Greedfall

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a compelling 1080p and 1440p experience in Greedfall, but the data reveals a sharp drop-off at 4K that points directly at the GPU as the limiting factor. This combination ranks in the 54th percentile of tested configurations, sitting at rank 934 out of 1705 combos, which suggests a balanced pairing that excels at high-refresh-rate gaming but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at ultra-high resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases, with the most dramatic fall occurring between 1440p and 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 128.8 FPS at 1080p to 90.3 FPS at 1440p—a 30% reduction—and then plummets to 51.8 FPS at 4K, which represents another 43% loss. This pattern intensifies at Ultra settings, where the 1080p average of 85.6 FPS falls to 56 FPS at 1440p and collapses to 36.6 FPS at 4K.

The scaling behavior tells a clear story about component bottlenecks. At 1080p, the i5-12400F’s six P-cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the 180 FPS average at Low settings. However, the gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p—from 180 FPS down to 85.6 FPS—indicates that even at this resolution, graphical settings have a massive impact on performance, suggesting the RX 6700 XT is already the primary constraint. Moving to 4K, the frame rate at Low settings (73.7 FPS) barely exceeds the High setting at 1440p (90.3 FPS), confirming that pixel throughput, not CPU processing, governs performance at higher resolutions.

The most telling metric is the 4K Ultra result of 36.6 FPS, which falls well below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This isn't a CPU limitation—the processor’s 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and multi-thread score of 5912 indicate ample headroom—but rather the RX 6700 XT’s 192-bit memory bus and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth struggling with the sheer pixel count. The data suggests that 1440p represents the sweet spot for this combo, where the GPU can still push 90+ FPS at High settings without the CPU becoming a bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Greedfall?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the optimal resolution, delivering 90.3 FPS at High settings and 128.5 FPS at Low settings. At 4K, even Low settings only achieve 73.7 FPS, while Ultra drops to 36.6 FPS, making 1440p the clear choice for balanced visual quality and performance.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average frame rate drops from 128.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 51.8 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 60% reduction. This substantial loss indicates that the RX 6700 XT's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K gaming at this preset.

Q: Does the i5-12400F bottleneck the RX 6700 XT in this game?

A: The benchmark data suggests minimal CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 180 FPS, and the processor’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518 and single-core score of 2332 provide ample compute headroom. The frame rate scaling between resolutions aligns with GPU-bound behavior rather than CPU limitations.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: Medium settings produce 98.5 FPS, while Ultra drops to 56 FPS—a 43% reduction. This suggests that Ultra presets impose a significant rendering cost that the GPU cannot fully absorb at this resolution.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 934 out of 1705 tested combinations, placing it in the 54th percentile. This mid-pack ranking indicates that while the pairing is competent, it is not exceptional compared to other CPU-GPU combinations tested in Greedfall.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra preset playable with this hardware?

A: No. The measured 36.6 FPS average at 3840x2160 Ultra falls below the generally accepted 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Even at High settings, the 4K result of 51.8 FPS remains marginal, suggesting that 4K play requires reducing settings to Low, which yields 73.7 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear hierarchy of presets, with diminishing returns emerging at Ultra. At 1080p, Medium settings deliver 145.7 FPS, which is only 12% lower than the Low preset’s 180 FPS but likely provides significantly better visual quality. High settings at 1080p still achieve 128.8 FPS, making it the most balanced choice for competitive or fast-paced play. Ultra at 1080p drops to 85.6 FPS, which remains playable but sacrifices 33% of the frame rate compared to High for what is typically a marginal visual improvement.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts toward High settings, which produce 90.3 FPS—comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and only 8 FPS below the Medium result of 98.5 FPS. Ultra at 1440p falls to 56 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay and not worth the visual uplift. For 4K, the data suggests that only Low settings (73.7 FPS) provide a consistently playable experience, with Medium at 60.8 FPS hovering near the threshold and High at 51.8 FPS falling short.

The optimal strategy across all resolutions is to favor High settings over Ultra. The performance gap between High and Ultra is substantial—at 1080p, the difference is 43.2 FPS, and at 1440p it is 34.3 FPS—while the visual difference between these presets in an Action RPG like Greedfall is rarely worth such a significant frame rate penalty. Medium settings serve as a viable fallback for players prioritizing frame rate over fidelity, particularly at 1440p where it offers 98.5 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 934 out of 1705 tested combos, this pairing sits in the upper-middle tier of configurations evaluated in Greedfall. The 54th percentile placement indicates that a majority of tested combinations outperform it, but it also means this combo beats nearly half of all alternatives. This mid-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the hardware’s specifications—the RX 6700 XT’s 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 performance and the i5-12400F’s 77th percentile CPU ranking suggest a more favorable position.

The discrepancy between component-level benchmarks and in-game ranking points to Greedfall’s specific optimization patterns. The game appears to favor configurations with different performance characteristics than what this combo provides. The RX 6700 XT’s nearest rival, the RX 6800, scores only 0.7% higher in average benchmarks, yet the in-game performance may diverge due to how Greedfall utilizes GPU resources. Similarly, the i5-12400F’s closest competitor, the i7-8700K, scores within 0.1%, indicating that CPU choice is not the differentiator here.

The rank suggests that while this combo is fully capable of delivering excellent frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, it does not excel in the specific ways Greedfall rewards. The game’s Action RPG genre typically benefits from strong single-thread performance, which the i5-12400F provides (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332), but the mid-pack ranking implies that other combinations leverage architectural advantages that this pairing lacks.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and the data confirms that its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit memory bus are the primary constraints at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 384.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as evidenced by the strong frame rates, but the 4K results—particularly the 36.6 FPS at Ultra—expose the memory subsystem’s limitations. The 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs are well-suited for rasterization-heavy workloads, but Greedfall’s demands at 4K overwhelm the GPU’s pixel throughput.

The clock speeds tell an interesting story: the base clock of 2321 MHz and boost clock of 2581 MHz are among the higher frequencies in the RX 6000 series, with a game clock of 2424 MHz ensuring consistent performance under load. The 40 ray-tracing cores are present but likely underutilized in this game, as Greedfall’s 2019 release predates widespread RT adoption and the benchmark data does not separate RT performance. The GPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33721, places it solidly in the upper tier, yet the nearest rivals include the RX 6800 (0.7% higher) and the RTX A5000 (1.3% higher), indicating a tightly contested performance segment.

At 1080p, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as frame rates scale dramatically with settings—from 180 FPS at Low to 85.6 FPS at Ultra. This 52% reduction across presets demonstrates that the GPU’s compute resources are fully engaged even at lower resolutions. The 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 performance is competitive, but the 160 TMUs and 413.0 GTexel/s texture rate suggest that texture-heavy scenes could introduce bottlenecks not captured by average frame rate metrics.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 180 FPS at Low, 145.7 FPS at Medium, 128.8 FPS at High, and 85.6 FPS at Ultra. These figures show that dropping from Low to Medium costs 34.3 FPS (19%), while moving from Medium to High costs another 16.9 FPS (12%), and High to Ultra costs a substantial 43.2 FPS (34%). The disproportionate penalty at Ultra suggests inefficient rendering paths or excessive post-processing effects in the Ultra preset.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are 128.5 FPS (Low), 98.5 FPS (Medium), 90.3 FPS (High), and 56 FPS (Ultra). The transition from Low to Medium here costs 30 FPS (23%), which is proportionally larger than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the resolution increase. The High to Ultra drop of 34.3 FPS (38%) is even more severe, reinforcing the recommendation to stick with High settings at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are 73.7 FPS (Low), 60.8 FPS (Medium), 51.8 FPS (High), and 36.6 FPS (Ultra). The Low to Medium penalty is 12.9 FPS (18%), Medium to High is 9 FPS (15%), and High to Ultra is 15.2 FPS (29%). While the absolute frame rates are lower, the relative penalties between presets are smaller than at lower resolutions, which is characteristic of a GPU that is already fully saturated and cannot benefit from reduced settings as efficiently.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F provides a solid foundation for this gaming setup, with 6 cores and 12 threads operating at base and boost clocks of 2.50 GHz and 4.40 GHz respectively. The processor’s Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, delivers strong single-thread performance as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332 and Geekbench single-core score of 2221. These results place the CPU in the 77th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 19221.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-8700K (0.1% faster) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (0.7% slower), demonstrating that the i5-12400F sits in a highly competitive performance bracket. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide adequate data locality for gaming workloads, while the dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support ensures flexible platform compatibility. The 65W TDP suggests efficient power delivery, which is beneficial for sustained gaming sessions without thermal throttling.

In Greedfall specifically, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU, as the frame rate scaling between resolutions mirrors GPU-bound behavior. The processor’s 3DMark scores—5895 for 16 threads and 909 for single-thread—indicate it can comfortably handle the game’s AI, physics, and scene management overhead. At 1080p Low settings, the 180 FPS result confirms that the CPU is not limiting performance, as this frame rate would typically expose any processor bottleneck. The data suggests that the i5-12400F has sufficient headroom to support even more powerful GPUs, but in this pairing, it effectively complements the RX 6700 XT without becoming the weak link.