Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents a varied performance landscape for the Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination. The measured data reveals a system capable of high frame rates at lower resolutions but one that must make significant compromises to maintain playability at 4K. The analysis below details the optimal settings, the combo's standing against other tested configurations, and the specific roles the CPU and GPU play in shaping the final experience.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific hardware combination, the "Medium" preset emerges as the most balanced choice across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 131 FPS with a minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 151 FPS. This is a substantial 15 FPS average improvement over the High preset's 119 FPS, while still delivering a frame rate well above the requirements of high-refresh-rate displays. The jump from Low to Medium is less significant than from Medium to High, indicating that Medium captures most of the visual fidelity gains without the performance penalty associated with the higher preset.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again proves to be the sweet spot, yielding an average of 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS and a maximum of 105 FPS. This represents a solid 8 FPS increase over High's 83 FPS average, and the minimum frame rate remains above 60 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience. While the High preset is certainly playable at this resolution, the Medium setting provides a more comfortable margin for demanding scenes.

The situation changes dramatically at 3840x2160. Here, the Ultra preset is effectively unplayable, with an average of just 31 FPS. High is marginal, averaging 49 FPS, which may dip below 60 FPS in intense combat or exploration. The Medium preset at 4K produces an average of 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS. While not a locked 60 FPS, this is the only preset that approaches a consistent console-like experience. The Low preset at 4K, averaging 69 FPS, is the only option that truly breaks the 60 FPS barrier, but it does so at a significant cost to visual quality.

The recommendation is to use the Medium preset for a consistent, high-quality experience at 1080p and 1440p, and to consider it the baseline for 4K gaming. For players prioritizing frame rate at 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option for achieving a stable 60 FPS. The High preset is a reasonable compromise for those with G-Sync or FreeSync displays who can tolerate frame rates in the 50-60 FPS range, but the data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best overall balance of visual fidelity and performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination holds a rank of 1672 out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the 57th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms a majority of configurations but is not among the top performers. This mid-range ranking is consistent with the components' individual standings, where the CPU sits in the 77th percentile of all processors and the GPU in the 59th percentile of all graphics cards.

The combo's rank indicates that while the system is more than capable of delivering a great experience at 1080p and 1440p, it is not built for maximum settings at 4K. The ranking reflects a system that is well-balanced for its intended market, offering strong performance in most scenarios but yielding to more powerful (and likely more expensive) combinations at the highest resolutions and settings. The data suggests that this pairing is a solid mainstream choice, but it will not challenge the top 10% of configurations in this benchmark database.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is the primary driver of Greedfall's visual output, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth is a critical factor in its performance. The GPU has a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. Its 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units contribute to its 21.43 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a key consideration for Greedfall. At 4K with the Ultra preset, the game's memory demands likely exceed what the GPU can efficiently manage, contributing to the precipitous drop to 31 FPS average. The significant performance gap between the High preset (49 FPS) and the Medium preset (54 FPS) at 4K suggests that the game's texture and geometry data are pushing against the 8 GB limit. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s also plays a role, as higher resolutions require more data to be shuffled through the memory bus.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 9060 scores 17631 in Passmark's G3D test and 3322 in 3DMark's Steel Nomad DX12 test. Its performance is closely matched with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which has an average score only 0.7% higher. This parity explains the GPU's 59th percentile ranking among all graphics cards. The GPU's performance in Greedfall is strong at lower resolutions, where its raw compute power is sufficient, but it becomes the limiting factor at 4K, particularly with higher quality settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates reveal a clear pattern of performance scaling across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers excellent performance across the board. The Low preset yields an average of 167 FPS, which drops to 131 FPS on Medium, 119 FPS on High, and 76 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum of 112 FPS ensures a consistently smooth experience, while even the Ultra preset's 76 FPS average is playable.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales predictably. Low averages 116 FPS, Medium 91 FPS, High 83 FPS, and Ultra 53 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 77 FPS keeps the experience fluid, while the High preset's 83 FPS average is still very good. The Ultra preset's 53 FPS average is on the edge of playability, with dips likely in demanding scenes.

The 3840x2160 results show a more dramatic falloff. Low averages 69 FPS, Medium 54 FPS, High 49 FPS, and Ultra 31 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 46 FPS and maximum of 62 FPS illustrate the variability at this resolution. The gap between the Low and Medium presets (15 FPS) is larger than the gap between Medium and High (5 FPS), suggesting that the Medium preset is where the GPU starts to become the primary bottleneck.

The data shows that the system is capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p and 1440p, but 4K gaming requires significant compromises. The step from High to Ultra at any resolution is particularly punishing, with an average drop of 43 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately expensive for the visual gain.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Greedfall with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, averaging 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS. While 1920x1080 delivers higher frame rates (131 FPS on Medium), the 1440p experience provides a sharper image without sacrificing smoothness.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Greedfall?

A: Yes, but with limitations. The Medium preset at 3840x2160 averages 54 FPS, which is playable but not consistently at 60 FPS. The Low preset is the only option that reliably exceeds 60 FPS at 4K, averaging 69 FPS, but it requires a significant reduction in visual fidelity.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to similar GPUs in this game?

A: The RX 9060's average benchmark score is 16014, placing it just 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. This suggests that in Greedfall, the two cards would produce nearly identical frame rates, with the RX 9060 potentially being a few frames slower in some scenarios.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth the performance cost?

A: The data suggests it is not. At 1080p, the Ultra preset averages 76 FPS compared to 131 FPS on Medium, a 42% reduction in frame rate. At 1440p, the drop from Medium to Ultra is from 91 FPS to 53 FPS, a 42% reduction. The visual differences between High and Ultra are typically subtle, making the High preset a more sensible choice.

Q: Why is the 4K performance so much lower than 1440p?

A: The 4K resolution requires the GPU to render four times as many pixels as 1080p. The RX 9060's 8 GB of VRAM and 288.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth become a bottleneck at this resolution, particularly with higher quality settings, leading to the significant frame rate drops observed in the data.

Q: What frame rate can I expect with the High preset at 1440p?

A: The measured data shows an average of 83 FPS at 2560x1440 with the High preset. This is a solid frame rate for most displays, though it is 8 FPS lower than the Medium preset's average, suggesting that the High preset does introduce a measurable performance cost.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides the computational foundation for this system. With 10 cores and 16 threads, it offers substantial multi-threaded capability, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22604 and its Passmark multi-thread score of 25032. Its single-thread performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3191 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3634.

In Greedfall, an Action RPG with a focus on world exploration and real-time combat, the CPU is responsible for game logic, physics, and AI. The i5-13400F's 10-core, 16-thread configuration is more than sufficient to handle these tasks, as evidenced by the high frame rates achieved at 1080p. At 1920x1080 with the Low preset, the system averages 167 FPS, which indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution and setting.

The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support help to ensure that data can be fed to the GPU efficiently. The CPU's performance percentile of 77% places it above the vast majority of other processors, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, both of which have average scores within 0.4% of the i5-13400F. This suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, the i5-13400F would perform on par with these mobile-oriented chips.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this system for Greedfall. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is primarily driven by the GPU's rendering load. However, the CPU's strong single-thread performance ensures that it can keep up with the GPU's demands at lower resolutions, preventing any stutter or frame pacing issues. The CPU's 65W TDP and 10 nm process node also indicate that it can maintain its boost clock of 4.60 GHz under sustained gaming loads without thermal throttling.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a clear and expected pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS across all settings drops by approximately 30-35%. For example, the Medium preset drops from 131 FPS to 91 FPS, a 30.5% reduction. This is consistent with the 1.78x increase in pixel count, though the actual drop is less severe, indicating that the system is not purely pixel-bound at this transition.

The scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 is more punishing. The Medium preset drops from 91 FPS to 54 FPS, a 40.7% reduction. Similarly, the High preset drops from 83 FPS to 49 FPS, a 41% reduction. This larger drop is due to the 2.25x increase in pixel count from 1440p to 4K, which places a much greater demand on the GPU's memory bandwidth and fill rate.

The data shows that the system transitions from being CPU-limited at 1080p to being GPU-limited at 4K. At 1080p, the i5-13400F is capable of driving frame rates well above 130 FPS on most settings, suggesting that the CPU has headroom. As resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, and the RX 9060 becomes the limiting component. The severity of the frame rate drops at 4K, particularly from High to Ultra (49 FPS to 31 FPS, a 36.7% drop), highlights the GPU's struggle with the highest quality settings at this resolution.

The scaling behavior indicates that the system is well-optimized for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates without issue. For 4K, the system requires a reduction in settings to maintain playability, and even then, the experience is not as smooth as at lower resolutions. The data suggests that this combination is best suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p or standard 1440p gaming, with 4K being a secondary consideration that demands compromises.