Greedfall

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers a robust 1080p experience in Greedfall, but the data reveals a sharp performance cliff as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 147.3 FPS, which is quite high for an Action RPG. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same preset drops the average to 105.8 FPS, a 28% reduction. The most severe scaling occurs at 4K, where the average falls to 59.6 FPS—a 43% loss from 1440p and a 60% loss from 1080p. This pattern of diminishing returns indicates that the system transitions from a CPU-friendly workload at lower resolutions to a heavily GPU-bound scenario at 4K.

The frame rate deltas between presets at each resolution further clarify the bottleneck. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Ultra yields a massive spread: 209.1 FPS versus 92.7 FPS, a 116.4 FPS gap. This wide range suggests the CPU is strong enough to push high frame rates when the GPU is not saturated, but the GPU struggles to maintain those frames as graphical load increases. At 4K, the spread narrows significantly—86.2 FPS on Low versus 36.7 FPS on Ultra—which is a hallmark of a system where the Radeon RX 7700 XT is the primary limiter. The 4K Ultra result of 36.7 FPS is particularly telling, as it is below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that the GPU cannot keep pace with the pixel throughput demands of the resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows that 1080p is clearly the sweet spot for this pairing, with every preset except Ultra delivering above 147 FPS. The Low preset achieves 209.1 FPS, which is a highly playable figure for any action-oriented title. Medium follows at 166.8 FPS, and High at 147.3 FPS. These numbers suggest that the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU at 1080p, as the frame rates scale almost linearly with graphical intensity. However, the Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 92.7 FPS, a 44% reduction from High—a steep penalty that indicates the GPU’s shading units and memory bandwidth are beginning to strain.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain respectable but the scaling becomes more pronounced. High settings yield 105.8 FPS, which is still smooth, while Low reaches 146.6 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 67.2 FPS, which is a 37% drop from High at the same resolution. This suggests that 1440p is the edge of the GPU’s comfort zone for this game; the system can handle it, but the margin for error shrinks. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings (147.3 to 105.8 FPS) represents a 28% performance loss, which is a standard cost for 78% more pixels.

The 4K results are the most informative for assessing the limiting component. At 3840x2160, the High preset produces 59.6 FPS, which is barely playable, while Medium drops to 65.5 FPS and Low reaches 86.2 FPS. The Ultra preset collapses to 36.7 FPS, which is a 57% reduction from Low and a 38% reduction from High at the same resolution. This severe penalty at 4K Ultra is a clear indicator that the GPU’s 12 GB VRAM and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the most demanding settings at this resolution. The data strongly suggests that the Radeon RX 7700 XT is the limiting factor in 4K scenarios, while the CPU has no trouble keeping up at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the dominant force in this pairing, as evidenced by the resolution scaling. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but becomes a bottleneck at 4K. The GPU’s boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz are relatively high, yet the 4K Ultra result of 36.7 FPS shows that raw clock speed cannot overcome memory bandwidth limitations. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 35.17 TFLOPS is substantial, but Greedfall appears to be more sensitive to memory throughput than raw compute, given the steep frame rate drops at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s benchmark scores corroborate its mid-range positioning. The Passmark G3D score of 22547 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3316 place it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, has a nearly identical average benchmark score (30109 versus 30097), with a deltaPct of 0. This indicates that the RX 7700 XT is competitive with modern mid-range options, but it does not have the overhead to handle 4K Ultra settings in a demanding Action RPG. The GPU’s pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s are solid figures, yet the measured FPS at 4K suggests that these rates are not fully utilized due to memory constraints.

The 4K High result of 59.6 FPS is a near-miss for a smooth 60 FPS experience, and the 4K Medium result of 65.5 FPS shows that dropping settings can recover some headroom. However, the 4K Ultra result of 36.7 FPS is a hard stop, indicating that the GPU is not suited for maximum settings at this resolution. The data reveals that the GPU’s role is to provide excellent 1080p and good 1440p performance, with 4K being a stretch goal that requires setting compromises.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the High preset at 1920x1080 offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, producing 147.3 FPS. This is a 20 FPS improvement over Medium (166.8 FPS) in the opposite direction—that is, High is 11.7% slower than Medium, but the visual upgrade is typically worth the small cost. The Low preset at 1080p delivers 209.1 FPS, which is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much detail. For 1080p gaming, High is the recommended preset because it maintains a high frame rate while preserving enough detail for the game’s environments and characters.

At 2560x1440, the High preset is again the recommended choice, yielding 105.8 FPS. This is a smooth experience that stays well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 113 FPS offers a marginal 6.8% improvement, but the visual downgrade is likely not worth it. The Ultra preset at 67.2 FPS is playable but sits close to the edge of smoothness, and the 4K data suggests that Ultra is not a stable option for this GPU. For 1440p, High provides the best experience per the measured data.

For 4K, the data recommends the Low preset, which achieves 86.2 FPS, or the Medium preset at 65.5 FPS. The High preset at 59.6 FPS is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 36.7 FPS is not recommended for consistent gameplay. The measured rows show that 4K Low provides a comfortable frame rate, suggesting that players who prioritize smoothness over detail should use Low. Medium offers a decent middle ground at 65.5 FPS, but the 20 FPS gap between Low and Medium indicates that the GPU is struggling with the higher settings. The Ultra preset is a clear outlier and should be avoided at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ranks 745 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the 56th percentile of all configurations. This is a middling rank, indicating that while the combo is capable, it is not a top-tier performer for this specific game. The rank is influenced by the GPU’s limitations at 4K, as the CPU is a strong performer in synthetic benchmarks. The CPU’s nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the Intel Core i9-10900K (27829, deltaPct 0) and the Intel Core i5-12600K (27851, deltaPct -0.1), which are nearly identical in performance. This suggests that the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo’s rank.

The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, has an average score of 30109 with a deltaPct of 0, meaning the two GPUs are statistically equivalent in synthetic tests. However, the combo’s rank of 745 suggests that the pairing’s real-world performance in Greedfall is not as strong as its component benchmarks would imply. The 4K Ultra result of 36.7 FPS likely drags down the overall rank, as other combos with more powerful GPUs or better memory configurations achieve higher frame rates at that resolution. The rank indicates that this combo is a solid mid-range option, but it is not optimized for 4K gaming.

The combo’s rank relative to the 1705 tested combos suggests that there are 960 configurations that perform better in Greedfall. This is a significant number, but it is important to note that the rank is specific to this game’s engine and its demands. The CPU’s high single-thread score (3925 on Passmark single-thread) and strong multi-thread score (27575 on Passmark multithread) are not fully leveraged in this game, which appears to be more GPU-dependent at higher resolutions. The combo’s rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning rather than any CPU deficiency.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF provides a strong foundation for this gaming combo, with 10 cores and 16 threads based on the Alder Lake architecture. Its boost clock of 4.90 GHz and base clock of 3.70 GHz contribute to excellent single-thread performance, as evidenced by a Passmark single-thread score of 3925. In Greedfall, the CPU’s role is most apparent at 1080p, where the data shows high frame rates across all presets. The 1080p Low result of 209.1 FPS is particularly high, indicating that the CPU can easily feed the GPU at lower resolutions without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities are also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23444 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 12373. However, Greedfall does not appear to be a heavily threaded title, as the frame rates do not scale dramatically with the CPU’s core count. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 7956 and max-thread score of 7952 are nearly identical, suggesting that the CPU’s performance plateaus beyond 8 threads. This is typical for an Action RPG, which usually relies on a few primary threads for game logic and rendering.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo, as the frame rates at 1080p and 1440p are consistently high across all presets. The CPU’s 20 MB of L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core provide ample cache for game assets, and the 10 nm process node allows for efficient power delivery. The CPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals—the Intel Core i9-10900K (27829, deltaPct 0) and Intel Core i5-12600K (27851, deltaPct -0.1)—show that it is on par with previous-generation flagship parts. In Greedfall, the CPU’s role is to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions, which it does effectively, while the GPU becomes the dominant factor at 4K.