Greedfall

Greedfall, an Action RPG from 2019, presents a fascinating case study for the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination. The measured data reveals a pairing that is heavily influenced by resolution and settings, with the GPU typically acting as the primary performance gatekeeper, though the CPU's capabilities become more apparent at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the benchmark results to understand the dynamic between these two components in this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about which component is the limiting factor in this pairing. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 170 FPS at 1920x1080 to 118 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 70 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 58.8% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest resolution tested. Such a steep decline indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is being pushed harder as pixel count increases, and its rendering capabilities become the bottleneck.

The scaling pattern is even more pronounced when examining the Low settings data. The average FPS at 1080p is 238, which drops to 165 at 1440p and then to 98 at 4K. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is a 30.7% decrease, while the jump from 1440p to 4K is a further 40.6% reduction. This non-linear behavior suggests that at 1080p with Low settings, the system has plenty of headroom, and the frame rate is likely being constrained by something other than pure GPU throughput, possibly the CPU or other system-level limits. However, as resolution climbs, the GPU's workload increases exponentially, making it the definitive limiting component at 4K.

At Ultra settings, the trend continues but with lower absolute numbers. The average FPS at 1080p is 108, which decreases to 75 at 1440p and then plummets to 45 at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K here is a 40% drop, showing that even the RTX 3080's substantial memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s and 10 GB of GDDR6X memory are challenged by the combination of the highest settings and the highest resolution. The data implies that for gamers targeting 4K, even this high-end GPU will require careful settings management to maintain playable frame rates, while 1080p and 1440p offer much more comfortable performance margins.

GPU Role

The GeForce RTX 3080 is the undisputed workhorse in this configuration, and its specifications directly correlate with the measured performance. With a boost clock of 1710 MHz and 8704 shading units, the GPU has immense raw compute power, which is reflected in the high frame rates at lower resolutions. The 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s, a figure that becomes critical when loading high-resolution textures in Greedfall. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 45, suggesting that the memory capacity or bandwidth might be a limiting factor when the game demands the largest assets and most complex effects.

The GPU's performance percentile of 68 versus all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 23172, place it as a strong performer, though its nearest rivals in the database (NVIDIA P106-100, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, AMD Radeon RX 6600M) show scores that are within 0.4% delta, indicating that the synthetic benchmarks may not fully capture the gaming experience. In Greedfall specifically, the RTX 3080 demonstrates a clear ability to handle 1440p High settings with a 118 FPS average, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. The GPU's role is less about being a bottleneck at 1080p, where the CPU may be more involved, and more about defining the ceiling for 4K performance, where the frame rate is directly tied to its rendering speed.

The fact that the RTX 3080 has a TDP of 320 W and requires a 700 W power supply suggests it is a power-hungry component, but the benchmark data indicates that this power is being effectively translated into frame rate. The transition from Medium to High settings at 1440p results in a mere 9.2% drop in average FPS (from 130 to 118), which is a small price for potentially better visual fidelity. However, the jump from High to Ultra at the same resolution is a severe 36.4% drop (from 118 to 75), a clear sign that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that disproportionately tax the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience in Greedfall for this hardware depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the High preset is the clear sweet spot, delivering an average of 170 FPS. This is a massive 57.4% improvement over the Ultra preset's 108 FPS, and it still provides a substantial margin above the 187 FPS seen at Medium. The Low preset at 1080p offers 238 FPS, but this is likely to come with significant visual compromises that are not worth the extra performance for most users. The data suggests that High at 1080p provides an excellent balance, as the frame rate is already far beyond what most displays can show.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset appears to be the most balanced option. It achieves an average of 130 FPS with a minimum of 110 and a maximum of 149, ensuring consistent performance. The High preset at 1440p is also viable at 118 FPS, but the data shows that the jump to Ultra is punishing, dropping to 75 FPS. The recommendation would be to favor High or Medium at 1440p to maintain high refresh rates, as the difference between Medium and High is only 12 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is 43 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more delicate. The High preset yields an average of 70 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The Medium preset provides 77 FPS, which is a slight improvement. However, the Ultra preset is not recommended, as it drops to 45 FPS, which could feel sluggish. The Low preset at 4K achieves 98 FPS, but this likely sacrifices too much visual quality. For 4K, the data indicates that Medium or High settings are the best choices, as they keep the average FPS in a playable range without the severe penalties of Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frames paints a detailed picture of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 238 at Low to 108 at Ultra. The Medium setting shows an average of 187 FPS with a minimum of 159 and a maximum of 215, while High achieves 170 FPS. There is a clear pattern of diminishing returns as settings increase, with the largest gap being between Medium and Ultra, a 42.2% drop in performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 165 at Low, 130 at Medium, 118 at High, and 75 at Ultra. The Medium setting again has the only measured minimum and maximum values, at 110 and 149 respectively. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 54.5% reduction in frame rate, which highlights how demanding the Ultra preset is on the GPU at this resolution. The High preset maintains a respectable average, but the data shows that the step from High to Ultra is the most punishing in terms of performance loss.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops to 98 at Low, 77 at Medium, 70 at High, and 45 at Ultra. The Medium setting has a minimum of 66 and a maximum of 89, showing some variance but overall stability. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is a 54.1% reduction, mirroring the pattern seen at 1440p. The measured data indicates that this combo can handle 4K, but only with a significant compromise in settings, as even High settings result in an average below 75 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Greedfall, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 1064 out of 3703 total combos. This puts it in the top 28.7% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing but not at the very top tier. The ranking suggests that while this hardware is capable, there are many other combinations that can achieve higher frame rates in this game, likely involving more powerful CPUs or GPUs.

The rank of 1064 indicates that this combo is better than average, but the performance data shows it is not a top-tier contender for Greedfall. The CPU's percentile of 72 versus all CPUs and the GPU's percentile of 68 versus all GPUs suggest both components are above the median, but their combination does not push the system into the elite bracket. The data implies that for users seeking the absolute highest frame rates, particularly at 1080p, a more powerful processor might be needed to unlock the full potential of the RTX 3080.

The fact that the combo ranks in the top 30% demonstrates the balanced nature of the i5-12400 and RTX 3080, but the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (45 FPS) shows that it is not an uncompromising 4K machine. This rank should give potential users a realistic expectation of where this system stands relative to other hardware configurations in this specific title, which is a useful metric for decision-making.

FAQ

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

A: The average frame rate at 1920x1080 with High settings is 170 FPS, which provides a very smooth experience for most monitors.

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

A: Yes, it can play at 4K, but the average FPS is 77 at Medium settings and 70 at High settings. The Ultra preset drops to 45 FPS, which may be too low for comfortable play.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves an average of 118 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops significantly to 75 FPS. This is a 36.4% reduction in performance for the highest settings.

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh rate gaming?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with High settings delivers 170 FPS, and the Low preset reaches 238 FPS. For the highest frame rates, 1080p is the most suitable resolution.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only minimum FPS values recorded are for the Medium settings: 66 FPS at 4K, 110 FPS at 1440p, and 159 FPS at 1080p.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: This combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 1064 out of 3703 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the top 28.7% of systems.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 plays a crucial, though often secondary, role in this game's performance. With 6 cores and 12 threads, and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, this processor is more than capable of feeding the RTX 3080, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as 15989 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2257 in singlecore, show it has solid processing power for gaming workloads. Its percentile of 72 versus all CPUs indicates it is a better-than-average processor, but not a top-tier enthusiast chip.

The evidence of the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p with Low settings, where the average FPS reaches 238. This high frame rate suggests that the CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by its 910 score in 3dmark_single_thread, is sufficient to handle the game's logic and draw calls at high speed. However, the fact that the frame rate at 1080p Low (238) is not significantly higher than at 1440p Low (165) indicates that the GPU is still a limiting factor, even at the lowest resolution. The i5-12400's 18 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory likely provide ample bandwidth for the game's data.

The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 7643 and Intel Core i7-1355U, have average scores within 0.3% of the i5-12400, which suggests that in synthetic benchmarks, this processor is on par with many other options. In Greedfall, the data implies that the CPU is not a weak link, as the system can achieve high frame rates at 1080p. The main performance limitation is clearly the GPU when moving to higher resolutions or more demanding settings. The i5-12400 provides a solid foundation, allowing the RTX 3080 to stretch its legs, but it does not appear to be the component that holds the system back in this title.