limits. This data supports the recommendation to use High settings at 1440p as the primary target, as it offers a comfortable margin above the minimum FPS thresholds.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, plays a decisive role in Greedfall's performance. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. This bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gameplay, but the 4K results indicate that the memory bus becomes a limiting factor. The 128-bit bus width is narrow for 4K rendering, which requires significant data throughput for textures and shader data.

The GPU's clock speeds are relatively high, with a base clock of 2055 MHz and a boost clock of 2635 MHz. The game clock is listed at 2410 MHz, which is the expected sustained frequency during gaming loads. These clocks contribute to the GPU's FP32 performance of 10.79 TFLOPS, which is sufficient for the rasterization-heavy workloads of Greedfall. The GPU's 2048 shading units and 128 TMUs are well balanced for this title, as evidenced by the strong 1080p and 1440p scores.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is a critical consideration for the Ultra preset at 4K. The average FPS of 30 at 4K Ultra suggests that the GPU is likely hitting a memory capacity or bandwidth wall. While Greedfall is not typically a VRAM-heavy game, the Ultra preset likely increases texture sizes and shadow quality, which can exceed the 8 GB buffer at 4K. The data shows a significant drop from Medium (51 FPS) to Ultra (30 FPS) at 4K, which is a 41% reduction, more than the 31% reduction seen when moving from High to Ultra at 1080p (from 113 to 72 FPS). This disproportionate drop indicates that the Ultra preset at 4K is where the GPU's memory subsystem fails to keep up.

The GPU's performance relative to other tested components is moderate. Its average benchmark score of 19765 puts it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla K40m, which it trails by 0.6%, and the AMD FirePro D300, which it leads by 0.7%. These are professional-grade cards, not gaming equivalents, which suggests that the RX 6650 XT's gaming performance is not directly comparable to these workstation parts. In the context of Greedfall, the GPU's role is to handle the pixel processing, and the data indicates that it is the bottleneck at 4K, but not at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT deliver strong performance across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 158 FPS, which is exceptionally high and indicates that the GPU is not being stressed. The Medium preset averages 124 FPS, with a minimum of 105 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. The High preset averages 113 FPS, which is ideal for a 144Hz monitor. The Ultra preset averages 72 FPS, which is still smooth but shows the GPU beginning to work harder. The data shows a clear progression: 158, 124, 113, 72 for Low, Medium, High, and Ultra respectively.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains solid but shows the expected decline. The Low preset averages 109 FPS, which is a 31% drop from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 86 FPS, with a minimum of 73 FPS and a maximum of 99 FPS. The High preset averages 78 FPS, which is a 31% drop from the 1080p High result. The Ultra preset averages 50 FPS, which is a 31% drop from the 1080p Ultra result. The consistency of the 31% drop across all settings confirms that the GPU is the primary limiter at this resolution, as the CPU headroom is not exhausted.

At 3840x2160, the system shows its limitations. The Low preset averages 65 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that approaches playable smoothness. The Medium preset averages 51 FPS, with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 59 FPS. The High preset averages 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for most users. The Ultra preset averages 30 FPS, which is a stuttery experience for an action RPG. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K is 65, 51, 47, 30, showing a steep decline at the Ultra tier.

The data for the Medium preset provides the only min/max FPS values in the entire set. At 1080p, the range is 105 to 143, which is a 38 FPS spread. At 1440p, the range is 73 to 99, a 26 FPS spread. At 4K, the range is 44 to 59, a 15 FPS spread. This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is consistently working at its limit, with less variance in frame times because there is no headroom to produce higher peaks.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos for Greedfall, the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination ranks 2408 out of 3703 total configurations. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems, which is surprising given its strong 1080p performance. The rank of 2408 indicates that there are 2407 combos that achieve higher average FPS across the test suite, but this rank is heavily influenced by the 4K results, which drag down the overall average.

The combo's rank of 2408 out of 3703 means it is in the 65th percentile of all tested combos, meaning it performs better than 65% of the systems tested. This is a respectable position, but it is importantly the ranking likely includes high-end systems with much more powerful GPUs. The CPU's own percentile rank is 72, while the GPU's is 65, which suggests that the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in this pairing. However, the combo rank being lower than both individual component percentiles indicates that the GPU's weaknesses at 4K are dragging down the overall system performance in this specific game.

The data shows that this combo is not optimized for 4K gaming, but it is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p. The rank would likely be much higher if the test suite weighted 1080p and 1440p results more heavily. The 4K Ultra result of 30 FPS is a significant outlier that pulls the average down. For a user targeting 1080p or 1440p, this combo would likely rank in the top 30% of all tested systems, but the database's aggregate ranking does not reflect that nuance.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The average FPS is 113 at 1920x1080 with High settings, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is this combination suitable for 4K gaming?

A: The data shows that 4K gaming is only viable on Low settings, with an average of 65 FPS. At High settings, the average drops to 47 FPS, and at Ultra, it falls to 30 FPS, which is not recommended.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: The performance drop is consistent at 31% across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets, indicating a GPU-bound scenario at 1440p.

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

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 achieves an average of 78 FPS, which is the best balance for a 144Hz display, as the Ultra preset only reaches 50 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU limit the GPU in this game?

A: No, the data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck. The i5-12400's 6 cores and 12 threads provide sufficient headroom, as evidenced by the large FPS gains when lowering settings at 1080p.

Q: Why is the 4K Ultra FPS so low compared to 4K High?

A: The drop from 47 FPS at High to 30 FPS at Ultra represents a 36% reduction, which is larger than the 31% reduction seen at other resolutions, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional features exhaust the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 serves as a stable foundation for the Radeon RX 6650 XT in Greedfall. With 6 cores and 12 threads, this CPU provides enough parallelism for the game's engine, which is not known to be heavily multi-threaded. The base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz offer a strong single-thread performance, which is critical for games like Greedfall that rely on a primary game thread for physics and AI calculations.

The CPU's cache hierarchy, including an L3 cache of 18 MB shared across the cores, helps reduce memory latency for frequently accessed data. This is particularly important in open-world sections of the game, where the CPU must manage streaming and object culling. The benchmark scores for the i5-12400 show a single-thread score of 3456 in PassMark, which is robust for a mid-range desktop processor. Its multi-thread score of 18747 indicates that it can handle background tasks while gaming without causing frame drops.

In the context of Greedfall, the CPU's role is to maintain a minimum frame rate floor, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 158 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game. The fact that the FPS does not increase linearly when dropping from Medium to Low at 1080p (124 to 158 FPS) suggests that the CPU is starting to become a secondary limiter at these extreme frame rates, but it is not a primary concern.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7643, which it trails by 0.1%, and the Intel Core i7-1355U, which it trails by 0.3%. These are not direct gaming competitors, but they show that the i5-12400's average benchmark score of 18683 is competitive with a wide range of processors. The CPU's percentile rank of 72 means it outperforms 72% of all CPUs in the database, making it a solid choice for this GPU pairing. The CPU's TDP of 65 W is modest, which means it will not cause thermal throttling in most systems, allowing the boost clock of 4.40 GHz to be sustained during extended gaming sessions.