Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents an interesting stress test for the Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system with considerable headroom at lower resolutions, but one that becomes firmly GPU-bound as the pixel count climbs. The data shows a clear scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K, with the game’s engine and this specific hardware combination producing a wide performance envelope.

Resolution Scaling

The performance delta between 1080p and 4K is stark, indicating a shift in bottleneck from the CPU at lower resolutions to the GPU at higher ones. At High settings, the system delivers 166.3 FPS at 1920x1080, which drops to 115.8 FPS at 2560x1440, and then falls to 67.2 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 59% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, a significant drop that underscores the increasing load on the graphics card.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets. At Low settings, the frame rate goes from 235.1 FPS at 1080p down to 160.7 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 97.6 FPS at 4K. The fact that the 1080p Low result exceeds 200 FPS suggests that the CPU is still capable of feeding the GPU at that resolution, but the GPU is clearly the limiting component at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic falloff, from 106.8 FPS at 1080p to 74.5 FPS at 1440p and then to 46.7 FPS at 4K, the latter being the only sub-60 FPS result in the entire dataset.

These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the Core i5-12600KF is doing the heavy lifting, allowing the RX 9070 to stretch its legs. The 235.1 FPS result at Low settings is particularly telling, as it shows the CPU can push very high frame rates when the GPU workload is light. However, the steep decline in performance as resolution increases points to the RX 9070’s rendering limits with this game’s engine. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K, which further confirms that the GPU is progressively saturated. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, this combination will require some settings adjustments to maintain smooth frame rates, while 1080p and 1440p are well within the system’s comfort zone.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the primary driver of frame rates at higher resolutions, and its specifications explain the performance ceiling observed in the 4K results. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. This substantial memory allocation is more than sufficient for Greedfall’s textures and assets at 4K, meaning VRAM capacity is not the limiting factor here.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also relevant. The boost clock is listed at 2520 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz, while the base clock sits at 1330 MHz. These clocks, combined with 3584 shading units and 128 ROPs, produce a pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is rated at 36.13 TFLOPS, which is a strong figure for a modern graphics card. However, the benchmark results in Greedfall show that this raw compute power is not fully utilized at 1080p, where the CPU is the bottleneck.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the constraining hardware. The 46.7 FPS result is a direct consequence of the GPU’s rendering workload, not a lack of VRAM. The RX 9070’s performance in synthetic benchmarks, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290 and a Passmark G3D score of 25381, positions it as a capable 1440p and entry-level 4K card. The data shows that in Greedfall, the GPU’s performance scales predictably with resolution, but the engine’s demands at 4K Ultra are too high for this card to maintain a high frame rate. The 16 GB VRAM buffer ensures there are no stutters from memory swapping, but the pure shading and rasterization load is what ultimately caps performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The average frame rate is 115.8 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, indicating a smooth experience for most displays.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: The system can run 4K, but the results vary by settings. It achieves 67.2 FPS on High, 75.4 FPS on Medium, and 97.6 FPS on Low. However, on Ultra, the average drops to 46.7 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. The frame rate at Low settings is 235.1 FPS, which is significantly higher than at 4K, indicating the GPU has headroom but is constrained by the CPU at this resolution.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce an average of 126.3 FPS, while Ultra produces 74.5 FPS. This is a difference of 51.8 FPS, showing a substantial performance cost for the highest quality preset.

Q: How does the RX 9070’s memory bandwidth affect Greedfall?

A: The 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth ensures that the 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is fed efficiently. In this game, the data indicates that memory bandwidth is sufficient, as performance drops are more closely tied to resolution scaling than to memory limitations.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing to maintain a high refresh rate?

A: At 1920x1080, the system achieves 166.3 FPS on High and 182.6 FPS on Medium, making it ideal for high refresh rate monitors. At 1440p, the High preset’s 115.8 FPS is still suitable for 120 Hz displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12600KF and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination holds a rank of 576 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the upper third of all tested systems, which is a strong showing for a mid-to-high-end pairing. The percentile data for the individual components supports this ranking. The CPU is in the 84th percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 79th percentile against all GPUs, indicating that both parts are above average in their respective categories.

The combo rank of 576 suggests that while this system is not at the very top of the performance charts, it outperforms a significant majority of other configurations. The data shows that the CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-10900K with a delta of 0%, are virtually identical in average benchmark score, meaning the 12600KF is not leaving performance on the table. On the GPU side, the RX 9070’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA A2, shows a delta of -0.2%, indicating the RX 9070 is marginally behind that specific competitor in synthetic tests, but the real-world Greedfall results are what matter for this ranking.

The 576th position out of 1705 is a solid result, but it is not exceptional. This is likely due to the GPU being a strong but not flagship part, and the game being older, meaning it may not be optimized for the latest architectures. The ranking implies that users with top-tier GPUs like a 4090 would achieve a higher rank, but for the price point of this hardware, the performance is competitive. The data indicates that this combo is well-balanced, with neither component drastically holding back the other in a way that would push the rank significantly lower.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF plays a crucial role in ensuring high frame rates at 1080p and providing enough headroom to keep the GPU fed. This processor has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache, which is ample for a game like Greedfall.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong for a 12th-generation part. It achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23444 and a single-core score of 3309. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 7956 and max-thread score of 7952 show a high degree of scalability across cores, which is beneficial for games that use multiple threads. The Passmark multithread score of 27575 further confirms its multi-threaded capability. These scores suggest that the CPU is not a bottleneck in most gaming scenarios, and the Greedfall data supports this.

At 1080p, the CPU’s performance is the primary reason the frame rates can exceed 200 FPS on Low settings. The 235.1 FPS result is a direct reflection of the CPU’s strong single-thread and multi-thread performance, as it can process the game’s logic and draw calls quickly enough to keep the GPU busy. However, the data also shows that the CPU’s influence diminishes at higher resolutions. The fact that the 4K results are consistent across different settings, with the gap between Low and High being smaller than at 1080p, indicates that the GPU becomes the sole limiting factor. The CPU’s 10 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for Greedfall, which was released in 2019 and does not utilize modern multi-core processors to their fullest extent. The processor’s 125 W TDP and LGA 1700 socket are standard for this generation, and its performance in this game is clearly not a hindrance to the overall experience.