Greedfall

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

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread Alder Lake-S processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its hybrid architecture combines performance and efficiency cores, though the benchmark data treats it as a unified 10-core part. The CPU sits at the 79th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 27,799. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-10900K (28,872 average score, 0.3% faster), AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (28,896, 0.3% faster), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (28,887, 0.3% faster). The i5-12600KF is essentially neck-and-neck with these parts, trailing by less than a third of a percent despite having fewer threads than some of them.

In Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, the CPU's role becomes evident when examining the frame rate scaling. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 383 FPS on average. This is a massive frame rate that suggests the CPU is feeding the GPU efficiently at lower resolutions. The single-thread performance is strong—3,925 in Passmark's single-thread test and 3,302 in Cinebench R23 single-core—which matters for a game like Greedfall that relies on consistent draw calls and game logic updates. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core help keep frequently accessed data close to the cores.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are showcased by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23,391 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 27,575. These numbers indicate that the processor can handle background tasks and the game's engine threads without becoming a bottleneck. The 125W TDP and unlocked multiplier suggest this is a part designed for enthusiast systems, and the data confirms it delivers. At 1080p Ultra, the combo still manages 175 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most monitors. The CPU's headroom is further evidenced by the fact that moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings only drops the average from 273 FPS to 190 FPS—a 30% reduction that is more attributable to GPU load than CPU limits.

The 3DMark multi-thread scores paint a clear picture: 7,956 with 16 threads and 7,952 with max threads, showing that the CPU scales well up to its full thread count. The 2-thread score of 1,995 and single-thread score of 1,016 indicate that even lightly threaded workloads are handled with efficiency. For Greedfall, which is not known for extreme CPU demands, this processor provides ample performance. The data shows no scenario in the measured FPS table where the CPU appears to be the limiting factor—even at 1080p Low, the 383 FPS average is far beyond what the GPU would be expected to deliver if it were unshackled.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12600KF compare to its nearest CPU rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The i5-12600KF averages 27,799 across all benchmark tests. It trails the Intel Core i9-10900K by 0.3% (which scores 28,872), the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D by 0.3% (28,896), and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U by 0.3% (28,887). It edges out the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE by 0.3% (27,712). These differences are within a fraction of a percent, making them statistically negligible for gaming purposes.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU+GPU combinations in Greedfall?

A: The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 1st out of 2,938 tested combos in Greedfall. This is the top-performing configuration in the database for this game, meaning no other CPU/GPU pairing produces higher average frame rates across the tested settings and resolutions.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D's benchmark score compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. It outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) by 1.1%, but trails the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940) by 1.6% and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396) by 2.1%. The Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605) is 2.4% ahead. These deltas are small, indicating the RTX 5090 D is competitive with but not the absolute fastest GPU in the database.

Q: What is the difference in frame rates between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the combo averages 273 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 190 FPS, and at 4K High, it averages 113 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K represents a 58.6% reduction in average frame rate, which is directly attributable to the increased pixel count and the GPU's rendering workload scaling with resolution.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D have enough VRAM for Greedfall at maximum settings?

A: The RTX 5090 D comes with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Greedfall is a 2019 title that does not require anywhere near this capacity. Even at 4K Ultra, the combo produces 72 FPS, suggesting the GPU is not running into memory limitations. The 32 GB capacity is far beyond what this game can utilize, meaning VRAM is not a constraint in any tested scenario.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the RTX 5090 D?

A: The launch MSRP of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is 2,299 USD. This is stated for reference only; the benchmark data does not factor cost into performance rankings.

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

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 383 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low reduces this to 266 FPS, a 30.5% drop. At 4K Low, the average falls to 159 FPS, another 40.2% reduction from 1440p. These drops are proportional to the increase in pixel count: 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p. The frame rate decreases are slightly less than the pixel count increases, which indicates the GPU is still managing throughput efficiently but is clearly the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

At High settings, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute numbers. 1080p High yields 273 FPS, 1440p High drops to 190 FPS (30.4% decrease), and 4K High produces 113 FPS (40.5% decrease from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings and resolutions strongly suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor—if it were, the frame rates would plateau or show smaller differences as resolution increases. Instead, the GPU's rendering load is scaling as expected with pixel count.

Medium settings show the same trend with a slight twist. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 301 FPS with a minimum of 256 and maximum of 346. At 1440p Medium, it averages 209 FPS (30.6% drop) with a minimum of 178 and maximum of 240. At 4K Medium, it averages 125 FPS (40.2% drop from 1440p) with a minimum of 106 and maximum of 143. The minimum frame rates also scale proportionally, indicating consistent performance without sudden CPU-related hitches.

Ultra settings reveal the most demanding scenario. 1080p Ultra produces 175 FPS, 1440p Ultra drops to 121 FPS (30.9% decrease), and 4K Ultra falls to 72 FPS (40.5% decrease). The 4K Ultra result is the lowest in the entire dataset, confirming that the GPU is the bottleneck at this extreme configuration. The CPU's capability is demonstrated by the fact that even at 1080p Ultra—where the CPU has to feed the GPU as fast as possible—the combo still achieves 175 FPS, which is well above playable thresholds.

The overall pattern indicates that this system is GPU-limited in Greedfall at every resolution above 1080p Low. The CPU has sufficient headroom to drive the RTX 5090 D at maximum output, and the frame rate drops are entirely attributable to the GPU's pixel processing capacity. For a game from 2019, the RTX 5090 D's Blackwell architecture is more than capable, but the sheer pixel throughput at 4K still imposes a significant load.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 1st out of 2,938 tested combos in Greedfall. This is the top position in the database, meaning no other CPU/GPU pairing achieves higher average frame rates across the tested settings and resolutions. The rank is based on measured data, not theoretical estimates, which adds credibility to the result.

Being ranked 1st out of nearly 3,000 combinations is notable for several reasons. First, it indicates that the RTX 5090 D's raw performance is sufficient to overcome any potential CPU limitations from the i5-12600KF. The CPU's 79th percentile standing among all processors might suggest it would hold back a top-tier GPU, but the data shows otherwise in this game. Greedfall's engine does not appear to be particularly CPU-intensive, or the i5-12600KF's 10 cores and 16 threads are more than adequate for its demands.

Second, the rank reflects the GPU's dominance in the database. The RTX 5090 D sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are actually mobile or datacenter parts (AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, RX 6850M XT, and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants). The desktop RTX 5090 D's real competition in gaming workloads is likely other high-end desktop GPUs, but none of them appear in the top spot for this game.

Third, the combo's performance is consistent across all settings. Whether at 1080p Low (383 FPS) or 4K Ultra (72 FPS), the system delivers frame rates that are at or above what most monitors can display. The lowest average FPS in the entire dataset is 72 at 4K Ultra, which is still comfortably playable for an Action RPG. This consistency suggests the combo is well-balanced for Greedfall, with no single component creating a bottleneck that would drag the rank down.

The rank of 1 also implies that the i5-12600KF, despite being a mid-range processor by core count and price, does not disadvantage the system in this game. The data shows that the CPU's benchmark scores are within 0.3% of much more expensive parts like the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and this near-parity translates into gaming performance. For Greedfall specifically, the CPU's single-thread performance and multi-thread scaling are both sufficient to keep the RTX 5090 D fully fed.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with a massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and the memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The GPU has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. These specifications put it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712.

In Greedfall, the GPU's role is clearly dominant. The measured FPS data shows that resolution scaling follows a pattern consistent with GPU-bound performance, as discussed in the previous section. The GPU's 32 GB of VRAM is far more than this 2019 game requires—even at 4K Ultra, the game would struggle to use more than a fraction of that capacity. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory access are never bottlenecks.

The GPU's raw compute power, measured at 104.8 TFLOPS for FP32, drives the high frame rates seen in the data. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 383 FPS, which is likely near the maximum the CPU can feed to the GPU. The GPU's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are both substantial, allowing it to handle the game's rendering tasks with ease. The 176 ROPs are responsible for final pixel output, and their count is high enough to support the frame rates observed.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide additional context. Its Passmark G3D score is 44,065, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 310,674. In Vulkan, it scores 376,915, which is relevant for a game like Greedfall that supports modern APIs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 indicates strong DirectX 12 performance, which aligns with the game's requirements. However, the nearest GPU rivals in the database are not desktop gaming GPUs—they are mobile parts and datacenter accelerators. This suggests that the RTX 5090 D's synthetic benchmark position is not directly comparable to its gaming performance, but the measured FPS data confirms its capability.

The GPU's 575W TDP and suggested 950W PSU indicate it is a power-hungry part, but the benchmark data does not include power consumption measurements. The dual-slot design and 304mm length mean it requires a spacious case, but these are physical attributes that do not affect in-game performance. The 1x 16-pin power connector is standard for modern high-end GPUs.

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

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. All data points are exact measurements from testing, with no estimated values.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 383 FPS average
• Medium: 301 FPS average, with a minimum of 256 FPS and maximum of 346 FPS
• High: 273 FPS average
• Ultra: 175 FPS average

At 1080p, the combo delivers extreme frame rates. The jump from Low to Medium reduces performance by 21.4% (from 383 to 301 FPS), which is a modest cost for the visual upgrade. High settings drop another 9.3% to 273 FPS, and Ultra takes a more significant 35.9% hit from High, landing at 175 FPS. Even at Ultra, the frame rate is far above any standard 60Hz or 144Hz display's capability, making this resolution essentially GPU-idle territory for the RTX 5090 D.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 266 FPS average
• Medium: 209 FPS average, with a minimum of 178 FPS and maximum of 240 FPS
• High: 190 FPS average
• Ultra: 121 FPS average

At 1440p, the performance scales down proportionally. Low produces 266 FPS, which is 30.5% lower than 1080p Low. Medium drops to 209 FPS (21.4% lower than Low), High to 190 FPS (9.1% lower than Medium), and Ultra to 121 FPS (36.3% lower than High). The minimum frame rates at Medium (178 FPS) are still well above 144Hz refresh rates, indicating smooth gameplay. The Ultra setting's 121 FPS is the first point where the frame rate approaches the upper range of high-refresh monitors, but it remains solid.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 159 FPS average
• Medium: 125 FPS average, with a minimum of 106 FPS and maximum of 143 FPS
• High: 113 FPS average
• Ultra: 72 FPS average

At 4K, the GPU's workload increases dramatically. Low produces 159 FPS, which is 40.2% lower than 1440p Low. Medium drops to 125 FPS (21.4% lower than Low), High to 113 FPS (9.6% lower than Medium), and Ultra to 72 FPS (36.3% lower than High). The Ultra setting's 72 FPS is the only data point that falls below 100 FPS, and it is still comfortably above 60 FPS for a playable experience. The Medium setting's minimum of 106 FPS ensures no noticeable stuttering.

The consistency of the percentage drops between settings is striking. Across all three resolutions, the relative decrease from Low to Medium is approximately 21%, from Medium to High is approximately 9-10%, and from High to Ultra is approximately 36%. This uniformity indicates that the game's settings have a consistent impact on GPU load, regardless of resolution. The data also shows that the combo is capable of playing Greedfall at maximum settings at 4K with an average of 72 FPS, which is a strong result for a 2019 title on modern hardware.