Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 Action RPG from Spiders, presents an interesting test for the Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 pairing. The measured data shows this combination is capable of solid performance, though the balance between CPU and GPU shifts dramatically depending on resolution and settings. The combo ranks 1672 out of 2938 tested combinations for this game, placing it in the upper half of all systems. The benchmark results reveal a configuration that can handle high refresh rates at 1080p but becomes progressively more GPU-bound as resolution increases, ultimately struggling to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The processor features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 18 MB L3 cache. This CPU holds a 73rd percentile ranking among all processors, indicating it is a mid-to-upper tier performer for gaming workloads.

Synthetic benchmarks for the i5-12400F show a strong single-threaded foundation, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1680. Multi-threaded performance scales well with its 12 threads, demonstrated by a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 12380 and a Geekbench multicore score of 9472. The processor's Passmark multithread score of 19433 and 3DMark max threads score of 5912 confirm its capability to handle modern game engines that utilize multiple cores.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role becomes evident when examining performance at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 167 FPS, which is significantly higher than at 4K Ultra (31 FPS). This massive gap indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding frames to the GPU faster than the GPU can render them, but the system is not entirely CPU-limited. The processor's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with an average score of 19047 (0% delta) and the Intel Core 3 201E with an average score of 19056 (-0.1% delta), showing the i5-12400F sits in a competitive performance tier for its class.

The 65W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility make this a mainstream desktop processor. Its memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 provides flexibility, though the benchmark data does not specify which memory type was used in testing. The CPU's PCIe Gen 5 support with 20 lanes ensures the GPU has ample bandwidth for data transfer. For an Action RPG like Greedfall, which features complex AI and physics calculations, the 12 threads provide sufficient parallel processing capability to avoid becoming a bottleneck in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which settings preset delivers the optimal experience. At 1080p, the High preset achieves 119 FPS, which is 43 FPS below the Low preset's 167 FPS but still comfortably above 60 FPS for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 131 FPS, offering a 12 FPS improvement over High while presumably maintaining better visual quality than Low. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 76 FPS, which remains playable but shows a significant 55 FPS penalty compared to High.

For 1440p gaming, the High preset produces 83 FPS, which is excellent for a 1440p monitor. The Medium preset at 1440p achieves 91 FPS, providing a 8 FPS advantage over High with only a modest visual trade-off. The Low preset at 1440p hits 116 FPS, but this seems unnecessary given that High already delivers a smooth experience. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 53 FPS, which dips below the ideal 60 FPS threshold and may result in noticeable stuttering during intense combat sequences.

The data suggests that the High preset is the sweet spot for this CPU-GPU combination across all resolutions. At 4K, High yields 49 FPS, which is marginally below 60 FPS but still playable for a story-driven RPG. The Medium preset at 4K produces 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and maximum of 62 FPS, providing a slightly more stable frame rate range than High. The Low preset at 4K offers 69 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, but it sacrifices significant visual fidelity.

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset appears to be the recommended choice at 4K, while High is ideal for 1080p and 1440p. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as the 31 FPS at 4K and 53 FPS at 1440p fail to provide a smooth experience, and even at 1080p the 76 FPS result does not justify the visual improvements over High. The measured data indicates that Greedfall's High settings offer diminishing returns compared to Medium, making Medium the most efficient preset for maintaining high frame rates without excessive visual compromise.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling pattern reveals critical information about which component limits performance in Greedfall. At High settings, the system delivers 119 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 49 FPS at 4K. This represents a 30% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 41% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as pixel count rises.

For Low settings, the progression is 167 FPS at 1080p, 116 FPS at 1440p, and 69 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 31%, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 41%, similar to the High preset's scaling. The Medium preset shows 131 FPS at 1080p, 91 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K, with drops of 31% and 41% respectively. This consistent scaling pattern across settings suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The Ultra preset exhibits the most dramatic scaling, with 76 FPS at 1080p dropping to 53 FPS at 1440p (30% drop) and then to 31 FPS at 4K (42% drop). The fact that even at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate is only 76 FPS indicates that the RX 9060's raw compute power (21.43 TFLOPS FP32) is being taxed heavily by the game's Ultra settings. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth may also contribute to the performance degradation at 4K, where higher resolution textures demand more memory bandwidth.

The scaling data strongly suggests that the AMD Radeon RX 9060 is the limiting component in this system. At 1080p, the CPU can push frame rates well above 100 FPS on lower settings, but the GPU cannot maintain those rates at higher resolutions. The 49 FPS at 4K High and 31 FPS at 4K Ultra indicate that this GPU is not designed for 4K gaming at maximum settings. The system performs best when the resolution is kept to 1440p or below, where the GPU can maintain playable frame rates while the CPU provides adequate headroom for game logic and AI calculations.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the expected performance of this CPU-GPU combo at 1080p Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows 131 FPS average at 1080p Medium, with a minimum of 112 FPS and maximum of 151 FPS, providing a consistently smooth experience.

Q: Is the RX 9060 capable of handling Greedfall at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No, the benchmark results show only 31 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is below the minimum threshold for smooth gameplay. Even 4K High only achieves 49 FPS.

Q: How does the Core i5-12400F compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS?

A: The two processors have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with the i5-12400F scoring 19039 and the Ryzen 5 7535HS scoring 19047, a difference of 0%.

Q: What is the best resolution to play Greedfall with this hardware for a 60+ FPS experience?

A: The 1440p High preset delivers 83 FPS, which is well above 60 FPS. For 4K, only the Low preset achieves 69 FPS, so 1440p is the recommended resolution for high quality with smooth performance.

Q: Does the RX 9060 outperform the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, while the RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129, meaning the RTX 3060 Ti is 0.7% faster on average.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance in Cinebench R23 reflect on gaming capability?

A: The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 12380 indicates strong multi-threaded performance, which supports the 167 FPS result at 1080p Low settings, showing the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 4 nm process node. The GPU features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 28 ray tracing cores. Its boost clock reaches 2990 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz and base clock of 1700 MHz. The memory operates at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth from its 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial, with 21.43 TFLOPS FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s. The texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s allows for efficient handling of detailed textures in Greedfall's environments. The GPU holds a 59th percentile ranking among all graphics cards, placing it in the mid-range tier. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which scores 16129 compared to the RX 9060's 16014, a difference of -0.7% in favor of the NVIDIA card.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a critical factor in Greedfall's performance at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the system only manages 31 FPS, which suggests the game's ultra textures may be exceeding the VRAM capacity, causing the GPU to resort to slower memory paging. The 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are moderate for a modern GPU, and at 4K resolutions, the card's bandwidth becomes a limiting factor. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the performance drop from 1440p to 4K is consistently around 41% across all settings, indicating memory bandwidth constraints.

The RX 9060's power requirements are modest at 132 W TDP, requiring only a 300 W suggested PSU and a single 8-pin power connector. The dual-slot design and PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensure compatibility with modern motherboards. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, providing full API coverage for Greedfall's rendering needs. The display outputs include 1x HDMI 2.1b and 2x DisplayPort 2.1a, allowing for high refresh rate monitors at various resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its strongest performance. The Low preset achieves 167 FPS average, providing exceptionally smooth gameplay for fast-paced combat. The Medium preset delivers 131 FPS average, with a minimum of 112 FPS and maximum of 151 FPS, ensuring consistent frame times. The High preset produces 119 FPS average, which remains well above the 60 FPS threshold for responsive controls. The Ultra preset drops to 76 FPS average, which is still playable but represents a 55 FPS penalty compared to High, making it difficult to justify for most users.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. The Low preset delivers 116 FPS average, which is excellent for 1440p gaming. The Medium preset achieves 91 FPS average, with a minimum of 77 FPS and maximum of 105 FPS, providing a stable experience for most scenarios. The High preset produces 83 FPS average, which is ideal for 1440p monitors with high refresh rates. The Ultra preset drops significantly to 53 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold and may cause noticeable stuttering during graphically intense scenes.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become apparent. The Low preset achieves 69 FPS average, which is the only 4K setting that maintains playable frame rates. The Medium preset delivers 54 FPS average, with a minimum of 46 FPS and maximum of 62 FPS, showing significant frame time variance that could lead to judder. The High preset produces 49 FPS average, which is borderline playable for a story-driven RPG but may feel sluggish during combat. The Ultra preset drops to 31 FPS average, which is unplayable for most users and indicates that the RX 9060's 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K Ultra settings in Greedfall.

The data shows a clear performance hierarchy: 1080p is the sweet spot for this hardware, offering high frame rates across all settings. The 1440p resolution provides a good balance between visual quality and performance, with High settings delivering 83 FPS. The 4K resolution is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the 69 FPS average is not ideal for a game with action-oriented gameplay. The combination of the Core i5-12400F and RX 9060 is best suited for 1080p high refresh rate gaming or 1440p at medium-to-high settings, making it a capable mid-range solution for Greedfall.