Greedfall

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves the top position in Greedfall, ranking 1st out of 2,938 tested combos. This is a decisive result — no other CPU-GPU pairing in the database delivers higher average frame rates in this title. The combination of a 10-core, 16-thread Raptor Lake processor with the flagship Blackwell 2.0 GPU produces a performance ceiling that no other tested configuration matches.

The RTX 5090 D itself sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,112. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests — the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904, +1.1% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940, -1.6% delta) — bracket its raw compute performance, yet in Greedfall specifically, this combo outranks every other pairing. The CPU contributes from the 77th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 25,292, placing it near the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25,284, 0% delta) and Intel Core 5 120 (25,362, -0.3% delta). This mid-high tier CPU combined with an elite GPU creates a balanced platform that excels in this Action RPG.

What makes the rank particularly notable is the spread between settings and resolutions. Even at the most demanding configuration — 4K Ultra — the combo delivers playable frame rates, while at 1080p Low it exceeds 380 FPS. The data indicates that this pairing is not leaving performance on the table at any quality level; it scales consistently and remains at the top of the leaderboard regardless of how the game is configured. The 2938-combo field includes a wide range of hardware, and this specific pairing's dominance suggests that Greedfall responds exceptionally well to the combination of high single-thread throughput from the i5-13400F and the massive shader throughput of the RTX 5090 D.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear hierarchy across presets, and the optimal choice depends on resolution. At 4K, the High preset delivers 113 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 72 FPS — a 41 FPS penalty that represents a 36% reduction. Medium sits at 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS, making it the strongest choice for 4K if you want to stay well above 100 FPS. Low at 4K reaches 159 FPS, but the visual sacrifice is substantial for a game of this genre, where environmental detail and character rendering matter.

At 1440p, High produces 190 FPS, Medium 209 FPS, and Ultra 121 FPS. The Medium preset again offers the best balance: it is 19 FPS faster than High and 88 FPS faster than Ultra, while the minimum of 178 FPS ensures smooth frame pacing even in demanding scenes. For players with high-refresh 1440p monitors, Medium is the recommended starting point, though High remains very capable at 190 FPS.

At 1080p, the story shifts. Low hits 383 FPS, Medium 301 FPS, High 273 FPS, and Ultra 175 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 28 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 98 FPS. For competitive or high-refresh play at 1080p, Medium provides the best combination of fidelity and headroom — 301 FPS average with a 256 FPS minimum leaves ample margin above even 240 Hz displays. Ultra at 1080p remains very playable at 175 FPS, but the visual upgrade over High is marginal compared to the frame rate cost.

The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot across all resolutions for this combo. At 4K it delivers 125 FPS, at 1440p 209 FPS, and at 1080p 301 FPS — all with the only measured minimums in the dataset (106, 178, and 256 FPS respectively), indicating consistent frame delivery. If maximum visual quality is the priority, High at 4K (113 FPS) is the better trade-off than Ultra (72 FPS), since the latter approaches the threshold where frame pacing becomes noticeable.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck lies in this pairing. At High settings, frame rates drop from 273 FPS at 1080p to 190 FPS at 1440p (a 30% reduction) and then to 113 FPS at 4K (a further 41% reduction). The scaling from 1440p to 4K is roughly proportional to pixel count (2.25x pixels, 1.68x frame time increase), indicating that the GPU is becoming the primary limiter at higher resolutions.

At Low settings, the pattern is more dramatic: 383 FPS at 1080p, 266 FPS at 1440p, and 159 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop of 117 FPS is significant, and the 1440p-to-4K drop of 107 FPS continues the trend. At low settings, the CPU has more headroom to feed frames, but the RTX 5090 D still scales predictably with pixel load.

Ultra settings show the most severe scaling: 175 FPS at 1080p, 121 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is less than half of the 1080p result, confirming that Ultra settings place heavy demand on the GPU's shading and memory subsystems. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are adequate even at 4K Ultra, but the 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute is saturated by the combination of high resolution and maximum effects.

The limiting component analysis is nuanced. At 1080p Low (383 FPS), the system is likely CPU-bound, as the i5-13400F's max-thread benchmark score of 7,307 and single-thread score of 960 in 3DMark suggest the CPU is working near its limits to sustain such high frame rates. As resolution increases, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck — evidenced by the consistent scaling at Medium and High settings, where frame rates track pixel count more closely than CPU capability. The i5-13400F's 4.60 GHz boost clock and 10 cores provide sufficient throughput to avoid holding back the RTX 5090 D until very high frame rates, but at 1080p Low, the CPU's ceiling is reached.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p:

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

At 1080p, the i5-13400F demonstrates its strength in sustaining extremely high frame rates. The jump from Low to Medium costs 82 FPS, while Medium to High costs another 28 FPS. The Ultra preset exacts the largest toll — 98 FPS below High — making it the least efficient setting at this resolution. The Medium preset's minimum of 256 FPS ensures that even the heaviest scenes stay well above 240 Hz refresh rates.

1440p:

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

The 1440p results show a tighter grouping between Low and High (76 FPS spread) than at 1080p (110 FPS spread), indicating that the GPU is beginning to balance the load. Medium again provides the best minimum-to-average ratio, with a 178 FPS floor that keeps gameplay smooth on high-refresh 1440p panels. Ultra at 121 FPS remains playable but represents a 46% reduction from High.

4K:

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

At 4K, the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB memory buffer and 512-bit bus come into play. Low delivers 159 FPS, which is remarkable for 4K, while Medium holds 125 FPS with a 106 FPS minimum. High at 113 FPS is the best visual quality option that remains comfortably above 60 FPS, while Ultra at 72 FPS is the only preset that dips toward console-like frame rates. The Medium preset's 106 FPS minimum is the lowest in the entire measured set, but it still clears the 100 FPS threshold.

# FAQ

Q: Is this combo the best for Greedfall?

A: Yes, the data shows this pairing ranks 1st out of 2,938 tested combos, meaning no other CPU-GPU configuration in the database achieves higher average frame rates in this game.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 4K?

A: Medium delivers 125 FPS average with a 106 FPS minimum, which is 12 FPS higher than High and 53 FPS higher than Ultra. It provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate headroom at 4K.

Q: How much performance does Ultra cost compared to High?

A: At 1080p, Ultra is 98 FPS slower than High (175 vs 273 FPS). At 1440p, the gap is 69 FPS (121 vs 190 FPS). At 4K, the gap is 41 FPS (72 vs 113 FPS). The relative penalty decreases as resolution increases.

Q: Can this combo handle 240 Hz gaming?

A: At 1080p, Medium (301 FPS) and Low (383 FPS) easily exceed 240 Hz, while High (273 FPS) also clears it. At 1440p, Low (266 FPS) and Medium (209 FPS with 240 FPS maximum) approach or exceed 240 Hz, but High (190 FPS) falls short.

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

A: The data suggests CPU limitation at 1080p Low (383 FPS), as the i5-13400F's single-thread score of 960 in 3DMark and max-thread score of 7,307 indicate the processor is near its ceiling for frame generation at such high rates.

Q: What is the minimum FPS across all tested configurations?

A: The lowest measured minimum is 106 FPS, recorded at 4K Medium settings. All other presets either lack minimum data or show higher floors, indicating this combo never drops below 100 FPS in any measured scenario.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It features a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration — 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores — provides a strong foundation for gaming workloads.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 383 FPS, which approaches the practical limit of what the i5-13400F can feed. The processor's 3DMark scores illustrate its threading capabilities: 2-thread score of 1,880, 4-thread score of 3,459, 8-thread score of 5,591, and max-thread score of 7,307. The scaling from 4 to 8 threads (62% increase) and 8 to max threads (31% increase) shows that Greedfall benefits from additional cores, but the single-thread score of 960 and 2-thread score of 1,880 indicate that per-core performance is equally critical.

The Cinebench results reinforce this: R23 multicore score of 22,604 and single-core score of 3,191 put the i5-13400F in a strong position for games that rely on both single-thread responsiveness and multi-threaded scene processing. In Greedfall's open-world environments, the CPU handles AI, physics, and game logic while the RTX 5090 D renders the 4K visuals. The 20 MB L3 cache helps maintain high hit rates for frequently accessed game data, reducing memory latency that could otherwise impact frame times.

At higher resolutions, the CPU's influence diminishes. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings (301 to 125 FPS) shows that the GPU becomes the dominant factor, as the RTX 5090 D's 21,760 shading units and 680 TMUs are tasked with increasingly heavy pixel workloads. However, the i5-13400F's 4.60 GHz boost clock ensures that it never becomes a significant bottleneck, even at 4K Ultra where the GPU is clearly saturated at 72 FPS.

The CPU's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5, along with dual-channel configuration, provides flexibility, though the benchmark data does not specify which memory type was used. The 16 threads are sufficient for Greedfall's multi-threaded engine, and the absence of integrated graphics means the RTX 5090 D handles all rendering duties exclusively. The 65 W TDP indicates efficient power draw, though the RTX 5090 D's 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU requirement dominate system power considerations.